1983 Balkan Bulgarian Hijacking

The aircraft involved was an Antonov An-24, registration LZ-AND with the manufacturer's serial number 77303301. The aircraft first flew in 1968.[2]

A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines An-24 is hijacked shortly after taking off at 18:00 local time for a regular flight from Sofia to Varna. Four men, aged from 17 to 22 (Lachezar Ivanov, Krasen Gechev, Ivaylo Vladimirov and Valentin Ivanov), produce knives and take the 40 passengers and crew hostage. They present themselves to the passengers as recently escaped recidivist criminals and threaten they will decompress the plane if an attempt is made to disarm them or impede the takeover. The hijackers proceed to threaten the stewardess and demand the plane is diverted to Vienna. A passenger is sent to the cockpit to communicate their demands to the pilot, who in turn relays them to local authorities and receives orders to simulate compliance, while actually maintaining a course to Varna. Meanwhile, authorities cut off all electrical power to Varna, in order to prevent the hijackers from recognizing the Black Sea coast. After landing at the Varna airport, a Bulgarian police officer and an airport worker, speaking fluent German are disguised as Austrian airport staff as they attempt to convince the hijackers they are in Vienna and lure them out of the plane. The hijackers look for a translator to negotiate their surrender, until one of them notices the disguised police officer is wearing a Bulgarian made leather jacket, which leads them to panic and threaten to start executing hostages. At this point the crew manages to let four commandos board the plane through a hatch in the luggage compartment, the commandos storm the plane, disarm and arrest three of the hijackers. The only remaining hijacker, distressed, has locked himself in the airplane bathroom and is threatening to kill the stewardess. Two more commandos enter the plane through the passenger hatch, kick in the bathroom door and shoot Ivanov as he attempts to kill his hostage. Ivanov is the only victim of the incident. The stewardess, having sustained a wound in her neck and bleeding heavily, was quickly transported to a nearby hospital and made a full recovery.[3][4][5]

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