LOT Flight 165 hijacking
On August 30, 1978, the East Berlin waiter Hans Detlef Alexander Tiede hijacked a plane LOT Polish Airlines on a scheduled flight from Gdansk to Berlin- Schönefeld (then East Germany) and forced the crew to land in Berlin- Tempelhof (then West Berlin). He has been helped by the waitress Ingrid Ruske.
Background
Ingrid Ruske loved the West German Horst Fischer. Fischer came from Hamburg and worked on behalf of a Hamburg-based company in the construction of the slaughtering and processing combine in Eberswalde as a construction manager. Both had met at Café Moscow, in which Ingrid Ruske was employed as a waitress. Since the construction contract was nearing completion, and the two could not imagine a common future in the GDR, Fischer developed the plan that he forged documents separately drive concerned and both the train to Gdansk to from there together with the ferry to Travemünde emigrate. Also on board was also Detlef Tiede, a longtime friend of Ingrid. He had previously asked already twenty times in vain for an exit visa from the GDR.
The Abduction
The plan failed with the forged documents because fisherman to bring the papers to Gdansk, previously the Ministry for State Security ( Stasi ) was arrested. Four days waiting Ruske and Tiede vain. When Fischer then still not arrived at the appointed place in Gdansk, the two suspected (rightly, as it turned out ) that their plans had been discovered and they also no longer zurückkonnten now. Then they changed their flight plans in the short term. They bought at the flea market a toy gun and booked a flight from Gdansk airport to Schonefeld East Berlin airport. Shortly before landing Tiede took a Polish stewardess hostage and threatened to shoot them if the aircraft should not land in West Berlin. The Polish pilot landed then the Tupolev 134 with flight number LO 165 at Tempelhof Airport in West Berlin. Responsible for Tempelhof was the Americans. A special unit received the hijacked plane. Tiede got off the plane with his arms raised and was arrested without resistance. Shortly after, Ingrid Ruske was taken into American custody.
The processes
An application of the People's Republic of Poland to extradite the offender has been rejected by the American occupation forces. To allow in West Berlin a criminal against the kidnappers, a private non-military U.S. court was first ( the United States Court for Berlin ) equipped with twelve West Berlin jury in history. End of May 1979 sentenced Judge Herbert J. Stern of Newark Detlef Tiede to nine months' imprisonment, which were already served by the remand. The case against Ingrid Ruske was discontinued because it was not given due notice before their statements on the matter of their rights as suspects and their two months a lawyer had been withheld.
Horst Fischer was sentenced in the GDR because of escape aid and human trafficking to eight years' imprisonment in 1980 and ransomed by the Federal Republic.
Others
Of the 62 passengers of the flight were 50 GDR citizens. Besides Ruske and Tiede spontaneously stayed seven other people, including a couple and a family of four in the West. The others were, after they had been interrogated by the Americans, brought to a bus in the GDR. A young woman who had initially remained in the West, returned on August 31 and the train in the GDR back.
Horst Fischer and Ingrid Ruske married in 1980 shortly after Fischer's release. Ruske said in an interview with Spiegel magazine in May 2010: "I had no expectations of the West, and which were still untertroffen. " In East Berlin, she lived happier.
Hijackings were in the People's Republic of Poland, especially in the 1980s, a common escape method. By 1987, sixteen hijackings from Poland to West Berlin were registered. Most hijacked planes landed at Tempelhof what the symbol of the Polish airline LOT soon interpretation " often lands at Tempelhof " or on berlinerisch " lands OOCH in Tempelhof " earned.
Novels, films and radio plays
The hijacking was the American Judge Herbert J. Stern as the basis for a historical novel, which in turn was a template for the film A judge for Berlin.
Another novel on the subject was published under the title Tupolev 134 by Antje Strubel Rávic 2004.
On 27 August 2008 beamed Germany Kultur from the radio play " The story of a decent citizen " by Marianne Wendt and Christian Schiller.
26 September 2010 RTL showed the movie Westflug - Abduction from love, which is based on the hijacking of Gdansk. The main roles are played by Hendrik Duryn, Sophie von Kessel and Oliver Mommsen. Subsequently, a 60 -minute documentary followed under the title "flight to freedom ".