A young woman evaded airport security and boarded the plane carrying a pistol and two hand grenades. Prepared himself for this, keeping himself steady throughout the whole affair. He was wearing a white suit, sunhat and wide sunglasses at the airport in Rome, Italy. The 25-year-old traveled alone to Rome from Beirut on a hijacked plane. For which reason she is credited as the first female robber.

The incident was on August 29, 1969. The name of this brave young woman is Laila Khaled. He was accompanied in his adventure by another man, Selim Isavik. He was a key member of the Che Guevara commando unit of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

A young woman evaded airport security and boarded the plane carrying a pistol and two hand grenades. Prepared himself for this, keeping himself steady throughout the whole affair. He was wearing a white suit, sunhat and wide sunglasses at the airport in Rome, Italy. The 25-year-old traveled alone to Rome from Beirut on a hijacked plane. For which reason she is credited as the first female robber.

The incident was on August 29, 1969. The name of this brave young woman is Laila Khaled. He was accompanied in his adventure by another man, Selim Isavik. He was a key member of the Che Guevara commando unit of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Laila and her companion Isavi had booked first class seats to avoid suspicion. From where you can easily enter the cockpit of the aircraft. Laila Khalid wrote in her 1973 autobiography, My People Shall Live, ‘As Isavi and I sat in separate seats in the waiting lounge, a Greek-American from Chicago tried to strike up a conversation with me.”He told me that 15 years After living in America, he is going to Greece to visit his mother. At one point I felt like asking him to leave this plane and go to another plane, but then I restrained myself.’

On this flight, Laila Khaled and her partner Salim Isavi had seats nearby. Tactful handling of airmen during this time made his job easier. The pilot says he feels very cold and has a stomach ache. So extra blankets are needed. Layla keeps her hand grenade and pistol under the blanket, just to be close at hand. Even if the pilot offers coffee or something to eat, avoid it with excuses.

In an interview with Eileen Macdonald, author of ‘Shoot the Women First’, Laila Khaled said, ‘Salim jumped up and reached the cockpit as the flight crew began serving food. I also ran after him with the hand grenade in my lap.’ Seeing this the tray fell from Bimanbala’s hands and he started screaming loudly. The pistol they were carrying went through the pants and fell to the floor of the plane. At this time, ask all the first class passengers and crew to go to the economy class at the back of the plane.

The pilot refused to obey Laila’s orders. The pilot began to listen to instructions as Laila showed her the hand grenade she was carrying. At this time Laila ordered the plane to be taken to Israel. The pilot was asked to take the plane to Lod Airport in Israel. It was then known as David Ben Gurion Airport. Which was part of the strategy.

As soon as the plane entered Israeli territory, three Israeli Mirage aircraft started flying on either side. Panic spread in the minds of the passengers of the plane. Because – Israeli aircraft will shoot down their aircraft. Laila Khaled Loder contacted air traffic control and said, ‘Now instead of calling us flight TWA-840, you will call us flight PFLP Free Arab Palestine.’

The Israelis were just tricked by directing the plane to proceed to Lod airport. The plane flies over Lod. Below, hundreds of Israeli soldiers and tanks were ready to deal with the rescue of the hijacked aircraft. The pilot was instructed to fly to Damascus. Laila Khalid later wrote in her autobiography, ‘When I looked down on Palestine, for a minute I forgot I was on an expedition.’

He wrote – ‘I wanted to call grandma and grandpa to tell everyone that we are coming back. Later the pilot also said that when we were flying over Haifa, he saw my face turn red. All the hairs on the face have stood up.

As the plane was landing at Damascus airport, an explosive device blew up in the cockpit of Selim Esawi plane. One of the reasons is to draw the world’s attention to the Palestinian people. Eileen Macdonald wrote in her book Shoot the Women First, ‘The PFLP were delighted with the publicity they got from this hijacking under their leadership.’

Then Laila Khaled was sent on a trip to the Middle East countries due to the risk of losing her life. The Israelis were quick to kidnap and kill him. Although later Laila Khaled toured Arab countries with a bodyguard.

Layla underwent plastic surgery on her face to change her appearance. Her nose, cheeks, eyes and face were subjected to six plastic surgeries. One of the reasons was to come up with a new plan of robbery with reduced risk. In September 1970, Laila Khaled left Lebanon for Europe. On September 4, in Stuttgart, Germany, he met Patrick Arguello, who was assisting him in the subsequent hijacking.

Layla had never met Patrick before. On September 6, both of them flew together from Stuttgart to Amsterdam with tickets to New York. Patrick was born in America but a citizen of Nicaragua. In Amsterdam, they both boarded Israel Airlines Boeing 707 flight ELAI 219 bound for New York.

Sarah Irving wrote in her book ‘Layla Khaled: Icon of Palestinian Liberation’, ‘When the two boarded the plane, they did not know that their two colleagues who were supposed to help in the hijacking had been denied seats on the plane by Israeli airline officials.’ It was decided that they would hijack this plane as well.

While planning the hijacking, it was decided that more than two people would be needed to hijack the ELAI plane because the plane had armed security guards and passengers were searched three times.

Laila Khaled is fully prepared with her partner this time too. Their travel companion this time sat in economy class. Talking about this, Layla said, “Patrick knew what he had to do and I knew what I had to do.” They had weapons with them. Both had hand grenades. Laila’s skirt was hiding an airplane design. As Layla runs towards the cockpit the pilot can do today. Lock the door from the inside. At one point Laila pulled out two hand grenades from her specially made bra, but that’s when the marshals on the plane started firing. They also fired back. A marshal was shot in the leg. Patrick was also shot. Laila’s ribs were broken in the attack.

In the meantime, the alert pilot of the plane started to fly the plane down suddenly. Concussion creates a risk of grenade explosion. As the air pressure inside the plane increases as the plane descends, the risk of damage also decreases. “After half an hour we stood up and I was trying to remove the pin of the hand grenade with my teeth,” Laila Khaled said. As we stood up and shouted, the security personnel started firing from behind. I saw someone watching us from the magic eye of the cockpit.

Holding herself still, Laila, a brave young woman, continued to say that the plane would blow up if the cockpit door was not opened. Counting to three with warning. Although he had no desire to destroy Miban. Although he did not work. Someone hit him on the head from behind. Layla fainted.

Layla felt a marshal stand over the bloody Patrick’s waist and shoot him four times in the back. Wounded marshal Shlomo Weider’s health continued to deteriorate. Concerned, the ELAI pilot made an emergency landing in London. David Robb wrote in his book ‘Terror in Black September’, ‘Marshall Bar Levo, who shot Patrick, was taken down the hatch or door of the plane and put on another ELAI plane so that he could escape British jurisdiction.’ So that he could not be blamed for killing Patrick.

Laila was then strapped into the passenger seat belt and laid on the floor. However, Israeli security forces did not arrest him. Arrested by the British police. After the plane landed, Patrick Arguello’s frozen body was taken away in an ambulance. Laila Khaled wrote in her autobiography ‘My People Shall Live’, ‘I stood by Patrick’s body and held his hand. I check his injuries and kiss him on the lips out of friendship. Then I cry cleanly.

Laila Khaled was taken to Ealing Police Station in London where she was questioned by Chief Superintendent David Prew over the next few days. While questioning Laila Khalid, David Prew told her that apart from the ELAI plane, Swiss Air, TWA, Panam and British Air planes were also hijacked. After hearing this, Laila Khalid said that they had no plan to hijack the British Air plane.

After 24 consecutive days in a British prison, on October 1, 1970, a Royal Air Force plane carrying Laila Khaled left for Cairo. Originally, Laila Khaled was released in exchange for 114 passengers held hostage by the British government. Many years later Laila Khaled was asked in an interview – Do you regret what you did? Laila Khaled’s answer was ‘not at all.’

77-year-old Laila Khaled currently lives in Amman. She married Fayaz Rashid Hilal, a doctor there, with whom she has two children, Badr and Bashar.