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Greek police arrest suspect in 1985 TWA Flight 847 hijacking

By Jerry LaMartina

Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Greek police arrested a Lebanese suspect in the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847, local law enforcement said.

Officials arrested the unidentified man, 65, on the island of Mykonos after he disembarked from a cruise ship Thursday. A review of his passport showed he was wanted by Germany.

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The TWA flight from Cairo to San Diego was hijacked June 14, 1985, after taking off from Athens. It was forced to land in Beirut. The hijackers, who demanded that Israel release hundreds of Lebanese Shiite prisoners, held the plane's passengers for 17 days and killed one of them, U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem.

German authorities wanted the suspect for the hijacking as well as a kidnapping committed in 1987, which was suspected of being connected with his release in exchange for freeing two German nationals held in Lebanon.

The hijacking was the inspiration for the 1986 film The Delta Force.

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