Pan American World Airways, Inc. v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co.

OPINION

FRANKEL, District Judge.

On September 6, 1970, the plaintiff, an international air carrier, was operating a Boeing 747 (“jumbo jet”) airplane on its scheduled Flight No. 093 from Brussels, Belgium, to New York City, with a stop in Amsterdam, Holland. As the airplane proceeded from Amsterdam toward London, two of its passengers produced hand guns and grenades, took forcible command of the crew and the passengers, and ordered the pilot to pro ceed to Beirut, Lebanon. The hijackers, though not themselves Arabs, were working with and for the Palestinian organization called the Popular Front…