The German GSG-9: Jihad in the Fatherland

Overview

On September 15, 1977, five masked gunmen abduct Hans Martin Schleyer and execute his three bodyguards. The Red Army Faction, in association with Germany’s notorious Baader-Meinhof Gang, takes credit for the crime. Barely a month later, a Frankfurt-bound Lufthansa flight leaves Majorca, Spain with 91 passengers and a crew of five. An hour into the flight, four Arab terrorists draw their weapons and take over the plane in the name of the Red Army Faction and the Baader-Meinhof Gang. Within hours of the hijacking, West Germany mobilizes its special anti-terrorist unit: Grenzschutzgruppe-9 or GSG-9.