On November 23, 1985, an Egyptair flight took off on its Athens-to-Cairo route. Ten minutes after take-off, three Palestinian terrorists hijacked the aircraft and diverted it to Malta.

Hijacker Ali Rezaq escorted away from the aircraft during the trial.Hijacker Ali Rezaq escorted away from the aircraft during the trial.

Following hours of tension  and the shooting of a number of passengers, the aircraft was stormed, resulting in dozens of deaths. The hijacking of Flight 648 remains one of the deadliest hijacks in history.

On the 30th anniversary of the incident, Tuesday's edition of Times Talk discussed what went wrong in this incident with the protagonists, including a live phone in with Jackie Ning Pflug, the American hostage who was shot in the head... and survived.

Watch a repeat of the programme. 

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