Israels Hijacking of a Syrian Plane - December 1954

In December 1954 Israeli fighter aircraft forced a Syrian Dakota airliner, travelling from Damascus to Cairo, to land in Israel and detained all but one of the passengers and crew for questioning. 

An American passenger named Ralph Krohn Hansen was released shortly after the plane landed at Lydda Airport. Speaking in Cyprus, where he was taken on an Israeli civilian airliner, he said that the Syrian aircraft was “well outside Israeli territorial waters” when “Two Israeli jets appeared and made aerobatics around our Dakota” The Israeli fighters ordered the Dakota pilot by radio to land at Lydda immediately, the pilot informed the Dakota passengers “If I fly on they will shoot us down” 

After the forced landing at Lydda the passengers and crew were questioned and when the Israeli authorities learned that Mr Hansen had an American passport he was immediately released and flown to Cyprus.

This is the first plane hijacking carried out by a middle eastern state or organisation and occurred so that Israel can secure hostages to obtain the release of Israeli soldiers who had been captured on a spy mission in Syria.

Israel’s Prime Minister Moshe Sharett wrote that Moshe Dayan - Israels Chief of Staff - wanted "to get hostages in order to obtain the release of our prisoners in Damascus", he added “we had no justification whatsoever to seize the plane” and that he had “no reason to doubt the truth of the factual affirmation of the US state department that our action without precedent in the history of international practice”