Garuda Indonesia Flight 206 - The Incident

The Incident

The hijackers, a group called Komando Jihad, hijacked the DC-9 "Woyla" en route from Palembang to Medan, ordering the pilot to fly them to Colombo, Sri Lanka. Since the plane did not have enough fuel to reach Colombo, it refueled in Penang, Malaysia, then flew instead to Don Mueang Airport in Bangkok, Thailand. The hijackers demanded the release of 80 Kommando Jihad members imprisoned in Indonesia, US$1.5 million in cash, and a plane to take the released prisoners to an unspecified destination. On March 29, 1981, Indonesian Army Kopassus commandos were flown into Bangkok, and stormed the plane two days later. The Kopassus commandos who took part in the rescue trained for only three days with new weapons. One of the Kopassus commandos was shot by the hijackers, as was the pilot. Two hijackers were killed in the resulting shootout. The rest of the hostages were released unharmed. Two of the hijackers surrendered, but one was shot and killed by the commandos. The leader was subsequently wounded after throwing a grenade that failed to explode, and was detained by the commandos.

The rest of the crew members and all passengers survived. The terrorist leader, Imran bin Muhammad Zein, was trialled after arrival and was sentenced to death by the Central Jakarta Regional Court a few weeks later.