Air France Flight 8969 - Aftermath

Aftermath

As a result of the damage to the aircraft, the A300 was written off. Several hours after the incident ended, the Armed Islamic Group, which had claimed responsibility for the event, killed four Roman Catholic priests in retaliation in Tizi-Ouzou, Algeria. Three of the priests were French, while one was Belgian.

The crew of the A300 and the GIGN forces received high national honors. Charles Pasqua, then the Minister of the Interior, said that throughout the ordeal the crew "rose to the occasion." Bernard Dellemme returned to flying and worked for Air France for nine years before retiring. Flight attendant Claude Burgniard said that she "kept seeing the faces" of the three passengers who had been executed; when she received her medal she realized that she had helped save 173 people; this allowed her to mourn and get over the incident. Burgniard said that she does not wear the medal, but that she felt like she deserved it. Burgniard, who also received a message of thanks from the airline, never again worked for Air France. Flight attendant Christophe Morin stopped working for Air France and began to work for a charitable organization.

A former militant group leader admitted that the men had planned to detonate the aircraft over the Eiffel Tower. The militant group never again attempted this plot. Pasqua said that if the militants crashed an aircraft on the Eiffel Tower or the Élysées Palace they would have committed what they would believe to be "an extraordinary feat."

Morin and passenger Zahida Kakachi co-authored the book Le vol Alger-Marseille : Journal d'otages.

Air France discontinued the number "Flight 8969" after the hijacking. Flights between Algiers and Paris are now Flights 1555, 1855, 2155, and 2455 (operating to Charles de Gaulle instead of Orly). Flight 8969 is now used as an Air France codeshare route with the flight being operated by Delta Air Lines on its Green Bay, WI to Detroit, MI route.