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Date: March 03, 1981

Aircraft Type: Boeing 720-030B

Registration: AP-AZP

Crew: 9 on board  (Complete list of crew is at the bottom of this page)

Passengers: 132 on board

Number of hijackers: 3

Total on board: 144

Victims: 1 passenger

Flight: Karachi - Peshawar

Flight number: PK326

Description: On March 3, 1981, Pakistan International's flight PK-326 began as a routine domestic hop from Karachi to Peshawar. In midair three heavily armed men seized the plane, diverted it to Kabul, Afghanistan, and demanded the release of 92 "political prisoners" from Pakistani jails.

On March 4, twenty nine hostages including women, children and sick men were released in Kabul. The released passengers were flown to Peshawar by PIA Fokker F27 Friendship Mark 200 (AP-AUR) on March 5. Another sick male passenger was released by hijackers on March 5.

The hijacked Boeing 720B sat in Kabul, and when Pakistan's President Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq refused to give in, the hijackers on March 6 shot a Pakistani diplomat Tariq Rahim in full view of the other passengers and dumped his body onto the tarmac.

On March 7, hijackers released two sick Pakistani men and also forced two American women who wanted to remain aboard to leave the aircraft. The two air hostesses were also offered freedom but both of them bravely decided to stay in the aircraft.

Next, on March 8, the plane flew to Damascus, Syria, and by the time ordeal ended there on March 15, more than 100 hostages had endured 13 days of tension and squalor. At that time it was the longest hijacking episode in the history.

On March 9, hijackers freed an air hostess at Damascus Airport. On March 11, relatives of two hijackers were freed and flown from Pakistan to Damascus to plead for the lives of hostages but the hijackers refused to meet their relatives. The gunmen repeatedly threatened to blow up the plane, but were talked into long extensions while negotiations continued by radio with Pakistani and Syrian officials in the Damascus control tower. Finally the hijackers said they would settle for just 55 prisoners - but they coupled the concession with a grim warning: they would soon kill the three Americans on board. "Be ready to pick up the bodies," they told the tower. Just twenty minutes before the deadline President Zia gave in, ordering that the prisoners be flown to sanctuary in Libya. "It's over," said Pakistani negotiator Sarfraz Khan.

But it wasn't over. First, Pakistani authorities said they could not trace one of the 55 prisoners. And some of the others didn't want to leave Pakistan. On March 15, a PIA Boeing 707 flew 54 prisoners from Karachi to Aleppo, Syria.

After arriving at Aleppo on a PIA Boeing 707, the prisoners were transferred to a smaller Syrian Air aircraft for flight to Libya. Then, when the Syrian aircraft carrying the released prisoners was in the air approaching Tripoli, Libya suddenly announced that it had changed its mind about granting asylum to the hijackers and their friends. The prisoners' plane had nowhere to go, and the hostages' lives were again in jeopardy. After circling Tripoli Airport, the plane flew to Athens, where officials refused to let it land until the desperate pilot radioed he had no more fuel and was about to ditch into Aegean Sea. The aircraft was then allowed to refuel in Athens. Finally, Syria announced that it would take in the prisoners and the hijackers, and the gunmen gave up.

The Syrian aircraft with released political prisoners on its return flight to Syria landed at Damascus Airport where the hijacked aircraft was parked. After the arrival of political prisoners at Damascus Airport, the three young hijackers, all dressed in shalwar kameez, emerged gun barrel first from the rear door of PIA Boeing 720B. They surrendered their weapons to Syrian officials and drove off with them to luxury Damascus Airport Hotel & Casino where political prisoners also had been accommodated.

AP-AZP was withdrawn from use and retired in April 1981. Later, it was put on display at Karachi's Jabees Funland in New Clifton where it became source of joy and happiness for young children. Few years later, it was removed from the park and sold to scrap metal dealers.

Crew members of hijacked PIA Boeing 720-030B (registration AP-AZP):

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