Special Forces: Untold Stories

The German GSG-9: Jihad in the Fatherland

On September 15, 1977, five masked gunmen abduct Hans Martin Schleyer and execute his three bodyguards. The Red Army Faction, in association with Germany’s notorious Baader-Meinhof Gang, takes credit for the crime. Barely a month later, a Frankfurt-bound Lufthansa flight leaves Majorca, Spain with 91 passengers and a crew of five. An hour into the flight, four Arab terrorists draw their weapons and take over the plane in the name of the Red Army Faction and the Baader-Meinhof Gang. Within hours of the hijacking, West Germany mobilizes its special anti-terrorist unit: Grenzschutzgruppe-9 or GSG-9.