This hijacking is memorable to me because of the circumstances leading to the execution murder of the pilot. This was a drawn out affair with landings in several Arab countries.

At one point the plane landed in Yemen and the pilot managed to escape by saying he needed to inspect the plane. The Yemeni officials forced him to return to the plane when the hijackers threatened to kill passengers if he wasn't returned.

Can you imagine his relief having escaped a horrible and stressful situation, only to be sent back to certain death. The guy knew dead certain that he would be killed since the co-pilot was still on the plane. He is said to have begged not to be sent back but he was forced to return at gunpoint. He was immediately forced to kneel in the aisle and was executed.

You might say the guy was a coward for abandoning his post and you might be right. I recall being extremely conflicted at the time. He had a wife and two young children. The pathos was in the probability that had he not escaped he would have probably survived, or if his escape had happened in a democratic country, it is not likely he would have been forced to return to certain death.

German special forces stormed the plane at it's next stop in Mogadishu and all passengers and crew were rescued. The pilot was the only friendly fatality.

Anyway, this story is not exactly covered up in the way that you recall the Cuba to Miami hijacks, but the details of his escape and abandonment of the passengers is never mentioned and he was given a posthumous medal for bravery by the German government.