GIGN & the retaking of Air France Flight 8969 | December 1994

on the 24th of December 1994 Air France flight eight nine six nine registration FGB EC was scheduled to take off in the Algerian capital city of allergies for the French capital Paris suddenly just before takeoff four armed men disguised as police officers seized control of the aircraft and held its 223 passengers and flight crew hostage with their ak-47s mini Aussies and packs of dynamite immediately two of the hostages were killed before communication link via radio was established with our German authorities to whom the hijackers proclaimed their allegiance that on the summit group and demanded the release of two imprisoned leaders of an Islamist political party that been banned in Algeria in 1992 in response the negotiators asked for all the women and children on board to be released unharmed if negotiations were to move forward a request that was carried out without incident led to the release of 63 of the hostages meanwhile on the other side of the Mediterranean the French government was monitoring the situation closely and in the late evening of the 24th of December gave authorisation for the deployment of 40 operators from the national agenda armed intervention group all more commonly referred to as GI GN which is a French counterterrorism unit however despite the fact that last portion of the passengers onboard flight eight nine six nine were French citizens the Algerian government refused the entry of the G rgn into the country primarily fear in a political blowback over allowing foreign troops to deal with a national crisis consequently the aircraft carrying the G IGN was rerouted to Spain where they remained on high alert in anticipation for any significant developments back in the Algerian capital the situation was rapidly deteriorating as the terrorists realized they were gaining no headway with the Algerian negotiators they bonded for the plane to be flown to Paris when this was refused a third hostage was killed resulting in the Algerian authorities off the corporate some of their French counterparts given the all-clear for flight eight nine six nine to take off for the French capital in the late evening on Christmas Day the mid flight refuelling stop scheduled to take place in the city of Marseilles simultaneously the full team and gog and detachment still on standby in spain was ordered to deploy to Marseille immediately and prepare for Bourdon operation arriving in the city at approximately zero 3:30 on the 26th of December 1994 just minutes before the hijacked plane also landed the GOG n spent the morning and afternoon rehearse them for anisole whilst French police took over negotiations with the hijackers you know only reiterated their request to go to Paris but we so demand if the aircraft to receive 27 tons of fuel for the troop this second demand was particularly concerning for the French as that was three times the amount of fuel required for the flight to the capital prompting fears that the terrorists intended to turn fly eight nine six nine into a flying bomb subsequently in a bid to drive the negotiations food and drink were delivered to the hijackers a task that was carried out by handful gog and operators disguises airport staff who used the opportunity to gather vital intelligence in the situation inside flight eight nine six nine and plant listening devices throughout the cabin in addition the hijackers accepted an offer to hold a press conference and board the plane which is all part of ruse by the French police to separate the hostages from the terrorists but the bulk of the former being relocated to the rear of the aircraft whilst the latter were confined to the front section eventually at 16:45 and the 26 for December the hijackers haven't run out of patience forced the flight crew to move flight eight nine six nine closer to the airport control tower from where they issued a final warning for the plane to get into the air by 1700 with a frettin severe action then as this deadline passed a couple of the terrorists opened fire in the control tower leaving the French authorities with no other option but to give the green light for the GOG n to storm flight eight nine six nine commencing just off the 1710 in the evening of the 26th of December 1994 free air stairs each currently team with Jia Jian operators approached the hijacked aircraft from his tail end were team one toss was secured in the cockpit was teams two and free seize the cabin at the same time around the airport Jia Jia snubber teams two compositions overlooked in the plane from where they could provide fire support to the board an operation if necessary making their final approach to fly eight nine six nine teams two and three each comprised in eleven operators booked their air stairs onto the rear cabin doors and conducted a simultaneous a Sol swinging open the entrance ways before storming in reciting for the hostages to keep their heads down once no terrorists were identified in a cabin section the French troops began the process of evacuating the hostages to safety the point the emergency escape chutes thus enabling the civilians to exit the aircraft meanwhile whilst this was unfolding team one led by major Dennis favia and made up of eight operators commences assault against the front section but soon ran into difficulties as Major Dennis favio recalls there was a small problem with a high of the air stair as it was a little bit higher than the door when we approached the air state hit the top of the door although slight step back and the door opened their stare touched the plane again and the team went in after several seconds of trying to get the door open one of the operators for his body weight behind the door and successfully opened it and evidence colleagues a storm into the plane almost instantly gun fire ripped through the front section of the cabin as team one make contact with the hijackers all of whom were holed up inside the cockpit with three members of the flight crew courageously one of the French soldiers stood at the entrance to the cockpit and engaged the terrorists of his mp5 during which he killed one and wounded another prides been forced into cover as he incurred several wounds himself behind him and other operator took his place and likewise began firing into the cockpit and so he also became wounded as did a further two soldiers of team one major Dennis failure continued those guys the hijackers were firing through the walls of the plane we received hundreds of rounds in the first minutes with half a team one down several members of teams two and free move forward to the front section to assist their wounded colleagues and pin down the enemy with the resulting engagement leading to a second hijacker being killed caught up in the middle of the firefight where the free members of the flight crew also trapped inside the cockpit one of whom the copilot sees an opportunity to escape out of one of the windows and onto the tarmac below leading to him fracturing one of his elbows and fires in the process despite his injuries his escape greatly assisted the GGN who sniper teams positioned around the airport now had a clear line of sight into the cockpit and were able to engage the enemy vector of sniper fire fatally wounding a third hijacker by this stage in the operation or the hostages in the cabin had been evacuated to safety while several more gog and operators made their way to the front airstair to assist team one was secure in the cockpit although very enforced team one was unable to flush out the fourth and final terrorists who used the grenade and small-arms fire to keep the gog at bay for twenty minutes with one bullet striking the sidearm of one of the operators and detonating his ammunition fortunately his interest in a proved fatal and he later recovered from its wounds in the end just 22 minutes off the start the assault the fourth hijacker was killed and the final two crew members are safely evacuated from the aircraft having survived the ordeal by shielding themselves behind the dead bodies of toward the terrorists as soon as flight eight nine six diamonds back in French hands major Dennis failure at 1735 and the 26th of December 1994 transmitted the following message the operation is terminated damage limited this simple message for an end to the 54 our hostage siege that left all four hijackers dead and sadly claimed the lives of three innocent civilians you

Channel: Liveth For Evermore

Views: 1,024,480

Rating: 4.9521384 out of 5

Keywords: British, Military, History, Education, Army, Air Force, Navy, Soldier, Sailor, Airmen, Liveth For Evermore, LFE, Special Forces, France, French, French Special Forces, French SOF, GIGN, G.I.G.N., GIGN & Air France Flight 8969 | December 1994, December 1994, Air France Flight 8969, Flight 8969, Paris, Marseille, GIGN Operation, Algeria, Groupe d'intervention de la Gendarmerie nationale, National Gendarmerie Intervention Group, gign air france flight 8969, Flight 8969 footage, Major Denis Favier

Id: IcVoxIEEJ6U

Length: 9min 39sec (579 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 18 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/cqbteam]

Lots of lessons learned.