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Ilija Kukobat, PhD
Institute for Contemporary History
Belgrade, Republic of Serbia

 

TERRORISM AND YUGOSLAV AIR TRANSPORT 1948–1990

Vol. XLII, 2/2024, pp. 415-432
https://doi.org/10.29362/ist20veka.2024.2.kuk.415-432

 

ABSTRACT/RESUME:

According to one definition, terrorism represents organised violence or the threat of using violence by politically motivated perpetrators, with the aim of imposing their will on citizens and authorities by spreading fear, panic, and defeatism. In air transport, it is mostly associated with aircraft hijackings and planting bombs in aircraft. Terrorist acts against Yugoslav air transport, namely the country’s principal air carrier, Yugoslav Airlines (JAT), have occurred in several instances. A total of four hijackings occurred between 1948 and 1952, with two later occurrences, one each in 1959 and 1981. All the hijackers wanted to leave the country as they were political enemies of the regime. In three of the cases, namely the hijackings of 1948 and 1951, some of the crew members were among the perpetrators. The hijacking of 1981 represents one of the rare cases in which the hostages managed to free themselves by simulating a fire onboard the aircraft after it landed at Cyprus. The most famous case of a terrorist attack on Yugoslav air transport is the 1972 bombing of a JAT passenger airplane, which exploded over Czechoslovakia. A stewardess, Vesna Vulović, miraculously survived the fall from an altitude of 33000 feet. The final report on the accident stated that a bomb had been planted in the luggage, and Croatian Ustasha émigrés have been named as the perpetrators, although no one has ever been tried for this attack. There are theories that the plane was actually shot down by the Czechoslovak army, but these remain unproven, nor has the official investigation been reopened ever since. Between 1975 and 1990, a total of six attacks on JAT agencies throughout Europe and North America were committed by Ustasha émigrés: five bombings and a non-fatal stabbing of an employee. Three hijackings throughout the world (one in Sweden in 1972 and two in the United States, one each 1976 and 1979) were committed by opponents of the Socialist regime in Yugoslavia. In two other cases, hijacked aircraft from other countries landed on Yugoslav airports. It must be noted that, in comparison to other parts of the world, Yugoslav air transport was the aim of much less terrorist activity.

 

KEYWORDS: air transport, terrorism, Yugoslavia, Yugoslav Airlines (JAT), aircraft hijacking, bomb attack, Vesna Vulović

 

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