Raid on Entebbe

It was in June 1976 that an Air France plane carrying 244 passengers and a crew of 12 on a flight from Athens to Paris was hijacked by terrorists who forced the captain to alter course and eventually land at Uganda's Entebbe Airport. With the tacit approval of President Idi Amin, the Jewish passengers were held hostage and threatened with death if the Israeli government didn't comply with their captor's demand - to release 53 Palestinian so-called freedom fighters held in Israeli prisons. The world held its breath as the hours and minutes to the deadlines set by the terrorists ticked by.