Flight from the USSR

The Plane

Later referred to as a hijack, it looked more like a group suicide of the desperate.

The hijackers were dressed casually, just like the jeans generation did in those days. Only Giorgi Tabatadze wore a suit with a tie and held a globe in his arms. He also had the Bible, which he passed to Gega once on board. Later, the globe disappeared, later giving birth to an assumption that the guns were smuggled inside it. In reality, Tina’s friend had them in her handbag without knowing it.

Giorgi took only a globe and the Georgian Bible. He left behind an amazing letter for his son, in which he told little Giorgi how to find the shining star whenever he missed his father.

After delays from the unruly drunk, there were problems with weather once they were in the air. According to the official report, when approaching Batumi, the pilots received information about worsening weather conditions and changed the course. Some theorized that such a sudden change likely seemed suspicious to the hijackers and so they acted immediately. However, based on the black box data, the official report also mentioned that the pilots weren’t receiving orders from the flight dispatchers, but from military authorities, which lends credence to the likelihood there was a pre-planned operation.

Among the fifty-eight passengers on the plane, there was one who didn’t have any business in Batumi whatsoever. His job was to sit on the plane, just as KGB officers accompanied other flights. In Soviet airspace, there was not a single flight without at least one KGB officer traveling under the guise of a regular passenger. All Soviet citizens were aware of it, as were Gega’s friends. In their attempt to hijack the plane, they were convinced that they had to identify the KGB agent accompanying their flight right away. They thought that getting rid of him would make it considerably easier to force the crew to cross the border from Batumi and land in Turkey at one of the US military bases. However, they didn’t know for certain which of the fifty-eight passengers was the KGB officer, so their plans were only speculative. It was like a childhood game where kids identified spies based on their clothes. Accordingly, they decided that a middle-aged man sitting in the first row was the agent because he wore a grey raincoat. Though Gega voiced his uncertainty, most of the conspirators had a different opinion supported by a “very solid” argument mentioned by one of them and then repeated by the rest.

“That’s him for sure, look at his typical KGB face!”

“Yes, he does look like one, but what if he’s an ordinary passenger?” Gega’s question had little effect on the others.

“If that’s not him, then search for someone else, show him to me and I’ll take care of him,” Kakhaberber advised Gega, as Giorgi laughed.

“Where am I supposed to look for one?” Gega was genuinely surprised.

“Here, on the airplane,” said Giorgi. It became clear to Gega that the choice had already been made.

Acting quicker than Kakhaber, Giorgi got to his feet and headed towards the cockpit with a bottle of sparkling wine in his hand that he drained on the way. When he approached the first row, he hit the selected passenger on his head with the bottle, catching him completely unawares, and the attempt to hijack the plane began.

Much later, only when everything was over, did it transpire that the hijackers were wrong. The middle-aged man, who passed out right away from the blow, was actually an ordinary passenger, not a KGB agent. However, it didn’t make any difference to the man at the time, since he lay sagging in his seat, with a gash on his head, while a woman sitting next to him screamed loudly with fear and shock for the whole plane to hear.

It was strange that the racket didn’t cause a panic among the hijackers at all. It seems they were prepared for the reaction, so they began to carry out their plan without delay.

As soon as Giorgi had got up from his seat with the bottle in his hand, the others immediately took their positions and the first with a weapon in his hand to reach the pilots was Giorgi himself, who was closely followed by his elder brother. But Giorgi didn’t even have time to pass their demands to the crew in the cockpit. Without any warning, an armed man shot Giorgi, killing him on the spot. The armed man in plain clothes was sitting facing the aisle and with his back to the sky. His presence in the cockpit was completely unexpected to the hijackers.

They had studied plans for a small plane, and this larger one was all new to them. The cockpit of a small plane didn’t have enough space for anyone apart from the pilots. No one could fit there as comfortably as that armed man who surprised Giorgi and Kakhaber.

Giorgi was dead and the hijackers didn’t have time to think about their mistakes. There was no time left for thinking at all, since the armed man was already shooting down the aisle. Fifty something passengers sitting on the plane ducked their heads at the sound of the gun. So did the hijackers, but bullets can never distinguish between the guilty and the innocent. The shooter had little time to think either. He wounded Kakhaberber, and another passenger, which led the flight attendant, possibly instinctively, to close the cockpit door. She may have closed the door in order to block the way for the hijackers, so they couldn’t reach the pilots. Regardless, it proved difficult due to the first victim lying motionless in the entrance.

The others, despite the general panic and the unsuccessful and tragic beginning, still tried to carry out what they had intended. There was simply nothing else left for them to do now. The others had guns, while Gega was standing in the aisle with a hand grenade in his hand. It was a fake, but only Giorgi knew it and he was already dead.

Gega threatened to pull the pin unless the crew flew the plane to Turkey. But the pilots had already received orders from the ground to not comply with any of the demands of the hijackers.

Then, In order to disorganize the hijackers, the pilots sent the plane into a freefall. It was completely unnecessary, since the hijackers were already acting completely chaotic anyways and such a freefall harmed the innocent passengers most of all. The fall was so severe and unexpected that the passengers were thrown from their seats, with blood-curdling screams. What was most horrifying, was that the pilots repeated the maneuver several times.

When the plane had finally settled down, the hijackers repeated their demand, more categorically this time. The violence and unexpected turn of events had made them desperate. Meanwhile, the pilots were forced to come up with a lie in order to gain some time and calm them down, at least temporarily. They told Soso that there was enough fuel to reach Batumi and that they simply wouldn’t be able to reach any airport in Turkey. This sounded suspicious to Soso, as it would to any other hijacker, but they were forced to believe the pilots and agreed to fill the fuel tanks at Sokhumi. Sokhumi airport was the closest to Batumi and it seemed the only way out of this situation. In truth, the pilots had received orders to return to Tbilisi, since it was at Tbilisi airport that a Russian armed unit, based near the airport, was already waiting for the hijackers. In order to deceive the hijackers further, the pilots performed a maneuver to make it appear they had changed course and were flying to Sokhumi. It was unnecessary since nobody had any idea of the technicalities of flying a plane. The hijackers weren’t even able to find out, until the end, whether two fighter jets were really following their airplane in case they headed to Turkey. If an escort really did appear in the sky near Batumi, it was more to influence the pilots to follow orders or else face the plane being brought down as soon as it got close to the Turkish border.

The hijackers realized the true destination of the flight only when the contours of the city appeared and the plane began to land. That was exactly when Dato decided everything was over; that it made no sense to try to justify oneself. He killed himself as soon as he became convinced the plane had landed at Tbilisi’s airport again.

The sound of his gunfire broke the silence that had temporarily settled on the plane. Passengers, sitting near Dato instinctively cried out. None of them could have imagined the horror that still awaited them.

When they landed, many of the passengers thought they had survived, but the minute the plane stopped, several dozen armed soldiers surrounded it and, without any warnings or ultimatums, opened fire on the plane. It was unclear who gave the order to launch the assualt. In any case, it was difficult to imagine what the intention was for Soviet soldiers to fire at the plane from the outside.

When the nightmare finally ended, only the moans of the wounded could be heard on the plane, while those still unharmed were simply silent with shock, unable to utter a sound.

Soso’s silence was due to a wound in his throat. It was hard for him to speak, but he still noticed the air hostesses openeing the emergency locks. Their eyes asked him if the passengers could leave, and he nodded in consent. The attendants believed it was the only way of escape under the circumstances, but the passengers received a volley of gunfire as soon as they emerged from the plane. Surprisingly unscathed, Irina Khomich showed amazing resolve when she later refused to change her testimony about what she had seen. She recalled that the Soviet soldiers shot not only at those passengers and crew members jumping from the plane, but at the remaining passengers as well.

It was specifically for this reason that the hijackers yelled at the passengers to put their open palms against the portholes in hope of halting the shooting squad. Alas, the desperate attempt only resulted in most passengers being wounded in their palms.

After landing in Tbilisi airport, Paata was the most composed, and even tried to encourage the others. He might have been pushed to action because his wounded brother pleaded to stop his suffering and shoot him. Incidentally, Soso had also asked Paata to kill him as soon as the squad began to fire. Paata was wounded in his leg, but still had enough strength to move around. Later, the witness accounts proved that some passengers helped him bandage his leg—one lady even tore her dress to wrap the wound. Paata moved around the plane until nearly the very end, yelling when the shooting started. He was reported to have told the passengers that they—the hijackers—knew they were dying for freedom, but the rest were about to perish for nothing…

In his subsequent testimony, Paata Iverieli explained that his loud and aggressive behaviour was due to fear. He worried that any signs of softness would have resulted in passengers attacking him and his friends before the plane was stormed. He also believed he had to demonstrate aggression in order to convince the authorities that the hijackers were serious and not a bunch of romantic students.

Unlike the rest of the group, Paata still thought that it was not over. He hoped they could demand fuel, get the dead and wounded off the plane and fly to Turkey. As soon as the officials approached the bullet-riddled plane and began negotiations, the hijackers gave them their ultimatum.

Yet in actuality, the negotiations were only a means for the authorities to gain time. They had no intention of satisfying the hijackers’ demands. They played for time. A special task force unit was on its way from Russia. The unit was specially activated for operations against armed terrorists. Until they arrived, the local government even tried to use the hijackers’ parents in order to negotiate.

Their parents were brought to the airport, but for some reason the authorities changed their mind. They believed that these supposed misguided young people would listen more to the First Secretary of the Central Committee rather than to their own parents. And so, the First Secretary addressed the hijackers, urging them to drop their weapons and turn themselves in.

The address turned fatal for Soso, who stood in the open door of the plane and gathered his remaining strength to swear at the First Secretary. Later, when everything was over, the general opinion was that it was this insult that resulted in no surgeon being allowed near him. Soso would ultimately die from blood loss hours later.

By then, the others still on the plane were losing blood too. However the wounded were not taken away by ambulance despite the categorical demands of the hijackers. The hijackers thought this was a true demonstration of the Soviet authorities’ cold-bloodedness and were shocked at the lack of compassion for innocent citizens. But the authorities calculated that the more wounded people there were on the airplane, the better it was for them, because their panic and agony would prevent the hijackers from thinking logically.

Fourteen hours after the plane landed, an operation to free those onboard started. Several managed to jump from the plane, probably with consent of the hijackers. Tina’s two friends were allowed to leave the plane, and Tina and Gega were encouraged to give up. Naively, the hijackers sent some passengers to negotiate with the authorities. Those released never went back. The hijackers believed it was a misunderstanding, and sent more passengers to the officials. There was little hope in negotiations, but they had no alternative. Sooner or later they would have to face the truth, to realize they were being deceived. They should have realized it when they released one of the passengers with a threat that if he did not return they would shoot his brother who was still on board. The passenger never returned.

The only official who negotiated with the hijackers was an airport employee, though it was just another ploy for time. He found ridiculous excuses for the hijackers, but they believed him. He claimed that Turkey refused to receive the plane but that Iran agreed on condition the petrol tank was filled to the brim. Instead, the hijackers demanded to go to Israel, and ordered that the ground crew fill the plane’s tank in only their underwear.

As this went on, the special task force had arrived from Russia and were lying on the roof of the plane, waiting for the orders to start the operation. They impatiently waited for their commanders’ order as it continually rained.

They received the order to go ahead only after Tina, with a grenade in her hand, appeared in the plane hatch. She’d asked Gega for the grenade.

“It’s not real,” he told her, so weak he was unable to smile anymore.

“I know,” said Tina, kissing Gega as she took the grenade and headed for the hatch.

Seeing a girl with a grenade, the authorities decided it was time to act and their operation was over in seven minutes. They let gas off inside the plane and then simply threw both the hijackers and the remaining passengers out onto the ground. They were taken to the airport, where government officials and KGB generals waited. A high-ranking official kicked Soso. He fell to the ground and was kicked again for the First Secretary to see. It was too good a chance for him to miss.

It was still raining in Tbilisi and word had reached the Georgian capital that the students had failed to hijack the airplane.