The Achille Lauro hijacking took place on 7 October 1985, when the Italian ocean liner MS Achille Lauro was hijacked by four men representing the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) off the coast of Egypt, as she was sailing from Alexandria to Ashdod, Israel. A 69-year-old Jewish American man in a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer, was murdered by the hijackers and thrown overboard. The hijacking sparked the "Sigonella Crisis".
The Achille Lauro c. 1987
Freed hostages from Achille Lauro returning to the US by military aircraft
President George W. Bush In Cincinnati on October 7, 2002, charges Saddam Hussein's Iraq with harboring Abu Abbas.
MS Achille Lauro was a cruise ship based in Naples, Italy. It was built between 1939 and 1947 as the ocean liner Willem Ruys for Royal Rotterdam Lloyd. In 1965 Achille Lauro bought the ship, had it converted into a cruise ship, and renamed it after himself. In 1985 it was hijacked by members of the Palestine Liberation Front.
Achille Lauro
The Achille Lauro on fire during her conversion work in 1965
Lifebouy from the Achille Lauro (at top right), now on display in the Rotterdam Maritime Museum
MS Willem Ruys