A Lufthansa pilot, cruising high over southern Europe on a routine flight last week, suddenly heard a grim message crackle into his earphones from the captain of another Lufthansa flight over the Mediterranean. Flight 181 - from the Spanish resort island of Mallorca to Frankfort - was being hijacked. "Please relay."
Forty minutes later, a four-line German press agency bulletin flashed across teletypes in the offices of West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, who reportedly saw at once that the biggest challenge of his career had begun.
Six top Cabinet ministers and trusted aides were quickly called in for what became the first of the "small crisis staff" meetings. But nobody knew much more than that 82 passengers, mostly returning German vacationers, were aboard with a crew of five.
