The hijackers respond by throwing hand grenades and 61 people are killed during the operation, including two hijackers. A group calling itself the Egyptian Revolution claims responsibility for the hijacking. The surviving hijacker was a Lebanese man of Palestinian origin. On 19 February 1978, two Palestinians, who had taken hostage about 50 participants in a conference in Nicosia, are given use of a plane at Larnaca airport in Cyprus. They hold 11 passengers and four crew members on board the Cyprus Airways DC-8.
Egyptian troops storm the plane, without the approval of the Cypriot authorities.
Cypriot security forces respond, and 15 Egyptian soldiers are killed and 15 wounded in the confusion. The hostages are freed and the two hijackers arrested. On 13 October 1977, four Palestinians hijack a Boeing 737 of the German airline Lufthansa on a flight from Majorca to Frankfurt with 87 people on board. Three hijackers are killed. The fourth, a woman, is wounded.