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Video length: 3 min
50 years of GIGN: a look back at the hostage-taking on an Algiers-Paris flight in 1994
50 years of GIGN: a look back at the hostage-taking on an Algiers-Paris flight in 1994
(France 2)
The GIGN celebrates its 50th anniversary on Friday March 1st. A look back at 54 hours of anguish on Christmas Eve in 1994, when a terrorist group held passengers on an Algiers-Paris flight hostage.
In 1994, a terrorist group took passengers hostage on a plane traveling from Algiers (Algeria) to Paris. In archives, we can see elite gendarmes entering the plane, before a very violent confrontation lasting 17 minutes. On December 24, 1994, in Algiers, four armed terrorists from the Islamic group boarded an Airbus A300. They are demanding the release of two of their leaders and demanding to take off. Negotiations are slipping. The commando freed 63 passengers, but executed three, including a plainclothes police officer and the cook from the French embassy.
54 hours of hostage taking
The French government gets Algiers to let the plane take off to regain control. It will go towards Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), where the GIGN has just positioned itself. The police know that the operation will be very complicated. While negotiations continue, the GIGN trains in an identical airbus. After 54 hours of hostage-taking, the assault was launched.
