A mentally disturbed man, demanding to be flown to Tel Aviv, hijacked an early-morning Seville-Barcelona flight with 131 passengers and crew on board. After more than four hours on the tarmac at Manises Airport, Valencia, where the plane landed for a refuelling stop, the hijacker was persuaded to talk to his psychiatrist and later agreed to give himself up.
Although early reports had spoken of three air terrorists, the hijacker, armed only with a television remote control device, was found to be acting alone.
The drama of the 7.30 a.m. Iberia flight No 112, a Boeing 727, began shortly after take-off when the man forced his way on to the flight deck, first ordering the captain to fly to Athens, then changing his demand to Tel Aviv.
He warned that he had two accomplices sitting among the passengers and threatened to use his remote control device to detonate a bomb he said was hidden in the baggage hold of the plane.
Among the passengers was the Mayor of Seville, Mrs Soledad Becerril, and senior members of the committee promoting Seville's candidacy for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games who were en route to the Olympic headquarters in Switzerland via Barcelona.
Many others on board were also transit passengers due to catch flights from Barcelona to various European destinations; 24 of them were football fans on their way to France to support the Spanish team tonight in their World Cup match against Bulgaria.
After the plane landed at Manises Airport the security forces sealed off the area and began their negotiations for the release of the passengers. The hijacker, who was described by one of the passengers as "extremely nervous", agreed to let 15 children and three elderly women off the plane.
As soon as news of the hijacking broke, officials began to study the names on the passenger list to try to identify the supposed terrorist. They eventually narrowed him down to Juan Patino (43), a man with a criminal record as well as a medical history of mental instability and paranoia. After a long and excited telephone conversation with his doctor the hijacker agreed to surrender.