Hemus Air Flight 7081 was the hijacking of a Tupolev Tu-154 operated by Hemus Air on 3 September 1996. The incident occurred on-route from Beirut International Airport in Lebanon to Varna Airport in Bulgaria. The hijacker, Palestinian Hazem Salah Abdallah, a defector of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), falsely claimed he had explosives on board. The aircraft landed at Varna at 15:15 UTC+2, where the hijacker exchanged the 149 other passengers for fuel. The aircraft continued to Norway with eight crew members and landed at Oslo Airport, Gardermoen at 20:04 UTC+1. Abdullah demanded asylum in Norway and quickly surrendered. No-one was injured in the incident. During the court case, Abdullah claimed that he was insane, but was sentenced to four years in prison. After the court case he claimed he was under orders of PFLP to crash the aircraft in Oslo. He was sent back to Lebanon after he had finished his sentence, in August 1999.
Hijacking
Flight 7081 was a charter flight between Beirut International Airport in Lebanon and Varna Airport in Bulgaria. The Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft was a wet lease flight operated by Balkan Bulgarian Airlines for Hemus Air; it had 150 passengers and 8 crew members. Twenty-two-year-old Abdullah checked into his flight in Beirut without check-in baggage. This arose suspicion with airport security, which questioned why he was travelling on a leisure charter without baggage, but he answered that he always travelled lightly. Fellow passengers described him as timid and nervous and that he did not say a word while on board. The hijacker walked calmly to the toilet where he assembled a facsimile bomb consisting of a cylindrical chocolate box, silver foil, black tape, a switch and small pieces of wire.
At 15:15 Eastern European Time (UTC+2),the hijacker went to the front of the aircraft and forced his way into the cockpit falsely claiming that he had explosives in his left pocket and demanding that the aircraft continue from Varna to Oslo. The aircraft landed at 14:32 at Varna Airport and after the hijacker threatened to detonate his bomb he exchanged the passengers for fuel. The aircraft departed Varna with the crew and hijacker at 18:02, landing at Oslo Gardermoen Airport at 20:04 Central European Time (UTC+1) and was directed to an isolated area to the north of the airport. The police operation was led by Chief of Police of Romerike Police District, Asbjørn Gran, with three representatives from the Bulgarian embassy present. Negotiations with a police negotiator were straight forward; Abdullah's demands were that he be granted a defence attorney and asylum. While the aircraft was covered by the police tactical unit Delta the hijacker left the aircraft with his arms raised at 20:47. The police later found a device that looked like a bomb, but it lacked explosives.
Aftermath
Jan Schjatvet was appointed as the hijacker's defense attorney; he had also worked as defense for two previous hijackings since 1993. He was driven to the police station at Lillestrøm where he was questioned. Gran stated that it was "strange" that the Bulgarian authorities had allowed the aircraft to continue to Norway instead of resolving the issue in Bulgaria, all the time it was a Bulgarian aircraft and crew. It was quickly established that the hijackers only motive was to apply for asylum in Norway and that he had no political motivations. Abdullah stated that he had been forcefully recruited to a Lebanese guerrilla group and that leaving the group would entail a death hunt on him. He had discovered that Lebanese could acquire a visa for Bulgaria, but had not wanted to settle there because of the crime and mafia in the country. He chose Norway because of its participation in the peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. He was initially given eight weeks of custody.