A four-member commando of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) seized the vessel on October 7 as it sailed off Alexandria in Egypt with 450 mostly American passengers and crew aboard.

The hijackers were demanding the release of 50 Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) sent as negotiators to the Egyptian port of Port Said a leader of its Fatah wing, Hani al-Hassan, and PLF leader Abu Abbas.

But on October 8, an elderly passenger in a wheelchair, American Jew Leon Klinghoffer, was murdered by the captors and his body thrown overboard.

On October 9, the four hijackers gave themselves up in Port Said in return for a pledge of free passage.

Two days later, an Egyptian plane carrying the four Palestinian attackers was forced by American fighter jets to land in Sicily and the hijackers were turned over to Italian authorities.

On October 12, the four were charged with first-degree murder, the hijacking of a ship and taking hostages.

Abbas, initially considered by Italy as simply a witness, left on a Yugoslav plane bound for Belgrade after Italian authorities said they did not have enough evidence to hold him.

However, he was convicted in absentia in May 1987 by an Italian court to life in prison for masterminding the attack.

A Syrian suspected arms dealer, Monzer Al Kassar, arrested in June 1992 at Madrid airport, was accused of financing the Achille Lauro operation.

In 1994, a fire took hold on the Achille Lauro while it was off the coast of Somalia, killing two people.

SPACE.WIRE