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Case file

Omar Rezaq

In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “only surviving hijacker of egyptair flight 648”. Today it says “lebanese-born palestinian militant who is the lone surviving hijacker of egyptair flight 648 in 1985”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-02. In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “only surviving hijacker of egyptair flight 648”. Today it says “lebanese-born palestinian militant who is the lone surviving hijacker of egyptair flight 648 in 1985”.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2005 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since. Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now. 1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2005

Omar Rezaq is the only surviving hijacker of EgyptAir Flight 648 .1 He was a member of Abu Nidal , a group of three people. The remaining two hijackers were killed, either in in-flight shooting with a sky-marshal or after Egyptian commandos stormed the hijacked plane.2 Omar Rezaq had given his name as Omar Marzouki and used a Tunisian passport when boarding that plane at Athens airport, but later he admitted that he is of Palestinian origin and that he was born in Lebanon in 1963 .3 During hours of negotiations at Luqa airport in Malta , Rezaq deliberately shot five passengers - three of them miraculously survived - and used a hand grenade when Egyptian commandos stormed the plane on November 24 , 1985 at about 8 p.m.4 He was severely wounded in this shootout - had pierced the left lung by a bullet - but recovered and was arraigned in court on December 12 , 1986 .5 Preliminary inquiry lasted until April 3 , 1987 and on November 2 , 1988 Rezaq was arraigned in court and he pleaded guilty to seven of nine charges against him.6 These were the illegal arrest of crew and passengers, the death of Nitzan Mendelson and of Scarlett Marie Rogenkamp, the attempted killing of Methad Mustafa Kamal, Patrick Scott Baker, Jacqueline Nink Pflug and Tamar Artzi, and with the illegal possession of arms and explosives. Nevertheless, the former two charges were later withdrawn. Rezaq was sentenced to the full 25 years less the years and months he had already spent in prison.7 On appeal, the same sentence was confirmed on April 20 , 1989 .8 Rezaq however served only seven years in Malta and was released. As a free man under assumed name, he went to Accra , Ghana and remained there until July 1993 .9 Then he flew to Lagos , Nigeria and was arrested there and the Nigerian authorities turned him over to waiting FBI agents, who flew him to the United States .10 On July 19 , 1996 after a month-long trial Rezaq was sentenced to life in prison on a single count of air piracy. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth, who sentenced him, recommended that any request for parole made after the 10-year period should be rejected.11

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 16694956.
Today
In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “only surviving hijacker of egyptair flight 648”. Today it says “lebanese-born palestinian militant who is the lone surviving hijacker of egyptair flight 648 in 1985”. Read the current article and compare.
2005201020152020Oct '232025
terror011111
militant000011
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.

What Wikipedia says this is

Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined between 2005 and 2025.

Then

only surviving hijacker of egyptair flight 648

Now

lebanese-born palestinian militant who is the lone surviving hijacker of egyptair flight 648 in 1985

Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.

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