TWA Flight 840 was a 1969 hijacking of a Rome-to-Tel Aviv flight. A 2015 citation in the article was titled "The political economy of terrorism." The word terror survives six times in the article today, but the opening no longer says who carried out the hijacking. A reader today does not learn that the opening once named the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine as the hijackers, stated the operation succeeded even though Yitzhak Rabin was not aboard, described the hijackers' demand to land in Damascus, or noted that the last two hostages released, in December, were the Israeli passengers.
Read line by line and written up by hand.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01. “terror” appeared 1 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 6.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2015 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2015
There were no injuries or fatalities, although the aircraft was significantly damaged, and two hostages were held for two months.1In August 1969, leaders in the Palestinian left-wing organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) learned that Yitzak Rabin , the Israeli Ambassador to the United States was scheduled to be aboard a Trans World Airlines (TWA) Rome-Athens-Tel Aviv flight. Late that month (on the 29th), two operatives, Leila Khaled and Salim Issawi, hijacked the aircraft.2The operation was successful, although Rabin was not aboard.3The hijackers demanded that the pilots land the aircraft at Damascus , Syria.4All hostages except two Israeli passengers were released (5 slightly injured), although the nose section of the aircraft, a Boeing 707 , was blown up.5The two Israeli hostages were released in December that year in return for 71 Syrian and Egyptian soldiers released by Israel. The aircraft sustained $4 million in damage. Boeing repaired the aircraft, fitting the nose section from 707-465 G-ARWE .6This aircraft had been destroyed by fire in an accident at Heathrow on 8 April 1968, but the nose section was salvageable.7The aircraft was re-registered N28714 and returned to service. In March 1980, the aircraft was withdrawn from service and flown to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base for use as spares for the KC-135 Stratotanker fleet of the United States Air Force . The aircraft's registration was canceled in March 1984.8 Fire over Heathrow: The Tragedy of Flight 712 .
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 663279684.
The opening as it stood in 2010
There were no injuries or fatalities, although the aircraft was significantly damaged, and two hostages were held for two months. In August 1969, leaders in the Palestinian left-wing organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) learned that Yitzak Rabin , the Israeli Ambassador to the United States was scheduled to be aboard a Trans World Airlines (TWA) Rome - Athens - Tel Aviv flight. Late that month (on the 29th), two operatives, Leila Khaled and Salim Issawi , hijacked the aircraft. The operation was successful, although Rabin was not aboard. The hijackers demanded that the pilots land the aircraft at Damascus , Syria . All hostages except two Israeli passengers were released and no one was injured, although the nose section of the aircraft, a Boeing 707 , was blown up. The two Israeli hostages were released in December that year in return for 71 Syrian and Egyptian soldiers released by Israel. Boeing repaired the aircraft, fitting the nose section from 707-465 G-ARWE. This aircraft had been destroyed by fire in an accident at Heathrow on 8 April 1968, but the nose section was salvageable. The aircraft was re-registered N28714 and returned to service. It was sold to Pan American Airways and reregistered N706PA, and flew for several years afterwards. In March 1980, the aircraft was withdrawn from service and flown to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base for use as spares for the KC-135 Stratotanker fleet of the United States Air Force . The aircraft's registration was canceled in March 1984. Fire over Heathrow: The Tragedy of Flight 712 .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 371099524.
The opening as it stood in 2020 3 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
There were no injuries or fatalities, although the aircraft was significantly damaged, and two hostages were held for two months. In August 1969, leaders in the Palestinian left-wing organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) learned that Yitzhak Rabin , then Israeli Ambassador to the United States, was scheduled to be aboard a Trans World Airlines (TWA) Rome-Athens-Tel Aviv flight. Late that month (on the 29th), two operatives, Leila Khaled and Salim Issawi, hijacked the aircraft. Rabin was not aboard, but American diplomat Thomas D.The hijackers made the pilots land the aircraft at Damascus International Airport in Syria.They evacuated the aircraft, a Boeing 707 , and blew up the nose section of the aircraft.The Syrian authorities arrested the hijackers and immediately released the 12 crew members and 95 passengers, retaining at first six Israeli passengers.Of those, four were released on the 30th.The remaining two Israeli passengers were released in December in return for 71 Syrian and Egyptian soldiers released by Israel.The two Palestinian hijackers had been released without charges in mid-October. The aircraft sustained $4 million in damage. Boeing repaired the aircraft, fitting the nose section diverted from the production line at Renton and outfitted to the aircraft's specifications. The aircraft was re-registered N28714 and returned to service. In March 1980, the aircraft was withdrawn from service and flown to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base for use as spares for the KC-135 Stratotanker fleet of the United States Air Force . The aircraft's registration was canceled in March 1984. Fire over Heathrow: The Tragedy of Flight 712 . The Encyclopedia of Kidnappings .Legend & Legacy, The story of Boeing and its people .Leeham News and Comment .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 963487407.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 17 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Plane hijacking For the later bombing of TWA Flight 840, see TWA Flight 840 bombing .There were no fatalities although at least two passengers were lightly wounded and the aircraft was significantly damaged. Two hostages were held for two months. Fire over Heathrow: The Tragedy of Flight 712 . Association for Diplomatic Studies & Training .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1165271108.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Plane hijacking For the later bombing of TWA Flight 840, see TWA Flight 840 (1986) . There were no fatalities although at least two passengers were lightly wounded and the aircraft was significantly damaged. Two hostages were held for two months. Fire over Heathrow: The Tragedy of Flight 712 . Association for Diplomatic Studies & Training .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1295377064. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
“terror” appeared 1 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 6. Read the current article and compare.
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Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
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.
