DannyK

Many would rather this story was forgotten. The Palestinian 'cause' has a long track record of using Irish people for their own gain... Forty years ago today, a Palestinian terrorist was preparing to kill his Irish fiancée and their unborn child in order to murder hundreds of innocent Israelis and others on an airplane. The Hindawi Affair remains one of the most chilling examples of human depravity in the history of terrorism. It was not only an attempt to destroy an aircraft; it was a cold-blooded act of ultimate betrayal. Nezar Hindawi, a Palestinian terrorist working with Syrian intelligence, groomed his Irish fiancée, Ann-Marie Murphy, into believing they were headed toward a life of marriage and family. In reality, he was sending her—and their six-month-old unborn child—to a mid-air execution Forty years have passed since the morning of April 17, 1986, when a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions was narrowly averted at London's Heathrow Airport. The target was El Al Flight 016, a Boeing 747 bound for Tel Aviv with 375 passengers on board. Among them was Ann-Marie Murphy. As Ann-Marie approached the El Al check-in desk, she was the picture of an unsuspecting traveller. She had been coached by Hindawi to lie to security, claiming she was travelling alone for a holiday. However, her story didn't hold up under the rigorous questioning of El Al’s security team. When an agent emptied her bag, he noticed it remained unusually heavy. Hidden beneath a false bottom was 1.5 kilograms of Semtex—a powerful plastic explosive—and a scientific calculator that Hindawi had given her as a "gift." The calculator was, in fact, a sophisticated detonator set to trigger the bomb two hours into the flight, while the plane would have been at 39,000 feet over Austria. The discovery sent shockwaves through the international community. British authorities quickly arrested Hindawi, uncovering evidence that he had been trained and equipped by Syrian intelligence. The incident led the UK to sever diplomatic relations with Syria, a move backed by the United States and Canada. For Ann-Marie Murphy, the revelation was a double trauma: the shock of a near-death experience and the soul-crushing realisation that the man she loved had intended to murder her and their unborn baby for the Palestinian cause. In October 1986, she faced Hindawi in court. During her testimony, the soft-spoken woman finally snapped, shouting at him, "You bastard! I hate you! How could you do this to me?" Hindawi was sentenced to 45 years in prison, then the longest fixed sentence in British legal history. Following the trial, Ann-Marie withdrew from the public eye. She returned to her native Ireland to raise her daughter, Sara. In rare interviews over the years, she described Sara as the "only good thing" to come from the relationship. Today, the Hindawi Affair is a mandatory case study in aviation security training. Its lessons impact on us today every time we pass through airport security.