1978 London bus attack
Location 51°30′45″N 0°9′4″W / 51.51250°N 0.15111°W / 51.51250; -0.15111
Europa Hotel, Grosvenor Square, London
Date 20 August 1978; 47 years ago (1978-08-20)
13:30 pm
Attack type
Mass shooting, grenade attacks
Weapons Submachine guns, hand grenades
Deaths 1 civilian (+1 attacker)
Injured 9 civilians
Perpetrator Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

On 20 August 1978, a staff bus, of El Al airlines in London, England was attacked by Palestinian militants.[1] Flight attendant Irit Gidron and one militant were killed in the attack, and nine people were wounded.[2][3]

Attack

At around 13:30, a minibus with staff of El Al airlines was attacked during a stopover at the Europa Hotel in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, central London, when two or three men opened fire with submachine guns and hand grenades.[2][3] An El Al flight attendant was killed in the attack, while members of a wedding party were among those wounded by gun shots and a taxi driver was blown from his cab by a grenade.[2][3] A man presumed to be one of the militants was found dead after the attack.[2] A second militant was captured by the police, while a possible third escaped.[3]

Aftermath

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility for the attack.[2][3] The flight attendant killed in the attack, Irit Gidron, 29, was buried in Israel next to the victims of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.[4] The terrorist arrested, Fahad Mihyi, was sentenced to life imprisonment a year later for the attack.[5][6]

In 2000, Yulie Cohen Gerstel, one of the flight attendants injured in the attack, contacted Mihyi who was imprisoned at Dartmoor Prison. Mihyi was apologetic for his role in the terrorist attack. Gerstel advocated for his parole as shown in the 2002 documentary My Terrorist.[7] Mihyi was released in 2005.

References

  1. ^ Rubin, Barry; Rubin, Judith Colp (2015). Chronologies of Modern Terrorism. Routledge. p. 193. ISBN 9781317474654.
  2. ^ a b c d e "1978: Two dead after El Al crew ambushed". BBC News. 20 August 1978.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Terrorist Attack on El Al Mini-bus Kills Airline Stewardess, injures 8". JTA. 21 August 1978.
  4. ^ "Irit Gidron, Terrorist Victim, Buried Alongside Victims of Munich Massacre". JTA. 23 August 1978.
  5. ^ "My Terrorist: Director's statement" (PDF). Women Make Movies. May 2003. p. 5. Retrieved 30 May 2025.
  6. ^ "Terrorist Incidents against Jewish Communities and Israeli Citizens Abroad, 1968-2003". International Institute for Counter-Terrorism. 20 December 2003. Archived from the original on 26 March 2021. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  7. ^ Naomi Pfefferman (9 May 2003). "'Terrorist' Helped Israeli Heal". Jewish Journal. Retrieved 12 November 2018.