Mohammed Ali Hammadi

Mohammed Ali Hammadi (1964-?) is a Lebanese citizen, hijacker, alleged member of Hezbollah and one of the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists.

TWA hijacking and capture
In 1985 the terrorist group Hezbollah, of which Hammadi was a member, planned to commit the Hijacking of TWA Flight 847. The goal was to force Israel into releasing 766 prisoners, mainly Lebanese, as well as the Kuwait Seventeen, who were responsible for bombing a US embassy in Kuwait. Hammadi was identified as one of the two Lebanese terrorists who initially commandeered the plane when it left Athens, and may or may not have been the terrorist who threatened Captain John Testrake with a grenade to force air traffic control into letting the plane land in Beirut. He was also responsible for the shooting of passenger Robert Stethem as a method of scaring the staff at Beirut airport into refuelling the plane. Hammadi was later arrested in West Germany in 1987 for smuggling liquid explosives and charged with the murder of Robert Stethem. He was sentenced to life in prison, but only served nineteen years before being paroled.

Lebanon and possible death
In 2006 the US Government attempted to have Mohammed Ali Hammadi extradited from Lebanon, where he was believed to be hiding, however he was not located and remains at large, joining fellow TWA hijackers Ali Atwa and Hassan Izz-Al-Din on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list in February 2006. In September 2006 a government official reported that Hammadi had re-joined Hezbollah after being paroled. In 2007 a reward of $5 million was offered for any information leading to his capture.

In 2010 unconfirmed reports surfaced suggesting that Hammadi had been killed in a drone strike in Pakistan, however they have still not been proven and Hammadi remains a wanted man.