Julienne Bušić: The hijacking of TWA flight 355

In the field of civil aviation security, is not possible to be proactive. All security measures and procedures have been set up as a result of an already proven offense to discourage the perpetrators from committing available activities or to recover them in the future.

What leads a person to commit an illegal act such as hijacking? In the case of Julienne Bušić it was love. Are we able to recognize that a person is going to do this type of act? In 1976, she and her husband with three other kidnappers kidnapped TWA 355 on a flight from New York to Chicago in order to achieve worldwide media coverage of Croatian independence and opposition to the Yugoslav dictatorship. 

Julienne Bušić accepted an invitation to a workshop on global threats in civil aviation, which was held on 4 – 5 June 2019 in Prague. The workshop participants were informed about the reasons that led to the hijacking of the aircraft.

She told her whole story about preparing and searching for information at the libraries, writing a petition, the progress of the kidnapping, and what happened after her arrest. The story of a loving woman and a human rights activist. She spoke of established friendships aboard an aircraft. After the expiry of the prison sentence, Julienne received the post of Adviser to the President of the Republic of Croatia and now is a prominent human rights advocate. Her lecture was also attended by the Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia, Mrs. Ljiljana Pancirov.