On September 12, 1948, six young people from Thessaloniki boarded a passenger plane at Elliniko airport with tickets for Thessaloniki, but never intended to arrive. Shortly after takeoff they seized control of the aircraft, injured members of the crew and demanded the captain fly to Yugoslavia instead. It was the first hijacking in the history of Greek civil aviation and one of the earliest anywhere in the world.
The flight, TAE service GK212, was scheduled to travel from Elliniko to Micra airport in Thessaloniki. The aircraft was a Douglas C-47B/DC-3, the type known as the "Dakota," registered SX-BAH. It took off at 13:15 carrying 21 passengers and a crew of four: captain Athanasios Igoumenakis, co-pilot Christos Kandias, radio operator Foivos Xanthos and flight attendant Thalia Fryda.
Among the passengers were six young people aged between 17 and 23, members of the Thessaloniki branch of EPON, a communist-affiliated youth organization active during the civil war. They had deliberately booked seats 1, 2, 3, 10, 20 and 21, a layout that let them move at the same time toward the cockpit and through the passenger cabin.
The plan had been prepared weeks in advance. The six, named as Alexandros and Charalambos Koufoudakis, Spyros Chelmiadis, Achilleas Keltemidis, Georgios Kellas and Antonis Vogiazos, had traveled from Thessaloniki to Athens because they feared arrest by the authorities over their political activities. Their aim was to cross into Yugoslavia and then join the forces of the Democratic Army, the communist-led side in the civil war. On September 8 they had gone one by one to the TAE ticket office so as not to arouse suspicion.
Chaos Above Chalkida
During the flight the aircraft ran into light bad weather and the captain asked passengers to fasten their seatbelts. One of the six, sitting in seat 10, complained and asked to be unbuckled. Later, around the area of Chalkida, he stood up, told the flight attendant he felt dizzy and asked her to bring him coffee.
As she moved away, the passengers in seats 1, 2 and 3 got up and headed for the cockpit. Within seconds the calm flight turned violent. The flight attendant tried to intervene and was cut on the hand with a knife. Two more of the young men rose from the back of the cabin holding a knife and bottles.
The situation in the cockpit was even more dangerous. The co-pilot tried to resist and was injured. The radio operator, Foivos Xanthos, was struck on the head, immobilized and tied to his seat. For several moments, during the struggle, the plane was effectively out of control and began losing altitude before the captain regained the controls. It was then that he heard the hijackers' demand: turn the aircraft north. They wanted to leave Greece.
A Forced Landing in Yugoslavia
Igoumenakis did not immediately give up trying to keep the plane over Greek territory. Above the Thermaikos Gulf he tried to follow the Aliakmonas river toward Kozani, but the hijackers noticed the change of course and forced him to follow the Axios river toward the Yugoslav border instead. A second attempt to land at a Greek airport also failed, and the aircraft continued north.
A serious problem then emerged: the crew had no map of the area and could not contact any airport in Yugoslavia. The captain flew at low altitude searching visually for a place to bring the Dakota down safely. He eventually spotted a flat stretch of land about 60 kilometers southeast of Skopje and landed the plane there. The six hijackers got off. The hijacking had succeeded.
The crew then faced another question: whether there was enough fuel to return to Greece. Igoumenakis checked the fuel levels and, after being told by radio that there was enough for the flight to Thessaloniki, restarted the engines. To avoid raising suspicion among the hijackers, he told them he was heading to Skopje to refuel. Instead he took off and set course for Greece. At around 17:10, four hours after leaving Elliniko, the Dakota landed at Micra. The passengers had survived.
Crew Held as Suspects
The ordeal was not over for the crew. Greek authorities arrested the four crew members and even examined the possibility that they had cooperated with the hijackers, since the aircraft had ultimately left Greek airspace. TAE pushed back, arguing that different behavior by the crew could have led to the aircraft's destruction and the death of everyone aboard. On September 17 the four crew members were released, with the final finding assigning them no responsibility for the forced landing in Yugoslavia.
The episode could not be separated from the era. In 1948 the Greek Civil War was in full swing, and political persecution and military operations shaped daily life. Six young people had decided the only way to cross the border was to seize a passenger plane.
What Happened to the Hijackers
The hijackers remained outside Greece and later joined the Democratic Army. Two of them, Spyros Chelmiadis and Achilleas Keltemidis, were later killed in fighting during the civil war. The others lived for years in Eastern Bloc countries, and some eventually returned to Greece. The best known of the six, Antonis Vogiazos, studied directing in the Soviet Union and, after returning to Greece, worked in Greek television as a director and translator. Almost four decades later, in 1987, the story reached the cinema when director Kostas Koutsomytis made the film "O Kloios," based on the 1948 hijacking.
Also on This Day
September 12 carries other entries in Greek history. In 1829 the Battle of Petra, fought between Thebes and Livadeia, ended in a Greek victory and is regarded as the last battle of the Greek War of Independence, with Ottoman forces surrendering on the battlefield. In 1981 around 40,000 spectators packed the Nea Filadelfeia stadium for a concert by rock guitarist Rory Gallagher, one of the first major rock concerts in Greece, a night marked by disturbances that later became the stuff of legend. On the night of September 12-13, 2013, a group of about 50 members of the far-right Golden Dawn party attacked members of the Communist Party of Greece and its youth wing who were putting up posters in Perama, causing serious injuries. In 2020 Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced from Thessaloniki a major program to strengthen the armed forces, including 18 Rafale fighter jets, four new frigates, modernization of the navy's MEKO frigates and the hiring of 15,000 personnel.
The date is also the birthday of American track athlete Jesse Owens, born in 1913, who won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics; American singer Barry White, born in 1944; and actor Paul Walker, born in 1973 and known for the "Fast & Furious" film franchise. Those who died on this date include country singer Johnny Cash in 2003 and Greek poet Nanos Valaoritis in 2019.
