Slobodan Vlašić

TWA Flight 355

A TWA Boeing 727, similar to the aircraft involved in the incident.
Hijacking summary
Date	September 10, 1976
Summary	Hijacking
Site	United States and Canada
Passengers	41 (including 5 hijackers)
Fatalities	0 (1 fatality in a separate attack - see below)
Survivors	All
Aircraft type	Boeing 727
Operator	Trans World Airlines
Flight origin	LaGuardia Airport, New York
1st stopover	Mirabel International Airport, Canada
2nd stopover	Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador
Last stopover	Paris, France
Destination	O'Hare International Airport, Chicago

TWA Flight 355 was a domestic Trans World Airlines flight which was hijacked on September 10, 1976 by five "Fighters for Free Croatia", a group seeking Croatian independence from Yugoslavia.

The incident occurred on the same day as the Zagreb mid-air collision, which to date remains Croatia's worst air disaster.

The Boeing 727 plane took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport and was headed to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. The hijackers were Slobodan Vlašić, Zvonko Bušić, his wife Julienne Bušić,Petar Matanić, and Frane Pešut. The hijackers claimed to have a bomb as they seized control of the plane in the 95th minute of its flight; the alleged bomb on board was actually a pressure cooker.

The group redirected the plane to Montreal's Mirabel International Airport where they refueled and told officials that they had planted a bomb in a locker at Grand Central Terminal and gave them instructions on finding it. They demanded that an appeal to the American people concerning Croatia's independence be printed in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and the International Herald Tribune. The plane was then flown to Gander, Newfoundland, where 35 of its passengers were released. From there the plane was accompanied by a larger TWA plane which guided it to Reykjavík, Iceland. The hijackers' initial European destination was London, but the British government refused them permission to land.