Uli Derickson

Ulrike Patzelt (August 8, 1944 – February 18, 2005) a.k.a. Uli Derickson (by marriage), was a German American flight attendant best known for her role in helping protect 152 passengers and crew members during the June 14, 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 by Amal terrorists, a group with alleged links to Hezbollah.

Uli Derickson was born as Ulrike Patzelt on Aug. 8, 1944, in Ústí nad Labem, Czechoslovakia. Her family was expelled from Czechoslovakia while she was a child, and moved to East Germany. They later fled to West Germany. She worked in the UK and Switzerland as an au pair before emigrating to the United States in 1967.

In 1985, Derickson was serving as the lead flight attendant on Flight 847 between Athens and Rome when the flight was hijacked. Derickson took a kick to the chest from one of the hijackers as he forced her to go with him into the cockpit. The other hijacker — who was holding a grenade with the pin removed — started kicking open the door. Once inside, they pistol-whipped the pilot and flight engineer. The two hijackers spoke poor English, but one of them spoke German. Derickson was the only crew member able to speak German, which left her responsible for translating the hijackers' demands to the pilot. At one point, one of the two hijackers asked her to marry him, something she later described as the most terrifying moment of the ordeal.

The plane was diverted first to Beirut, where Derickson first pleaded with the hijackers to release the women on board the plane. After the hijackers refused, she successfully pleaded for the release of 17 elderly women and two children. The hijackers then directed the plane to Algiers. The ground crew in Algiers refused to refuel the plane without payment, leading the hijackers to threaten violence. It occurred to Derickson to offer her Shell Oil credit card. The ground crew charged about $5,500 for 6,000 gallons of fuel.

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