Last June 14, two terrorists commandeered TWA Flight 847 as it took off from the Athens airport and shuttled the plane between Algeria and Lebanon over the course of three days. During that crazy three day ride, an American passenger was executed before the hijackers finally ended the nightmare flight in Beirut. In Beirut the hijackers were joined by other Lebanese Shiites who removed the remaining 36 American passengers from the plane and hid them in scattered locations around the city, holding them hostage for 14 days.

One of those seized was Peter Hill, a 58-year-old sales executive, tour guide with Good News Travel In Schaumburg Ill., and extensive traveler in the Middle East. Hill was in charge of a group of 30 people from three Fox Valley churches who were returning home from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land when their plane was hijacked.

In the "press conferences" televised during their captivity, Hill spoke little, sitting with his face averted, somehow communicating a surly detachment. But as soon as the Americans were freed, Hill lashed out for all to hear. He demanded retribution against the "animals" who had held them, and he attacked some of the other hostages as sympathizers. His venom was surprising—and so was the revelation that, like a daring sleuth, he had taken covert photographs during his confinement. Obviously this man was unusual, maybe unique, in his reaction to the experience.

Months later Hill agreed to tell the full story, "to get it off my chest." In lengthy interviews with LIFE assistant editor David Friend, he described the hijackers' methods, his own clandestine activities and the battles he fought with his fellow hostages to keep them from "selling out." Here is his story as recorded in Life magazine, with excerpts from several newspapers:

"A hundred years from now, I'll never forget those two hijackers. The shorter of the two, for instance. He had a mustache. Kinky dark-brown hair. Well-shaven. Medium complexion. Thin, fit, slight of build but solid. Heavy eyebrows, brown eyes, with a fanaticism and zeal coming through—not maniacal but fervent. I just wanted to remember that son-of-a-gun so that I could identify him if I ever got out of there. I did it out of anger. I wanted to nail those guys.

"I know how they got their weapons on board. I know because it was my misfortune, or good fortune as it turned out, to be sitting next to the bastards when they got on the plane. I was in the very last row of the aircraft, flush up against the back wall by the rear lavatory. One of the hijackers was already seated in the window seat, the taller of the two, the one who later murdered the young man [Navy diver Robert Stethem]. Then the second one got on board and sat down next to me. They started talking. Obviously they knew each other, but that didn't faze me. They were nicely dressed, Western-style.

"Then, all of a sudden, the one sitting next to me stands up with his blue bag. It was a canvas traveling bag, like an athletic bag. He starts to step over me, I push my legs aside, and the stewardess says, 'Sir, please sit down. We're still boarding.' He says, 'Toilet, toilet!' And he just went ahead into the toilet. It was the first time I thought, 'That was strange, taking a big carry-on bag into the toilet with him.' About 15 to 30 seconds later there was a tremendous crash, a smashing of glass. I first thought it was the mirror in the bathroom, except that would have been a heavy, clunking, clanging sound. This was like a hundred crystal goblets breaking on the floor—a high, ringing, tinkling smash. Then he comes out with his bag, steps over me, sits down, and the two of them begin whispering. He keeps his bag between his feet. And I just felt uneasy. It still never entered my mind: Arab, satchel, bathroom, plane about to take off—this could be a hijacking.

Pictures: To help illustrate events that occurred on board Flight 847, some of the images used in the "Peter Hill Story" come from the movie,
The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story.

Sources: Life, "The Angriest Hostage," by Peter Hill & David Friend, April 1986, and other newspapers and magazines as noted on Page 4.

Peter Hill, a passenger aboard Flight 847, shares his story with Life magazine writer, David Friend, who co-wrote with Hill an article titled, "The Angriest Hostage - Hijacked, He Couldn’t Get Even. So He Got Mad"

"Minutes later, as the plane was in a steep climb, they both stood up and jumped over me and started running up the aisle. One of them slipped on the way up to the forward cabin because of the angle of ascent. They each had a grenade, and one had a 9mm automatic pistol. I turned to the stewardess in her jump seat behind me and said, "There's a hijacking in progress..."
Peter Hill - April, 1986