With the right kind of swagger, the holder of a first-class ticket could stroll onto a jet with few questions asked. In 1969, Leila Khaled, a twenty-five-year-old P.F.L.P. recruit, was one of a pair who hijacked a T.W.A. flight to Tel Aviv and redirected it to Damascus, where they released the passengers and blew up the nose of the plane. The operation was effectively a press release backed by guns and explosives:
