LOT Polish Airlines Flight 165 hijacking the Republic"), a crime under GDR law. Ruske and Tiede then concluded that they were trapped and that prison awaited them if they returned to East Germany. So they developed a plan to hijack a plane headed for East Berlin's Schönefeld Airport and force a landing at the U.S. Air Force base at Tempelhof Airport in West Berlin. They bought a toy starting pistol at a Polish flea market, and then booked three tickets on LOT Polish Airlines Flight 165 from Gdańsk, Poland, to East Berlin. On 30 August 1978, Tiede and Ruske hijacked a Polish LOT Tupolev Tu-134 airliner
Royal Flight (airline) Royal Flight (airline) Joint stock company Royal Flight airlines (), formerly Abakan-Avia (), is a charter airline based in Abakan, Russia. It operates charter services between Russian cities and holiday destinations in Sri Lanka, Egypt, Thailand, Turkey, India, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, Bulgaria, Macau, Taiwan, Maldives, and Vietnam. Its main bases are Abakan Airport (ABA) and El Obeid Airport, Sudan. The airline was established in 1992 as Abakan-Avia and started operations in 1993. It was established from a former Aeroflot unit, and started domestic cargo flights in 1993 and international flights in 1994. Sobol acquired a 70% share in 1999.