Wischnewski is best known outside Germany for his involvement in the "German Autumn" of 1977: when the German business executive Hanns Martin Schleyer was kidnapped by the militant Red Army Faction (RAF) in September, Wischnewski visited several Arabian governments and during the joint RAF and PFLP hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181 in October followed the plane to Mogadishu, negotiating with the Somalian government. His success allowed German GSG 9 troops to storm the plane and rescue 90 hostages; three of the hijackers were killed in the process.