Pan Am Flight 830


Pan Am Flight 830 was a flight from Narita International Airport in Tokyo, Japan to Honolulu International Airport in Hawaii. On August 11, 1982, the Boeing 747-121 serving the flight, nicknamed "Clipper Ocean Rover" was en route to Hawaii when the airplane was damaged by a bomb that had been placed on board. Despite the damage to the aircraft, Captain James E. O'Halloran III of Spokane, Washington was able to land in Honolulu safely. One person was killed while 284 survived. 16 of them were wounded.

Flight

At the time of the explosion, the aircraft was approximately 225 kilometers northwest of Hawaii, cruising at with 270 passengers and 15 crew on board. The bomb, which had been placed under a seat cushion, killed 16-year-old Toru Ozawa, a Japanese national. The blast also injured 16 other people and caused damage to the floor and ceiling. The aircraft remained airborne and made an emergency landing in Honolulu with no further loss of life.

Aftermath

The bomb was placed by Mohammed Rashed, a Jordanian linked to the 15 May Organization. In 1988, he was arrested in Greece, tried, convicted of murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was paroled in 1996 after serving eight years. He was later extradited to the US from Egypt in 1998 to stand trial. In 2006, as part of a plea bargain agreement he was sentenced to a further seven years in federal prison. As per his agreement with US prosecutors in providing information about other terrorist plots, he was released from prison in March 2013 but still remained in a federal immigration detention facility in upstate New York awaiting deportation.
Husayn Muhammad al-Umari was also indicted in the bombing of Pam Am Flight 830 and in 2009 was placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list. On November 24, 2009, the Department of State announced that it was offering a reward of up to $5 million for Abu Ibrahim, now about 73 years old. The previous reward of $200,000 had produced no results.
The aircraft was later put back in service by Pan American World Airways and remained in operation for various carriers until the early 1990s.

In popular culture

It served as a prop for the 1996 film Executive Decision for the fictional Oceanic Airlines.