916 Starfighter

Jürgen Schumann in a F-104G at Luke AFB during his pilot training 1965

Schumann joined the German Air Force in 1960 and began his flying career at Büchel Air Base, where he flew the F-104 Starfighter with JaboG 33 from 1965.
After retiring as a Captain (Hauptmann) in 1968, he became a civilian pilot with Deutsche Lufthansa and as such was the captain of the Lufthansa plane 'Landshut', which was hijacked on October 13, 1977.
On October 16, 1977, during a stopover in Dubai, he was able to provide the authorities with information about the number of hijackers of the 'Landshut'.
Due to an interview with the Defense Minister of Dubai (Muhammad ibn Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai since January 4, 2006),
the kidnappers also found out about it, whereupon the leader of the hostage-takers, Zohair Youssif Akache, the flight captain in the Gang got to his knees and threatened to shoot him if another incident happened.
After landing on October 16, 1977 at Aden Airport (then South Yemen) on a strip of sand next to the runway (because the local government had all runways blocked and the plane could not reach any other airfield due to lack of fuel),
Schumann left the airplane with the permission of the kidnappers to control the landing gear. He also took the opportunity to speak in an airport building about the possibility of the hostages being released.
He then voluntarily returned to the hijacked machine. On board, Akache shouted him down in the aisle of the plane and shot him in the head. Akache did not give Schumann the opportunity to explain the reasons for his absence.

On October 13, 1977, a Palestinian terrorist commando hijacked the Lufthansa plane 'Landshut' - the odyssey went via Rome, Larnaka, Dubai and Aden to Mogadishu.
The kidnappers demanded the release of eleven RAF terrorists imprisoned in Germany. On October 16, 1977, they shot flight captain Jürgen Schumann in Aden.
On October 18, 1977, a commando of GSG 9 successfully freed all the hostages. However, employer president Hanns Martin Schleyer, who was kidnapped by the RAF in parallel with the 'Landshut' hijacking, was murdered.

The barracks of the German Air Force in Schleswig-Holstein's Appen (Pinneberg district), which houses the non-commissioned officer school of the service, was renamed. The new name: 'Jürgen Schumann barracks'.
The Inspector of the Luftwaffe, Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz, officially informed the troops of the name change in a daily order on March 26, 2021.
November 24, 2021, the German Air Force will honor one of its former pilots who probably stands most clearly for all the positive aspects of his job: Jürgen Schumann, the captain of Lufthansa flight LH-181.

The Inspector of the Air Force, Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz, together with Monika Schumann at the stele commemorating her husband Jürgen, who was murdered by terrorists in 1977.