It is often claimed that various Palestinian groups were responsible for the first airplane hijackings - for example, the PLO, or the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) "pioneered the modern terrorist art of aircraft-hijacking" (The Times, "Mr. Blair's Trip To Syria Reveals The Hypocrisy Of This 'War On Terrorism'", 1 November) . Alas, the teacher is to be found closer to the shores of the Mediterranean.

The first recorded aircraft hijacking in the Middle East occurred some thirteen years before the creation of the PFLP. In December 1954, Israeli military jets intercepted a civilian aircraft in Syrian airspace that had recently taken off from Damascus, and forced it to land within Israeli territory. Syrian passengers were detained for 48 hours, pending negotiations over the fate of five Israeli soldiers who had been captured inside Syrian territory while mounting wiretapping installations.

The PFLP's attempts at holding innocent airline passengers as hostages in the hope of securing the release of their detained operatives may be remembered more clearly in the West. But, as with the tactic of assassinating political leaders, the pioneer and perhaps the intellectual inspiration lies elsewhere.