Sepala Ekanayake

Sepala Ekanayake (or Ekanayaka; born June 3, 1949, in Karatota, Matara, Sri Lanka) gained international notoriety after hijacking an Alitalia Boeing 747 with 340 passengers on June 30, 1982.

Ekanayake attended a village school and Yodakandiya Vidyalaya in Hambantota. As a kid he ran away from his father's home and stayed with the headmaster of Ananda Primary for six months.

In 1972 Ekanayake moved to West Germany. In Germany he formed a romantic relationship with an Italian woman named Anna Aldrovandi. They were married in 1977. In 1980 they relocated to Modena, Italy and had a son named Free Ekanayake.

Ekanayake lost his Italian visa some time after his son's birth and was denied a new one by Italian authorities. They suggested instead that he return to Sri Lanka and apply for visa with the Italian Embassy in Colombo. Ekanayake then learned that he had to wait six years before he could obtain visa. Angry at his situation he concocted a plan to hijack an Italian plane and put forth his demands straight to the Italian government.

On June 30, 1982, Ekanayake traveled to the New Delhi airport with some of his friends and awaited the arrival of an Alitalia Boeing 747 from Rome on its way to Tokyo. Upon its arrival, Ekanayake obtained a rear seat on the plane.

Ekanayake waited until the plane reached a level of 35,000 feet and then issued his demands to the pilot in a letter. He wanted to have his wife and son brought to the Bangkok-Don Muang International Airport and 300,000 US dollars. He also instructed that the plane was to land at the Bangkok airport, leave the doors closed, issue the demands to the Italian authorities, and communicate only through radio. If his orders were not followed Ekanayake would blow up the plane with the "most sophisticated bombs manufactured in Italy."

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Wikipedia