The hijacked plane landed twice in Beirut, twice in Algiers, and once more in Beirut. The hostage crisis lasted for 17 days. All the hostages survived, except Robert Dean Stethem, a U.S. Navy diver, who was murdered by the terrorist hijackers.
The terrorists had a list of demands, including the release of Shi'i terrorists involved in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, and the release of 17 members of the Shi'i Lebanese Hezbollah and the Shi'i Iraqi Dawa Party, who were imprisoned in Kuwait because of their involvement in attacks that killed six people in 1983.
It was believed that the Lebanese Hezbollah was behind this terrorist operation. The U.S. Justice Department had charged Ali Atweh, Mohammad Hamade and Hasan Izzaldin with air piracy and murder of Robert Dean Stethem. Yet, the three Hezbollah terrorist were also members of the Shi'i Islamic Jihad Organisation, which took responsibility for a number of kidnappings, assassinations, and bombings of embassies and peacekeeping troops.