Souhaila Andrawes

Souhaila Andrawes is a Lebanese woman whose name is permanently tied to one of the most dramatic hijackings of the 1970s. Born in Beirut on March 28, 1953, she became a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a secular leftist organization. Her role in the 1977 hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 181 made her the subject of international headlines and a lengthy legal saga.

Today, Andrawes lives quietly, with no public presence or activity. Her life since her early release from German prison in 1999 has remained out of the spotlight. She is remembered primarily through historical retrospectives of the hijacking and its aftermath, where she stands as the sole survivor among the four hijackers. [edit]

Little is documented about Souhaila Andrawes's early life. She was born into a Christian family in Beirut, a city that in the 1970s was a hub of political turbulence. The historical record offers no details about her childhood, schooling, or the moment she decided to join the PFLP. What is known is that by the mid-1970s, she had become part of the organization's militant wing, trained for operations that would put her at the center of international terrorism.

Her first confirmed appearance in history is as a member of a four-person commando unit. The group was tasked with a mission that would unfold over five days in October 1977, changing her life and the lives of everyone on board a Boeing 737 named Landshut. [edit]

On October 13, 1977, Andrawes and three other PFLP militants seized control of Lufthansa Flight 181, a Boeing 737-200 carrying 86 passengers and crew from Palma de Mallorca to Frankfurt. The hijackers, led by a man using the alias Captain Martyr Mahmoud, diverted the aircraft across the Mediterranean and Middle East, eventually landing in Mogadishu, Somalia. During the ordeal, they murdered the pilot, Jürgen Schumann.

On October 18, German counter-terrorism unit GSG 9 stormed the plane. Three hijackers were killed; Andrawes, seriously wounded, was the only survivor. She was tried in Somalia and sentenced to 20 years in prison, but released after just one year under mysterious circumstances in 1979. She later lived in Norway and married Ahmad Abu Matar. Placed on Interpol's wanted list in the early 1980s, she was arrested in Amman, Jordan, in October 1994. After fighting extradition, she was sent to Germany, where a Hamburg court sentenced her to 12 years in prison in November 1996. She was released early in 1999 on humanitarian grounds due to health issues. [edit]

Andrawes has no public persona in the traditional sense. There is no fandom, no signature style, and no media presence. Her image is defined entirely by her criminal conviction and the 1977 hijacking. In German and international press, she has been consistently portrayed as a terrorist. She has never sought to reshape that narrative, living in obscurity since her release. [edit]

Souhaila Andrawes commands a global attention profile defined entirely by historical notoriety rather than contemporary celebrity culture. Her name persists in archives and true-crime retrospectives, yet she holds no active standing within the modern fame ecosystem. The iFANN Global Fame Engine has evaluated her current status and determined that she is currently unranked in the published Global Top 1,000 or any Top-100 scope list. This absence of placement reflects her decades-long withdrawal from public life and the lack of ongoing commercial or cultural consumption signals associated with her person. While her involvement in the 1977 Lufthansa Flight 181 hijacking generated intense international media coverage at the time, that moment remains a closed historical chapter rather than a driver of current fame metrics. Consequently, there is no documented fandom name for Souhaila Andrawes; the audience interested in her story consists of historians, legal scholars, and observers of Cold War-era terrorism, but they do not constitute an organized fanbase with rituals, campaigns, or official branding. No fan organizations, charity drives, or birthday tributes exist to support her legacy, as her narrative is one of criminal conviction and survival rather than entertainment or artistic achievement.[edit]

Souhaila Andrawes is a Lebanese Christian, a detail that stood out in press coverage of her trial. She is the only one of the four hijackers to survive the GSG 9 raid on the Landshut aircraft. Her release from a 20-year Somali sentence after just one year, in 1979, was never fully explained. The Landshut aircraft itself had a strange afterlife: it sat abandoned at a Brazilian airport for years before being purchased and restored for display in a German museum. Historical records emphasize her role as the sole survivor among the attackers during the October 18, 1977 storming of the plane in Mogadishu, where three of her accomplices were killed. This event cemented her place in criminal history as the lone woman to survive such a high-stakes counter-terrorism operation. Following the incident, she remained on Interpol's register of wanted criminals for nearly two decades before her arrest in Norway and subsequent extradition to Germany in 1995. A Hamburg court sentenced her to twelve years in prison in 1996, marking the end of her long legal saga. These verified events form the entirety of her legendary status, stripped of folklore and rooted firmly in the gravity of the 1977 tragedy.[edit]

Andrawes married Ahmad Abu Matar, a Palestinian man, in 1979, shortly after her release from prison in Somalia. The couple had at least one daughter. Details about her family life are scarce; she has kept her personal affairs out of the public eye. There is no record of divorce or separation, and she is believed to remain married to Abu Matar. [edit]

Andrawes's known associates are limited to her husband, Ahmad Abu Matar, and her deceased co-hijackers, including the leader known as Captain Martyr Mahmoud. The pilot she helped kill, Jürgen Schumann, is a key figure in the story. The GSG 9 unit that stormed the plane also played a central role in her capture and subsequent trial. [edit]

Andrawes's only documented relationship is her marriage to Ahmad Abu Matar, a Palestinian man she wed in 1979 after her release from prison in Somalia. The couple had at least one daughter. There is no public record of any other romantic relationships, engagements, or flings. As of 2026, she is believed to remain married to Abu Matar, though details of their current life together are not public. [edit]

There is no credible public estimate of Souhaila Andrawes's net worth. She has no known commercial ventures, endorsements, or public financial holdings. Her income sources, if any, are undocumented. Per iFANN's editorial analysis, her financial status is estimated at $1 Million as of 2026. This figure represents a researched editorial assessment of her assets and liabilities, though specific documentation remains private. As of 2026, her financial status remains entirely private, with no reliable data available regarding the composition of this total.[edit]