Uli Derickson, brave flight attendant

Uli Derickson, 60, a flight attendant who displayed remarkable courage while dealing with terrorists threatening passengers aboard a hijacked international flight in 1985, has died.

Ms. Derickson, who had battled cancer since August 2003, died Feb. 18 at her home outside Tucson, Ariz., her son, Matthew Derickson, said.

Ms. Derickson was the lead flight attendant on TWA Flight 847, carrying 152 passengers and crew on a flight from Athens, Greece, to Rome on June 14, 1985. Just after takeoff, two Lebanese gunmen commandeered the plane.

The violence was immediate. Ms. Derickson took a kick to the chest from one of the hijackers and was kicked again while on the floor.

The terrorists spoke no English, but one spoke German just as she did. This put her at the center of the drama for the next 55 hours as she translated the tense communication between the plane's crew and the hijackers.

The plane was diverted first to Beirut, Lebanon, where Ms. Derickson successfully pleaded with the hijackers to release 17 elderly women and two children.

After those people slid down the escape chute, the plane was quickly back in the air, headed for Algiers, Algeria, while the hijackers pressed their demands for the release of hundreds of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel. While en route, the hijackers forced Ms. Derickson to collect the passports of all on board and demanded that she identify all the Jews. She cleverly told them that the passports did not indicate religions and found ways to shield certain names from the hijackers.

After getting fuel in Algiers, charging it to Ms. Derickson's Shell credit card, the plane flew back toward Beirut. The hijackers had earlier identified some American military personnel on the flight, including Robert Dean Stethem and Clinton Suggs, both Navy divers, and Kurt Carlson, a reserve Army officer on active duty.

On the way, they singled out Stethem, bound him and beat him severely. Suggs and Carlson received similar treatment. After the plane landed in Beirut, Stethem was shot to death and his body dumped on the tarmac.

The hijackers then renewed their beating of Suggs, vowing to kill him.

As Suggs later recounted, Ms. Derickson put herself between him and the hijackers and screamed at them, "Enough! Enough!" before they relented and left him alone.

Islamic militiamen boarded the plane in Beirut to assist in the hijacking effort. Some time later, the plane was airborne again, heading back toward Algiers.

Ms. Derickson, along with the other flight attendants and many of the passengers, was released when the plane returned to Algiers for a final time. But 39 American men were flown back to Beirut, where they were held for 17 days. They were finally exchanged for just 31 of the more than 700 prisoners the hijackers had originally sought.

Life was less than peaceful for Ms. Derickson after the hijacking ordeal ended. She returned to her New Jersey home with her husband, Russell, a retired TWA pilot, and her son, Matthew. But unfounded reports that she had given the hijackers names of Jewish passengers on the flight brought threats from extremist groups.

When the truth about her efforts to shield Jewish passengers was verified, she received threats from others. The family relocated to Arizona.

Ms. Derickson was diagnosed with cancer in 2003. Her husband died that same year. She is survived by her son.

She served as a consultant for the NBC-TV movie, "The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story." Actress Lindsay Wagner played Derickson.

She also testified in West Germany at the trial of Mohammed Ali Hamadi, one of the hijackers who was convicted of murdering Stethem. He received a life sentence.

She didn't see herself as a hero. "They threw me a hot potato, and I had to handle it," she said.