Algeria: Anatomy of a Hijack

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"Stop firing," the plane's navigator, Alain Bossuat, at last told the tower. "They're all dead in here. There are two Frenchmen alive." The other survivor in the cockpit was Delhemme, who, like Bossuat, had minor wounds; both had been protected by the bodies of the first two hijackers to be killed. Copilot Jean-Paul Borderie was the most seriously injured: he had leaped from a blown-out cockpit window and fallen 16 feet to the tarmac, fracturing his elbow and thigh.

At 5:35 Favier radioed a message to the tower: "The operation is terminated. Damage limited." The 54-hour ordeal of Air France Flight 8969 was over.