On July 23, 1968, El Al flight 426, a Boeing 707, en route from Rome to Tel Aviv was hijacked and flown to Dar El-Beida Airport in Algeria. The flight had 10 flight crew members and 38 passengers.
Shortly after take-off, two men burst into the cockpit with guns and assaulted first officer Maoz Poraz. According to the Israeli Air Force website, one of the attackers transferred on radio: "This is not El Al flight 426 to Tel Aviv. This is El-Assifa flight 707 to Algeria."
Some 23 passengers, the non-Israelis, were released and flown back to Rome within 24 hours. On July 27, the 10 remaining women were released, leaving only 12 Israeli men as prisoners of the Algerian government.
The PFLP demanded, with Algerian backing, the release of more than 1,000 prisoners by Israel. However, after a global boycott of Algeria by the international pilots' federation, a deal was reached in which Israel released 16 Palestinian prisoners.
The Israeli hostages were flown to Rome and returned to Tel Aviv on September 1, 1968. The Boeing 707 was returned as well.
No one had lost their lives, however, the hijacking sparked a wave of attacks on planes, including the attack on El Al Flight 253. This led to Operation Gift, a raid on Beirut International Airport.
This marks the first and only successful hijacking of an El Al plane. The hijackers kept the plane for 40 days, making it one of the longest hijacking incidents in Israel's history.