Throwback Thursday: Insurers retreat from war risk cover
Insurance Post’s Throwback Thursday steps back in time to December 1985 to remind you what was going on this week in insurance history when airline terrorism saw insurers pulling away from war risk cover.
5 December 1985: Deadly hijacking hardens war risk market
The Egypt Airlines Boeing 737 massacre at Malta Airport triggered a review of war risk cover in the aviation market, Post reported.
Hull and liability exposures for hijacking scares were being checked, John Miller reported, who added the renewal season for airline policies would see a sharp conflict of views on what should be charged.
The hijacking of EgyptAir Flight 648 by Palestinian terrorist organisation Abu Nidal in 1985 was one of the deadliest hijackings in history: 52 passengers – including pregnant women and children – suffocated from the fumes that enveloped the aircraft when the soldiers placed a bomb underneath the fuselage to break into the hold, and another five were shot.
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