One of the Deadliest Terrorist Attacks That Nobody Talks About: The LaGuardia Airport Bombing
48 years ago, a bomb killed 11 people at LaGuardia Airport in New York City. It was the deadliest terrorist attack for several decades, but has since gone forgotten.
1975 wasn’t the best year for the airports in New York City: in June, a Boeing 727 of Eastern Air Lines crashed on approach to JFK, killing 113 people. The scene was devastating for everyone – countless families had lost their loved ones, and that all because of a microburst.
Just six months later, tragedy would strike again, but this time at LaGuardia Airport (LGA). This time, a bomb equal to 25 sticks of dynamite would claim the lives of innocent people.
Ever since LGA first opened its doors (or runways) on December 2, 1939, the airport had been a busy hub, with hundreds of flights departing each week by 1957. There had been a number of accidents in the years leading up to 1975 – in 1947, a DC-4 crashed during takeoff, killing 43; in 1959, a Lockheed Electra crashed on approach, killing 65.
On December 29, 1975, not an airplane would crash, but a bomb would detonate.
It was 6PM when two flights from Cincinnati and Indianapolis landed – people were scurrying around the baggage reclaim belts, picking up their suitcases and rushing out into the busy New York world as soon as possible.
By 6:30PM, the baggage reclaim was mostly empty. There were few people left, mostly airport employees and passengers waiting for transportation. Just three minutes later, the quiet area turned into a disaster; a bomb went off.
It happened suddenly: the explosion tore a wall of lockers to pieces, the sharp fragments hitting people in the vicinity. Firefighters were quickly on scene to extinguish the subsequent fire and ambulances carried injured people to the hospital.
But for nine people, it was already too late – they were instantly dead. Another person died on the way to the hospital, and an 11th victim perished during surgery. 75 other people were wounded in the explosion. For the Rev. Thomas Brady, Roman Catholic chaplain of the fire department, the scene was as terrible as the Eastern Air Lines crash a few months prior.
“They're all badly battered," he told reporters at the time. ”The place is [in] shambles. It’s just like the Kennedy crash – limbs strewn everywhere."
For decades to follow, it would be the deadliest bomb attack in New York City, and still hits the record as one of the worst terrorist attacks in the whole country. Even almost five decades after the attack, the most central question still looms: who did this?
Families of the deceased and the injured demanded answers. But investigators had little to work with. There wasn’t an obvious political motive – it was a senseless attack on innocent people.
The responsible person/people could have easily gone unnoticed while placing the bomb in the hectic after the two flights arrived just half an hour earlier.
What eventually became known is that the bomb was placed within a coin-operated locker in the vicinity of the baggage reclaim. The bomb itself seemed to be the work of an amateur – homemade with a primitive timer.
Everyone wanted to provide clues to help solve the crime, and there were reports of two people running away from the scene shortly before the bomb went off. However, they turned out to have no connection with the blast, and it was an early dead-end.
The passengers from the flights that arrived shortly before were investigated, the remnants of the bomb itself had been analyzed, but there was nothing that hinted at who set the bomb.
However, the newspaper UPI received a promising call – someone claimed that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) had been responsible. At that time, there were various incidents where the PLO was alleged to have committed political crimes, including terrorism.
A spokesperson of the PLO denounced the allegations at the time, condemning “the dastardly act against the innocent people at LaGuardia.”
In addition, there were no indications for a motive to blame the PLO, so a direct connection remains inconclusive.
Was it a political act? What was the motive? Nobody can answer these questions. Despite a long investigation, the bombing at LGA remains unsolved, one of the deadliest acts of terrorism in American history.
About the Creator
Yasmin Scherrer
Writer, poet, student. More of my writing: Yasmin Scherrer on Medium and poetrywecarry on Medium
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