Kuwait Airways Flight 422

Kuwait Airways Flight 422 was a Boeing 747-200 hijacked en route from Bangkok, Thailand, to Kuwait City, Kuwait on 5 April 1988, leading to a hostage crisis that lasted 16 days and encompassed three continents. The hijacking was carried out by several Lebanese guerillas who demanded the release of 17 Shi'ite Muslim prisoners being held by Kuwait for their role in the 1983 Kuwait bombings. During the incident the flight, initially forced to land in Iran, traveled 3,200 mi from Mashhad in northeastern Iran to Larnaca, Cyprus, and finally to Algiers.

Kuwait sent officials to negotiate with the group, but negotiations became bogged down because the terrorists refused to release the hostages. Two hostages were killed during the course of the siege, before it eventually ended in Algiers on 20 April. The hijackers – who were suspected by Kuwait of belonging to the Lebanon-based Hezbollah organisation – were given passage out of Algeria. With a duration of 16 days, the crisis became one of the world's longest skyjackings. It also inspired a brief armed siege at a high school in the United States a few days later.