American Airlines Flight 444
American Airlines Flight 444 was a scheduled American Airlines flight from Chicago to Washington, D.C.'s National Airport. On November 15, 1979, the Boeing 727 serving the flight was attacked by "the Unabomber", Ted Kaczynski, who sent a pipe bomb in the mail and set it to detonate at a certain altitude. The bomb partially detonated in the cargo hold and caused "a sucking explosion and a loss of pressure," which was then followed by large quantities of smoke filling the passenger cabin, forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing at Dulles International Airport. Twelve passengers had to be treated afterward for smoke inhalation. Bombing a commercial airliner, especially one flying through an interstate route as Flight 444 was at the time, is a federal criminal offense, and the FBI was quickly called in to investigate. The FBI investigators assigned to the case found similarities between the still relatively intact pipe bomb and a series of bombs that had already detonated within several universities throughout the United States. This prompted federal authorities to assign the name "Unabomber" to the then-unknown suspect and sparked one of the longest and most expensive manhunts in FBI history, which finally ended 17 years later with Ted Kaczynski being arrested and charged in 1996. References

External links 

 

Failed airliner bombings
Unabomber targets
Airliner accidents and incidents in Washington, D.C. Airliner accidents and incidents in Illinois
Failed terrorist attempts in the United States
444
Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1979
1979 in Washington, D.C.
1979 in Illinois
Airliner bombings in the United States
Crimes in Illinois
Crimes in Washington, D.C.
November 1979 events in the United States
Terrorist incidents in the United States in 1979
Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 727