Uli Derickson

Uli Derickson ( Patzelt; August 8, 1944 – February 18, 2005) was a German American flight attendant best known for her role in helping protect 152 passengers and crew members during the June 14, 1985, hijacking of TWA Flight 847 by militants linked with Hezbollah.

Early life Uli Derickson was born as Ulrike Patzelt on August 8, 1944, in Aussig (Ústí nad Labem), Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Her family was expelled from Czechoslovakia while she was a child, and moved to East Germany. They later fled to West Germany. She worked jobs as a clerk for a bank and car dealership and also held a part-time job as an au pair in the UK and Switzerland before emigrating to the United States in 1967. Derickson also worked as an au pair in Connecticut before joining Trans World Airlines (TWA) where she met her husband, pilot Russell Derickson. They were married in the 1970s and had a son, Matthew.

In 1985, Russell Derickson retired from his job as TWA pilot.

TWA 847

On June 14, 1985, Derickson was serving as the purser (lead flight attendant) on TWA Flight 847 between Athens and Rome when the flight was hijacked. Derickson took a kick to the chest from one of the hijackers as he forced her to go with him into the cockpit. The other hijacker—who was holding a grenade with the pin removed—started kicking open the door. Once inside, they pistol-whipped the pilot and flight engineer. which left her responsible for translating the hijackers' demands to the pilot. At one point, one of the two hijackers asked her to marry him, something she later described as the most terrifying moment of the ordeal. A 1988 TV movie based on her experience, The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story, featuring Lindsay Wagner as Derickson, received five Emmy nominations. The action film The Delta Force (1986), inspired by the TWA Flight 847 hijacking, features a German air hostess (played by Hanna Schygulla) modelled after Derickson.

Subsequently, Derickson testified as a prosecution witness at the trial of Mohammed Ali Hamadi, one of the hijackers convicted of murdering Stethem. He received a life sentence. She later advised TWA, Delta Air Lines and the FBI on crisis management.

Derickson was still working as a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines when she was diagnosed with cancer in August 2003. Russell died earlier the same year. On February 18, 2005, she died in her Tucson residence at the age of 60.