On December 24, 1994, an event similar to the 9/11 attacks occurred when “four members of Algeria’s Armed Islamic Group (GIA) [a group bin Laden had funded] slipped on board Air France Flight 8969 posing as Air Algiers employees. They quickly commandeered the cockpit and overpowered the crew of the A-300 Airbus. Before their three-day siege was over, seven people were dead and another sixteen wounded. …witnesses recalled fanatical talk among the terrorists, who spoke repeatedly about ‘flying to the eternal paradise’ and ‘Allah’s perpetual white light,’ an Islamic vision of holy death.” After the plane stopped in Marseilles, France, the hijackers “demanded twenty-seven tons of jet fuel. But the normal load for such a flight was only ten tons. Hostages rescued later reported hearing the GIA radicals talk about exploding the jumbo jet in the center of Paris.”
– Peter Lance, 1000 Years For Revenge, Page 257