Let's face it. Do we really want to get on a flight where they drop the temperature so low that icicles form on your nose and you have to wear a mask throughout the flight while your legs are dangling in the aisle because there is no leg room? Well, of course we do. It is the quickest way to get somewhere, although the most uncomfortable.

Since 9/11 or it should be 11/9, the security checks are long and since corona, the corona check is even longer. But since the early seventies, Israel-bound flights were always under the highest security. There was always the risk of a terrorist attack or a hijacking.

However not every airline took the same precautions. November 21 1974 British Airways flight BA870 flew from London to Brunei via Beirut, Dubai, Calcutta and Singapore. The flight had about 48 people on board, crew and passengers. At Dubai, four Palestinian terrorists, members of the Abu Nidal Organization, disguised as airport workers, approached the aircraft firing weapons, shooting an Indian stewardess who was standing on the plane's steps. The terrorists forced their way on to the aircraft and threatened to destroy the aircraft and kill the passengers, demanded that the aircraft should be refueled. With the agreement of the Dubai authorities and of British Airways, the aircraft was refueled and permitted to take off from Dubai. They wanted to return to Beirut, Lebanon but were refused entry with the excuse that the airport was closed.

The aircraft flew directly to Tripoli, Libya, where it landed and was refueled and took off bound for Tunis, arriving there on 22 November 1974. No one knew what they were demanding. In Tunis the hijackers finally made their demands:

• The release of Palestinian terrorists held in Cairo, Egypt.
• The release of two jailed Palestinian terrorists in Holland.
• An admission by Britain that the establishment of Israel was a crime.

The Abu Nidal Organization (ANO) after it split from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1974, over a dispute regarding the establishment of diplomatic ties with Israel. The ANO wanted Israel destroyed! Abu Nidal is the alias name of Sabri al-Banna. His nom de plume actually means "father of the struggle" in Arabic.

Egypt and Holland did not immediately negotiate and the hijackers stuck to their demand for the release of 7 Palestinians held in Cairo and Holland. They set a deadline of 24 hours and promised to execute a hostage every two hours past that time. When no progress was visible after 24 hours they murdered a German Banker and dropped his body to the ground from the aft passenger door. Negotiations resulted in the Cairo-held Hostages being brought to the plane in exchange for 7 Hostages. The terrorists held in Egypt where actually only under house arrest in Cairo for the firebombing of a Pan American 707 jetliner at Rome Airport the previous year in which 32 people were killed.

The terrorists held in Holland were serving five‐year prison sentences for another hijacking, almost a slap on the wrist. When the two terrorists from Holland arrived, the remaining hostages were released, leaving only a three member crew.

The hijackers were informed over the radio that all Arab governments as well as the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) had condemned their action and they became desperate,. They then requested political asylum in Tunisia which was rejected. They were ordered to surrender. The hijackers refused and set two deadlines for their demand for asylum to be met otherwise they would blow up the aircraft and their hostages. Time passed and deadlines went but the crew was still held inside with various explosives set around the cockpit.

After an ordeal totaling 84 hours a hijacker came to the cockpit and informed them that they had decided to surrender. It was over!

On board was a huge amount of mail, about 2.5 tons, most originating from the the UK between the 16th and 20th November 1974, and was destined for the Far East and Australasia. The mail was undamaged and returned to the UK onboard. Strangely only mail destined for Western Australia, received a two line instructional message: "Delayed en route -Aircraft Hi-Jack". This was probably added in Perth.

Less than 50 covers are known with this message and to date it is the only known message for a hijacking.



For more information see:

December 25th, Christmas Day, a time for rejoicing for the entire Christian / Catholic world (some celebrate a week or so later, like in Georigia). Despite being Jewish and not celebrating Christmas, it is nice to see the spirit of Christmas and the many pretty stamps that are issued all over the world.

Ireland innocently brought out a set of stamps, or adhesive labels for Christmas 2021. The set includes four stamps for local postage with the words "Peace and Joy", "Naughty or Nice?", "Ho Ho Ho" and "Sending Hugs" and two stamps for international postage for "Nollaig Shona" (which means Merry Christmas in Gaelic Irish) "Love". It was the local stamps that invoked the ire of the public. Who would have thought that these stamps would have invoked such feelings?

The outrage began with a call to a popular program named Liveline where someone emailed them to pent his frustration at the choice, saying that the stamps used for Irish addresses were secular and didn’t include scenes from Jesus’ birth, such as the Nativity scene or anything that wasn't to his liking.

He made a claim that instead of the Nativity scene, local stamps had phrases such as ‘naughty or nice’, and ‘ho ho ho’. This was actually a part of the problem.

As stated in the title, there is just news today.

You remember I asked you to vote for me last week? The PTS (Philatelic Traders Society) awards ceremony to announce winners of the People's Choice is today. If I win, it is thanks to you, if I don't, well at least we tried. Thank you very much for your votes, much appreciated.

On the 20th November an exhibition was held in New Zealand for Philatelic Literature and I entered this Website. I received a Large Silver award. I think that is quite good for a new site. I need to find out how to improve though.

I have been nominated for a PTS Award. This year they are giving the general public the chance to cast their vote. 

Who has heard of Rhodesia? Raise your hand. You have? You are showing your age. Today people know it as Zimbabwe.

We will use Rhodesia from here on because philatelically that is where the fun is. Now we all know that the Digital Philatelist and his award winning site was once head of the Rhodesian Study Circle so why the great interest? The truth is that first and foremost there are not many issues and second of all the name changes make it an exciting period of history to learn and enjoy.

Through no fault of his own, Cecil John Rhodes was born with a weakness of the lungs and so was kept at home and also stopped him from going to university. His father sent him to South Africa to join his brother, out of sight, out of mind perhaps? Anyway Cecil got involved in the diamond industry there and with some friends created a mining company which turned out to be very successful.

He believed in the British Empire and had dreams of building a railroad from Cape Town to Cairo. I dream of going to Australia but I am not doing anything about that. However others also had designs on the middle of Africa - the Germans, Belgians, and Portuguese. But to start with, he had to go through the area now known as Zimbabwe. Somehow he got King Lobengula, the head of the local tribe,  the Matabeles, of the southern part of Rhodesia,  to sign a treaty with him giving him full rights and he convinced the British government, to grant a charter to a new company, the British South Africa Company (BSAC), to develop the new territory. Poor King Lobengula did not really know what he was signing away.

Now what do they need? Mail! The first post was established by the British South Africa Company (BSA) consisting of a route from Bulawayo to Mafeking. Initially British South Africa Company stamps were not recognized for international mail but this was changed a year after the first stamps arrived. Over the next few years the area the BSA had control of increased and included land north of the Zambezi River, an area known today as Zambia.

Around 1923 Rhodesia was divided into two and the Zambezi River was the separation point, Southern Rhodesia and Northern Rhodesia.

In 1953 The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was created which included Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. This ended in 1963 when Northern Rhodesia gained independence from the United Kingdom becoming Zambia and Nyasaland became Malawi. At this time, Britain, France and Belgium were speeding up their withdrawal from Africa believing that colonial rule was no longer sustainable in Africa. Southern Rhodesia was left out of this and was still controlled by the British.

Southern Rhodesia wanted independence from Britain but all Britain had to offer was a deal on par with Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The British refused to offer independence and the Rhodesian were a tad angry. World opinion was not exactly with Britain but they were in a quagmire because if they offered independence, then this would have a domino effect throughout the commonwealth.

In 1964 Ian Smith became prime minister and here is when it gets juicy. In June 1964, Britain informedSmith that Southern Rhodesia would not be represented at the year's Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference. How insulting can you get? Southern Rhodesia held a referendum and there was a majority of support for a declaration of independence from Britain.

Cutting out a lot of politics, Rhodesia declared independence in 11th November 1965 which was actually Armistice Day. This became known as the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). This was condemned by
the UN as well as the Security Council and sanctions were imposed. Southern Rhodesia subsequently renamed itself Rhodesia.

So what about the stamps? After all this is a blog about stamps! As part of the sanctions, Rhodesian postage stamps were considered "illegal" and therefor "invalid" and that mail carrying the invalid stamps was treated as if they were posted without stamps.

Mail arriving in England and some other commonwealth countries were subjected to additional payment. They received a cancel of "Stamps not valid" and the amount to pay. This means that the letter was paid for twice, once by the sender and once by the person who received the letter. 

I haven't written a blog for a few weeks. Sounds like an apology but it isn't, it is a statement of fact. I am trying to broaden the amount of people who view my channels, not for me, but for all of us. There are many videos out there about stamps and you get the feeling that they are technical, oh this stamp is expensive or this stamp was issued on and is part of a set, blah blah. I don't want to do that. I explain that in my message to people who have not subscribed. Check it out here:



I had a lot of good feedback from my last video as it is a subject that people did not know about. I also believe that there are many judges who look at a modern cover and give it a snarl, kind of like saying that it is not worth anything. That may be true, but there is a story behind it and the story is worth telling.

Today I am adding a new video about the Victory. Yes, I did a blog post about it, view it here, however I found new information and wanted to tell you about it.



Please watch to the end, subscribe, comment and like, we need to get more people involved, it is important to all of us.

 OK, you are right. I haven't written a blog for a few weeks. There is a reason for that. I believe that the way to get others involved in my work of love is by short videos.

So here is one about a Postal War. I hope you enjoy it. Please watch to the end so that YouTube will acknowledge it as well