Heathrow Hijacking and the Third Secret of Fatima | True Crime Shorts

At Heathrow Airport in London, on May 2nd 1981, Aer Lingus Flight 164 was hijacked by 55-year-old Australian, Laurence James Downey.

The flight, from Dublin, Ireland, was five minutes from landing at Heathrow when Downey went to the toilet and doused himself in petrol.

Threatening to set himself on fire, he went to the cockpit and demanded the plane continue on to France and refuel for a flight to Iran.

The plane went on to France and landed at Côte d’Opale Airport. An eight-hour siege ensued with 113 hostages on board.

The reason for the hijacking was even more mysterious. Back in the 1950s, Downey was a Trappist Monk at the Tre Fontane Abbey in Rome, he then worked at a shrine devoted to Our Lady of Fatima.

The legend of Fatima claimed that she had appeared before three children and shared with them three secrets regarding World War One, World War Two, and Hell.

At the time, the complete text of the third secret, Hell, was known only to the Pope. One of Downey’s demands called on the Vatican to release the third secret to the public.

Downey was arrested after French special forces stormed the plane. In 1983, he was sentenced to five years in prison.

In 2000, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, partially disclosed the third secret, with no great mystery revealed.

Since its release, scholars have claimed that it was only part of the full text and even that it may not have been the real third secret.

The controversy continues to this day.

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