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Back Stories: 'Achille Lauro, Can You Hear Me?'

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – Achille Lauro was sailing in the Mediterranean Sea with lots of vacationers on board when it was hijacked Palestinian rebels.

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Former WCBS reporter Fred Fishkin was able to call a marine operator who put him through.

"Finally, we got this crackling voice, and it was the captain," he recalls. "We immediately put threw him on the air, asking him what the conditions were like on the ship, was anybody being hurt?

"He was answering the best he could, but I just remember saying over and over, 'Achille Lauro, can you hear me?' It seemed there were probably people – some of the hijackers – in there watching over."

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