Lieutenant colonel (United States) Austin Travis leads an unsuccessful Special Forces (United States Army) raid on a Chechen mafia safe house in Italy to recover a stolen Soviet nerve agent, DZ-5. Shortly after, Oceanic Airlines Flight 343 leaves Athens, Greece, bound for Washington, D.C., with U.S. Senator Mavros onboard. Nagi Hassan, lieutenant of the imprisoned terrorist leader El Sayed Jaffa, and his men hijack the flight, demanding Jaffa's release.