Body of Hijack Victim Flown to Southland : Services Planned in Oceanside for American Slain by Terrorists

The flag-draped coffin of Scarlett Marie Rogenkamp, the only American killed in last weekend’s hijacking of an Egyptian airliner over the Mediterranean Sea, was brought home to Southern California Friday.

As the casket was unloaded at Los Angeles International Airport from a Pan American airliner which brought it from London, the U.S. Air Force announced that Rogenkamp, a civilian who worked for the Air Force in Athens, would be awarded the Purple Heart.

Posthumous Award

Rogenkamp’s mother, Hetty Petersen of Oceanside, said the Air Force had told her about the posthumous award. A spokesman at Randolph Air Force Base, Tex., confirmed the news, but said he did not know when or where the award would be presented.

He added that it was unusual, but not unprecedented, for a civilian to receive the Purple Heart. The decoration is usually given to military personnel wounded in action.

In Los Angeles, a light rain was falling as the coffin was lowered from the Pan American 747. The casket was placed inside an airline van and driven away. It was later transferred to a mortuary vehicle and driven to Oceanside, where funeral services will be held today at St. Mary’s Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church.

Slain on Aircraft

Rogenkamp, 38, was traveling from Athens to Cairo for a Thanksgiving vacation when the Egyptian plane was hijacked and ordered to land in Malta. Soon after it landed, the terrorists shot Rogenkamp in the head and threw her body out of the aircraft.

Fifty-nine more people died when Egyptian commandos, flown from Cairo to Malta, stormed the aircraft and killed the hijackers.