Carlson was beaten severely over a period of 4 1/2 hours. "They started hitting me on the back of the shoulders with an arm of a chair that was torn off.
"I was the pawn between the terrorists and the airport people in Algiers, who were stalling, hoping to get some of the passengers released. At one point I was about to be shot when a Shell fuel truck showed up. But the tower still held back, saying TWA didn't have a charge account< at the airport. Just as I was about to be killed for the 10th or 20th time stewardess Uli Derickson said she had a Shell credit card. A man came on the plane, stepped over me and took her card. Uli charged 4,500 gallons of jet fuel."