Forty years ago this month, the people of Richmond waited by radios and televisions, watching and praying for the safe return of one of their own. TWA Captain John Testrake had left Athens on what was supposed to be a routine flight to Rome. Minutes after takeoff on June 14, 1985, his aircraft, TWA Flight 847, was hijacked at gunpoint. For the next 17 days, Testrake became a symbol of strength and composure in a crisis that would grip the world. Aboard the Boeing 727 were 153 passengers and crew. The hijackers, armed with grenades and pistols, demanded the release of hundreds of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel, according to a release from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). Testrake was ordered to crisscross the Mediterranean, flying from Athens to Beirut, then Algiers, and back to Beirut again – three times in all. The ordeal lasted more than two weeks, during which passengers were bound, beaten and repeatedly threatened with death. The hijackers were later identified as…