Was this really a hijack attempt?

May 20, 2012 1:16 AM

Was this really a hijack attempt? In Texas in the 1960's or early 1970's there was an attempted hijacking of a plane. The Army drove by the plane with two jeeps and rendered the plane useless by almost severing the vertical stabilizer with machine gun fire.

A friend explained that he saw this happen. I cannot find anything online about this. Do you know if this was a real event, or was it part of a movie or book or something else. I want to believe him, but I am now thinking it may not be true.

Thanks

posted by Leenie to Travel & Transportation (1 answer total)

Best answer: Was he in El Paso in 1961? A Continental 707 jet was hijacked with demands to go to Cuba because they thought Castro would give them reward money for the plane. Federal agents (not the Army) used machine guns to blow out the tires and engine. Here's a copy of an archived article from the El Paso Times. You can see a newsreel clip here. As you can see from the newsreel, it was a pretty big deal, with Kennedy and Congressmen getting involved so it's possible that your friend remembers the news, even if he didn't actually see it.
posted by Houstonian at 1:45 AM on May 20, 2012 [2 favorites]