Man arrested in '68 hijacking of flight from NY
By CRISTIAN SALAZAR
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK -- A man wanted for hijacking a flight out of New York 40 years
ago was arrested Sunday after arriving on a flight from Cuba, federal
authorities said.
Longtime fugitive Luis Armando Pena Soltren was wanted for his role in
the Nov. 24, 1968, hijacking of a Pan Am flight bound for Puerto Rico.
The 66-year-old Soltren was arrested at John F. Kennedy International
Airport, authorities said.
Soltren was expected to be arraigned Tuesday in Manhattan on a 1968
indictment.
"As the 1968 charges allege, he terrorized dozens of passengers when he
and his cohorts wielded pistols and knives to hijack Pan American flight
281," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement Sunday.
A spokeswoman for federal prosecutors would not say how Soltren came to
the U.S. The FBI didn't immediately return a call requesting comment.
It was at JFK airport in 1968 that Soltren and accomplices boarded the
Pan Am flight and hijacked it, according to an indictment filed in
federal court in Manhattan. The flight, bound for San Juan, Puerto Rico,
was diverted to Havana, Cuba.
Dozens of U.S. flights were hijacked and diverted to Cuba in the 1960s.
Some of the flights were hijacked by self-described radical leftists,
fugitives seeking asylum on the Caribbean island or criminals scheming
to extort money from the U.S. government or from the airline companies.
Pan American Flight 281 was commandeered by three men who forced their
way into the flight cabin and ordered the crew to fly to Cuba, instead
of Puerto Rico, according to a criminal complaint.
Weapons and ammunition were sneaked onto the flight in a diaper bag, the
court papers said.
Two of the men, Jose Rafael Rios Cruz and Miguel Castro, were arrested
in the mid-1970s and pleaded guilty to their roles in the skyjacking, a
spokeswoman for federal prosecutors said.
Another man, who was not on the flight but was described in the criminal
complaint as a leader of the Puerto Rican Movement for Liberation, was
indicted in the hijacking. He was found not guilty on all charges.
Man arrested in '68 hijacking of flight from NY - Nation AP -
MiamiHerald.com (11 October 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/AP/story/1277901.html
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