Suspected Pan Am Flight 281 Hijacker Arrested After 40 Years
October 11, 2009 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
After more than 40 years, a man suspected of hijacking Pan Am flight 281 in 1968 and forcing it to fly to Havana has been arrested after spending decades in hiding.
Luis Armando Peña Soltren, 66, who was the FBI’s longest wanted fugitive, recently made it known to the authorities that he was ready to give himself up and was flown back to America yesterday, the New York Post reports.
Soltren and two other men had burst into the pilot’s cabin of Pan Am flight 281, which was flying from JFK Airport to Puerto Rico, on Nov.24, 1968, and demanded that it be flown to Cuba, authorities said.
Prosecutors claim Soltren, the two other men and a fourth accomplice, a woman, were armed with guns and knives. The female accomplice hid the weapons and ammunition in a nappy bag, they said.
Soltren, who has a wife and two sons living in the US, will appear in court tomorrow.
Federal prosecutors said that Soltren “terrorized dozens of passengers” during the hijacking.
“Luis Armando Peña Soltren will finally face the American justice system that he has been evading for more than four decades,” said Preet Bharara, Manhattan’s US Attorney.
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