It was September 22, 1983, and another normal working day for the flight crew and flight attendants of American Airlines
flight 625. Norma Paul was one of the flight attendants that day, working on the Boeing 727-100
. There were 105 passengers and seven crew onboard.
The flight was from Kennedy International Airport in New York (now John F. Kennedy International Airport) and departed at 10.36 local time. The three-engine jet was bound for Harry S. Truman Airport in St Thomas and Alexander Hamilton International Airport in St Croix, both popular holiday destinations in the United States Virgin Islands.
A strange turn of events
At 10:57, just twenty minutes after take-off, a passenger described as a ‘dark husky man’ made his way to the lavatories near the rear galley where Norma was working. He was carrying a small package. Norma was preparing for the service when the lavatory door opened, and the man gave her a handwritten note that threatened that he would blow up the aircraft if they didn’t go to Havana, Cuba. She was shocked but kept a cool head.
A bomb onboard?
He showed her a box with wires protruding out and told her it was a bomb. He locked the lavatory door again and stayed there for the entire flight. Norma remained calm and quietly informed the flight crew of the note and what she’d seen. The captain radioed ahead, saying that he was being diverted to Havana. Hijacking was a regular occurrence at that time.
“He said that he had a bomb and he positioned himself in a rear lavatory of the aircraft whilst he was making his demands.”
Assistant special agent, FBI as told to UPI.
A calm and cool flight attendant
Puerto Rican flight attendant Norma decided to strike up a conversation with the man. He told her he was from Cuba and was very homesick. She said that he was very courteous and polite. He was around 40 years old and spoke English and English-accented Spanish. She continued to talk to him throughout the flight in a calm and gentle manner through the closed lavatory door.
“I want to go to Cuba, that’s all he said. He was very depressed.”
Norma, flight attendant, as told to UPI.
A quiet flight with no drama
The captain nor the crew brought any extra attention to the man or his intentions. The man, later identified from American Airlines’ passenger list, was named Knight Stallion. All was quiet and calm on the flight, and nothing unusual seemed to be happening. The captain even reported to air traffic control that everything was calm onboard. Some passengers mentioned when landing that, “this doesn’t look like St Croix…,” but had no idea of the strange occurrence at the rear of the aircraft.
Man arrested
The aircraft landed safely at Havana’s Jose Marti Airport at 13:43, just over two and a half hours after Norma discovered the man’s plan. The crew asked the passengers to remain seated, while two armed Cuban soldiers came onboard to collect the man. They handcuffed his hands above his head and led him off of the aircraft. After leaving the lavatory, the homesick hijacker politely apologized to Norma.
“I never wanted to hurt anybody. I’m sorry I inconvenienced you. I just wanted to get home.”
The hijacker to Norma, as told to the New York Times.
Post-flight
It was not revealed if the bomb was real or not, and no one was injured during the incident. It was then, after the man had been removed from the aircraft, that the captain announced that they were, in fact, in Havana and that there had been a bomb scare. A typical working day for the crew on flight 625 had turned into a surprising occurrence with a polite, apologetic-would-be hijacker. Norma saw it as just another day and was unphased by the incident.
Afterward, the Boeing 727 flew on to San Juan International Airport, Puerto Rico, arriving at 19:18. FBI agents interviewed passengers and the crew in San Juan, and Norma told them what she had witnessed. Passengers could either stay in the town that night and leave the next day or board the two charter aircraft that had been arranged to depart for St Thomas and St Croix.
Previous events
It was the 11th successful hijacking of a US airliner that was diverted to Cuba since May of the same year. Two further attempts to hijack aircraft had been foiled by passengers, and the men were arrested in Miami for ‘air piracy.’
Before this, an incident had occurred the previous month, when a Jamaican man hijacked Delta Air Lines flight 784 with a gasoline bottle and a lighter. The man doused himself in gasoline and threatened to set himself alight if they did not divert to Havana. The flight was from Miami to Tampa with 79 onboard. The incident was described more as a suicide attempt than a hijacking.
In July of 1983, a Delta Air Lines Boeing 727 was hijacked, and seven people were arrested. One of the hijackers was a teenage boy and his girlfriend. One hijacker held a knife to one of the flight attendants’ throats while another threatened to ignite an aerosol spray can.
Photo: Alain Durand | Wikipedia Commons
Capitol Air flight 236 from San Juan to Miami was targeted three times in the same six-month period. On the first hijack, a man with mental health issues threatened that he had a bomb and a gun and had tried to hijack an aircraft, two times previously. The second hijack was by a woman in a sarong with no shoes, who had sneaked a gun in her handbag and declared that she was sick of the US. On the third hijack of flight 236, a man splashed gasoline in the rear of the cabin and threatened to set it alight.
Six months of hijacking
Most of the previous ten hijackings in those six months were bound for southern Florida and diverted to Havana, Cuba.
- May 1: Capitol Air flight 236 San Juan to Miami (DC-8)
- May 12: Capitol Air flight 236 San Juan to Miami (DC-8)
- May 19: Eastern Air Lines flight 24 Miami to New York (Boeing 727)
- June 14: Eastern Air Lines flight 414 Miami to New York (Airbus 300)
- July 2: Pan Am flight 378 Miami to Orlando (Boeing 727)
- July 7: Air Florida flight 8 Fort Lauderdale to Tampa (Boeing 737)
- July 17: Delta Air Lines flight 722 Miami to Tampa (Boeing 727)
- July 19: Eastern Air Lines flight 1 New York to Miami (L1011)
- August 4: Capitol Air flight 236 San Juan to Miami (DC-8)
- August 18: Delta Air Lines flight 784 Miami to Tampa (Boeing 727)
Aircraft hijackings were at an all-time high during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s and mainly were attributed to political unrest and asylum, terrorism, and mental health issues. It was also a result of tense relations between Cuba and the United States. Government measures to stop the number of aircraft hijackings in the 1970s included a change to Cuban law that made it a crime to be an ‘air pirate,’ the use of metal detectors at airports, and an agreement between the two countries to prosecute and return offenders.
Facts and figures
The tense relationship between the two countries saw the number of aircraft hijackings rise, especially between 1961 and 1984, when there were a total of 158 of these events to Cuba, and 95 of those were on flights from the United States, on US carriers. Although we can see that just from May 1983 to the flight 625 hijacking, there were 11 cases of aircraft hijacking and two foiled attempts; it did not beat the record of 1967. In 1967, there were 33 ‘successful’ hijacks and 40 attempts.
After the hijack of flight 625, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered tighter airport security measures and that there would be closer security checks on passengers and their carry-on bags. They also put armed sky marshals on flights that might potentially be a threat and gave warnings of harsh prison sentences in Havana of up to 50 years.
Eastern Air Lines |
28 |
National Airlines |
17 |
Delta Air Lines |
15 |
Pan Am |
7 |
TWA |
5 |
American Airlines |
5 |
United Airlines |
4 |
Air Florida |
4 |
Other airlines |
1 each |
Of all the US carriers, Miami-based Eastern Air Lines had the most hijackings with diversions to Cuba during this time, with 28 cases. National Airlines followed with 17 cases, Delta with 15, Pan Am with seven hijacks, and TWA and American both had five. The Boeing 727 was the most hijacked aircraft of the time. Hijacking aircraft had become quite commonplace at the time, and airlines were told to meet the hijackers’ demands and not risk injuries to passengers or crew.