Nearly 41 years ago, Mr. Soltren had come to the very same airport, where he boarded Pan American Flight 281 bound for Puerto Rico on Nov. 24, 1968. As the Boeing 787 was flying just south of Bermuda, carrying 96 passengers and seven crew members, Mr. Soltren stormed the cockpit with two other men, armed with guns and knives they had smuggled onboard in a baby’s diaper bag, according to the decades-old indictment. (It was signed by the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, Robert M. Morgenthau, who was 49 at the time.)
The men ordered the pilot to change course for Havana — a startlingly common occurrence at the time. In 1968, more than 30 planes were hijacked or attempted to have been hijacked to Cuba, including two that day.

Passengers on the Pan Am flight described the plane being escorted by Cuban Air Force fighter jets as it approached the island. As it landed, Cuban soldiers cheered, according to news accounts at the time.

One of the hijackers had scrawled inside the plane, “Long live free Puerto Rico.”

Over the next decade, Mr. Soltren’s two accomplices were arrested and sentenced for their role in the hijacking, as they returned to the United States. But Mr. Soltren never left Cuba, where he was protected from prosecution. On an island full of fugitives from the United States government, he eventually became known as one of the longest staying guests. (In recent years the American government has estimated the number of federal fugitives in Cuba at about 70.)

“It is an example of the principle that, for the F.B.I., fugitive cases don’t become closed cases until the fugitive is brought to justice,” Joseph M. Demarest Jr., the assistant director in charge of the F.B.I.’s New York office, said in a statement.

Posted by: T F Stern at October 12, 2009 05:21 PM (Ruh11)

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at October 12, 2009 09:15 PM (R7LgM)

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