Results tagged “panam”

When news broke that alleged Pan Am hijacker Luis Armando Peña Soltren—the FBI's longest wanted fugitive—had turned himself over to authorities yesterday, it seemed probable that Soltren had worked out a plea deal in exchange for surrendering after more than four decades in exile. But today Soltren pleaded not guilty to participating in the 1968 hijacking of a Pan Am flight from New York and rerouting it to Havana, where he has lived ever since.

The FBI's longest wanted fugitive was arrested at JFK yesterday, where he had arrived from Cuba after spending more than four decades outside the feds' grasp. Louis Armando Peña Soltren, 66, was arrested at the same airport where his crime originated: On November 24th, 1968 he left the airport with two accomplices on a Pan Am 707 bound for Puerto Rico. During the flight they forced their way into the plane's cabin and ordered the crew to fly to Havana, threatening them with guns and knives quaintly smuggled on board in a diaper bag.