Through a combination of savvy and dumb luck, the couple managed to flee across an ocean with a half-million dollars in ransom, a feat that made them notorious around the globe. Koerner's The Skies Belong to Us pulled off the longest-distance hijacking in American history.Ī shattered Army veteran and a mischievous party girl, Roger Holder and Cathy Kerkow commandeered Western Airlines Flight 701 as a vague protest against the war. Their criminal exploits mesmerized the country, never more so than when the young lovers at the heart of Brendan I. Some hijackers wished to escape to foreign lands, where they imagined being hailed as heroes others aimed to swap hostages for sacks of cash. Over a five-year period starting in 1968, the desperate and disillusioned seized commercial jets nearly once a week, using guns, bombs, and jars of acid. In an America torn apart by the Vietnam War and the demise of the idealism of the sixties, airplane hijackings were astonishingly routine.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |