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Suspected Pan Am hijacker arrested after 40 years

13 October 2009 00:37 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. A man suspected of hijacking a Pan Am plane and forcing it to fly to Havana more than 40 years ago has finally been arrested after spending decades in hiding in Cuba.
Luis Armando PeÃ±a 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, APA reports quoting Reuters.
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 PeÃ±a 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.
"As the 1968 charges allege, he terrorized dozens of passengers when he and his cohorts wielded pistols and knives to hijack Pan American flight 281.
"The passage of time does not dull our resolve to bring fugitives like PeÃ±a Soltren to justice."
The other three people directly involved in the hijacking were arrested years ago one was acquitted, and the other two were tried and convicted, the paper quoted sources as saying. They were sentenced to 15 years each and have since been released from prison.
It’s not clear what Soltren did during the ensuing years or if his family was ever able to join him.