FBI Hit for Shooting Hijacked Jet's Tires
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FBI Hit for Shooting Hijacked Jet's Tires demisted Press cot r /14141- The fusillade of shots fired jackers, who told him he would by the FBI marksmen at the be killed as an example. wheels of a pirated Southern The 28-hour nightmare ended Airways jetliner drew criticism early Sunday when the air- yesterday as a dangerous tactic craft's b on e w ea ry pilot that enraged the hijackers and brought the twin-engine jet, placed their 31 captives in even its bare wheels kicking up greater jeopardy. sparks, down on a foam- "It drove them into a frenzy," covered runway in Havana. The said Alex Halberstad, one of the passengers and crew, four of 27 passengers taken on a vio- them injured, were flown out lent 3,800-mile journey by the of Gibe Sunday by a second heavily armed hijackers. "They Southern Airways DC-9. were raving maniacs. Before The three air pirates were that, they were docile man- taken into custody by Cuban iacs." officials who also confiscated The FBI sharpshooters had the ransom money, passengers sought to halt the return of the said. The amount of the money DC-9 to Cuba Saturday night paid the hijackers—they had by shooting out four of its six demanded a record $10 million tires as it prepared to leave —has not been disclosed, but Orlando, Fla. The plane's one passenger said: "The whole wounded copilot said the shoot- back seat was full of money." ing "really provoked" the hi- See HIJACK, A14, Col. I HIJACK, From Al Copilot Billy Johnson, hos- !r Air piracy warrants were pitalized in a Memphis hospi- i'Ssued yesterday in Birming- tal, said the hijackers re- ham, Ala., for the hijackers, sponded to the shooting by identified as Lewis is.. ivioore, identified as a prison escapee using him as a shield to keep 27; Melvin Cale, 21, Moore's and two men wanted in Detroit the pilot from being shot, then half-brother, and Henry D. on rape charges. FBI special shot him to show their other Jackson, 25. Police said Moore agent Ralph J. Miles said au- captives "they meant busi- and Jackson had been freed thorities hoped to work out ness." on $500 bond last month in Procedures for bringing the Johnson said in a telephone Detroit after being charged men back to Birmingham. interview with radio station with forcible rape. C a 1 e Whether Cuba would re- KRLN of Walnut Ridge, Ark., escaped from a minimum se- turn the money was not im- that once the plane was air- curity prison in Tennessee, tnediately known. borne, the gunmen directed where officials said he had a r,Orlando was the last of all the passengers to stand, good record. eight cities where the airliner In Detroit, the judge who set was forced to land after it then shot him in the arm with the bond said yesterday that was commandeered Friday a .38-caliber pistol that "looked such an amount was not un- evening over Alabama. It was like a cannon." usually low for suspects with :in Orlando that some 20 FBI Pilot Haas was quoted by a ham radio operator monitor- no previous records, as was the ,sharpshooters blew out the case for Moore and Jackson. ;plane's tire after it had ing broadcasts between the plane and control tower as The hijackers argued among :picked up more fuel. themselves about where to The FBI and Southern Air- saying, "Why did they shoot my tires out? Whoever got take the airliner, according to ways have declined to com- Rita Tidwell, 22, a Delta Air- ent on the decision,. funny down there sure messed lines stewardess on her way to "I still doubt the decision me up'." Haas, of LaGrange, Tenn., Miami as a passenger. She said to shoot at the tires while the they first wanted to fly to, plane was fully loaded with was reported 'by a neighbor to Switzerland to deposit the ran- fuel and the fuel truck was be "resting" yesterday and som in a Swiss bank, th'en so close by," Orlando Police could not be reached. talked about going to Algeria. Chief Robert Ohewning said. There was no immediate Michael Goff, the mechanic comment from the U.S. Air "Everyone on the plane was Who refueled the waiting jet, Line Pilots Association, which personally threatened at least paid the fusillade of shots has been critical in the past once by the hijackers," said jeopardized the lives of "all of antihijack measures. Karen Chambers, one of the two those on the airplane." The head of the Canadian Southern Airways stewardesses "They shot while I was still Air Line Pilots Association, on the flight. "There was not a hear the airplane,' he said. "H Charles Simpson, charged in person on that plane whose life they had hit the fuel truck, Toronto, however, that the was not directly threatened." that would have been it—the. FBI tactic was "silly, danger- Another passenger said the *irplane and everyone else." ous and irresponsible." hijackers also took to handing After the tires were shot out handfuls of cash, all of [A Canadian police official, which was confiscated in out, Goff said, the hijackers asked if the authorities in Havana. Ordered pilot Bill Haas to take Toronto had considered shoot- 'off and "he hit full power, . ing out the plane's tires when In addition to the personal Agents kept shooting, .rying it landed there, told The threats made to their captives, :to disable the engines. There Washington Post, "In our the hijackers at one point vowed was rubber in those engines jurisdiction, this would be an to send the airplane crashing 5and they overheated tremen- absolute last resort. It wasn't into the nuclear research dously. They could have considered. It's always a pos- facility at Oak Ridge, Tenn., grashed." sibility, of course, and we unless the ransom was paid. They were given the money at Chattanooga, Tenn. The other injuries sustained during the hijack included a might if we got a signal from sprained knee, a broken leg suf- the captain or something, but fered when a passenger jumped it's a last resort. off a wing after the plane ["Our main interest through- landed in Cuba, and head in- out was to get the passengers juries and a broken wrist suf- fered by an 83-year-old man. off the plane safely, in a civ- [Passenger Arthur Tons- ilized manner, or to get the mire, a banker from Mobile, plane off safely." Ala., was quoted by Reuter [The official, Deputy Chief news agency as saying that Douglas Burrows of the Toron- after the plane first landed at to suburb of Mississauga, of- Havana, Jackson commented: fered to strip to his underwear "'You know these fellows and deliver $500,000 in cash to (Cuban officials) didn't treat the hijackers when they were us right. They treated us just on the ground in Toronto Fri- about like George Wallace or day night. The money offer Lestter Maddox.' " was rejected as inadequate.] The hijack suspects were - [Reuter also quoted a woman passenger, whose young child was aboard the aircraft, as calling the FBI ac- tion in shooting out the tires "a criminal act." [The passenger with the bro- ken leg, J. Frank Robinson, 47, of St. Petersburg, Fla.; said the FBI "just about got us all killed," UPI reported.] In Washington, the State Department expressed appre- ciation for the cooperation of Cuban authorities. Southern Airways officials said the Cu- bans were "most cooperative" with the airline and cordial and helpful to the terrorized Southern Airways Flight 49 was taken over shortly after it Ieft Birmingham. Before wind- ing up in Havana, where it had been forced once before but departed, the aircraft touched down in Jackson, Miss., Cleveland, Toronto, Lex- ington, Ky., Chattanooga, Tenn., Key West, Fla., and Or- lando. .