University of New Brunswick historian Greg Marquis is searching for witnesses of Canada’s first aircraft hijacking. But first the backstory.
It was on September 11, 1968, that Charles Lavern Beasley attempted to hijack an Air Canada aircraft from Saint John, New Brunswick to Cuba. Threatening a flight attendant on board with a revolver to her head, the Texas native demanded the Vickers Viscount aircraft, getting ready to depart on a scheduled flight to Toronto, take him instead to Cuba.
Bursting into the cockpit, Beasley reportedly shouted, “This plane is going to Cuba!” according to pilot Ronald Hollett when interviewed by the Globe & Mail. Beasley claimed he was evading CIA agents who were chasing him due to his involvement as an activist with a “Black Power Movement” in the United States. Hollett convinced Beasley that they should first stop in Montreal to load fuel for the longer trip to Cuba, and they took off.
On the ground in Montreal, the RCMP began negotiations with Beasley via the aircraft’s radio. Claiming political persecution in the U.S., the RCMP negotiators offered Beasley political asylum in Canada if he surrendered. This he did peacefully. However, the offer was later rescinded when the authorities discovered that, while he was being pursued, it was by the police, and it was for a bank robbery he committed in his home state of Texas.
Canada had no law against hijacking on the books back then, so the authorities charged Beasley with attempted kidnapping and public mischief. He served three years of a six-year sentence before being extradited to the U.S. where he was convicted of bank robbery and served an additional 10 years.
Professor Marquis is inviting input from anyone who was on board the hijacked aircraft. “It is a while ago, 56 years, but some of these people were described as being in their 20s,” Marquis said. “They could be still around or maybe their families would have stories or memories.”
Professor Marquis can be reached at gmarquis @ unb.ca.