The Classiest Plane Hijacking of All Time

At 9:15 A.M. on November 10, 1961, a Lockheed Super Constellation of Portugal’s TAP airlines lifted off from Casablanca, Morocco. Aboard were nineteen passengers - mostly American tourists - bound for Lisbon. The skies that day were clear, and the flight looked to be smooth and uneventful. But just 45 minutes after takeoff, the pilot, Captain José Siqueira Marcelin, felt the cold barrel of a gun pressed against the back of his neck. The gun’s owner, a 39-year-old antifascist terrorist named Hermino da Palma Inácio, ordered Captain Marcelin to divert and fly over the cities of Lisbon, Barreiro, Beja, and Faro. Marcelin protested, arguing that the plane did not have enough fuel. But Inácio, a pilot and onetime aircraft mechanic himself, wasn’t fooled, and after glancing at the flight plan determined that the diversion was indeed possible. Out of options, Captain Marcelin had no choice but to obey. While in the early 1960s aerial terrorism was still a relatively new phenomenon, nothing could have prepared Marcelin and his passengers for what happened next. This is the outlandish story of history’s classiest hijacking. Author: Gilles Messier Editor: Daven Hiskey Host: Daven Hiskey Producer: Caden Nielsen