Delta Air Lines Hijacker Captured in Portugal

Remember the days when people who hijacked airplanes just wanted money or to make a point without physcailly hurting anyone?

A convicted killer who escaped a New Jersey prison in 1970, then hijacked a U.S. airliner two years later, has been captured in Portugal.

The FBI says George Wright was arrested Monday by Portuguese authorities at the request of the U.S. government.

Wright was convicted of the 1962 murder of a gas station owner.

Eight years later, he and three other men escaped from the Bayside State Prison in New Jersey.

The FBI says Wright became affiliated with the Black Liberation Army and in 1972 he and his associates hijacked a Delta flight from Detroit to Miami. After releasing the passengers in exchange for a $1 U.S. million ransom, the hijackers forced the plane to fly to Boston, then on to Algeria.

Mr. Wright sounds like a slimeball, but it does takes some guts to escape from prison, hijack a Delta flight, and force it all the way to Algeria.

I hope Mr. Wright enjoyed his time overseas because he is going to rot in jail for the rest of his life. Should have stayed in Algeria, where there is no extradition treaty with the United States…