Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul Flight 114

Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul Flight 114 was a domestic passenger flight hijacked by five members of VAR-Palmares, a guerrilla group against the Brazilian military dictatorship, on 1 January 1970. The hijacking began in Montevideo, Uruguay, in a plane operated by Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul, which would fly from Carrasco International Airport in Montevideo to Rio de Janeiro/Galeão International Airport in Rio de Janeiro, but it was detoured to Havana. It was the longest hijacking occurred during the military period in Brazil.

Hijacking

The hijacking was planned by the coordinator of VAR-Palmares in Rio Grande do Sul, Cláudio Galeno Linhares, to obligate the military government to announce the whereabouts of two militants of the organization, Fausto Machado Freire and Marco Antonio Meyer, secretly arrested in Rio de Janeiro for their involvement in robberies. The action also aimed to protect Marília Guimarães Freire, Fausto's wife, and their two toddlers. Marília, also member of the guerrilla, at age 24 was the owner of a school in Coelho Neto, Rio de Janeiro and used the mimeographs of the school to print flyers for VAR-Palmares. With the arrest of her husband, she was at risk. Hiding and wanted, the decision of the organization was to send her to Cuba with her children. Marília, who was hidden in Minas Gerais, travelled by bus to Porto Alegre with her kids and met with a group formed by Galeno, Athos Magno Costa e Silva, Nestor Herédia, VAR German guerrilla member Isolde Sommer and James Allen da Luz, an exiled militant for 4 years in Uruguay and member of the Red Wing (Ala Vermelha), the most radical group of the organization, who would command the hijacking.

At 19:32 (GMT-3) on 1 January 1970, the group boarded a Sud Aviation Caravelle, registration code PP-PDZ, of Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul, heading to Rio de Janeiro/Galeão International Airport, with stopovers in Porto Alegre and São Paulo. Right after takeoff, James Allen stood up with pistol in hand, ran towards the cockpit and announced the hijacking. The plane was first detoured to Buenos Aires, where two elderly passengers were allowed to disembark, leaving their daughter on board. After refueling, with the hijacking already announced in the media of Brazil and the world and the demand that the Brazilian government reveal the whereabouts of the two guerrilla members arrested given to Argentine authorities, they flew to Antofagasta, Chile, for another refueling, and then to Lima, Peru. In Lima, the plane had to be withheld for more than one day, with everyone on board, due to a battery fault. During this time, James Allen gave an interview through the plane window, surrounded by journalists and Peruvian soldiers with machine guns, talking about their demands and warning that the group was armed with pistols, daggers and hand grenades - which was a lie, they only had revolvers, as Galeno stated years later. As he predicted, the hijacking made the military government acknowledge the captivity of Meyer and Frere. In the plane, a passenger, Flávio Macedo Soares, secretary of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs who tried to destroy classified documents from a diplomatic case throwing them in the toilet, surrendered, and the documents were confiscated and given to the Cuban government, who would later give back to Brazil.

The plane was withheld for 27 hours in Lima, due to a problem in the battery that caused an electric failure in the right engine and after Peruvian president Velasco Alvarado ordered the security forces to negotiate a surrender until exhaustion of the hijackers. With the hijacking in the worldwide press, the plane was surrounded by police officers, journalists, photographers and a crowd of onlookers, and photos of the guerrilla members in the cockpit window were sent via telex all around the world. Political asylum for Marília and the children in exchange for the hostages was offered and refused. With the battery changed for a new one from Chile, the failure in negotiation and the hijackers threatening to kill the hostages, during the late night of 3 January the Peruvian government authorized the takeoff of the plane, which flew to Panama.

After arriving at Panama City, on the morning of 3 January, under strong hold of Washington, D.C., at the time full of American militaries who controlled the region of Panama Canal, the environment was hostile to both crew and hijackers. Marines were spotted hidden behind trees aiming at the cockpit with sniper rifles. Disembarking to acquire gas fuel for the plane, Second Officer Hélio Borges was intercepted by Brazilian officers in the country, who demanded that he return to the plane with a gun in hand provided by them and shoot, followed by the military, but he refused, fearing for his and the passengers' lives. Offers to send poisoned food to the plane or put tear gas in the air ducts were also refused, even under threats. The refusals caused him many problems when he returned to Brazil, where he was accused of being an accomplice of the guerrillas and lost his job. Five hours later, the plane took off for the final destination, Havana.

2 hours and 15 minutes later, with a red light flashing non-stop in the cockpit indicating lack of lubrication in the turbines, the Caravelle landed at José Martí International Airport, and guerrilla members, passengers, and crew were received by Cuban militaries. The hijacking ended after 47 hours.