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As the bulky turboprop, which looks much like a Soviet Ilyushin 18, touched down at José Marti airport, a waiting crowd of Cubans cheered and youthful armed militiamen saluted. But the cheers died abruptly when the big "Eastern Air Lines" markings became clear and the pistol-packing waiter climbed out. The exuberant crowd had been waiting for an entirely different visitor—Soviet Spaceman Yuri Gagarin.
Rough Time. Soldiers signaled the Electra crew to hurry out of the plane; but Buchanan and Yandell stalled, throwing switches and circuit breakers wildly, making sure the Cubans would have a rough time refiring the engines. "That system is a mess now," says Buchanan. "I pity the poor guy who has to try to start her up. He'll go crazy." Pirate Oquendo had only one terse explanation for the puzzled airport guards: "They have three of our airplanes. Here's one for you."
Eventually the Electra's passengers and crew were taken to a steak lunch at the airport dining room, where they (and Castro) watched Honored Guest Gagarin arrive in a sudden rain squall for the July 26 celebration. They were then escorted to the terminal hotel, where their room keyholes were stuffed with paper so they could not lock the doors. Armed guards stood in the halls, telephone calls were banned, a Swiss embassy representative was turned away. But no one was harmed, and next day the Americans were permitted to return to Miami in a regularly scheduled Pan American DC-6. Now their luggage included cartons of Cuban rum emblazoned: "Let's go to Cuba—the friendly island next door."
Riding Shotgun. The U.S. State Department asked the Swiss embassy in Havana to protest Castro's refusal to release the big plane, but got no answer. The FBI charged the out-of-reach Oquendo with four offenses, including kidnaping—punishable by life imprisonment. New York police revealed a Cuban plot to hijack five more planes. Detectives studied passenger lists at air terminals, kept a sharp eye on boarding Latin Americans. Kentucky's Representative Frank Chelf introduced a bill to permit civilian crews to "ride shotgun" in airliner cockpits equipped with one-way glass to observe passengers. FAA Administrator Najeeb Halaby asked Congress to make aircraft hijacking as serious a crime as piracy on the high seas.
But in Havana, Castro serenely told a celebrating audience that he would not return the plane unless the U.S. returns "all planes that were stolen from Cuba" or are "hijacked from here" in the future —a blanket description covering the ten Cuban planes seized in the U.S. by court order after the Cuban government failed to pay a Miami advertising firm its $429,000 bill for plugging Cuban tourism. He ignored one fact: 14 planes hijacked by Cuban defectors had been promptly returned to Cuba after arrival in the U.S.