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Shattered by that kind of accusation, a husband may try to repair his ego by a daring act of air piracy—at the same time symbolically getting back at other members of his family. Observes Hubbard: "It is not difficult to discern the delight they experienced when they approached little sister-mother stewardess, gun in hand, and said, 'Honey, we're going all the way —to Cuba,' and the sense of power they derived from making daddy (flying the plane) stay put, making him permit the abuse of sister-mother, and forcing him to perform the bidding of sonny."
Numerous skyjackers have confessed suicidal fantasies to Hubbard. Sometimes this intent is displayed when a skyjacker purposely delays opening his chute after jumping from a plane. Sometimes it comes out in an expressed indifference to death. Said one young man: "I bought me a plane ticket and a pistol. I thought, I'll either die or I'll do it. Either way was O.K. with me." Thus for many skyjackers, Hubbard says, death may be "not the ultimate punishment but the ultimate reward."
With such men, Hubbard believes, the threat of force is actually "counterproductive." In fact, the skyjacker seems to respond to greater force with increasingly violent tactics of his own. A good example, says Hubbard, is the sky-marshal program. "Before marshals arrived on the scene, skyjackers were arming themselves with pistols. When the Government escalated, so did the hijackers; now they use a pistol and a bomb." To make things worse, the Government has virtually abandoned the marshal program, yet has made only a low-key—and little noticed—announcement to that effect. As a result, skyjackers have not reduced their armaments. Similarly, an offer by pilots and airlines to pay $25,000 for information leading to a skyjacker's arrest triggered responses from armed bounty hunters who were "usually more dangerous and deranged than the skyjackers." The offer was withdrawn—but so quietly that "some of those nuts" are presumably still riding planes looking for trouble and likely to provoke it.
The greatest deterrent to skyjacking, Hubbard says, would be an international agreement to send the air pirates back to the country where they committed their crime. Without exception, skyjackers have told Hubbard that they would never have gone through with their plans if they had been certain of immediate return to the U.S. In particular, Hubbard told TIME Correspondent Leo Janos, the four men who killed the agent in Houston must be sent back by the Cubans, "or else the life of every airline ticket agent in this country is up for grabs." Hubbard acknowledges that negotiations with Cuba may be difficult, because "it was the U.S. that first condoned skyjacking; after the Castro takeover, we welcomed as heroes those Cuban refugees who hijacked planes and boats to get to freedom."