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Hopscotch Flight. The plane had meanwhile taken off from Montreal on what was to be a hopscotch flight across the Atlantic, stopping in Gander, Newfoundland, and Iceland for fuel, escorted by a TWA Boeing 707, since the 727 lacked navigational equipment for transatlantic flight. At Gander, 35 of the hostages were released, for reasons as diverse as the one offered by a man who said his wife was about to have a baby, or that of a woman who said she would otherwise miss a bridal shower. At some of their stops, the skyjackers off loaded bundles of propaganda pamphlets with precise instructions that they were to be dropped from the air on various cities. Soon the pink sheets were fluttering down on Montreal, Chicago, New York, London and Paris.
The skyjackers' initial European destination was London, but the British government refused them permission to land. The French government was more accommodating, and the plane with its remaining hostages and crew of seven set down at Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris. But once they had the plane on the ground, the French turned tough, declaring that under no circumstances would they allow it to leave. With that, the skyjackers, after talking directly with U.S. Ambassador to France Kenneth Rush, gave up, releasing the hostages unharmed. The five were flown back to the U.S. to face charges. It turned out that they had been bluffing; their "explosives" were fakes.