Tricked by Crew, Hijacker of Jet Is Overpowered

ORLANDO, Fla. —  A Cuban refugee hijacked an Eastern Airlines jet Friday and demanded to go to Cuba, but gave up once authorities tricked him into believing the plane had landed in Havana, authorities said.

The hijacker, identified by the FBI as Lazaro Hernandez, 30, of Passaic, N.J., freed the 132 persons aboard flight 403 from Newark, N.J., to Miami after the plane landed on a remote runway at Orlando International Airport.

The hijacker had vowed to blow up the jet with a cigarette lighter and a rolled up newspaper he said was dynamite, but threw down the objects and was wrestled into a seat by the co-pilot and a passenger.

“Apparently he felt they had landed in Cuba and relaxed a lttle bit,” said FBI agent Perry Doran. “He didn’t seem to object at all at that point.”

The man was wild and incoherent while the plane was in the air, witnesses said.

Once the plane landed, flight attendants led the passengers out and co-pilot Dennis Lawrence told the hijacker the plane was in Havana.

As soon as he dropped the lighter, Lawrence and a passenger, former Israeli soldier Yair Ben-Horen, pounced on him and pinned him to a chair, witnesses said.

Hernandez, who came to the United States in the 1980 Mariel boat lift, was held without bail in the Orange County Jail on federal air piracy charges.

The FBI said Hernandez was released from a New Jersey jail only hours before the hijack attempt. He had been charged with threatening to kill someone and had received a suspended sentence.