An Economic Study of U. S. Aircraft Hijacking, 1961-1976

ON May 1, 1961 a National Airlines aircraft en route from Miami to Key West was successfully hijacked and diverted to Cuba. Although aircraft hijackings had occurred in Eastern Europe and Cuba prior to that date, this was the first recorded hijacking of a U.S. registered aircraft.1 Seven more U.S. hijackings took place between 1961 and 1967 (see Table 1), followed by an unprecedented increase in the next five years. Between 1968 and 1972, 124 hijackings occurred, leading some observers to proclaim that hijacking had become a national epidemic.2 This surge of hijacking, however, came to an abrupt halt in 1973-one hijacking took place in that year and only ten more occurred in the next three years. A similar pattern of hijackings is