Passengers and crew members are unharmed. The incident closes the airport and revives debate about U.S. policy on Cuban immigration.
By DAVID ADAMS
Published April 2, 2003
KEY WEST - A man carrying what proved to be two fake grenades hijacked a Cuban passenger plane and forced it to land at Key West International Airport on Tuesday before he surrendered.
Thirty-one passengers and the crew were released unharmed in the second case in two weeks of a Cuban airliner touching down in Key West.
While reviving debate over U.S. immigration policy on Cuba, the incident also forced the airport to close for an hour during its midday peak and proved an inconvenience to travelers.
Tourists evacuated from the airport watched the unfolding spectacle as they stood across the street by the ocean.
A small crowd of onlookers gathered at the airport fence as FBI agents and a heavily armed SWAT team descended on the plane, a Cubana airlines Antonov 24 twin-engine turbo-prop.
As the passengers began emerging one by one, a man identified by U.S. officials as Adermis Gonzalez, 33, stepped from the plane wearing a wind-breaker with the letters "America" emblazoned across the back. In his arms he carried a small boy.
"That's the hijacker," shouted a law enforcement official.
After putting the boy down at the bottom of the airplane steps, Gonzalez was searched by a Monroe County sheriff's deputy, who removed two items from the pockets of his pants. He was then handcuffed and separated from the other passengers.
The two objects, which resembled grenades, were later examined by explosives experts and determined to be fakes, according to Sheriff Richard Roth.
As the hijacker was being taken away, the boy tried to hold onto one of his legs. U.S. officials said Gonzalez was accompanied by his wife and 3-year-old son.
As the other passengers left the plane, they also were handcuffed and forced to lie face-down on the tarmac for 30 minutes. They later were led away and interviewed by law enforcement and immigration officials.
It was not clear late Tuesday how many of the passengers decided to remain in the United States, rather than return to Cuba. A bus arrived at the airport to transport those wishing to stay to the Krome Detention Center in Miami.
Investigators will try to piece together how the hijacking began about 18 hours earlier.
The plane was on a domestic flight in Cuba when the pilot reported that the craft was being hijacked to the United States by a man armed with grenades, according to Cuban authorities.
But the pilot was forced to land in Havana, the Cuban capital, because the plane did not have enough fuel to get to the United States, they added.
During the stopover at Jose Marti International Airport, two separate groups of as many as two dozen passengers jumped from an open rear hatch into the arms of emergency workers.
The plane was refueled Tuesday morning and allowed to depart. It landed in Key West under escort from two Air Force F-16 fighter jets and a Black Hawk helicopter.
Few details were known about Gonzalez, or how he might have gotten the fake grenades through airport checks in security-tight Cuba.
A search of Gonzalez's home in Cuba turned up four homemade grenades that had not been armed with explosives, according to a statement read on Cuba state television.
The hijacking refocused attention on the debate over the U.S. immigration policy that allows undocumented Cubans special rights to remain in the country as victims of communism.
"I'm not prejudiced, but if these were Haitians they would fly them all straight back to Haiti," said one onlooker at the airport fence, Ricky Arnold, who owns a marine towing company.
Cuban exiles in the crowd were more sympathetic.
"Better a jail in Miami than being in Cuba where everyone is a prisoner," said Lazaro Armando, 48, a construction worker who emigrated from Cuba 15 years ago.
But U.S. officials sought to distance the hijacking from Washington's policy on Cuba.
The State Department stressed that its top diplomat in Cuba took the unusual step of trying to talk the hijacker out of his plan while the plane was on the tarmac in Havana.
At the request of the Cuban government, the head of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba, James Cason, drove to the airport and spoke to the hijacker by radio Monday night.
"The hijacker was made aware that he would not be welcomed into the United States with open arms and would almost certainly be prosecuted," said State Department spokesman Charles Barclay.
Cuba blamed the hijacking on what it called the lax treatment that six other hijacking suspects received last month after forcing a Cuban DC-3 with 31 passengers and crew to fly to Key West at knifepoint.
U.S. officials deny the six men are receiving special treatment. They have since been charged with air piracy and face a minimum of up to 20 years in prison.
But Cuban officials apparently were upset after the six were granted bail by a Miami judge. They remain behind bars because they have been unable to come up with the money.
U.S. officials point out that bail was granted over the objections of prosecutors.
"The Cuban government obviously doesn't understand the democratic process and the rule of law," said Barclay.
Cuba is also upset because the United States refuses to return the hijacked DC-3, together with another smaller Cuban crop duster that arrived in November.
Under U.S. law, the planes are considered Cuban government assets subject to forfeiture by Cuban exiles seeking damages against the Castro government.
- Information from the Associated Press was used in this article.
[Last modified April 2, 2003, 02:03:29]
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