Although nearly unimaginably today, airplane hijacking—“skyjacking” for short—was once fairly common in the United States. According to this 2016 VOX article, there were more than 130 American skyjackings between 1968 and 1972. The most common destination for American hijackers was Cuba. So many planes were diverted there that one proposed solution to the problem was to build a mock-up of Havana’s airport in south Florida where hijackers could be taken and busted upon landing.
Even in the midst of this, in late January 1971, as Northwestern Orient flight 334 made a stop in Milwaukee on its way to Washington DC, there was almost nothing in the way of airport security. About 40 people boarded the Boeing 727 at General Mitchell Field, including a slender, 20-year-old African American named Garland Grant. He carried with him a single bag, which contained a small hatchet and a can of Right guard deodorant spray. It was the first time he’d ever been an airplane.
Grant badly wanted to escape what he would later call Milwaukee’s “terrorist police.” He was “unhappy and frustrated” in the U.S. and wished to eventually make his way to Africa. Early in the month, he had been arrested for calling in a bomb threat to a Milwaukee railroad station. He had recently applied for work with the railroad, hoping to gain free passage to New York City. After he was turned down, he saw it as a part of the systematic racism that was forever holding him back. He became paranoid after the arrest and feared that the FBI was trying to kill. He was given probation for the threat and ordered to undergo counseling. “I was afraid. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know who to turn to,” He would later say.
Unconcealed Weapon
During boarding, Grant made no real effort to conceal his weapon. One passenger who saw the hatchet in his hand assumed he was a salesman in the outdoors business. Even when, just after takeoff, he carried the ax and his bag to the front of the first class section, no one was alarmed. A stewardess watching him assumed he was simply going to ask her to store the items away. But when he spoke, his intentions were finally made clear. “Don’t touch me. Everyone will be all right. I want to go to Algiers.”
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After landing in Detroit to refuel and being told that the plane did not have the range to cross the Atlantic, Grant settled on Cuba. Perhaps owing to how commonplace skyjackings had become, the three-hour flight was taken by most aboard with a kind of calm reserve that, for some, bordered on excitement. With Grant standing, holding his bag—which he claimed contained a bomb—there was no panic or tumult. Even the babies were quiet, one passenger later reported. A group of Milwaukeeans passed the time by playing Hearts.
The plane landed in Havana around 4:15 p.m. Milwaukee time. Hundreds of soldiers surrounded the craft as it came to a stop. After a few of them took Grant away, he insisted that he hadn’t meant anyone any harm. He even demonstrated that his “bomb” was nothing more than an aerosol can by spraying it into the air. After the plane was searched, the passengers were taken into a hall at the airport and served a surprisingly fancy steak dinner. They were also given cold beer in label-less bottles—“as good as anything back home,” one man remarked. Some passengers even did a little shopping, scooping up $5 bottles of Cuban rum at the airport commissary.
Another plane eventually took the passengers to Miami, where they would be rerouted to their original destinations. But not before being interrogated about the incident and searched by U.S. Customs agents who—much to the dismay of the passengers—confiscated the discount rum. One man loudly complained that they’d had better treatment in Cuba.
Grant did not find what he was looking for in Cuba. He served two and a half years in prison there for the hijacking and was forced to live in a squalid hotel with other American hijackers after his release. He later worked digging ditches and sweeping floors. He made several attempts to return to the U.S., even knowing he’d face prison time upon his return. In 1977, he gave an interview to the New York Times. “I’ve been in this place six years, and I’m out of my mind,” he told them. “Believe me, I’m all for the United States now. I’d even wear a Nixon button.”
Grant was allowed to return to the United States in 1978. Facing a possible life sentence, he was given 15 years and was released in 1990.
