Murderer in plane hijack is captured after 41-year hunt
A convicted killer who escaped from a US prison and carried out a brazen hijack has been captured in Portugal after 41 years on the run.
George Wright, 68, was arrested by the Portuguese authorities at the request of the US government after a search of identity records matched his fingerprints, the FBI said. It is now seeking his extradition.
He was sentenced in 1963 to 30 years after being convicted of shooting a petrol station owner in New Jersey.
But Wright had served only seven years when he and three men escaped and linked up with an underground militant group, the Black Liberation Army.
First he lived in a "communal family" with several of its members before - dressed as a priest and using the alias Rev L Burgess - he hijacked a Delta Air Lines flight from Detroit to Miami in 1972 with three men, two women and three small children from the group. They included his partner and two-year-old daughter.
Landing in Miami, the hijackers demanded $1million to free the passengers. The plane then flew to Boston, took on an international navigator and flew to Algeria to seek asylum.
The Algerian president had let the Black Panther Movement open an office in the country. He allowed Wright and his group to stay, although the plane and the money were returned to the US.
The group made its way to France, where Wright's associates were arrested and tried in Paris in 1976. Although found guilty, the judge gave them reduced sentences after finding the hijacking had been motivated by "racial oppression in the United States".
Wright remained at large and in 2002 the case was made a priority of the newly formed New York-New Jersey fugitive task force.
It is understood that he was found after he contacted relatives in the US. A search of the Portuguese ID registry identified a match for his prints.
