There's an excellent read of the 1972 airline hijacking by a group of Detroit Black Panthers, focusing on the surviving hijacker Melvin McNair, in today's Free Press. The trigger was an earlier six-shot police shooting of one of the hijack members during an arrest for an offense that was later thrown out.
The plane eventually took them with a million dollars ransom to Algiers which at that time sheltered Black Panthers. The Algerians confiscated and returned the ransom money but allowed them to stay.
The hijackers became disillusioned with the Panthers and slipped into France where they were later caught. McNair served four years for air piracy, used the experience to learn French and, as detailed in the article, turns his life around, becoming a respected community member in Caen, and widely known as a baseball and sports coach. He remains a fugitive of the US but the French refuse to extradite him citing his good citizenry, time served, and that no one was hurt during the hijacking.
https://freep-mi.newsmemory.com?publ...4421be_1345e95
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