Cruzeiro do Sul Flight 302 (

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...

: SC 302) was a scheduled domestic flight operated from

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

Manaus Manaus () is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Amazonas. It is the seventh-largest city in Brazil, with an estimated 2020 population of 2,219,580 distributed over a land area of about . Located at the east center of the s ...

in Brazil, operated by

Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul was the second oldest airline of Brazil, tracing its origins to 1927, when it was founded as Syndicato Condor, a subsidiary of Deutsche Luft Hansa. Syndicato Condor retained rights and interests of a former Ger ...

. On 3 February 1984, the

Airbus A300B4 The Airbus A300 is a wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Airbus. In September 1967, aircraft manufacturers in the United Kingdom, France, and West Germany signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a large airliner. West G ...

aircraft flying the service, was hijacked while flying from São Luís to

Belém Belém (; Portuguese for Bethlehem; initially called Nossa Senhora de Belém do Grão-Pará, in English Our Lady of Bethlehem of Great Pará) often called Belém of Pará, is a Brazilian city, capital and largest city of the state of Pará in t ...

and was forced to divert to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. There were no fatalities among the 176 passengers and crew.

Hijacking

The aircraft, carrying 14 crew and 162 passengers, had taken of from

Marechal Cunha Machado International Airport Marechal Cunha Machado International Airport , formerly called Tirirical Airport, is the airport serving São Luís, Brazil. Since 17 October 1985 the airport is named after Marechal Cunha Machado. It is operated by CCR. History In 1942, a gr ...

at 22:38 local time and was due to land at

two hours after. During the flight, the hijackers entered the

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

and they ordered the crew to fly to

Cayenne Cayenne (; ; gcr, Kayenn) is the capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and Overseas department, department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Cayenne River on the Atlantic Oc ...

, but the crew told them that the runway was too short. The hijackers then directed the plane to

Paramaribo Paramaribo (; ; nicknamed Par'bo) is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's ...

. The captain told that the hijackers seemed very nervous and one repeatedly said "if this fails, we're ready to die". A passenger said that "The hijackers were very tense, but we convinced them to stay calm and free the passengers" and he also said that "Most passengers didn't know a hijacking was occurring. A stewardess asked if there was a doctor and I volunteered. In the cabin, I found two men with guns and a woman holding a crying child in her arms". The aircraft landed at Paramaribo and the hijackers were persuaded by a delegation of officials at the airport in Paramaribo to release the 154 passengers in exchange for fuel. The airline dispatched an aircraft to pick up passengers in

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

and took them to their original destinations in Belém and

. The aircraft left for

about 3:30 local time. The aircraft landed at Camagüey International Airport at 7:46 local time. The Cuban officials agreed to allow the plane and crew to return to Brazil after being contacted through the Swiss Embassy.

References

{{Reflist 1984 in Brazil Accidents and incidents involving the Airbus A300 Aircraft hijackings Aviation accidents and incidents in 1984 Aviation accidents and incidents in Brazil

Hijacking

See also

References