Attorneys Say Cubans Had Crew’s Help

Attorneys for six Cubans accused of hijacking a passenger plane to Key West sought to show that it was not a hijacking, but a “freedom flight” undertaken with the help of the crew.

Under intense cross-examination, the pilot denied that he helped craft a scheme to make his DC-3’s diversion to Florida look like a hijacking.

“I didn’t want to be hijacked,” Daniel Blas Corria Sanchez said.

The six men are accused of seizing the plane while it was on a domestic flight in Cuba. The plane carried 37 people, including six crew members. Not counting the defendants, 14 opted to stay in the United States.

“We are certain ... that this event was a staged event,” defense attorney Ana Jhones said during a hearing outside the presence of the jury.