Murders, mysteries and crimes, these are the usual themes of my favorite TV shows. From Sherlock Holmes to Captain Olivia Benson, from Criminal Minds to the goofy duo in Psych. I love watching shows like those and always gets amazed on how they solve cases. I am also absorbed with documentaries with the same themes. I have seen almost all episodes of the show Forensic Files I could find in the internet. Recently I started to watch 72 hours, it’s a show based on true crimes, complete with police and witnesses’ testimonies. These crimes were solved using the evidences or clues found in the first 72 hours. There is this episode that stuck to me. It is the story of Canada’s first successful aircraft hijacking.
The Hijacking
It was just after Christmas day of 1971 when Air Canada Flight 932 bound to Toronto has to changed its plans. When it landed to Toronto, instead of disembarking from the aircraft Patrick Critton demanded that plane be refueled and fly to Cuba. He strengthen his request with a pistol pointed at the crew and a grenade in his person. With only 2 young cops on the ground to negotiate with him and with hostages on board, the policemen acquiesced with his demands. The passengers of the plane were released on Toronto before they started for Cuba. After Patrick deplaned on Havana, Cuba, the plane returned to Toronto with the crew members of the plane safe and sound onboard. Although it may be safe to say that they were rattled a bit, no one wants a gun pointed at them,normally. However, the important thing about their ordeal was they were safe in the end.
And what was that hijacking about? Did he just wake up one day and he wanted to hijacked a plane? And go to Cuba no less? It is noteworthy that it was not a vacation either at Cuba that time in history. So why Cuba? Why hijack a plane in desperation?
As it was told, Mr. Critton was a teacher in the United States but he led a life of crime with his friends. They attempted a bank heist in New York and his accomplices were busted and arrested. Since he was designated as a look out that time, he managed to get away unscathed and scot-free, but he did not realize that at the time. He mistakenly believed that he was a wanted fugitive and that the police are hunting him down. Maybe he trusted that his guys will tell on him or whatsoever, so he spent the following days of his lives in fear and running. He managed to fled to Canada but the thought that he is being hunted haunted him. Not a single night passed by that he could sleep in peace. Eventually he decided to flee to Cuba where Canada does not have a standing extradition treaty.
When he got to Cuba, it was established that he reformed himself through the hardships and hard labor he experienced there. After he was imprisoned in Cuba for 8-months, he worked the fields cutting down sugarcanes and spent his days under the sun’s unrelenting heat. After two years of that hard labor, he grew tired of it and petitioned Cuba to allow him to leave. He was granted to leave and went to live in Tanzania. He managed to settle down in Tanzania and also managed to get himself a wife and a family while he became a professor of African History.
In 1994, he returned home in the US with his two sons escaping the African economic crash. From there on he lead a life going in a straight and righteous path. He was an exemplary US citizen and had worked with different sectors of the community.
The Arrest
His fugitive status ended in 2001, when a single hit on Google search returned his name. The search was the first step Sgt. Jorgensen of Peel Regional Police Department in Canada took when he decided to work on the cold 1971 hijacking case. He searched for Patrick Critton on the internet, expecting to find several hits for the name, he was surprised that it returned a single reference to Patrick Critton. It was an earlier article detailing Critton’s involvement in an outreach program in Mount Vernon.
The initial investigators on the hijacking case managed to retrieve and document the hijackers fingerprint from a soda can they gathered from the plane. To be certainly sure that Patrick Critton was indeed the same man from the hijacking 20 years ago, they set up a sting to get his fingerprints. Since they know where he lived and they are accustomed to his schedule, they devised a simple plan to gather his latent prints. The police approached him with a laminated photo of a “missing child”. Critton was eager to help and he held the photograph and he left his prints on it. It was then compared to the print from the hijacking case and it was a match.
When the police came to arrest him in his home the first thing Critton said was “What took you so long?”.
Conclusion
His statement was jarring because for all those years, it seems that he was somehow waiting for justice to come and find him. I find the story interesting because it all started with a misconception and a mistake. If only Critton was smart enough to wait it out and watched for the news of the robbery, maybe he did not have to flee all the way to Canada and eventually have to hijack a plane. If only he was not consumed by fear of being caught, he will not become a fugitive. But if he hadn’t done all those things, maybe he wouldn’t have able to turn his life around. Who knows? Maybe he wouldn’t have ended as an exemplary citizen doing good for the community.
The story really has some twists and turns but they all ended for the better.
Hey there!
Thank you for reading as usual. Been really absorbed with the show lately, so I have been a little busy. Are you binging any show lately? As usual, share your thoughts in the comment section and let's catch up.
As always, Cheers!!!
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Lead image : Photo by Anugrah Lohiya from Pexels
Seems like you really have an interest in films. I like crime investigations too 😅