Frederick Hahneman

Background Hahneman was born in Puerto Castilla, Honduras, to a Honduran mother, Delia Pastore Ordóñez, and an American father, the late William Frederick Hahneman, of San Francisco. The younger Hahneman served in the United States Army from April 1943 until March 1946 as a radar operator and aircraft crewman. It is not known when he was naturalized, but he had lived in Easton, Pennsylvania, since 1960.

Historical context The period 1967–1972 saw a spate of aircraft hijackings in the U.S. and worldwide. There had been 26 attempted hijackings in 1971, 11 of which were successful. They had become so common that a May 8, 1972, editorial in Evening Chronicle reported, "They often command little more than one-column, six-paragraph stories on page 8 of most daily newspapers." and two cartons of his favorite cigarettes He ordered the plane to return to Dulles and demanded the money in larger bills. It took Eastern four hours to comply with this difficult demand, with some of the bills being flown in from Miami.

With the net closing, Rovelo convinced Hahneman that he was too old to be on the run. Hahneman agreed. At 1am on June 2, Hahneman and Rovelo walked into the US embassy in Tegucigalpa, and Hahneman surrendered.

On September 11, 1972, Hahneman waived his right to a jury trial

Speculation about motives Hahneman's arrest reignited interest in the case and his quiet Easton neighbourhood was alive with agents and reporters asking questions. His blind wife and his sons' lives were spread across the local press. Fed by the FBI's reluctance to reveal details of how and where they recovered the money, along with Hahneman's political claims while in custody and the statement from the captain, there was much speculation about Hahneman's frequent foreign trips, rumours that he'd deposited the $303,000 in a communist bank, and claims that Hahneman and his cousin Roberto Martínez Ordóñez, a delegate with the Honduran mission to the United Nations, were plotting a revolution in Honduras.

Mary Hahneman maintained that she had no contact with her husband and didn't even know he'd been released. Asked after his 1984 discharge, she said, "I still don't know why he did it. If you ever find out, will you please tell me?"