Frederick Hahneman

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." The hijackings were a mixture of terrorism and crime for profit. The most infamous of these hijackings is arguably that of D. B. Cooper, which occurred just six months prior to Hahneman's boarding Flight 175. ==The hijacking==

, then known as ABE International with the airstair open, which was Hahneman's means of escape On May 2, 1972, Hahneman checked into the Americus Hotel in Allentown, Pennsylvania, as a well-dressed businessman under the assumed name George Ames. Staff remembered him as "polite" but got the impression that Ames had "put up a wall around himself". After asking directions from a travel agent, staff later reported Ames saying he was "going to take a plane" later that morning. and two cartons of his favorite cigarettes (Benson & Hedges). Satisfied that his demands had been met, Hahneman allowed the passengers to disembark one by one at 1:13pm, including one stewardess. The rest of the six crew he kept hostage, and ordered the captain to take off again at 1:50pm. Soon after becoming airborne, Hahneman decided he didn't like the $100 bill denominations given to him by Eastern. 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. Satisfied once again, Hahneman ordered the captain to take off and fly to Honduras in Central America, his country of birth. However, while en route, the plane's hydraulic pump developed a problem and the captain told Hahneman they had to divert to New Orleans. Hahneman was angry and when they landed in New Orleans he demanded another plane from Eastern. When it was ready, he put a noose around Captain Hendershott's neck and forced the crew out at gunpoint, using them as a human shield to get safely onto the new plane. The remainder of Flight 175 passed without incident, and on May 6, around 4am, over the pitch-dark Honduran jungle, Hahneman ordered the captain to slow the plane's airspeed. He put on one of the parachutes he had demanded and opened the rear door. Clutching his money-filled attache case, Hahneman jumped from the aft airstair into the dense undergrowth below, and disappeared. ==Manhunt==

In the U.S., the story ultimately faded from the news. But in Honduras, Hahneman was on the run from the FBI and the Honduran police. He moved around between friends and family, trying to stay one step ahead. 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. ==Aftermath==

Hahneman was in custody but the money was not. He told authorities that he had deposited the ransom in "the Chinese Communist Bank in Hong Kong", via a mysterious Panamanian "contact". 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?" ==See also==