FBI Arrests ‘Black Power’ Activist Suspected of Hijacking Jet in 1969

FBI agents Monday arrested a former “black power” activist who in 1969 allegedly helped hijack an Eastern Airlines jet to Cuba, taking a 2-year-old boy hostage and terrifying passengers.

Linda Grinage, 39, was “very, very surprised” when the agents arrested her at her home in downtown Albany, where she lived under the name Haziine Eytina, FBI spokesman Michael O’Brien said.

Grinage was charged with the Jan. 2, 1969, hijacking of Eastern Airlines Flight 401--with 138 passengers and a crew of eight--from New York to Miami.

Grinage, an infant strapped to her back, and her husband, Tyrone Ellington Austin, jumped out of their seats when the plane was 60 miles east of Jacksonville, Fla., and announced the hijacking, screaming: “Black power, Havana. Black power, Havana,” witnesses said.

Austin, wearing a Nehru jacket and armed with a semi-automatic pistol, grabbed 2-year-old Alan Levy of Massapequa, N. Y., on his way up the aisle and told the captain: “I want to go to Havana,” news accounts said.

The FBI said the plane landed in Havana and the passengers--many traveling for the New Year’s holiday--were released unharmed and returned to the United States.

O’Brien said the FBI is uncertain what happened next, but he said that Austin was killed in an April 21, 1971, robbery attempt in New York City. Grinage disappeared.

O’Brien said the FBI received a tip about Grinage’s whereabouts in July, 1987.