Lisbon, Portugal, Sept 29: The former U.S. ambassador to Guinea-Bissau says an American fugitive who conducted a brazen 1970s plane hijacking lived openly in the African nation during the 1980s under his real name.
Retired Ambassador John Blacken tells The Associated Press that George Wright—captured this week in Portugal—went by his real name when was living in the former Portuguese colony of Guinea-Bissau. He says the embassy did not know Wright was a fugitive.
Blacken said Thursday that embassy officials would have taken action if they had known Wright had escaped from jail while serving time for murder, and was wanted in the case of the jet hijacked to Algeria in 1972.
Blacken says “if we had received such a cable, we would have responded.” AP
