Date: March 17, 1970
Flight Info: Eastern Air Lines Flight 1340 from Boston to Newark.
The Story: At the age of 16, DiVivo had shot himself in the head in a suicide attempt. He survived, but the bullet remained lodged in his skull; his behavior turned even more erratic as a result. Eleven years later, DiVivo boarded Flight 1340 wearing a chain necklace with a skull-and-bones amulet. Shortly after takeoff, he showed the stewardess a .38-caliber revolver and asked to be taken to the cockpit. “Just fly east until we run out of gas,” he said to the captain. After about fifteen minutes, the captain advised him that they would soon crash into the Atlantic if they didn’t return to Boston for fuel. DiVivo seemed to change his mind and said this refueling trip was okay by him. But when the plane started to turn, the hijacker got spooked and abruptly shot both the captain and co-pilot. Though mortally wounded, the co-pilot managed to leap up and knock the revolver out of DiVivo’s hand; the captain then picked up the weapon and shot DiVivo. The captain then landed the plane in Boston, despite the fact that he had been seriously wounded in both arms.
The Upshot: This was the first American hijacking to result in the death of a pilot. On Halloween 1970, while awaiting trial for air piracy and murder, DiVivo hanged himself in his jail cell.
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