The Flight 841 hijacking was a copycat of a similar incident two months earlier , involving the hijacking of Western Airlines Flight 701 from Los Angeles to Seattle on June 3 , 1972 by Willie Roger Holder , a black Vietnam veteran , and Catherine Marie Kerkow , his white girlfriend . The hijackers claimed they had a bomb in an attache case and demanded $ 500,000 . After allowing all 97 passengers to get off in San Francisco , they flew to Algeria where they were granted political asylum . The Algerian government confiscated and returned $ 488,000 of the ransom money to US officials . On January 25 , 1975 , the two hijackers , carrying passports under the names Leavy Forte and Janice Ann Forte , were arrested on illegal entry charges by French police . On April 15 , 1975 , a French court refused a US extradition request for the pair on grounds the hijacking was a political act . In July 1986 , French authorities moved to deport Holder to the US after he completed his sentence for 1984 assault charges . Kerkow went missing , was never extradited , and her whereabouts and status remain unknown
Flight 841
Delta Air Lines Flight 841
George Wright (fugitive)