Pranas Brazinskas Hijacker, murderer Date of Birth: 01.01.1924 Country: Lithuania

1. Hijacking and Murder
2. The Brazinzkas
3. Motives and Planning
4. The Hijacking
5. Aftermath
6. Escape and Exile
7. Final Chapter

Hijacking and Murder

On October 15, 1970, a shocking incident occurred when armed criminals attempted to hijack a passenger plane and killed a flight attendant. This event was particularly startling as it marked the first time that an attempted hijacking in the USSR had resulted in bloodshed.

The Brazinzkas

The perpetrators were father and son Pranas Stasio Brazinzkas (born 1924) and Algirdas. Pranas's background was shrouded in inconsistencies. He claimed to have either witnessed his father's murder by "forest brothers" or to have been an active participant in the Lithuanian nationalist movement. However, records showed that he was actually a cooperative manager who was convicted of financial fraud in 1955 and embezzlement in 1965.

Algirdas was born to Pranas and his first wife in 1955. After a brief second marriage, Pranas adopted his wife's surname, Koreivo.

Motives and Planning

Pranas's main business venture was reselling scarce goods from the Baltics to Central Asia. Through this activity, he had accumulated approximately $6,000. He then acquired weapons and began plotting an escape abroad. Speculation and currency trading, both illegal at the time, were his primary motives for leaving the country.

The Hijacking

On October 15, 46 passengers boarded an An-24 aircraft in Batumi, including 17 women and a 4-year-old girl. The flight to Sukhumi was scheduled to take only 30 minutes. Shortly after takeoff, Pranas, dressed in military uniform, approached flight attendant Nadezhda Kurchenko and ordered her to deliver an envelope containing a handwritten note entitled "Order No. 9" to the pilots. Signed "General Krylov," the note threatened death if the pilots refused to fly an alternate route.

When Kurchenko refused, Pranas opened fire with a pistol. He also brandished a hand grenade, later revealed to be fake. He wounded the flight captain, Georgi Chakhrakia, senior mechanic Oganes Babayan, and second officer Valery Fadeyev. Algirdas fired a sawed-off shotgun through the cockpit partition, injuring passengers.

Despite attempts by the pilots to incapacitate the criminals and send an SOS, the aircraft was flying too close to the Turkish border. It was forced to land in Trabzon.

Aftermath

Turkish authorities disarmed the Brazinzkas, provided medical assistance to the injured, and offered asylum to anyone wishing to remain in Turkey. The crew, passengers, and the body of Nadezhda Kurchenko were returned to the USSR by a special flight.

Pranas Brazinzkas was sentenced to 8 years in prison, while Algirdas received a 2-year sentence due to his age. The leniency of the sentences was attributed to unconfirmed reports that two plainclothes guards on board the aircraft were primarily responsible for the shooting.

Within two years, the Brazinzkas were released under a general amnesty. According to Soviet sources, they lived on a villa, while Turkish authorities claimed they were held in a camp for displaced persons where an attempt was made to assassinate them.

Escape and Exile

After escaping the camp, the Brazinzkas sought political asylum at the US embassy. Upon being denied, they fled to Venezuela and subsequently to Canada. While passing through New York, they remained in the US and settled in Santa Monica under the names Frank and Albert White, supported by the Lithuanian diaspora.

Final Chapter

The Whites lived in poverty, working as painters. Neighbors described the elder White as aggressive. In February 2002, he threatened his son with a weapon, prompting Algirdas to fatally beat him with a baseball bat. The court sentenced Algirdas Brazinzkas (Albert White) to 20 years in prison, marking the end of the tragic hijacking that had unfolded over three decades before.