Panama Jack
2nd May 2005, 06:06
Pilot George Wagner, escaped hijacking
By Edgar Sandoval
Staff Writer
Posted May 1 2005
Capt. George H. Wagner, a lifelong pilot who escaped a hijacking to Cuba in the 1960s and whose name appears on the Wall of Honor at the National Air and Space Museum, died Thursday after a short battle with throat cancer. He was 82.
"We had a marvelous, adventurous life," said his wife, Miriam D. Wagner, from their home in Pompano Beach.
In 1969, Capt. Wagner was flying a group of Argentine college students to Lima, Peru, when a man pointed a gun to his face and demanded he fly the aircraft to Havana, Cuba, his wife said.
After the plane landed in Havana, the hijacker was distracted for a few seconds and Capt. Wagner punched him in the face.
"It seemed like the hijacker wanted the students to see how communist government worked, because after the hijacking they gave them a tour of the city," Wagner said.
He returned to Miami with no casualties.
Capt. Wagner served as a Navy fighter pilot and worked for commercial airlines in Latin America for years. He folded his wings in 1983.
Capt. Wagner met this wife when they were children in upstate New York.
But it was not until they were 21 when "sparks flew," Wagner said. They married at age 24, and later had three daughters.
There will be no services.
Capt. Wagner donated his body to the University of Miami's anatomy department.
In addition to his wife, other survivors are his daughters, Miriam W. Hughes, Paula Bohaska and Anne Wagner, and six grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks donations be made to The Nature Conservancy or Planned Parenthood.
Sun-Sentinel article (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-owagner01may01,0,3639300.story?coll=sfla-news-nationworld)
By Edgar Sandoval
Staff Writer
Posted May 1 2005
Capt. George H. Wagner, a lifelong pilot who escaped a hijacking to Cuba in the 1960s and whose name appears on the Wall of Honor at the National Air and Space Museum, died Thursday after a short battle with throat cancer. He was 82.
"We had a marvelous, adventurous life," said his wife, Miriam D. Wagner, from their home in Pompano Beach.
In 1969, Capt. Wagner was flying a group of Argentine college students to Lima, Peru, when a man pointed a gun to his face and demanded he fly the aircraft to Havana, Cuba, his wife said.
After the plane landed in Havana, the hijacker was distracted for a few seconds and Capt. Wagner punched him in the face.
"It seemed like the hijacker wanted the students to see how communist government worked, because after the hijacking they gave them a tour of the city," Wagner said.
He returned to Miami with no casualties.
Capt. Wagner served as a Navy fighter pilot and worked for commercial airlines in Latin America for years. He folded his wings in 1983.
Capt. Wagner met this wife when they were children in upstate New York.
But it was not until they were 21 when "sparks flew," Wagner said. They married at age 24, and later had three daughters.
There will be no services.
Capt. Wagner donated his body to the University of Miami's anatomy department.
In addition to his wife, other survivors are his daughters, Miriam W. Hughes, Paula Bohaska and Anne Wagner, and six grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks donations be made to The Nature Conservancy or Planned Parenthood.
Sun-Sentinel article (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-owagner01may01,0,3639300.story?coll=sfla-news-nationworld)