Page 18-Friday, May 12, 1978-The Michigan Daily
Gunman hijacks Colombian jet

WILLEMSTAD, Curacao (AP) -
Pilots and police overpowered a gun-
man last night five hours after he
hijacked a Colombian airliner with 119
people aboard and took it on a Carib-
bean island-hopping trip to Aruba and
then Curacao.
The passengers included at least two
Americans.
There's
a solution but. ..
Birth
defects
4b '0are
forever.
Unless
you help.
March
of Dimes

Authorities said one policeman was
shot in the hand during the melee.
It was not immediately known if the
hijacker had accomplices. Police were
checking for other hijackers on the
plane and among passengers who fled
out a side door.
The plane was hijacked on a domestic
flight from Santa Marta to Bogota,
Colombia.
Aruba authorities said the hijacker
shot the flight engineer in the leg before
the takeoff from Aruba, 65 miles away,
and the wounded man was removed by
ambulance there. Both islands are in
the Netherlands Antilles off Venezuela.
The plane arrived here at 6:30 p.m.
EDT Thursday and parked in front of
the freight terminal. Three ambulances
approached the plane but were ordered
away.
Airport officials said the Avianca
Boeing 727 landed at Aruba at 4:30 p.m.
EDT. It left for Curacao after the
hijacker demanded and got food and
6,600 gallons of gasoline.
Early reports in from Aruba said the
hijacker freed 24 women and children
there.
But a passenger, Colombian lawyer
Pedro de la Vega, told a Colombian
radio station that 10 Colombian

military officers were ordered off the
plane and 11 other passengers, in-
cluding himself, escaped through
another door.
Vega said the only hijacker he saw
was "a black man about 25 years old,
wearing a handkerchief across his face,
wielding a revolver in one hand and a
grenade in the other. He also had
another revolver strapped to his
waist."

Vega said it appeared the man talked
to another hijacker over the plane's
public address system.
"As the military got off through the
front door I and 10 other passengers go
off, apparently unnoticed, through the
back door," he said.
Two women and two children were
freed earlier when the plane stopped to
refuel in Cali, Colombia. Aruba is about
a two-hour flight from Cali.

Man fired for photo

LINDEN, N.J. (AP)-A Teamster
who lost his job at an Exxon refinery
because he bared his feelings about his
boss in Hustler Magazine is seeking
reinstatement.
Howard Goldberger, a lawyer for
Martin Konkus, 38, says his client was
fired by Exxon after he sent Hustler a
picture in which Konkus and five co-
workers posed with their pants down
and backs to the camera with an ad-
joining story expressing 'how much they
loved their bosses."
The case went before Peter Foley of
the American Arbitration Association

for 4hatever jungle you're in .. .

on Tuesday. It is not known when he
will issue a decision.
No action was taken by Exxon again-
st the five co-workers because their
faces were not visible in the picture and
only Konkus was mentioned in the ar-
ticle. Konkus received $100 for the pic-
ture.
"The picture was taken off company
property and on their own time," said
an official of Konkus' Teamsters union
who requested anonymity. "This is cer-
tainly a landmark case as to what they
considered free speech. This case is
based on freedom of expression."
Konkus works at an Exxon refinery in
Linden, apparently asa truck driver.
Goldberger said Konkus sent the pic-
ture in "as a protest because someone
at Exxon was disciplined for kiddingly
pulling his pants down in front of a
foreman. He said it was designed to
reduce to the absurd the company
taking action against horseplay that
had been condoned in the past."
Goldberger said only Konkus was
fired because he received $100 for the
picture. The five co-workers' faces
were not visible in the picture and only
Konkus was mentioned in the article.
Goldberger said Exxon is claiming
that Konkus violated posted rules on
commmon decency and morality and
that he tried to undermine the authority
of the supervisor.
"It was done on his own time and not
at Exxon, so their rules shouldn't have
been in effect," said Goldberger. "It'll
say this is a very unique case and we're
having a lot of fun with it."