After Fidel forbid Cubans to travel abroad, (around 1960) it was not uncommon for anti-Castro Cubans to hijack domestic flights to Miami. They were treated as brave anti-communist freedom fighters. Several Eastern European refugees used the same method to escape the Iron Curtain. All these hijackers were welcomed to the free world as heroes.

Although the Wikipedia list of commercial airline hijacks lists none of these episodes, I remember them distinctly during my high school years. They never failed to make the newspapers. I wonder why they have been removed from the records.

After a few years, airliners started to get highjacked from the USA to Cuba, no doubt revenge acts by agents of the Cuban government. As I recall, no one was hurt in any of these escapades, although the Cubans invariably kept the planes in Havana for elaborate (and very expensive) multi-day "safety inspections" and pre-flight maintenance
while their passengers were given the full VIP treatment at Havana tourist hotels. After a while, hijackings in both directions stopped.