A family jazz band hijacked a Soviet airliner in 1988 to escape the Iron Curtain
The Ovechkin family, a popular eleven-member jazz band, attempted a daring and tragic escape from the Soviet Union in 1988 by smuggling weapons onto a commercial airliner inside their instrument cases.
In 1988, the Ovechkin family used their status as a celebrated jazz ensemble to bypass security and board an Aeroflot flight with sawed-off shotguns hidden in a double-bass case. They demanded the pilot fly to London, seeking a life away from the constraints of the Iron Curtain. However, the plane landed at a Soviet military airfield near the Finnish border instead.
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