Transcript

The Classiest Plane Hijacking of All Time

From Today I Found Out · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 16 min · 2,553 words · 20 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "The Classiest Plane Hijacking of All Time", an episode of Today I Found Out published January 11, 2026 (16 min, about 2,553 words). It mentions 11 people, works and ideas, including Armino de Palma Inasio, Estado Novo, Antonio de Salazar, Carnation Revolution, Angola.

What this episode is about

In November 1961, a Lockheed super constellation operated by TAP Airlines was hijacked mid-flight by Armino de Palma in Nasio, an anti-fascist terrorist, who demanded the pilot divert to several cities, showcasing a blend of audacity and meticulous planning during an era when hijacking was still emerging as a threat. The incident highlights the complexities of aviation security and political dissent in a post-war context, as Nasio’s personal history intertwined with his radical actions against Portugal's dictatorship.

Key takeaways

  • In '61, terrorism took to the skies; a hijacker with a pilot's toolkit makes chaos finer.
  • Anti-fascism in the cockpit: how a disgruntled aeronaut turned a flight into a political statement.
  • Salazar's Portugal: austerity over spectacle—a dictator who preferred budget balancing to grandstanding.
  • Despite brutal regimes around him, Salazar's quiet governance was a peculiar ‘lesser evil’ of the era.
  • Even in dictatorship, he believed the elite should lead; a strange paradox to his anti-parliamentary stance.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 3:00: Jose Sakira Marcelin, Armino de Palma Inasio, Antonio de Salazar
  2. – 6:00: Estado Novo
  3. – 9:00: PIDE, Estado Novo, Angola
  4. – 12:00: Angola, Estado Novo, Enrique Galvo
  5. – 15:00: Estado Novo, Bank of Portugal, Mario Soares

Notable quotes from "The Classiest Plane Hijacking of All Time"

  • Were clear and the flight looked to be smooth and uneventful. But just 45 minutes after takeoff, the pilot, Captain Jose Sakira Marcelin, felt the cold barrel of a gun pressed…
    about Jose Sakira Marcelin · at
  • Portugal's autocratic leader Antonio deoa Salazar. Largely forgotten today outside of Portugal, Salazar was among 20th century Europe's longest serving leaders, ruling the…
    about Antonio de Salazar · at
  • Government, becoming prime minister in 1932. In 1933, he drafted a new constitution and dubbed his one party system Estado Novo or new state. Though a contemporary of Germany's…
    about Estado Novo · at
  • The PDA was nonetheless ruthlessly efficient and greatly feared by citizens. But the policies that would most profoundly impact Salazar's Portugal were those concerning its…
    about Angola · at
  • Portuguese anti-fascists in exile. On January the 22nd, 1961, one of these exiles, former army captain Enrique Galvo, struck a public blow against the Salazar regime when he…
    about Enrique Galvo · at
  • Another legendary operation robbing the Bank of Portugal. The heist took place on May the 17th, 1967. The rebels making off with a whopping $29 million. By this time, the…
    about Bank of Portugal · at
  • Overthrew Estadoon Nova in a largely bloodless coup now known as the Carnian Revolution. The following day, an order went out to release all political prisoners, including…
    about Carnation Revolution · at
  • Efforts to shun the limelight, he was fetted as a national hero and on May 2000, awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Liberty by Portuguese President Mario Solades. 16 years…
    about Armino de Palma Inasio · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Armino de Palma Inasio — Person · Central historical figure (anti-Estado Novo revolutionary; hijacking leader) · 1 mention · first at
    Primary protagonist of the episode: led the 1961 TAP hijacking (Operation Vagô) to drop anti-Salazar pamphlets, later tied to LUR and the 1967 Bank of Portugal robbery; ultimately honored after Portuguese democratization.
  • Antonio de Salazar — Person · Primary antagonist / referenced political leader · 1 mention · first at
    Dictator-like prime minister who built and led the Estado Novo; his regime (PIDE, colonial wars) is the target of Inácio’s operations and the episode’s political backdrop.
  • Jose Sakira Marcelin — Person · Referenced participant (hijacking victim; pilot-in-command) · 2 mentions · first at
    Captain of the TAP Lockheed Super Constellation hijacked in 1961; forced to divert over Lisbon and comply with the pamphlet-drop mission.
  • Enrique Galvo — Person · Referenced revolutionary / inspiration figure · 1 mention · first at
    Led the 1961 Santa Maria ocean-liner seizure that publicized opposition to Estado Novo; presented as a direct inspiration for Inácio’s later Operation Vagô.
  • Marcelo Caetano — Person · Referenced political successor · 4 mentions
    Succeeded Salazar as prime minister after Salazar’s 1968 hemorrhage; marks the late-stage transition period of Estado Novo before the 1974 Carnation Revolution.
    Suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and slipped into a coma. Expected to die within days, he was removed from power and replaced as prime minister by Marcelo Kaitano. One month…
  • Mario Soares — Person · Referenced head of state (honors Inácio) · 1 mention · first at
    Named as the Portuguese president who awarded Inácio the Grand Cross of the Order of Liberty, underscoring Inácio’s later rehabilitation as a democratic-era hero.
    Efforts to shun the limelight, he was fetted as a national hero and on May 2000, awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Liberty by Portuguese President Mario Solades. 16 years…

Companies & orgs

  • PIDE — Company · 2 mentions · first at
    The PDA was nonetheless ruthlessly efficient and greatly feared by citizens. But the policies that would most profoundly impact Salazar's Portugal were those concerning its.
  • Bank of Portugal — Company · 1 mention · first at

Concepts & topics

Places & events

Full transcript with timestamps

At 9:15 a.m. on November the 10th, 1961, a Lockheed super constellation of Portugal's tap Airlines lifted off from Casablanca, Morocco. Aboard were 19 passengers, mostly American tourists, bound for Lisbon. The skies that day were clear and the flight looked to be smooth and uneventful. But just 45 minutes after takeoff, the pilot, Captain Jose Sakira Marcelin, felt the cold barrel of a gun pressed against the back of his neck. The guns owner, a 39-year-old anti-fascist terrorist named Armino de Palma in Nasio, ordered Captain Marceline to divert and fly over the city's Lisbon, Berio, Beha, and FO.

Marceline protested, arguing that the plane did not have enough fuel. But Anasio, a pilot, and one-time aircraft mechanic himself, was not fooled and after glancing at the flight plan, determined that the diversion was indeed possible. Out of options, Captain Marceline had no choice but to obey. While in the early 1960s, aerial terrorism was still a relatively new phenomenon, nothing could have prepared Marceline and his passengers for what happened next. This is the outlandish story of history's classiest hijacking.

Edamino de Palma Enasio was born on January the 29th, 1922 in the small Portuguese fishing village of Federudo. After graduating from Silvis Industrial Secondary School, he joined the Portuguese Air Force, completing a course in aircraft mechanics and attaining the rank of sergeant. During the Second World War, mismanagement of Portugal's transport infrastructure resulted in massive food shortages across the country. This prompted Anasio, stationed at Gr Air Force Base in CRA to begin smuggling food to his home village aboard military transport aircraft. However, an unfortunate crash landing led to the scheme being discovered and he was sentenced to 20 days imprisonment and expelled from the Air Force. These early experiences would stoke Inasio's lifelong disaection with Portugal's autocratic leader Antonio deoa Salazar. Largely forgotten today outside of Portugal, Salazar was among 20th century Europe's longest serving

leaders, ruling the country for 38 years from 1932 to 1970. Born into a peasant family in 1889, Salazar studied economics at the University of Cobbra where his two doctoral thesises earned him a chaired professorship in economics and finance in 1914. In 1918, he further obtained a doctorate in law. The 1910s and 20s were a period of enormous upheaval for Portugal. On October the 5th, 1910, a revolution overthrew the monarchy and established the first Portuguese Republic. Unfortunately, this new republic proved corrupt and unstable with the country rotating through no fewer than 45 different governments over the following 16 years. Foreign debt swelled, inflation devalued the national currency, the escudo, and revolutions, assassinations, riots, and religious persecution became near daily occurrences, turning Portugal into a by-word for political chaos. In 1921, Salazar was persuaded to leave his

professorship and run for parliament. Though he won his seat, he made only a single appearance in the chamber before resigning. Disgusted by what he saw as the disorder, waste, and futility of parliamentary politics. On May the 28th, 1926, a coup led by General Gomez D. Costa overthrew the republic and established a military dictatorship known as the Dadura Nasanal. In an attempt to resurrect the nation's more abundant economy, the new government invited Salazar, who had built a reputation as an economic wizard, to become minister of finance. Salazar agreed on the condition he'd be given free reign to execute his desired reforms. When this demand was refused, he declined the offer and returned academia. Two years later, however, General Antonio Escar de Fagosa Carmona came to power and acceeded to Salazar's demands. As Minister of Finance, Salazar implemented sweeping reforms, hiking taxes, and clamping down on public

spending. In so doing, he succeeded in balancing the national budget for the first time in 18 years, liquidating Portugal's foreign debt and restoring the value of the escudo. With his hands now firmly on the levers of power, Salazar rose quickly within the new government, becoming prime minister in 1932. In 1933, he drafted a new constitution and dubbed his one party system Estado Novo or new state. Though a contemporary of Germany's Adolf Hitler, Italy's Bonito Mussolini and Spain's Francisco Franco, Salazar opposed fascism almost as vehemently as he did communism, liberalism, and democracy, dismissing the former as pagan Caesarism, and the latter with assertion that I am profoundly anti-parliamentarian.

I hate the speeches, the verbosity, the flowery meaningless interpolations, the way we waste passion, not around any great idea, but just around futilities, nothingness from the point of view of the national good. Indeed, Salazar rejected the idea of mass politics altogether, stating that the great problems of the nations are not solved by rank and file, but the elite around which the masses can group themselves. The Portuguese must be treated as children. Too much too often would spoil them. Instead, Salazar ran Portugal as a nationalist conservative corporate state organized around five key values: God, country, authority, family, and work. A devout Catholic, Salazar believed that education was responsibility of the family and that a woman's natural place was in the home. However, unlike Franco in Spain, he did not impose Catholicism upon Portugal as a national religion and largely kept the Catholic Church at arms

length. Salazar also strongly disliked the pomp and ceremony favored by many of his fellow strong men as skewing elaborate honors, titles, monuments, and parades. A simple, austere man, he never married and lived quietly with a housekeeper and two adopted daughters in a plain two-story house in Lisbon. His only hobbies outside of work being daily prayer in a nearby chapel and tending of the house's gardens. As a result, Portugal became widely known as a dictatorship without a dictator. But while Salazar and the Estadon Novo brought Portugal political and financial stability and new social policies such as workman's compensation, social security, and public works projects, these reforms came at a high price. In order to stabilize the economy and keep the budget balanced, Salazar pandered to Portugal's richest land owners, bankers, and industrialists, the so-called 100 families. The so-called hundred families

spent 40% of the budget on the military, outlawed trade unions and strikes, and slashed funding for public education. As a result, by the late 1960s, Portugal had the lowest per capita income and highest illiteracy rate of any nation in Western Europe. And to enforce his regime in 1933, Salazar formed the International and State Defense Police or PIDE. While considerably less brutal than other secret police forces like the Nazi Gestapo, East German Stazzi or Soviet KGB. Indeed, under Salazar, the death penalty in Portugal was abolished.

The PDA was nonetheless ruthlessly efficient and greatly feared by citizens. But the policies that would most profoundly impact Salazar's Portugal were those concerning its overseas colonies, such as Angola and Mosmbique in Africa. At the same time, other Western nations were slowly giving up their colonial empires. Portugal clung to the racist and paternalistic philosophy of lucotropicalism with Salazar arguing that Portugal's rights in these territories derived from discovery and from occupation of lands which were mostly uninhabited. The principle of self-governance could only lead to an extension of chaos in Africa and the former states of backwardness that one might consider to have been surpassed. The result was decades of violent uprising and brutal repression in the colonies which consumed an everinccreasing proportion of Portugal's national budget and resulted in the deaths of thousands of Portuguese

soldiers and tens of thousands of native Africans. Despite all this, however, Salazar's steady hand over Portugal's economy earned him considerable praise and admiration from unexpected quarters including the United States, British liberal politicians and French President Sha Deul. Meanwhile, a number of revolutionary groups emerged in opposition to the Salazar regime. On April the 10th, 1947, a military honta led by Vice Admiral Jose Mendes Cbasada attempted to overthrow the Estado Novo. The then 25-year-old Armano de Palma Enasio, who had returned to Portugal following a stint with the Dutch airline KLM, was tasked with sabotaging aircraft at Granja Air Force Base to prevent them being used against the rebels.

Unfortunately for him, the coup, also known as the April Revolution, was swiftly crushed and Anasio went into hiding on a farm at Odas. After 7 months, however, he was finally caught and arrested by the PD and imprisoned in Lisbon, where he was tortured for 12 days straight and then locked in solitary confinement for 5 months. When he was finally returned to the regular cell block, he wasted no time plotting a daring escape. On the morning of May 16th, 1948, Inasio wrapped four bed sheets around his legs beneath his trousers and joined the line of prisoners waiting to use the bathroom.

Then, when the guards had their backs turned, he leapt out the window and landed on the ground 15 m below. The bed sheet padding served to break his fall. Before the nearby sentry could react, Inasio melted into a nearby crowd and disappeared. The next 13 years would see Anasio bouncing from country to country, finding work as a pilot and aircraft mechanic along the way. With the Pa on his heels, he fled first to Morocco, then the United States, and finally Brazil, where he met several other Portuguese anti-fascists in exile. On January the 22nd, 1961, one of these exiles, former army captain Enrique Galvo, struck a public blow against the Salazar regime when he and a team of Portuguese and Spanish revolutionaries took control of the Portuguese ocean liner, Santa Maria, in the South Atlantic. While Galvo intended to sail the liner across the Atlantic and established an opposition government in

Angola, the Santa Maria was intercepted off the coast of Brazil by a fleet of United States naval destroyers. After two weeks of negotiations, the rebels were granted political asylum by the newly incumbent Brazilian president Zano Cuadros, and the ship was allowed to dock at the port of Reeseph. Though Galvo failed in his primary mission, the hijacking succeeded in bringing to the world's attention Estado Novo's repressive actions in its African colonies. A mere 2 days after the Santa Maria docked in Resafe, the Portuguese colonial war, a savage 13-year struggle for independence would break out in Angola, Mosmbique, and Guinea Basau.

Inspired by Galvo's actions, nine months later, Armino de Palmo Inasio and his fellow exiles put their own daring plan into action. Operation Vago, the hijacking of a tap airliner in Casablanca. The operation was carried out by Inasio and four other rebels, one of whom, the only woman in the group, smuggled the team's weapons on a belt hidden beneath her pregnant belly. But despite initial appearances, the operation, the first political aircraft hijacking in European history, was not violent in nature. Instead, Inasio and his compatriots simply plan to scatter 100,000 anti- Salazar pamphlets over Lisbon and other cities. Indeed, throughout the flight, Inasio did his best to reassure the passengers, instructing his team to keep their weapons hidden and allowing the cabin crew to provide regular drink and meal service. Upon reaching Lisbon, Inasio instructed Captain Marceline to perform an aborted landing at the airport, then

fly over the heart of the city. Then, flying just above rooftop level, the rebels depressurized the cabin, opened a window, and scattered the first load of pamphlets. Meanwhile, a squadron of fighter jets scrambled from Monte Royale Air Force Base with orders to intercept the rogue airliner, but were unable to locate the aircraft before it had already completed its mission and turned back towards Morocco. However, while crossing the Mediterranean, the aircraft ran straight into two Portuguese warships. Thinking quickly, Inasio ordered Captain Marceline to fly between the two ships, barely skimming the waves. With the ships unable to fire without risking hitting each other, the aircraft completed the crossing unscathed and landed successfully in Tangier. With the aircraft safely on the ground, Inasio addressed the passengers, apologizing profusely for the ordeal he had put them through. He then proceeded

to present every female passenger with a red rose and promptly vanished. While the daring and improbable gental hijacking made international headlines and exposed the vulnerability of the Salazar regime, it also completely drained the rebels funds. And so Anasio and his comrades set about planning another legendary operation robbing the Bank of Portugal. The heist took place on May the 17th, 1967. The rebels making off with a whopping $29 million. By this time, the anti-Salzar movement had been formally organized into the League of Unity and Revolutionary Action, or LUR, headquartered in Paris. From here, Enasio and his fellow LUR members planned a series of increasingly ambitious operations, including a 1973 attempt to capture the city of Coilia.

This coup, however, was unsuccessful, and Inasio again found himself arrested by the PE and imprisoned in the city of Porto. But once again, he managed to escape, sawing through his cellb bars using hacksaw blades smuggled to him by his sister. Meanwhile, the Estadoon Novo regime was at last beginning to crumble. In August of 1968, Antonio Salazar suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and slipped into a coma. Expected to die within days, he was removed from power and replaced as prime minister by Marcelo Kaitano. One month later, however, Salazar unexpectedly recovered from his coma. His close confidants chose not to inform him of his replacement and allowed him to continue ruling until his eventual death on July the 27th, 1970. Though Estado Novo carried on, it did not long outlive its founder. The decadel long wars in Portugal's colonies had severely depleted the government's coffers, stretching the Portuguese military to

its breaking point and alienated large swaths of the population. Finally, on April the 25th, 1974, military officers led by Brigadier Odell Bravo de Cavalo overthrew Estadoon Nova in a largely bloodless coup now known as the Carnian Revolution. The following day, an order went out to release all political prisoners, including Armino de Palma in Nasio, who had once again been arrested and imprisoned in November of 1973. However, the prison guards initially refused to release him, arguing that the 1967 bank robbery had been a regular petty crime and not a political act. But upon his release, Inasio returned to Paris and ordered LU to stand down until democracy had been firmly established in Portugal, fearing that the rebel group would try to establish a Soviet style dictatorship. In 1976, with the political climate in Portugal having stabilized, Hinasio dissolved LUR and returned to civilian life, refusing any

special awards, benefits, and privileges. Yet, despite his best efforts to shun the limelight, he was fetted as a national hero and on May 2000, awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Liberty by Portuguese President Mario Solades. 16 years later, a street in the Calvinist District of Lisbon was named in his honor and a bronze bust of his likeness erected in the city of Porto. Armino de Palmo Enasio died in 2009 at the age of 87, having lived out his last years living quietly on a modest government pension. A figure from a bygone era, this quiet and humble revolutionary who abhored violence and handed out roses to hijacking victims remains perhaps the classiest terrorist of all time.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "The Classiest Plane Hijacking of All Time"?

Captain Jose Sakira Marcelin, Armino de Palma Inasio (Guest), Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, Enrique Galvo.

What is "The Classiest Plane Hijacking of All Time" about?

In November 1961, a Lockheed super constellation operated by TAP Airlines was hijacked mid-flight by Armino de Palma in Nasio, an anti-fascist terrorist, who demanded the pilot divert to several cities, showcasing a blend of audacity and meticulous planning during an era when hijacking was still emerging as a threat. The incident highlights the complexities of aviation security and political…

What is mentioned in this Today I Found Out episode?

11 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Armino de Palma Inasio, Estado Novo, Antonio de Salazar, Carnation Revolution, Angola, Jose Sakira Marcelin. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "The Classiest Plane Hijacking of All Time"?

The episode runs 16 min; the transcript is about 2,553 words in 20 timestamped sections.

More from Today I Found Out

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.