Home  >  The History Hour  >  Latin America's longest plane hijacking and Kristallnacht
The History Hour
Latin America's longest plane hijacking and Kristallnacht
The History Hour
Oct 4, 2024

We start our programme in 1973, when two men claiming to be Colombian guerrillas hijacked a plane making it fly across Latin American for 60 hours. Edilma Perez was a former fight attendant for SAM airline.

Our expert guest is Brendan Koerner author of The Skies Belong To Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking.

Then we take a look at the 2009 UN-backed war crime tribunals in Cambodia that aimed to hold the genocidal Khmer Rouge commanders to account. Rob Hamill, brother of Toul Sleng prisoner Kerry Hamill.

Following that we hear about the striking speech that inspired the Law of the Sea. We speak Christina Pardo Menez, Arvid Pardo's daughter and David Attard, Arvid Pardo's friend.

Then we go back to 1989 and hear how South Africa became the first country to make and then dismantle nuclear weapons. André Buys, was plant manager and systems engineer at Kentron Circle.

And finally we hear a first hand account of the 1938 Kristallnacht from Kurt Salomon Maier.

Presenter: Max Pearson

(Photo: SAM airlines 1973 Latin American flight. Credit: Jamie Escobar)

More Episodes



Mar 14, 2026
Movie history: Seven Samurai and Casablanca

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is media, culture and creative industries lecturer Sarah Jilani. We start in 1954 with the Japanese film Seven Samurai which is widely considered to be one of world cinema's most influential films. Then, we hear about the 2006 Hindi film Rang de Basanti which broke box-office records and inspired thousands of young Indians to march for justice. We delve into the BBC Archives to hear from director Leni Riefenstahl about one of the most controversial propaganda movies ever made, Triumph of the Will, which was filmed at the Nazis’ Nuremberg rally in 1934. Next, we hear about the challenges of making the Hollywood 1942 classic, Casablanca, from the late son and nephew of the screenwriters. Finally, the story of the Spanish language fantasy, Pan's Labyrinth, which took the world by storm in 2006. Contributors: Hisao Kurosawa - movie producer, head of the Kurosawa Production Company and son of Seven Samurai director Akira Kurosawa. Sarah Jilani - a Lecturer in the Department of Media, Culture and Creative Industries, City St George's, University of London. Kamlesh Pandey - screenwriter. Leni Riefenstahl - film maker (from BBC Archive). Leslie Epstein - the late son and nephew of screenwriters Julius and Philip Epstein respectively. Ivana Baquero - actress. (Photo: Ingrid Bergman with Humphrey Bogart in a still from Casablanca. Credit: Universal History Archive/Getty Images)


01hr 00min

Latin America's longest plane hijacking and Kristallnacht

--:--
--:--