How Canada's first skyjacker boarded a Saint John flight and what happened next

A New Brunswick podcast is using its platform and the technologies of the modern age to reach a new audience with a dramatic story about Canada's aviation history — from an era when airport security was as lax as getting on a bus.

Saint John: Nothing Happened Here, in a two-part series, brings the country's first-ever skyjacking to light. 

"This is like a little nugget from the past, and it's an interesting piece of Canadian history and ... it was news for a day and kind of buried away," Greg Marquis, a University of New Brunswick Saint John history professor and co-host of the podcast, said. 

It all started about a year ago, when Marquis came across a news clipping from Sept. 11, 1968, about an incident on Air Canada flight 303 from Saint John to Toronto.  

Marquis dug deeper and conducted extensive interviews with passengers and crew that were on that flight. 

He said the podcast format has allowed him, and co-host Mark Allan Greene, to reach an audience that might not take the time to attend a history lecture or do their own research into historical events. 

WATCH | 'It's kind of neat to tell the story again for a younger population':

More than 56 years after Canada’s first sky-jacking, the story finds a new audience

2 days ago

Duration 3:27

On Sept. 11, 1968, an Air Canada Viscount plane was hijacked shortly after leaving Saint John — a first in Canadian aviation. Now, a history professor is reigniting interest in the event in a new podcast.

In 1968, boarding a flight was simple. There were no security checkpoints or even the need to show identification.

Bud Cavanaugh said Sept. 11 of that year was a rather boring day to be an Air Canada ticket agent, with only six people needing to check in.  

He remembers seeing a car pull up to the airport that looked different from the others.

"The licence plate wasn't the same, it must have been Quebec or Ontario." 

A tall man walked out of the car and into the airport. He checked in with no baggage.

That man was Charles Lavern Beasley, a Texas native, carrying a .22-calibre pistol. 

'I knew we were in trouble' 

Sue Pridham, just 19 years old at the time, was boarding the flight to Toronto with dreams of moving to the big city for a change, "wanting some different experience, which I certainly did starting out," she said. 

While waiting to board the plane, Pridham remembers seeing a man who looked suspicious. He was holding a beige raincoat over his arm. 

Pridham's father, who was saying goodbye to her at the airport, pointed out the man and said, "There's really something fishy about him," she said. 

She then kissed her parents and boarded the plane.

The man in question entered last, she said, still with the raincoat over his arm, "I knew then that we were in trouble … I just had that feeling." 

Flight attendants had begun to serve passengers when the man stood up suddenly and held a gun to the back of one flight attendant's neck. 

Pridham said the flight attendants spoke quietly to each other before they headed back to the cockpit. And dinner was served shortly after. 

Beasley barged into the cockpit demanding he be taken to Cuba.

 The pilot told Beasley the plane didn't have enough fuel to make it to his preferred destination.

It was likely around this time, just 20 minutes since Cavanaugh had checked-in the hijacker, that crew back at the airport were notified. 

"We found out from the radio range boys out back that the flight had been skyjacked," said Cavanaugh. "We were all surprised and just waiting for information to come in." 

The plane landed in Montreal about an hour later. "The captain said we had an unexpected guest … and we had to make a stop in Dorval," said Pridham. 

Looking out of the window of the plane, Pridham said you could see RCMP and Quebec police outside with guns drawn. 

One thing that struck Marquis when conducting interviews for the podcast was how calm everyone on the plane seemed during this stressful event. 

And even now, there doesn't seem to be much animosity toward the hijacker.

"I found that interesting, the fact that this guy had a loaded gun in a pressurized cabin and was pointing it at flight attendants and possibly the crew," said Marquis. 

"They had a very mature attitude about what had happened." 

For Pridham, retelling this story has been "kind of neat." 

"For the younger populations, but also for the Air Canada pilots and stewardesses, to bring this back to their mind that their staff went through a horrific time in their lives."