‘Hijacking of Flight 601’: Did Netflix Invent Characters in the Series? Differences with real ones

On April 10, Netflix added “Hijacking of Flight 601” to its catalog, a series that in more than 6 episodes tells the story of the difficulties faced by two flight attendants when the plane they work on is hijacked by two people and negotiations with the authorities do not it flows immediately.

The Colombian production is inspired by the true story of the hijacking of flight HK 1274, which on May 30, 1973 took off from the city of Pereira (Colombia) bound for Medellín and ended up spending more than 55 hours in the air.

The largest hijacking of a plane in Latin America, in turn, gave rise to the book “The Condemned of the Air”, by the Italian journalist Massimo Di Ricco, published in 2020, which mentions this and other unusual incidents of hijacking.

Although, Netflix’s account of this event takes some creative liberties. Then we say what is related to the characters.

“Hijacking of Flight 601”: cast of the Netflix series

The series features, for the most part, Colombian talent, which is not surprising given that the real story started in this Latin American country.

The cast of “Hijacking of Flight 601” is as follows:

• Mónica Lopera as Edilma Pérez or “Edie”, flight attendant

• Christian Tappan as Commander and Richard Wilches

• Ángela Cano as Bárbara Gallo, flight attendant

• Enrique Carriazo as Ingeniero Pirateque, the manager of Aerobolivar

• Marcela Benjumea as Manchola, head of the flight attendants

• Johan Rivera as Guillermo Luís Lequerica, the co-pilot

• Carlos Manuel Vesga as Francisco ‘El Flaco’ Marulanda, passenger

• Ilena Antonini as Marisol, a rookie flight attendant

• Valentin Villafañe as Borja, one of the kidnappers.

• Alian Devetac as “El Toro” Solano, the second kidnapper

The ‘Hijacking of Flight 601’ differences between the characters in the Netflix series and the real ones

One of the main differences between the Netflix series and the real events is the number of passengers: the streaming platform’s version shows about half of the 84 aboard flight HK 1274.

Another of the most significant changes Netflix made was that, in the actual story, the plane’s crew made a change in the middle of the hijacking, as the fatigue of the pilot, co-pilot and flight attendants made it impossible for them to do so. to continue to be responsible for such a situation. In contrast, in the streaming service’s version, the same characters remain from the first chapter.

This TV adaptation focuses on the flight attendants who helped the crime in question to its best effect. In particular, the focus is on Edilma Pérez, who is presented as a mother of 3 children completely overwhelmed by work and household chores.

In real life, according to Massimo Di Ricco in the podcast “Los aeropiratas” on Radio Ambulante, she was one of the flight attendants and had five children, whom she left in the care of her sister during the trip.

Bárbara Gallo is his assistant in the difficult task of dealing with the “Hijacking of Flight 601”. In real life, the most similar character was named María Eugenia Gallo, she was Edilma’s work friend and also took over the hijacking.

Netflix introduces a third flight attendant, named Marisol. In the second crew that boarded flight HK 1274, only Edilma and María Eugenia were there.

Other character names changed for the series were those of the flight’s pilot and co-pilot. In real life, two pilots were in charge of flight HK 1274, Jorge Lucena and Hugo Molina, instead of Richard Wilches.

The same happened in the case of the co-pilots: Pedro Gracia and Pedro Ramírez were the second in charge of the kidnapping, while the Netflix adaptation only shows Guillermo Lequerica.

Additionally, the 1973 Columbia flight hijackers had their faces covered at all times.

‘Hijacking of Flight 601’: Netflix took creative liberties with the true story

Although the series is based on real events, it is mainly inspired by the book “The Wretched of the Air”, by the journalist Massimo Di Ricco.

The author told “El Tiempo” that he did not set conditions for the TV adaptation to be completely faithful to the events he researched and narrated in his book:

“In the contract I gave them carte blanche to dramatize it as they wanted. “I wasn’t interested in them reflecting the real story, because I know that anything that happened back then was much crazier, more complicated and surreal than what could have been told,” he said.

Have you already seen ‘Hijacking of Flight 601’ Did you know the true story that inspired the Netflix series? Let us know in the comments what you think about the changes.