MIAMI, Nov 7: A man who returned to the US from Cuba almost 30 years after hijacking an airliner to Havana is set to make his first appearance in Miami federal court.

The FBI arrested 56-year-old William Potts shortly after his charter plane landed on Wednesday at Miami International Airport. Potts is to appear before a federal magistrate judge today afternoon, where the main business is likely to be appointing him an attorney.

Potts faces 20 years to life in prison if convicted of US air piracy charges in the 1984 hijacking. He already served more than 13 years in Cuba for the same offence.

In interviews prior to leaving Cuba, Potts said he was seeking “closure” and hoped to convince US prosecutors to give him credit for the 13-plus years he spent in Cuban prison for hijacking the flight.

“My position is I am a free man. I have served my time,” Potts said. “But they seem to have another concept. They are going to take control of me. I will be under their authority.’’

Potts was taken initially from the airport to the FBI’s Miami field office and was later being transferred to a downtown detention centre.

In the 1960s and 1970s, dozens of American aircraft were hijacked to communist Cuba at the height of the Cold War. But by the time Potts commandeered his plane, they had become less frequent and Cuba had begun prosecuting the hijackers.

According to an FBI affidavit filed with the indictment, Potts bought a one-way ticket on the Piedmont flight on March 27, 1984. Potts has said the flight originated in Newark, New Jersey, but the FBI affidavit said it was nearby LaGuardia Airport in New York.

As the airliner approached Miami, the FBI said Potts pushed a flight attendant call button and handed her a note claiming he had two “comrades” on the plane and that there were two explosive devices aboard. Potts called himself “Lt. Spartacus, a soldier in the Black Liberation Army,” according to the FBI.

Potts has said in interviews he had a gun hidden in a plaster cast that was used in the hijacking, but the FBI affidavit does not mention that.

The plane was flown to Havana, where Cuban authorities boarded it and took Potts into custody.—AP