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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Yes. Netflix’s six-episode Colombian drama The Hijacking of Flight 601 is based on a real 1973 hijacking—but its scenes and character storylines are a dramatization, not a verbatim record. The historical event involved SAM aircraft HK-1274, seized after it left Pereira on May 30, 1973, and a crisis involving demands for money and the release of political detainees.
What happened to Flight 601?
On May 30, 1973, an aircraft operated by Sociedad Aeronáutica de Medellín (SAM), identified as HK-1274, was hijacked during a domestic journey in Colombia. El Espectador’s 2024 reconstruction, based on the newspaper’s archive, describes a route involving Bogotá, Cali, Pereira and Medellín. The seizure occurred after the plane departed Pereira.
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The hijackers demanded US$200,000 and the release of political detainees, according to El Espectador’s account. Reporting describes the plane being diverted to Aruba, passengers being released in stages, and further attempts to travel amid mechanical or permission-related constraints. The crisis stretched across multiple stops rather than ending with a single diversion.
Accounts do not agree on how many people were aboard. Noticias Caracol’s 2024 historical explainer gives a figure of 84, while El Espectador’s report drawn from contemporary newspaper coverage records changing counts and at one point reports 98 people including crew. Those figures should be treated as differing reports, not reconciled into a definitive manifest.
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How long did the hijacking last?
Former flight attendants Edilma Pérez and María Eugenia Gallo later recalled an ordeal of about 60 hours. Their retrospective accounts describe threats and exhaustion, as well as crew changes. The precise duration varies across reports, so “about 60 hours” is best understood as the attendants’ recollection rather than a universally settled figure.
Gallo described the experience years later as “a gift of life, a privilege” to be able to tell the story. Her words convey the weight of survival, but they are a later reflection—not a transcript of what happened aboard the aircraft.
What is the series based on, and what does it dramatize?
Netflix labels the six-episode series “Based on real events” and classifies it as based on a book. El Espectador identifies that book as Massimo Di Ricco’s Los condenados del aire. The historical foundation is the hijacking, its demands and negotiations, and the people held aboard during the prolonged crisis.
The series places two flight attendants at the center of its dramatic premise. The real attendants interviewed in later reporting were Pérez and Gallo. Their testimony offers a useful point of comparison with the show, but it does not establish that the series’ character names, private storylines, dialogue, scene order or dramatic resolutions match the historical record.
That distinction matters when asking whether the series is “true.” The event itself is documented in retrospective reporting and survivor recollections; a scripted scene should not be treated as evidence of exact words or actions unless an independent source supports it. El Espectador’s archival-based account is itself a 2024 reconstruction, while the attendants’ accounts are memories shared decades after the event.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why do accounts of the event differ?
The available reports draw on different kinds of evidence: El Espectador reconstructs the story from its newspaper archive, while Noticias Caracol reports historical summaries and interviews with former crew members. Counts shifted in contemporary coverage, and recollections may differ on duration and sequence. Neither an exact passenger total nor a single definitive chronology is established by these accounts.
Massimo Di Ricco’s compilation, as reported by El Espectador in 2024, places the hijacking within a wider wave of airline seizures: about 90 across Latin America from 1967 to 1973, nearly 30 of them in Colombia. Those are figures attributed to the book through a secondary report, not a separately verified statistical dataset.
Where to read more about the real case
For the documentary basis, see El Espectador’s account of the hijacking and its newspaper record, its report on testimony from people affected, and Noticias Caracol’s interview with the real flight attendants. Netflix’s official series page gives the streaming service’s description. El Espectador identifies Di Ricco’s Los condenados del aire as the source book.
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