Wright was subsequently sentenced to 15 to 30 years' incarceration. On August 19, 1970, between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., after serving over 7 years and 6 months of his sentence, Wright joined three inmates and "just walked out" between bed checks from a state prison farm at Leesburg State Prison, now known as the Bayside State Prison in Leesburg, New Jersey. Wright escaped with his future hijacking accomplice, George Brown, who was serving a three to five-year sentence for a 1968 armed robbery conviction. Allegedly they stole the prison warden's car to get away. They made their way to Detroit, where they became affiliated with the Black Liberation Army. On August 26, 1970, federal complaints were issued in Atlantic City, charging Brown and Wright with unlawful flight to avoid confinement. On Monday, July 31, 1972,  Wright, then 29, together with: boarded Delta Air Lines Flight 841 in Detroit. The DC-8 flight was bound for Miami. Wright was dressed allegedly as a priest and, using the alias the Rev. Larry Darnell Burgess, he smuggled a handgun aboard the flight in a hollowed-out Bible. One passenger described the apparent ringleader as a black man, about 30, wearing a black mohair suit which others described as a clerical outfit. The pilot of the hijacked Detroit-Miami flight, Captain William Harold May, then 41 and a 20-year Delta employee, said Wright was the group's leader. The hijackers, allegedly members of the Black Liberation Army, seized the plane as it approached Miami, where they demanded that FBI agents (dressed only in bathing suits) deliver $1 million ransom to the plane; the FBI complied. The hijackers allowed the 86 hostage passengers to leave the plane in Miami, but kept the flight crew. They then ordered the plane to fly to Boston, where they refueled and took on an international navigator. They then directed the plane to Algiers, Algeria, where they sought political asylum since that government had shown compassion towards those struggling for liberation. May told reporters that two of the hijackers smoked marijuana continuously during the flight, and commented, "They said they were revolutionaries, that America is a decadent society and they didn't want to live here anymore." Upon arrival in Algeria, Melvin McNair had parting words for his pilot: "We're famous," he said, "Send us a copy of your paper." On Wednesday, August 2, 1972, federal complaints of air piracy charges were filed in Miami, naming the five accomplices as defendants.