Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- Capt. Carl Gamble was behind the controls of Piedmont Airlines Flight 451 as the plane headed to Miami when a stewardess delivered a note from a passenger saying the flight was being hijacked. Nearly 30 years later, Gamble still recalls the sense of dread wash over him as he read the hijacker's demand to be flown to Cuba. "It's such a shock that for the first 30 seconds you can't remember your name," Gamble said. "But then it all falls into place." Gamble was an Air Force veteran who, exactly 15 years to the day of the hijacking, had been shot down in Vietnam. Over the plane's intercom system, Gamble tried to negotiate with the hijacker, a pistol-wielding man dressed in black, who called himself "Lt. Spartacus."
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NEW: FBI agents have arrested William Potts on air piracy charges
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William Potts served time in Cuban prisons for a 1984 hijacking
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Potts, 56, says he regrets the crime and wants to be with his family
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The pilot of that plane said he holds no grudges against Potts
The airline told @placeholder to comply with the hijacker's demands.