Routine Flight

Among the seven passengers on the Philippines Air Lines DC-3 that morning was a young Chinese in a leopard-skin jacket. As the plane took off from north Luzon's Laoag Ilocos Norte airport, on the coast of the South China Sea, the passengers settled down for the routine half-hour flight to Aparri. Suddenly the plane lurched into a 45DEG bank. Purser Eduardo Diago came down the aisle reassuring passengers: "That was a terrific downdraft." He tried the handle of the pilot's cabin, tried again, and began hammering on the door. Then the passengers saw him slump to the floor, blood spurting from his left eye. There were two bullet holes in the cabin door. Only then did the passengers notice that the young Chinese in the leopard-skin jacket was not with them.

The Lurch that Failed. On the plane manifest he was listed as Lucio Lee, but his real name was Ang Tiv-chok; he had left Amoy, in South China, in 1947, and now was wanted by the Philippines for attempted murder.

The DC-3 had just taken off when Ang quietly slipped into the pilots' cabin. The two pilots, thinking that a passenger had come in for a view of the cockpit, glanced behind them--and looked straight into the barrel of Ang's .45 Colt. Ang thrust a typewritten note at them: "Do not be alarmed. I am a desperate man. This is a stickup. Do not talk to each other." He ordered them to set a course for Amoy, some 500 miles away. Pilot Captain Pedro Perlas protested that the plane did not have enough fuel. Suddenly he threw the wheel over to the left, hoping that the 45DEG lurch would knock Ang off his feet. Instead, Ang kept his balance, fired two bullets into Captain Perlas. It was just a moment later that Purser Diago began hammering on the door. Swinging round, Ang fired through the door, and it was then that the passengers first knew something was up. Captain Perlas made a feeble effort to unfasten his seat belt. Ang shot him again in the back, killing him.

The Finger on the Trigger. The rest of the story is Copilot Felix Gaston's: "I thought to myself: I am a dead duck, a goner. Dear Lord, can't I even see my unborn child? I tried everything. I said I had eaten no breakfast and was dizzy. I pretended illness and asked for water and food. But he wouldn't open that door. I offered to intercede with [Defense Secretary Ramon] Magsaysay for him. I said the left engine was stalling and that we had to ditch the plane. I put on a life jacket, gave him one, and pretended to panic. He said O.K., look for land.

"I weighed the chances of rushing him, and I managed to unfasten my seat belt and remove the arm rest. But he kept watching every move I made. I tried to find out what he knew about planes and direction. We were at an altitude of 5,000 to 6,000 feet, and I reduced the power-setting so that we were flying at 120 m.p.h. He asked, why so slow, and pushed at the throttles. I told him to be more economical on the gas. I kicked the rudder and started into a turn, but he noticed. He was wearing a wrist compass. He said that if I went back to the Philippines he would kill me. He held that gun cocked every minute, with his finger on the trigger."

The White Handkerchief. The DC-3 was already over the Chinese mainland and within sight of Communist Amoy. Gaston saw three flak bursts to starboard. A strange plane flew up. Gaston recognized the markings of a Chinese Nationalist patrol plane, and wagged his wings. The Chinese plane signaled to him to follow. Ang did not want to alter course, but when bullets began to rip into the DC-3 he borrowed a white handkerchief from Gaston and waved it at the other pilot.

Coming in to land, Copilot Gaston looked down, saw a parked aircraft with the letters C.A.T. (Civil Air Transport) on the fuselage, and banked away so that Ang would not see it. As soon as they taxied to the apron, Ang let himself out of the luggage hatch. But Gaston rushed through the cabin door, leaped across Purser Diago's body, past the terrified passengers, out into the arms of a swarming mass of Chinese soldiers--Chinese Nationalist soldiers, for their landing place was Quemoy Island, which is a Chiang Kai-shek outpost just outside the port of Amoy.

For the space of a few minutes the young Chinese in the leopard-skin jacket wandered about the Quemoy tarmac, under the illusion that he was safe in Communist territory. Then the soldiers closed in on him, for return to Philippine justice.

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