Defector Pilot, Taiwanese Crew Fought in Mid-Flight

The pilot of a Taiwan jetliner chained his co-pilot to a seat in the cockpit in mid-flight, threatened him with an ax and exchanged punches with the flight engineer who was trying to stop the pilot from defecting to China, the co-pilot and flight engineer said today.

“We realized that it was useless to persuade (the pilot) to change his mind,” co-pilot Tung Kung-shin said. “We had to save our lives.”

Tung and the flight engineer, Chiu Ming-chih, spoke to reporters at Taiwan’s Chiang Kai-shek Airport after returning by passenger plane from China, where they were held for 20 days. They stayed in separate rooms in China and were pressured to stay, they said.

The defecting pilot, Wang Hsi-chueh, 55, diverted the Boeing 747 to the southern Chinese city of Canton on May 3 while on a flight between Bangkok and Hong Kong.

Wang, who has a wife and two sons in Taiwan, told a news conference in Peking that he defected because he wanted to be reunited with his 82-year-old father.

The incident led to the first direct talks between Taiwan and China since 1949, when the Nationalists fled to Taiwan after losing a civil war to the Communists.

The Chinese handed the aircraft over to Taiwan in Hong Kong today.

Tung, 57, said the struggle began as the plane was approaching Hong Kong airspace. He said Wang suddenly went behind his back, tied a steel chain around his neck and handcuffed his hands to a handle above his head.

“I could hardly breathe,” he said, adding Wang wielded an ax and told him to obey.

Chiu, 40, who was in the toilet at the time, said he questioned Wang when he returned. The flight engineer said he punched Wang in the face.

Chiu said he tried to kick Wang, but instead hit the back of the pilot’s seat, injuring his own leg. The engineer said Wang wielded his ax as if to attack him when Tung shouted, “Stop the fighting or we are crashing.”

The plane was at an altitude of about 16,000 feet when the fighting broke out.

Wang then resumed control of the plane, which had been on automatic pilot, Tung said.

Tung said Chinese officials told him that his 80-year-old mother and a sister who still live on the mainland wanted to meet him. He said he refused because the meeting “would influence my will to return to Taiwan.”