First Man Who Hijacked Airplane

Part 2

Realising the danger, Capt Hare capitulated. He took the map the rebels had drawn and agreed to fly them to a rendezvous point near Myanmar's west coast.

At the time, the Karen controlled land both east and west of the then capital Rangoon, and the plan was to use the plane to link the two.

For the next three hours Saw Kyaw peered desperately at the ground below looking for the large piece of white paper that would show a prepared runway. But something had gone wrong.

Maybe none of his fellow rebels had actually believed the plan would work. Hijacking in the 1950s was almost unheard of and two of the most senior Karen commanders had rejected the scheme outright. One of them had even called him a fool.

Fool or not, Saw Kyaw was now in control of the plane with nowhere to go and with fuel running out. In desperation the pilot attempted to bring the plane down on a deserted beach. Twice the landing was aborted - before at the third try they came juddering down into the sand.

The passengers were allowed to disembark and the hijackers then discovered the plane was carrying some heavy metal chests. It was cash being transported between bank branches - 700,000 Burmese kyat. That's about $700 (£400) in today's money but worth an awful lot more back then.