Word: pilote
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Captain Sam Melling, 44, British-born father of four, onetime R.A.F. flyer, chief pilot of Cyprus Airways, was enjoying a Saturday afternoon lunch with Wife Iris at a taverna in the mountains near Nicosia when he heard the news on the radio. Far below, in Nicosia, two gunmen had committed a political murder and were herding hostages to Larnaca airport. "I think we'd better dash back," said Captain Melling. "I'm the biggest hat in the company, and I'd better...
...gunmen, armed with pistols and hand grenades, were already at the airport with their hostages when Melling arrived, reported TIME Correspondent Dean Brelis. Melling volunteered for their flight and scooped up flight charts. Pilot-smart about skijackings, he also decided to take Fellow Captain Bill Cox along in case the trip turned out to be a lengthy...
...even there the landing went badly. Djibouti control at first accepted the plane as a flight in distress, then waved it off when an Air France pilot identified it as Cyprus 007. "Air France blew the gaffe on us," complained Melling, who landed anyway. There they refueled and took off once again?this time to their starting point at Larnaca. En route they were informed that they could divert to Damascus; Syrian President Hafez Assad himself had assured the killers refuge. Mohammed's reaction: "Not Syria! You don't know Syria! We're not going there...
After taking off from Logan airport Thursday morning, the pilot of Allegheny Flight 351 relived his fantasies of becoming an ace fighter pilot, as he took the large jet through swoops and abrupt halts and tried to reach a height of 22,000 feet...
Most of the grapplers who still needed to cut a few pounds waited until the team's arrival in Philadelphia to work out, but Tony Cimmarusti, a 177-pounder, lost some of his unneeded poundage mid-flight thanks to the pilot's careening through Pennsylvania airspace...