ESCAPE FROM HUNGARY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 75, 8 January 1949, Page 5

ESCAPE FROM HUNGARY

Fled from Communist Terror

SEIZURE OF PLANE IN THE AIR (N.Z.P.A.-Eeuter—Copyright). (Rec. 10.55 a.m.) MUNICH, Jan. 7. A Hungarian girl aged 20 helped 20 persons to escape at gunpoint in a. plane from Hungary on Tuesday. She is dark-haired Erzsebet Matyas, who flourished a gun under the noses of two unwilling members of the crew of the plane. The leader of the escapees, Jakos Majoros, a former pilot of Siviet-Hun-garian airways, took over the controls. The plane left Pacs, in Southern Hungary for Switzerland but had to land at Munich when fuel gave out. Majoros began plotting his escape last April and later had as assistants two regular airline pilots who knew the escape route because they flew it to take Hungary’s team to the Olympic Games. The ringleaders recruited ti’usted friends for the flight but these did not know each other’s identities until they were aloft in the plane. All but five aboard the plane when it landed at Munich were refugees. They included the vice-president of Socony Oil Company, a wholesaler accompanied by his bride of five days, a doctor, machine factory owner, former army pilot, commercial jeweller, three women secretaries, three other wives and three children.

■ At Munich the refugees said: “We flew from the Communist terror, bringing nothing but our lives and our freedom.”