Death-pact pair leap from plane

Press, 17 September 1976, Page 5

Death-pact pair leap from plane

NZPA-Reuter Tokyo An elderly Japanese couple who had insured themselves for SUSSO,OOO stabbed the pilot of a sightseeing plane and leapt into the Pacific in a bizarre suicide pact, the Tokyo police said yesterday. The pilot seriously injured, a fourth occupant with no flying experience somehow managed to land the plane in what the police and airport officials described as “a miracle.”

The police said Seiichi Tanaka, aged 68, a former .:o’iege president, and his wife Kimi, aged 58, took out a life-insurance policy before leaving Tokyo Airport in the four-seat Skyhawk on a sightseeing tour.

The couple suddenly

began stabbing the pilot and a cameraman who was aboard as the plane circled the island of Oshima about 70 miles south of Tokyo, then jumped into the sea below, the police said. The pilot Shingo Satake, aged 20, suffered serious wounds in the back and neck, and Kazuo Hosaka, aged 35, the cameraman, suffered slight injuries according to the authorities.

Mr Hosaka, who holds no pilot’s licence, managed to fly the plane to Tokyo Airport, where he made an emergency landing that police and airport officials termed “a miracle.” The two men were immediately taken to a nearby hospital, Mr Hosaka was later released.