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 go."
The 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 one.
Climbing into the cockpit with Cox and two other crewmen, Melling made no protest when Senior Hijacker Samir Mohammed Katar, 28, took the fifth seat. "Where the hell do you want to go?" he asked.
"It's a secret," said Mohammed.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because I have to know which way to turn when we're airborne."
"Tripoli," Mohammed announced, "but we don't tell anyone."
Aloft, Melling insisted upon notifying ground control of his destination. "If we don't, we're likely to hit another aircraft."
As 007 approached Tripoli 2½ hours later, Benghazi tower radioed: "You have no permission to enter Libyan airspace. Turn around and go away." Cyprus 007 was spurned by Saudi Arabia and Lebanon as well.
"Aden," Mohammed finally decided.
"We'll go to Aden." But when they reached South Arabia ¾ hours and 2,000 miles later, Aden turned them back. Mohammed and his accomplice, Zayed Hussein al-Ali, 26, were becoming increasingly desperate and fearful.
"We'll put it down in the sea," said Melling casually. "There are sharks in these waters, but that's where we'll go." He described in vivid detail the risks of ditching: the wheels break off, the plane smashes open, passengers are disgorged helplessly into waiting schools of sharks. This so upset Mohammed that he eagerly agreed to try landing at Djibouti, which was Melling's alternative.
But 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!"