Emergency As Usual

The Pan American-operated China National Aviation Company, which specializes in such spectacular aerial adventures as flying a DC3 with a patched-up DC2 wing, threading across Japanese lines at night and aiding in the evacuation of doomed Chinese cities, added another hair-raising chapter to its history last week.

Caught in Hong Kong when war blasted its way onto the Pacific were a handful of Chinese notables, including Finance Minister and Vice Premier H. H. ("Daddy") Kung, his wife and her Soong sister, Madame Sun Yatsen, and much-loved, much-honored K. P. Chen, head of China's Currency Stabilization Board.

As British troops were slowly pressed by Japanese forces, CNAC established an emergency service from Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport in the lee of the Kowloon hills (see cut, p. 18), While bombs and artillery shells rained down on the field, U.S. and Chinese pilots loaded Daddy Kung, Madame Sun, Banker Chen and 272 other passengers into shuttling planes, crossed the Japanese lines, set them down safely 200 miles inland. By the time the airport became too hot, they had rescued the entire staff of the air company and were ready to carry on from new headquarters.

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