Five Days Across the Border

Leaving Copenhagen at noon on a one-hour flight southwest to Hamburg, U.S.A.F. Captain James Palmer Lundy, 42, a pilot with twelve years' flying experience, set a course of 220DEG, and then handed the controls of his lumbering old C-47 to his copilot. Some time in the next quarter-hour, the plane somehow veered 60DEG east off course. First to notice anything amiss was pretty, freckle-faced Barbara McCash. With her husband, Flight Surgeon Captain Paul McCash, 25, of Atlanta, she was on the way back to their duty post at Wheelus Field in Libya after a vacation in Scandinavia. Leaning across her husband, Barbara brightly inquired, "Honey, what kind of a plane is that?"

"Sit Down." Taking one startled look. Captain McCash gulped, then lied, "It's only one of our F-86s, but I think you had better fasten your seat belt." Just then a MIG, guns ablaze, passed so close in front of the C-47 that its air stream caused the old tub to rock and roll as if caught in a violent storm. "For God's sake," shouted Captain McCash, "sit down."

Up front. Copilot Captain George Anthony Jordan, 37, had discovered the flight error, and was wheeling the plane around in a ponderous effort to make it back to the West German border 22 miles away. But now there were six MIGs circling the ship. Grabbing the controls. Pilot Lundy brought the transport down in an oat field 16 miles inside the border. He shouted, "Everybody out--and run. They may come back and strafe." Stumbling in the soft-plowed ground, the five crewmen and four passengers raced some 300 yds. before being surrounded by green-uniformed East German People's Police.

The cops began frisking the prisoners. Spunky Barbara McCash whispered to her husband. "If they try to search me. I'll slap their faces." "No, you won't," said he. "You'll stand perfectly still."

Face Saved. Taken to a Red army barracks, the Americans were questioned by Soviet intelligence officers until it was clear the C-47 was no spy plane. The atmosphere abruptly cleared. The Russian officers turned over their day room as a dormitory for the single men and set up the McCashes in a private room. For the next five days the Americans were plied with lavish meals, proffered drinks from soda pop to cognac and loaded with Russian cigarettes. By day the Americans played volley ball with their hosts.

At the official level, the Communists were equally obliging. The Soviet Army Commander for East Germany sent word to the U.S. Army Command that, with the knowledge and approval of the East

German authorities, he was prepared to hand the C-47, its passengers and crew back "at a time suitable to you." The Russian air force helicoptered some experts to oversee the leveling of an 8.000-ft. flight strip for the takeoff. Equally punctilious, Air Force Chief of Staff Thomas D. White in Washington confirmed that Pilot Lundy "clearly had violated pertinent flying directives," was being grounded for investigation.

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