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Hijack terror: A pilot's story

By WILLIAM H. INMAN

DALLAS -- Tommy Hill feels for John Testrake, pilot of hijacked TWA Flight 847. Hill knows the feeling of death brushing close.

Pilot Hill was hijacked, too, and the memories of Jan. 12, 1972, are vivid.

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'It was a bright afternoon and we were just coming into (Dallas) Love Field from Houston,' recalled Hill, 54. 'The flight attendant came in and handed me a folded note.'

The note read: 'I have some demands I want met. Either you meet them or I'll kill everybody on the airplane.'

The Braniff 727 jetliner carried about 100 passengers and a crew of seven. The man who wrote the note carried an automatic pistol and a black zippered bag which he said held seven sticks of dynamite.

The man's name was Billy Eugene Hurst, 22, an ex-Vietnam veteran kicked out of the Marines for being overweight.

Hurst permitted the plane to land for refueling, and eventually released the passengers.

Held hostage, Hill relied on the same instinct he used to land his plane in bad weather.

'I told the crew to stay cool, be patient and don't do anything stupid or heroic. I told the crew to throw questions at the man. Keep him making decisions. 'Did he want coffee?' 'Did he want this or that?''

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'Later I was told I did just the right thing, luckily.'

Hill taxied the plane to a far corner of the airfield. He ordered some of the money and gear Hurst sought, including 10 parachutes -- in case one was faulty -- and $2 million in cash.

'He said, 'Today is the last day that I, Billy Eugene Hurst, am going to exist,'' while brandishing a pistol in the face of a stewardess. ''Tomorrow a new individual will be born,'' Hill said.

'I told him I'd do anything he wanted. But I told him it would take time.'

Most of the day passed. It was dark when the FBI and police stationed snipers in the tall grass around the tarmac.

A commercial radio station intercepted some of the secret transmissions between the pilot and tower, and played the conversations back on the air.

'There I was listening to the radio on board the plane and I heard my damn voice,' Hill said. 'It was extremely stupid. The radio station put my life in danger.'

Later, the hijacker said he would have shot Hill and shoved him out of the exit door had he known of the secret radio exchange, but he had no radio.

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Hill convinced the man he needed a better weapon. A .357 Magnum handgun, rendered harmless, was brought aboard. The hijacker handed Hill his gun, and took the new weapon.

On a signal Hill and his six crew members dashed out the front exit. Only the hijacker remained aboard. Outside the FBI and local officials squabbled about who should rush the plane.

Later that night when an armed tactical squad finally clattered aboard Braniff flight 38, Hurst was sitting there meekly, humming to himself.

Hurst got 20 years. Hill got a reprieve from death.

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