THERE WAS ONE THING THEY COULDN'T LIVE WITHOUT: FREEDOM. On the rainy afternoon of Friday, July 13, 1956, seven desperate young people boarded a twin engine DC-3 in the People's Republic of Hungary, with the intention of diverting it to West Germany. They had no weapons, no map, and no idea whether the plane carried enough fuel to get them there. They would have to brave the gun of the security officer on board, the wild maneuvers of the pilot, the Russian MiG fighters in hot pursuit and a harrowing flight over the stormy Alps, without navigation. Failure would mean certain death. AND A SPECTACULAR ESCAPE FROM TYRANNY WAS BORN. FRANK ISZAK was a journalist at the apex of the Communist terror in Hungary when his article about the dissolution of a collective farm landed him in a uranium mine for "re-education." He broke out but remained a fugitive with the heavily guarded borders of Hungary. In order to escape he organized a boxing team, and on their way to the regional championship they diverted their domestic flight across the Iron Curtain. Condemned to death (in absentia) he received political asylum in the West and immigrated to the U.S. He worked as a chemist, publisher, public speaker, PI and martial artist. Today, he teaches yoga in San Diego with his wife, Serpil. "...breathing the air of freedom..." TIME Magazine "...it has all the elements of a blockbuster..." San Diego Union Tribune "...I will never forget it, neither will you!" "...an unbelievable account of history and human tenacity, hope and fortitude..." Readers' responses

'Inch by inch, he moved the gun out from underneath his stomach, over to his right side. He rolled over just enough to get the gun in the clear, slowly raised the barrel aimed at the engineer's heart, then changed his mind, aimed to the ceiling above the engineer's shoulder, and pulled the trigger.' On the afternoon of Friday 13 July 1956, seven desperate young people boarded a plane in the People's Republic of Hungary with the intention of hijacking it, diverting it to West Germany and claiming political asylum. One of the seven was Frank Iszak, a young journalist at the apex of the Communist terror in Hungary, whose controversial articles had landed him in a uranium mine for 're-education'. He broke out, but remained a fugitive within the country's heavily guarded borders. In order to escape, he put together a boxing team, and en route to the regional championship they diverted their flight across the Iron Curtain. They had no weapons, no map, and no idea whether the plane carried enough fuel to get them there. They would have to brave the gun of the security officer on board, the wild manoeuvres of the pilot, the Russian MiG fighters in hot pursuit, and a harrowing flight over the stormy Alps without navigation. Such a feat had never before been attempted, and they all knew that failure would mean certain death.

Free for All to Freedom Late afternoon on Friday, July 13, 1956 a twin engine DC-3 from the People's Republic of Hungary made an unscheduled landing, some 250 miles off its original course, at a NATO air force base still under construction. For those who lived behind the Iron Curtain, these were the darkest days of history, with no way to escape and no hope for the future. But on this day, seven Hungarian youngsters would dramatically risk everything in order to taste something that others took for granted: freedom. And they would do it at 10,000 feet. They would hijack a commercial airliner and fly to freedom. Free for All to Freedom is their story. Read Free for All to Freedom and feel in vivid detail what conditions were like living under tyranny and oppression, and re-live their incredible and dramatic escape to freedom. HOW DID IT HAPPEN? Where was I, what did I do or not do to let it get this far? Who was responsible for this firestorm? Who started it? The more I'd been thinking - and I had a lot of time for that - the clearer the answer became: It was me. ME It would have been easy to say, "I did not see it coming," but I should have. It was my country. It was my decision - or the lack thereof - to let the barbarians rise to power. The prisons were built; first for the minds and then for the bodies. The insidious disease, Communism, was marching and I was marching along. I believed in false promises and ignored history. Tyranny does not start with the gulags and gas chambers, it ends with them. I remained silent and hoped that this time it was going to be different. I did not yell "FIRE " when I should have. Now it was too late; the fire was raging, the fire hydrants were dry, and all the firemen were dead. Excerpted from Free for All to Freedom CHAPTER XV The Cockpit of Flight 387 at 10,000 Feet over Hungary Friday, July 13, 1956 at 1455 Hour THE BASTARD WAS IN THE COCKPIT all along thought George, as he faced the fifth man and stared into the barrel of Elek Doktor's Walther PPK. The AVO agent was waiting for George fully prepared, while trying to steady himself on the bouncing plane, with his gun in hand. George aimed the Zbrojovka with two bullets, one in the chamber and one in the magazine, slightly above the head of the AVO man and pulled the trigger. There was a small click. Ten-year old bullets just don't work that well, he thought, as he smashed the useless gun onto the forehead of Elek Doktor with full force. The plane rolled into another nose-dive throwing the already dazed AVO agent straight up to the ceiling with his feet off the floor dangling in the air. He was hanging on to some protruding gadgets from the cockpit's roof with his left hand, holding his gun in his right. Then for an infinitely small time, his memory deserted him. He could not remember whether he loaded his Walther PPK or not. When the plane went into a sharp climb he got slammed to the floor and had a chance to act. His years of training took over: when in doubt, reload. Elek Doktor, pulled the top of his gun back released it again, aimed at George's chest and pulled the trigger.