Nearly 60 years ago, Frank Iszak hijacked a flight and flew over the Iron Curtain to escape communist Hungary. Now, settled in Rancho Santa Fe, Iszak and his wife live a quiet life and own a yoga studio.
His book, “Freedom Flight,” tells his heroic story to escape terror. He will be speaking about his journey and signing books this Sunday at Warwick’s in La Jolla.
In 1949, the Communist Party rose to power in Hungary and initially Iszak, a book smart 18-year-old, thought he would be fine. The party soon caught wind of his dreams to be a writer and they sent him to the University of Chemical Engineering. There, he wrote for the school paper where he expressed his dislike for both the university and the government. He was soon sent to work in a uranium mine. Iszak escaped and found work in a brick factory in Budapest. Following a childhood passion, Iszak joined the company’s boxing team. There, he met an ex-fighter pilot, George Polyak, and together they plotted to escape the Iron Curtain.
“In the beginning of 1956 there were more than 700 attempts to escape,” Iszak said. “Only seven made it, and we were that seven.”
Iszak and Polyak managed to convince four other members of the boxing team and Iszak’s wife to join them in the first ever attempt to fly over the Iron Curtain.
On July 13, 1956 at the age of 25, Iszak and the Freedom Flighters boarded a plane for a boxing tournament. Halfway through the flight they forced their way into the cockpit. For this, Iszak is known to many as the first hijacker.
“When we broke that door open we had to face four pilots and one KGB officer with a gun,” Iszak said. “Luckily for us, unluckily for him, he misfired and we jumped him.”
The plane dropped from 8,000 feet to 300 feet and they braced for a crash landing. Bleeding from multiple wounds to the head, Polyak was able to gain control of the airplane but due to the damage it had sustained they were forced to fly through the Alps at a low altitude in the middle of the clouds.
After fighting a KGB officer, commandeering the plane and avoiding the mist and cloud covered Alps, their plane ran out of fuel.
“We had no navigation and we were in total darkness for two and a half hours,” Iszak said. “We had to land, we had no choice. Unbelievably, a runway came out of the clouds.”
Polyak managed to safely land the plane on an incomplete airstrip. Iszak said he remembers preparing to kill himself and his wife if they learned they were still within communist territory.
“We had no idea what country we were in,” he said. “If we were going to be sent back there was only torture and execution waiting for us.”
Sitting on the tarmac with no fuel was what Iszak described as “terribly suspenseful.”
“Out of nowhere a Jeep showed up and we saw the stars and stripes and that’s when we knew,” Iszak said. “That’s when we knew we were free.”
The Freedom Flighters had landed on an incomplete NATO base. A Hungarian court condemned the hijackers to death but all seven of them settled in the United States. Over the years, Iszak worked as a reporter, a chemist and a private investigator all across the country.
Now 85 and diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, Iszak lives in Rancho Santa Fe with his wife. Together they own a yoga studio and teach free classes to seniors.
As for his book, Iszak hopes his story will make it to Hollywood. He has a screenplay written, filming sites selected, a production team in place and $5 million of a $10 million budget collected. He hopes to raise the second half of the money and start filming in the next few months.
“The stars just lined up for us is the only way I can explain it,” Iszak said.
