Shinji Ishida, the pilot of a Japan Airlines jet that was hijacked to North Korea in 1970 by nine Japanese Red Army terrorists, died Sunday of lung cancer at a hospital in Osaka Prefecture, his family said Monday. He was 83.
On March 31, 1970, the JAL jetliner, with 129 passengers and crew members onboard, was en route to Fukuoka from Tokyo when Japanese Red Army hijackers seized control of the plane and ordered Ishida to fly to Pyongyang.
After stopping in Fukuoka, where the hijackers released 23 passengers, including women and children, Ishida flew to Seoul's Gimpo airport, apparently in an attempt to fool the hijackers into believing they had landed in Pyongyang.