ONA CREW BY TOM HUFF

We loaded 26 000 pounds of gold in New York 
and departed for the Azores, Mallorca, Ankara 
Turkey, Tehran Iran, Karachi, Ceylon and 
Singapore. We leaned on the regs and 
"double crewed" so no crew rest till 
Singapore! The closest to hijacking was in 
TEHRAN. I had soft pedaled our cargo to the 
authorites until TEHRAN when I was asked to 
come into customs. Customs was on the upper 
deck of the terminal which was buzzing as 
all terminals do. When the customs official 
asked "Captain is your cargo gold?" I started  
dancing  but he again asked and I had to reply 
"Yes"  When I walked out of customs ten minutes 
later the terminal was quiet as an undiscovered 
tomb and  people were looking up toward where 
we were walking.  We were the object of 
attention from there on and I decided nothing 
would keep us in Tehran. Naturally we had a 
runaway prop on takeoff and aborted.  
Jerry Garner and I decided to go again and 
"pitch lock" the prop on the next TO which 
was unsuccess at about V-1.  Jerry, Ron  
and some Iranian dug into the prop and found 
a bad seal which Jerry & I took to the supply 
room of AIR MALAYSIA and started running thru 
seals looking for something that would work. 
I found one which was a little too small in 
diameter and a little too fat but we guessed 
that if it were stretched onto the part it 
would get skinnier and fit well enough!   
(To this day I'm sure Jerry and Ron pray that 
the FAA doesn't learn of this). So it was on 
to Singapore to unload then Hongkong, Bangkok, 
Bombay, Dunai - ( AIN'T GOING TO NO STINKING 
TEHRAN FIND ANOTHER AIRPORT !!)  Rhodes, 
Amsterdam, Shannon, Gander and good old 
NORFOLK VA. Four trips were planned but after 
the scary  experience - I think NY was more 
worried than we were - the last three were 
put on DC-8s and flown NON-STOP (How boring)
Best from Tom

From left to right up front 
Tom Fenwick, Ron Roberti, 
Dell Hollenbeck, two 
unidentified navigators.
In the background from left 
to right Tom Huf, Jerry 
Garner and behind the two 
navigators is Bill Fox. 
Jim Whithouse was with us 
and he might have taken the 
picture. 
Greetings from Tom

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JINNA INTīL AP
KARACHI PAKISTAN

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HOTEL PEARL CONTINENTAL
KARACHI PAKISTAN

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