FROM THE ARCHIVES:The Provisional IRA freed three of its leaders from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin using a hijacked helicopter piloted by Thompson Boyes, who had just moved to Ireland from the Ugandan police force. He told his story at a press conference. – JOE JOYCE
HE HAD been detailed, he said, to take a Mr. Leonard to Stradbally, Co Laois, at 1.30p.m. on Wednesday. He described this man as aged about 28-30 and having a slight American accent. After the half-hour flight to Stradbally, they landed in a field and he was immediately approached by two heavily-masked gunmen. “I was hijacked,” he said.
While the American just walked away, the two men – one armed with a revolver and one with a rifle – told him that they were Provisionals. “You are taking us to Mountjoy and picking up three prisoners,” they informed him, and they produced a Dublin street map on which they indicated the exact location of the prison.
The man with the revolver climbed into the front passenger seat beside the pilot and was handed the rifle by the other man, who told Captain Boyes that if he “fouled up” the operation, the man beside him had orders to shoot him.
The helicopter, with the pilot and one gunman aboard, then took off and flew at an altitude of about 1,000 feet towards Dublin.
There was little conversation between the two men, although Captain Boyes says that he warned his hijacker that the machine might not be able to take off from the prison with three more passengers aboard [. . .]
Over the prison, in weather conditions which were hazy with some weak sunshine, the man with him pointed to an exercise yard, and they descended.
Captain Boyes said that he hovered briefly above the yard, which seemed to be crowded with people. The crowd seemed to scatter to each side, and he put the machine down on the ground. There was only about 20 feet clearance to the walls on every side. Around the machine now, there was confusion [. . .]
He saw warders come from the walls towards the helicopter, but the prisoners seemed to obstruct them as there was scuffling. Three men detached themselves from the crowd, dashed to the helicopter and climbed into the wide bench seat behind the pilot.
Then came the tricky problem of take-off, and Captain Boyes says he had to concentrate closely on his instruments [. . .]
“I thought I might not make it,” he admitted yesterday. But the machine eventually rose, cleared the walls and headed north for Baldoyle [. . .] During the five-minute flight to Baldoyle the four passengers talked urgently to each other, but the pilot was wearing his headset and could not hear what they said.
He landed in a field beside a road indicated by the man in the front seat. Up to this stage, Captain Boyes added, he had feared that he might be shot when they arrived at their destination. However, they left quickly and his front-seat passenger merely said to him: “You stay there.”
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