Mission Impossible of Summer 1997
1997年夏天-不可能的任務
Steve Lu, 6/3/03

1997前進釣魚台活動的主辦人魯國明先生來文照轉；
這是於2003年魯國明先生在美國參加一項活動時演講稿的英文版；
中文部分由機長代譯

Have you ever been laid off from a job you loved? Have you ever taken on what others would consider a crazy idea? Well, I’m going to tell you about these 2 events in my life. One wouldn’t happened without the other, which, to this day, turned out to be the highlight of my passions: Flying, and Adventure.

你曾被解僱過？從你心愛的職務上；
你曾承擔過事件的重責大任嗎？一項被認為是瘋狂的事件；
接下來，我來說說我生命中的這事兒，這件由多人付出心力與我一起完成的事件，如今已成為我生命中不可磨滅的亮點：一段瘋狂的冒險航程。

It happened in the summer of 1996, when I found myself without a job, a territorial feud broke out between Taiwan and Japan over a group of tiny islands northeastern of Taiwan. A small number of advocates took fishing boats from Taiwan and Hongkong attempted to land on these islands but were stopped by Japanese Destroyers. The headlines on the news immediately caught my attention. This group of islands is called Diao Yu Tai (in Chinese it means the Fishing Platform, DYT).

1996年夏，中日之間釣魚台列嶼主權紛爭又起，港、台保釣團體租用漁船試圖登上釣魚台，以宣揚國家領土主權，但最終被日本海上自衛隊的驅逐艦武力驅離，活動並未成功。這個新聞標題映入眼簾，並烙印在我心上

One night, I came out with a bold, and crazy idea: If I could recruit a pilot, and a Golden Knight class skydiver, we could easily land on this land. I made a phone call the next day to Taipei and convinced a retired lieutenant colonel of the Taiwan Air Force, Johnny Wang who flew a single engine plane across the Pacific Ocean in 1994. He was willing to take a trip to the Philippines to check the possibility of renting an aircraft from there.

“若能由空中跳傘登陸釣魚台，豈不要比海上容易的多”，在一個寧靜的夏夜，這個大膽又瘋狂的點子突然浮現在我腦海；次日我立即致電在台灣的一位空軍退役飛行員-王仲年先生，他曾在1994年完成過一項單發動機小型飛機橫跨太平洋的飛行活動，我門也是自那時認識的；王仲年先生同意了我的構想，並即出發前往菲律賓安排租機的事項。

Many unknowns needed to be resolved before moving any further. Like:
轩 How big was this island? How high was the mountain?
轩 What was the weather limit to carry out a parachuting?
轩 If the renting of the airplane was not feasible, then what’s next?
轩
這時，僅只是個構想而已，許許多多的問題橫亙在眼前；釣魚台的地理資料、空域水域的天氣資料、跳傘的專業資訊等等，還有若是租不到合適的飛機，又怎麼辦呢？

The project had been conducted in an extremely secret fashion.
The goal of the mission was to airdrop 3 parachuters down to the biggest island to saw down a steel lighthouse mast, and to spray paint a huge flag of Taiwan, the Republic of China, over the Japanese flag on a huge wooden board as protest.

計畫經由研究、討論、修改而逐步的改變原貌，進而最終成形：我們計劃空降3位保釣人士登陸釣魚台主島，拆除日本人非法設立的燈塔、在日本國旗看板上噴塗我們的旗幟。我們默默的在進行，以非常保密的模式進行著。

With collective wisdom, I managed to pick & buy a twin engine Transporter – Beech-18 (also known as C-45). It was then ferried over to California from Ohio in Feb, ’97. Meanwhile volunteers from Taiwan & the US were recruited for skydiving training at the town of Yolo, pilot’s training at Lodi, California, a big ferry gas tank was added to the cabin of the Beech-18 in Oakland. Later it got FAA certified at Stockton.

我們在97年2月買進了任務飛機Beech-45，並將她由Ohio飛送到加州灣區，同時台美兩地的志願者也在Yolo的傘校及Lodi機場展開集訓；隨後我們在Oakland為飛機加裝了越洋長程油箱，最後在Stockton機場為飛機辦妥了適航證照。

The original route was to fly up to Alaska, via Russia, and regroup in Korea. It was later modified. In August ‘97, the Beech-18 took off from Oakland airport, flew through Hawaii, Marshal Island, Truk, Yap and then got to Subic Bay of the Philippines.

最初設想飛機從美國出發，走北航線經由Alaska阿拉斯加穿越Russia蘇聯至韓國集結；然最終改成為走太平洋航線經Hawaii, Marshal Island, Truk, Yap到達菲律賓蘇比克Subic集結，準備發起總攻。

I carried parachute equipment w/ an airborne crew (KH Chang), took the Philippine Airlines from SF to Manila, then rendezvoused with the team from Taipei, and the aircraft from Yap. I applied for & was granted by South Korea a landing permit to Cheju Do Island from Subic Bay. The plan was that this aircraft would stay on the planned course until it got within 30 Nautical miles of the target, then it would deviate and turn toward the islands. After the parachuters bailed out from the aircraft, the pilot would fly it to Taipei requesting for emergency landing.

我與張國灝先生則從舊金山攜帶各項裝備撘乘民航班機直飛菲律賓，在蘇比克Subic機場飛機、機組員、跳傘員以及後勤團隊完成了集結，準備發起總攻。
我們計畫申請自蘇比克Subic直飛韓國濟州島Cheju的包機航線，在飛機經過釣魚台空域附近時，改變航向進入釣魚台上空；空降員著陸後，飛機將更改航程直飛台北，以緊急狀況為由申請降落。

On September 2, the Beech-18 with 7 crew members on board took off from Subic Bay Airport toward DYT, 20 minutes later, at the elevation of 5000 ft over the ocean, the left engine caught on fire. Following emergency procedure, the pilot shut off the left engine, and promptly made a turn heading back to Subic Bay while a Mayday was being called. The altitude kept dropping, it barely made it to the tip of the runway and ended up having to perform a forced belly touchdown. Many fire engines waiting along the runway. Almost full tank of gas was on board, scraping along the runway with the metal hull, pounding, sparkling, and bumping, this aircraft stopped without fire magically. The whole crew jumped out, and survived.

1997年9月2日，任務機帶著7名組員自蘇比克Subic起飛航向釣魚台，然而就在起飛20分鐘後，在海面上5000呎的空中，飛機左發動機起火進而爆炸，機長立即關閉左發動機，並轉向起飛機場要求緊急降落；機場跑道上噴灑了泡沫，消防隊也全都出動，最終飛機驚險的回到蘇比克機場以機腹著陸，一時間火花四射，幾乎全滿的航空燃油竟然奇蹟似的沒有起火燃燒；迫降成功，機毀人安！

Up to now, almost 6 years, when I look back, I still can not believe I did this just out of a spark of an idea in the summer night of ’96. Johnny and I both clearly understood that with the limited finance, & resources, we had only one chance of “strike”. We took the chance!!

時至今日，6年時間過去了，每當我回想起這個事件，自己仍然都很難相信當時電光石火般的一個點子，在經費及資源如此缺乏的情況下，竟被我們幾乎做成功；
王仲年和我都非常清楚，我們只有一次機會，我們試過了！

Every September 2, I call the crew members in Taiwan & the US. Guess what I say to them when they pick up the phone? …… “Happy Birthday” !!!

每年的9月2日，我都會打電話給當年參予活動的朋友們，電話接通的第一句話是：生日快樂！