he Iron Curtain—a military, ideological, and physical barrier of mine fields, patrol officers, and barbed wire fences—was established between Soviet-controlled Eastern European countries and Western Europe after World War II.

In Hungary, the Communists seized power in 1948 in a coup d’état over a newly formed Hungarian republic. That meant severe changes for Hungarians. Some of Enese’s acquaintances mysteriously disappeared into communist prison camps. Many never returned, even though they had not committed a crime.

In Hungary, anyone who remained financially secure outside party lines was considered a criminal. Hungarians who had worked hard to build comfortable lives found themselves displaced, starved, and tyrannized under communism. Some Hungarians tried to swim down the Danube River into Yugoslavia. Most were shot in the water en route. Popular belief at the time held that out of every 100 people attempting to escape, only one succeeded. The Communist regime targeted Hungarian youth, molding their impressionable minds to create candidates for future party leadership. The government could also dictate where people would work.

The government forced Polyak and Ferenc to work at a cement factory in Labatlan, a city about 100 miles from Budapest. Given the choice, Ferenc would have been a lawyer. Instead, the government offered the 25-year-old two options: chemical engineer or nothing. He got both. Ferenc worked as an engineer at the cement factory, and at the end of every month he had nothing. Every other week, Ferenc was forced to live on-site in dusty quarters with co-workers. When he could return home to Enese, the couple often had only an apple and a slice of bread between them each day.

or Polyak, life had become much more difficult as well. He was kicked out of the Hungarian air force in the mid-1950s after raising his voice about unsafe flight practices. Communist police labeled Polyak a troublemaker. The government denied him a test-pilot job and stationed him at the cement factory. With his record, Polyak realized he would soon be sent to prison. He would have to leave Hungary if he wanted to remain free.

He could think of no better way to escape than through the air, though he couldn’t do it alone. Polyak began searching for companions to join his freedom flight, and eventually asked six others from Labatlan and Budapest. They prepared to leave their families behind without ever speaking a word about their escape. If they succeeded, they would return someday for their families or find another way to be reunited. Unlike the others, Ferenc could bring his wife because the couple had no children.

As a safety precaution, Polyak met his companions in two separate groups. Simply holding a clandestine meeting was risky enough, because any member of the group might inform the Hungarian AVO—the secret police—about the subversive activities of the others. Paranoia ran rampant in Communist Hungary, and no one dared speak out for fear of being turned in.

During four months of planning, Polyak took a test flight as a passenger and discovered that weapons could be easily smuggled onboard under his clothing. The group planned to take the plane by force after it flew over the town of Györ, about 30 miles from the Austrian border. They would then move into the cockpit, where Polyak would seize the controls and fly west across the Austrian/Hungarian border into non-communist West Germany.

But one particular passenger could ruin their plans. An AVO officer was stationed on every flight. The conspirators would have to identify the officer, overpower him, and disable the plane’s radio antenna so none of the hostages could notify the air force. If they failed, the Hungarian government would shoot the plane down without hesitation. Finally, there was the imposing barrier of machine gun towers between Hungary and Austria, and the military radar that might detect a plane flying off course. Polyak figured the domestic flight, one of the longest within Hungary, would have enough fuel for the escape. But he didn’t know for sure.