‘I Just Wanted To Fly’: Dutch Ex-Serviceman Recounts Stealing A Navy Plane From Malta To Live Out His Dreams
Malta’s history as a military base has led to a long list of wonderful and weird stories, many of which have been well documented over the decades. But sometimes, a couple of them still fall through the cracks and only see the light of day well later… to this very day.
For Theo Van Eijck, Malta is a place where he managed to pull off the unimaginable and steal a naval plane and fly off to Benghazi, Libya.
Van Eijck, a Dutch national, explained to the BBC why he decided to do what sounds like a scene out of Indiana Jones.
The Dutchman recounted how his dreams of flying were crushed by his superiors when he was training in a pilot training scheme.
His problems with his superiors began when his commanding officer asked him about the quality of the training scheme. Drunk from a party at the barracks, Van Eijck spoke openly on how the plane they used for training was “quite frankly, crap.”
Photo of Van Eijck: BBC
Although he had a perfect flying record, the day after he openly spoke his mind, he was given his report card with an orange warning sign… which meant that he was close to being failed. And that did not go down well with young Van Eijck.
Furious at what happened, he wrote on the blackboard criticising the slowness of the training programme, which saw him jailed at his barracks for the weekend. He managed to escape, but that got him kicked out from the pilot’s scheme.
Other superiors encouraged Van Eijck to appeal the decision, but they gave him the wrong forms to fill in. This swiftly crushed his dream of becoming a pilot, as he was then transferred as a Navy electrician for the remaining six years.
Van Eijck wanted to be discharged but his request was refused. This lead to him to planing his escape… by stealing a plane.
The Plane that was stolen by Van Eijck
“From Malta, I could fly anywhere!”
“I didn’t want to end up in East Germany with all that political trouble,” he said. “And then, one day, they asked for volunteers to go on a two-month exercise in Malta with the British Navy.”
As he planned his escape, he made friends with the crew of the plane he planned on stealing, asking them how the plane worked and how to take off and land.
When he was in Malta, Van Eijck would be in the aerodrome, speaking to the aviation mechanics, watching them work. He would also study his tracker handbook while his friends were busy getting drunk.
On the morning he stole the plane in Malta, he lied to the guards about his name, even persuading one of them to help him open the hanger door.
Before escaping, Van Eijck locked up the guard’s pistol and bike and removed their microphones from the telephone so he could make their time to react very difficult.
“So I started the engine, switched the radio on and the control tower started asking who I was, what I was doing. I didn’t answer. I taxied and then…I was gone.”
After stealing the plane, he landed on an airstrip in Benghazi where by coincidence he met a Dutch person living in the area. From there, Van Eijck negotiated with the Dutch Ambassador to determine what would happen and agreed that he would spend a year in prison for desertion and would be given an honourable discharge.
READ MORE: 9 Saucy Secrets About Malta’s History That Will Blow Your Mind
