Civil Air Transport

CAT was created by Claire Chennault and Whiting Willauer in 1946 as Chinese National Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (CNRRA) Air Transport.

On 29 November 1952, a CAT C-47 left Seoul on a mission to collect an anti-Communist Chinese agent in the foothills of northeastern China, using a "pole and line" technique.

At the time the families of the pilots were told, in order to keep the CIA's covert actions in China secret, that they had crashed into the Sea of Japan on a routine flight to Tokyo.

In 2001, China allowed the US Defense Department's Prisoner of War and Missing in Action (POW/MIA) office to conduct a recovery effort for the bodies of the pilots.

The 1952-1953 edition of Jane's All The World's Aircraft lists the head office address as Suite 309, Kass Building, 711 14th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., with the footnote that the company had reregistered in the U.S.

[3] CAT assisted the French government at various times during its Indochina wars, flying supplies and equipment into Hanoi's Gia Lam airport and other fields using C-46 and C-47 transport planes.

[3] The 1956-1957 edition of Jane's All The World's Aircraft lists the head office address as 46 Chung Shan Road, North, 2nd Section, Taipei, Taiwan (Formosa).

In 1958 Time reported that 20 CAT aircraft were supplying the PRRI/Permesta movement against President Sukarno's government of Indonesia, which the Eisenhower administration feared had communist sympathies.

[7][8] In April 1958 two CAT pilots flew combat missions for Permesta's Angkatan Udara Revolusioner ("Revolutionary Air Force") or AUREV.

In May, Beale withdrew from the operation,[11] by which time a third CAT pilot, Connie W Seigrist, had joined flying a CIA Consolidated PBY Catalina.

[13] On April 28, 1958, Beale attacked the Royal Dutch Shell terminal at Balikpapan in East Kalimantan, sinking the British tanker MV San Flaviano,[14] while Pope off the port of Donggala near Palu in Central Sulawesi sank merchant ships from Greece, Italy and Panama.

[13] On May 18 west of Ambon Island, Pope attacked one of a pair of Indonesian merchant ships that were carrying government troops for a counter-offensive against Permesta.

[18] However, Pope was carrying about 30 documents[19] including his detailed flight log,[19][20] secret orders for temporary deployment in Indonesia,[20] military separation file[19] and CAT identity card.

CAT started to operate scheduled passenger services, beginning with international flights to Hong Kong, then to Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Thailand, as well as domestic routes within Taiwan.