The plane landed at the San Francisco Airport, then took off after 20 minutes and spent the next hour circling while the hijackers waited for the airline to accept their demands.

Azmanoff, a 28-year-old Bulgarian refugee who had once served as an Army truck driver, boarded the Boeing 737 in San Francisco with his friend, Dimitr Alexiev.

As soon as the seat-belt sign was switched off, the hijackers produced pistols and made their demands: $800,000 in small bills, two parachutes, and the navigation charts necessary to get them to Siberia.

Alexiev, who was standing by the cockpit, was killed instantly, but Azmanoff hunkered down in the rear of the plane and conducted a gun battle with the agents.

Two more passengers were injured, including Victor Sen Yung, the San Francisco - born actor who played the popular cook, Hop Sing, on the long-running Western television series Bonanza and the character Jimmy Chan in the popular Charlie Chan series of films starting in 1938.

Peichev was supposed to meet them there, in a light plane he would hijack; the trio would then head back south across the border, to enjoy their $800,000.

The following day, July 5, Peichev rented a private plane and hired a pilot to fly him to Bella Coola and then to Anahim Lake.

On July 5, the same day that Peichev flew to Puntzi airstrip, Azmanoff and Alexiev hijacked the Pacific Southwest Airline flight.

Peichev concedes that he rented a plane and flew to the Puntzi airstrip by prearrangement with Azmanoff and Alexiev, but contends that he was coerced to do so.

Under count one, Peichev was charged with only aiding and abetting aircraft piracy, not additionally with counseling, commanding, inducing or procuring its commission as is also provided in 18 U.S.C.