Reader Mike Durant asked me if I had ever heard of the man who stole a World War II bomber from Honolulu Airport and took it on a joyride from Waipahu to Hawaii Kai. It buzzed much of Honolulu at a low altitude, including his parents’ Portlock house, he said.

I had not heard about this, but a quick check of the Hawaii newspaper index (1929-1969) showed several listings.

I jotted them down and pulled the microfilm reels at the main library. It turned out to be an interesting story.

It all took place in the early morning hours of Friday, May 7, 1965. James A. Ashdown, 34, a former military pilot, told police later that after drinking at several Honolulu bars, “I had an urge to fly again.”

At 1:30 a.m., Ashdown walked onto a B-25 Mitchell World War II bomber that belonged to a company called L. Frederick Pack Associates. Needing no key for the old plane, he started it up and took off from a taxiway instead of a runway. He took to the air without clearance from air traffic controllers, who tried in vain to raise him on the radio.

Ashdown made an “eyeball-to-eyeball” pass of the control tower. Controllers dove for cover, it was so close. Federal Aviation Administration information officer Gilbert McCoy said the plane was headed right for them, then pulled away, missing them by a few feet.

The pilot banked the plane toward Waikiki and then on to Portlock at treetop level. He buzzed his ex-girlfriend’s house in Hawaii Kai.

Frightened callers began lighting up police department switchboards.

Returning to Waikiki, Ashdown buzzed Foster Tower and the Waikiki Circle Hotel about 20 feet below the rooftop, said a startled policeman. Then he banked and skirted the Moana before heading back out to sea.

But he was not done with Waikiki. Banking again, the B-25 roared over Kuhio Beach and past the Waikiki Biltmore hotel (now the Hyatt Regency). Guests looked down at him from their balconies, said the unnamed policeman.

Ashdown turned toward Pearl City and Waipahu, where he clipped off the top 20 feet of radio station KAHU’s 110-foot tower. He left behind a piece of his windshield, fabric from the wing and pieces of aluminum, the papers reported.

Deejay Ronald Western was in the middle of his late-night show when the plane skirted the station. The draft caused all the building’s doors to slam and bang, he reported.

One 8-foot section of the broadcast tower flew across the four-lane highway, missing the few cars on the road at that hour. The morning light revealed an interesting collection of aircraft parts littering the site.

Ashdown finally returned to Honolulu Airport after 30 minutes and set down on Runway 8. The B-25 had a 30-foot gash in the underside of its fuselage, as well as damage to the nose of the plane. Emergency crash crews and several police cars were waiting.

Ashdown taxied all over the field in a zigzag pattern, an FAA official said. Fearing he might try to take off again, control tower personnel turned off all the runway lights and plunged the field into darkness.

The drunk pilot was arrested for plane theft. Bail was set at $500. The FAA promised a full investigation, saying officials “frown on this type of flying.”

They later revoked Ashdown’s pilot’s license for “flagrant disregard for air safety regulations.”

PLANE WITH A STORIED PAST

The B-25 bomber was one of two still on Oahu in 1965. Both had been used in the filming of the movie “In Harm’s Way,” which starred Kirk Douglas and John Wayne. Ashdown had flown one of the two during the filming of the movie.

During World War II, the plane would have had a crew of six and could have carried 3,600 pounds of bombs. The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in 1942 used 16 B-25 bombers.

An unnamed pilot said the plane was easier to steal than a car.

“The B-25 has no key. You just flip a switch and you’re ready to go. There’s no lock.”

The Maui-born Ashdown told police he had flown the plane before. He prepared it for flight, fired up the engines and took off.

Ashdown had logged over 4,000 hours flying, including 400 in B-25s. In 1953, during the Korean War, he flew F-84 jet fighters. After the war, in 1956, he retired from the Air Force as a second lieutenant.

Honolulu Airport manager Gilbert Livingston was asked what the airport does to prevent this sort of theft. His response was that it’s the responsibility of the plane’s owners to secure them properly.

Most small planes required keys, while most commercial planes took at “least two men in the plane and at least one on the ground” to take off, Livingston told reporters.

TIES TO KAHOOLAWE

Ten months after his aerial joyride, Ashdown pleaded no contest to stealing the plane and was sentenced to five years’ probation. He was ordered not to drink intoxicating beverages.

Ashdown later said his original idea was to crash the plane into Kahoolawe. His grandfather, Angus MacPhee, had leased the island from 1918 until 1941, when the military took over, and Ashdown had spent some time there in his youth.

His mother, Inez Ashdown (1900-1992), wrote a book, “Recollections of Kaho‘olawe,” about riding horseback on its 45 square miles, planting pili grass and trees, building a home and establishing a 900-head cattle ranch. She dreamed of returning there one day to make the place beautiful again.

Inez was a hanai daughter of Queen Lili‘uokalani and a supporter of the Protect Kahoolawe Ohana.

James Ashdown was living in Citrus Hills, Fla., when he died Nov. 13, 2007, at the age of 77. He was buried in the St. James Catholic Church cemetery, the resting place of his mother and other relatives, in Ulupalakua, Maui, overlooking Kahoolawe.

Bob Sigall, author of “The Companies We Keep” series of books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories of Hawaii people, places and companies. Contact him via email at sigall@yahoo.com.