17.1 Domino Effect

Torrential rain wreaked the city in the beginning of November 1962, riverbanks crumpled and suddenly, River Vardar flooded the city and its entire surroundings. 4500 hectares of land and 5000 families left inundated.

As they slowly recovered, eight months later, an unprecedented 6.1 moment magnitude earthquake hit Skopje in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia on 26^th July 1963, at 5:17 am. The tremor lasted only 20 seconds but enough to turn 85 percent of Skopje into ruins. The city was levelled and almost wiped from the face of the earth. Three minutes later, another quake of such intensity was felt in the dark along the River Vardar Valley. There were hundreds of smaller aftershocks until 5:43 am. The clock on the wall of the Railway Station stopped its mechanism a fraction before the impact. That was the longest Friday in the history of Skopje, people lived through their most terrible experience and left with wounds for years to heal. 1066 lost their lives, over 3300 injured and 200,000 left homeless.

The Yugoslav National Army sent a call for help to all centres. That morning thousands of soldiers began the most difficult task to save the lives of people trapped under the rubbles. While the earth was still trembling and people warily expected for the worse, President Josip Tito arrived in Skopje to witness the devastation with his own eyes. He said, “Skopje has endured a terrible catastrophe however this city will be rebuilt with the help of the whole society. It will become a symbol of brotherhood and unity of Yugoslav and worldwide solidarity.”

It came true. As news was heard at every corner of the globe, the skies over Skopje buzzed by aeroplanes bringing aid from all parts of the world. In the first few days alone, about 80 countries responded, from Mexico to Argentina, from the USA to the USSR. And those armies of the rivalries joined hand in hand to rebuild the city in true solidarity. Americans and Russians here could shake hands while in Berlin they stand behind a wall.

Macedonia was one of the destinations where Catai Tours sent tourists and Jair’s business pretty much centred in Skopje. His righthand man was a former mayor of Skopje by the name of Bodan Vanev, a retired colonel, sixty-eight years old and a Slav. The earthquake shattered their livelihood. Though, in the months that followed, it took a different turn and things were looking good.

President Tito’s plan of reconstruction was set at such pace and circumstantial to the funds that poured in quite abundantly, they introduced loan schemes. Some of the banks were ready to offer pretty large sums to run any business provided that 20% of the grant must be in the bank. And Alexey knew that Aeroflot wanted to sell some aircrafts because they wished to change its fleet to jet engines. And those two 44-seat aircrafts, Antonov An-24, high wing with twin turboprops, built in 1960 were in good condition and available. Only four of this type were built and the rest were various versions. The total cost of all expenses required to cover the commencement of an aviation business summed up to three million dollars.

Once they understood funds were available, they agreed to add a Tupolev Tu-104 in the long run, of course on instalment basis, and a quick recovery plan to repay the funder. Their goal was therefore to obtain ten million dollars from Stopanska Bank in Skopje and it required an initial deposit of two million dollars in the bank.

On the beautiful island of Ibiza, Jair’s partners gathered in the breezy waterfront bar called La Bella to form Macedon Air LLC in joint agreement on 14^th March 1964. The founder members were; Jair Sivils, Aleksandre Giorgashvili, Bodan Vanev and Randall Gumper – former President of Arizona State Teachers College in Tempe. He still maintained all correspondence with regard to rutile ore procurement in order to keep the scheme in secrecy. The new president, Mr Richard Haroldson, knew it as an underground operation agreed between Lockheed and all transactions of the Titanium Procurement Account must be wired accordingly to Gumper’s advice.

Jair Sivils and Randy Gumper planned, during a time there was a shortage in reimbursements, that Catai Tours demand an advance of two million dollars in order to roll the rutile ore shipments. Jair Sivils asked for it and Randall Gumper managed to get it by June 1964.

Jaco Ferre sat with them as an observer.

Few tables away, on the congested floor, Melville Bradley sat nursing a beer. He was offered a payment that he accepted after a slight reluctancy because of Gumper. He knew that Randy Gumper was here to form an aviation company in Skopje with his partners. He knew that Randy Gumper convinced him to steal top secret docs from the state and pass them to the Russians through an agent in the United States and his Swiss account kept topping up. He couldn’t deny it. He was deep in it and he couldn’t talk about it. When Alexey approached to obtain state secrets, Bradley sought advice from Gumper who made it clear to him that this scheme should go on and introduced Robert D Maxwell who already maintained a Swiss account to top up. Bradley knew that Alexey never met Gumper before. Bradley knew that Jair Sivils had no knowledge about the secrets being passed in this clandestine manner though they all belonged to one team.

And months later, when Catai Tours demanded an advancement of two million dollars, he knew Gumper was part of it. He knew Gumper’s game and feared of how deep he would go. Bradley could not resurface because he was part of it too. He would be the last rat to jump out of a sinking ship.

Meanwhile, three undercover agents of the KGB kept their eyes focused on them.