The Chinese Pilot and his co-pilot worked for Lao Che Air Freight. In 1935, they were instructed by Lao Che to kill Indiana Jones, Willie Scott and Short Round as they were leaving Shanghai.
Biography
By 1935, this Chinese pilot served aboard a cargo-carrying Ford Tri-Motor Airplane from Lao Che Air Freight. On one scheduled cargo flight scheduled to leave in the early morning one day, the plane got three last-minute passengers: Indiana Jones, Willie Scott and Short Round; all booked by Earl Weber. The passengers arrived at Nang Tao Airport after escaping from Club Obi Wan and quickly got aboard the plane, which the pilot was preparing for take-off. Once the passengers got aboard, the pilot and his co-pilot spied Lao Che, their employer, smiling outside the airport gate. Saluting their boss, the pilot took off.[1]
After refueling in Chungking, the pilot had received word from Lao Che to ditch the plane to kill Jones and his friends. Instead of flying south towards Bangkok, the supposed destination, he flew west, towards India. When he was over the eastern Siwalik range, he peeked back through the curtain separating the cockpit from the main cabin and saw that his passengers were asleep. Alerting the co-pilot that this was the time to make their move, they dumped the plane's fuel supply. Strapping on his parachute, the pilot tiptoed through the cabin and waited by the rear door. Once his co-pilot had joined him, he opened the door, and pushed his partner out. In a flurry of chicken feathers, he looked around the cabin one last time before jumping out, leaving Jones with a plane about to run out of fuel. However, their attempt on their passengers' lives ultimately failed, as Jones, Scott and Short Round jumped with an inflatable raft and survived.[1]
The pilot and his partner were later questioned by the French mercenary archaeologist René Emile Belloq, one of Jones' rivals, over the certainty of Jones' death. However, Belloq was told that neither the pilot nor the co-pilot could confirm Jones' fate.[2]
Personality and traits
As described by René Emile Belloq, this Chinese pilot, as well as his co-pilot, was a "idiotic" due his unavailability to confirm if Indiana Jones was dead or not.[2]
Behind the scenes
The Chinese Pilot was played by Akio Mitamura in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.[1]
During the development of the film's script, written by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, the Chinese Pilot was originally not intended to be in league with Lao Che, then known as "Lao She". Instead, he was a normal pilot who would eventually end up getting shot dead by the biplanes at She's service while his co-pilot and other passengers bailed out from the plane, leading Short Round to shoot at them with a machine gun.[3]