With Georgescu-Roegen and the state carrier inspector Max Manolescu, Manuilă considered a plan to escape from Romania by plane, but this was thwarted by police during a routine checkup. According to Georgescu-Roegen, their plan also involved Pătrășcanu, who had fallen out with his communist partners. Seizing his last opportunity just before the communist regime took over, Manuilă appealed to the anti-communist resistance figure Silviu Craciunas, who ran a people-smuggling operation. Using this channel, and with assistance from three Jewish anticommunists (Lola Roth and the brothers Leibovici), Manuilă crossed the porous border into the Hungarian Republic. Sabin and Veturia Manuilă defected in Austria, and eventually made their way to the United States.