The mechanism of the reaction /sup 27/Al(/sup 16/O,/sup 12/C..cap alpha..)/sup 27/Al at 65.6-MeV incident energy has been examined with use of coincidence techniques. It is shown that the broad bell-shaped peak observed in /sup 12/C singles spectra corresponds to an ..cap alpha..-transfer-like process leading to fixed excitation energy in the ..cap alpha.. + /sup 27/Al system. The ..cap alpha..-/sup 12/C angular correlation, however, is forward-peaked along the momentum-transfer direction, suggesting that the decay time of the system is less than required for equilibration into /sup 31/P.