AIRCRAFT BAN

Press, Volume C, Issue 29588, 10 August 1961, Page 13

AIRCRAFT BAN

U.S. Defence Exercise

(N.Z. Prsss A«sn.-ComttW»«) LONDON, August •. More than 2000 commercial flight* will be grounded during North American air defence exercises on October 14, according to- th* London “Daily Express" today. For 12 hour*, 14,000.000 square miles of air space over the United States would be emptied of all except military aircraft—a huge American force and a task force of IS jet bomber* from Britain, the newspaper said in a New York dispatch. The aircraft would try a mock attack on the United States and would be subjected to "bombardment" from anti-navigational devices and other secret “weapons.” An American Air Defence spokesman was quoted at saying: "Thirty-one foreign airline* will be affected. All United States internal flights will be grounded for 12 hours in the interests of public safety, “Military plana* will be prepared for navigational interference, but civilian flights could bo endangered If they were allowed to carry on.” Th* “attack" arc would stretch from the Mexican border to the Arctic and from the Azores to far out into th* Pacific.

World Tear.—F;«ld Marshal Viscount Montgomery of Alamein yesterday announced that he would mak* a worid tour commencing on September 1. taking in Chana, Japan and Canada, th* "Dally Sketch” reported.—(London, August 9.)