AIRLINER INCIDENT

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32208, 29 January 1970, Page 9

AIRLINER INCIDENT

Seizure By Swiss (N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) BERNE, Jan. 28. American spare parts for the Israeli Air Force have been seized by Swiss authorities in a check of transit cargo aboard an El Al airliner, according to the airline's chief representative in Switzerland. Mr Josef Kapelner, head of El Al’s main office in Zurich, says that the airline is negotiating to have at least part of the shipment released. The parts were seized on Saturday from a plane bound for Tel Aviv, he says. The Swiss Justice and Police Department has issued a statement saying that the parts were impounded because there was no transit permit for the cargo found by Customs Department inspectors aboard an El Al airliner on a flight from Amsterdam. "A substantial amount of war material was involved and the seizure was ordered as a precautionary measure,” the statement added. Mr Kapelner told reporters: “It was an orderly, plain and honest shipment, but the Swiss have a law which forbids the transit of any military equipment. By some idiotic mistake, the cargo was put aboard the wrong plane. The spare parts could easily have been shipped' on a direct flight from New York to Tel Aviv.”

Cairo Claim Refuted (N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) TEL AVIV, Jap, 28. An Israeli military spokesman in Tel Aviv has described as totally false a Cairo claim that Egyptian commandos yesterday pounded with rockets Israel’s general military headquarters in Sinai, killing large numbers of Israelis. ‘•There is not a word of truth in the Egyptian claims, which are a pure figment of Cairo’s imagination,” the spokesman said, inviting a correspondent representing the foreign press to visit the area mentioned in the Egyptian reports to see for himself.

"The only activity in the Sinai area yesterday was the explosion of a number of improvised bazooka shells near the settlement of Nahal Dikla. south of Rafah, at the southern end of the Gaza strip, causing neither casualties nor damage,” the spokesman said.

He added that Israeli planes flew across the Gulf of Suez today and attacked Egyptian artillery and antiaircraft batteries. All the aircraft returned safely to base after the attack.