AIRLINE SECURITY Emergency Talks In Paris Called

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32233, 27 February 1970, Page 13

AIRLINE SECURITY Emergency Talks In Paris Called

LONDON, February 26. The British Board of Trade has announced that European civil aviation leaders will hold an emergency meeting in Paris next Tuesday to discuss airline security, after suspected sabotage in the Swissair Coronado airliner in which 47 people lost their lives on Saturday. In addition, Britain has thrown her full support behind a Swiss request for a special meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (1.C.A.0.) to discuss air security.

| The President of the ’ Board of Trade (Mr Roy Mason) told the House of Commons: “The United Kingdom’s member of the 1.C.A.0. Council has been instructed to give full support to the Swiss proposal, so that an urgent meeting of governments can be held in the most useful form. “An emergency meeting of European civil aviation administrations has also been arranged, to begin on March 3. in which the United Kingdom will take part at senior level.” The Board of Trade’s i announcement was made as j the Israeli Deputy prime; ’Minister (Mr Yigal Alton) 1 i arrived in London for a; iseven-day visit. I “Air travel to the Middle East must go on, in spite of the danger of Arab terror attacks, because any airline boycott will merely give a prize and encouragement to the terrorists, which they don’t deserve,” he said. “It is inconceivable that the enlightened world should give in to terrorists or bands of fanatical murderers.” Crash Inquiry From Wuerenlingen, Switzerland. it is reported that the Swissair crash investigators say that an explosion damaged a vital wire linked with the navigation system of the Coronado, and this could have sent the airliner on its fatal plunge to earth with 47 people aboard. * After examining the jagged shards of metal—all that remain of the jetliner—the experts said that an explosion in the rear section had started a fire and damaged an aerial wire connected to the navigation system.

< The plane would no longer . have been fully controllable, and this was possibly the ! cause of the crash. But the ! engines were still fully , powered when it ploughed into woods, and therefore 1 there could be no proof of 1 sabotage. The “black box” flightrecording equipment had ■ functioned up to the moment I of the crash, the inquiry offi■|cials said, but they had. still not located the vital tape giving details of the fatal flight. Debris dug from the heavily snow-clad woods are being subjected to minute ‘ laboratory examination. Mail Delayed In Berne, the ■ Federal postal administration* said that air mail ter Israel was ! still being accepted, .but it ] was subject to delay of about ia day because,some airlines refused to carry it. i A large crowd is expected Ito attend a nationally-tele-vised memorial service for the Swissair crash victims in the Zurich City Congress Hall today. The Swiss Government has imposed tight restrictions on the issue of entry visas to Arabs. Telexed instructions have gone out to Swiss embassies and consulates in the Arab world, stating that ordinary entry visas to Arab passport-holders could be issued only for “bnpeirative i humanitarian reasons.” The i exeception would be if important Swiss interests were involved. :

Visas for short stays, or tourist visas, could be given only to people “personally known to, and regarded favourably by, Swiss representatives,” the orders said Entry visas for Arabs were made compulsory on Monday. Swiss insurers are to pay 72,500 Swiss francs (5NZ15.536) to the legal heirs of the 38 passengers who died in the crash. The indemnity, which is provided for under Swissair’s passen-

■ ger insurance policy, will be , paid as soon as the heirs are > known. [ Tender» Called Specifications for Australia’s first nuclear power sta- . tion, at Jervis Bay, will goi I to tenderers on March I. Canberra, February 28, 1