Arab vengeance calls after airliner disaster

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33158, 23 February 1973, Page 9

Arab vengeance calls after airliner disaster

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) CAIRO. February 22. Egypt will disclose today details of the recorded final messages from the Libyan airliner that crashed in the Sinai Desert yesterday, to support her charge that four Israeli jet fighters shot it down without giving prior warning. As Arab anger, and calls for vengeance, mounted after the tragedy, in which at least 92 persons are reported to have been killed, Egyptian officials said that the tape-j recording of the full conversation between the Cairo Airport control tower and the French pilot of the Libyan Arab Airline’s Boeing 727 tri-jet would disclose the extent of the “treachery of the Israeli criminals.”

They said that the recording. due to be produced at a press conference in Cairo, would refute the Israeli allegation that the airliner was first ordered to land, and failed to respond to warning shots, when it flew off-course, in bad weather, over the Is-raeli-occupied Sinai Desert on a flight from Benghazi to Cairo. The newspaper, “Al. Akhbar,” today disclosed the pilot’s last dramatic words in advance of the press conference: “They are firing on us ... I lost my direction.” Of the 99 persons on board the airliner, 92 were reported dead at the latest count. Representatives of the French Embassy in Tel Aviv, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the United Nations plan to visit the seven survivors in hospital today, but a hospital spokesman says it is doubted if any of the injured is well enough to talk. Several of them underwent surgery during the night. Most of them are suffering from serious burns, and two have had plastic surgery. There are two French nationals among the survivors, an air hostess and another member of the crew, believed to have been the co-pilot Among the passengers, according to Cairo Airport sources, was the former

Libyan Foreign Minister, Mr Saleh Masoud Bousseir, now a special adviser to President Gadaffi. The tragedy has brought( the Middle East crisis to a new flash-point of tension. ‘but military and political observers doubt if it will lead to a new round of fighting between Egypt and Israel. They recall that Presidents Sadat’ has frequently de-| ( dared that Egypt will not be ( drawn into battle until she is fully prepared and at a time and place of her own choosing. But, the observers say, ‘ this does not exclude the possibility of a strike against Israel by Libyan or Palestinian commando forces. Israeli attacks, initiated last week by a dogfight between Egyptian and Israeli jet fighter aircraft, and including Tuesday’s raid against what the Arabs claim to be Palestinian refugee camps in North Lebanon —Israel says ; they are commando camps—and the shooting down of the Libyan airliner yesterday, may have been intended to ‘ intimidate the Arabs at a (time when prospects to move 1 the Middle East crisis from Jits present deadlock are in the offing, Cairo observers ■! say. They note that Mr Hafez ■ \ Ismail, President Sadat’s prinJcipal adviser, is in search of ‘peaceful means for a ’settlement of the crisis dur,l ing his talks in London and Washignton. ! Egypt has sent a cable to | the United Nations Secretary- . General (Dr Kurt Waldheim) : protesting about the incident. • What measures Egypt will

now take are not clear, but Foreign Ministry officials have worked throughout the night instructing Egyptian embassies abroad to seek international condemnation of the incident.

A strongly-worded official statement yesterday said: “Israel will repay dearly for this premeditated crime,” and Cairo officials described the Israeli action as “callous, heinous, unprecedented, inhuman, mean, and treacherous.”

Libya maintains that the airliner deviated from its flight route because of the bad weather.

The Libyan radio service, which interrupted its broadcasts to play solemn music and religious and nationalist songs, said: “The Libyan revolution will continue to struggle, and to make sacrifices, until the Arab nations agree to joint efforts for a pan-Arab battle against Israel. Today’s ■ aggression is yet another link in the Zionist-American machinations.”

The Libyan Foreign Min-j ister (Mr Mansour Rashid Al Kekiha), who is in Cairo, is Quoted by the newspaper, “Al Ahram,” as saying: “This criminal act will only increase our determination to fight and struggle against the Zionist entity.” In Jerusalem, a communique was issued after a special Cabinet meeting, saying, in part: “The Libyan aircraft penetrated into the air space over a highly-sensitive military area under Israeli control, and behaved in a way which aroused suspicion and concern regarding its intentions. When the aircraft did not respond to repeated warnings and a demand to land, according to internaItional aviation rules, the Israeli aircraft were forced, as a last resort, to intercept it.

| “It has been established belyond all doubt that the pilot lof the Libyan aircraft had noted the repeated warnings . . . but nevertheless refused jto heed those warnings. I “. . . The Israeli Prime Minister (Mrs Meir) did, immedilately after the announcement of the crash, express her Government’s deep concern on the loss of human lives, and regret of the fact that the pilot had ignored the many warnings he was given.”

Previous cases

There have been only three previous incidents in the last 30 years in which civil airliners have been shot down | by war planes. In 1943, a British airliner was shot down by the German Luftwaffe between Lisbon and London, and plunged

into the Bay of Biscay. Thirteen people were killed, including the British actor, Leslie Howard.

In 1954, a DC4 of Cathay Pacific Airways was fired on by Chinese fighters, and fell into the sea off the island of Hainan. Of the 18 aboard, eight survived. In 1955. an Israeli Airlines Constellation was shot down by Bulgarian fighter aircraft after straying over the Bulgarian border. All 56 passengers and crew died in that crash.