Woman vanishes in M.E. jet mystery

Press, 2 October 1979, Page 9

Woman vanishes in M.E. jet mystery

NZPA London f • < A team of special investigators is to probe the I world of intrigue and inter- < national politics in a bid to 1 find a missing British secretary. Theresa Drake. < Miss Drake’s father, Mr . Tom Drake, said that the I Athens-based team would begin this week searching < for his daughter and six r other passengers and crew t of an executive jet which 1 disappeared in the Middle a East last month. Mr Drake, of Stapleton, / near Shrewsbury, in Eng- t land. believes that his ( daughter, aged 23, fs the jn- I nocent victim of a power 1 - ruggle between Libya and 1 Syria. < He believes she was kid- i napped with her boss. Mr I Aladin Bahri, a powerful Middle East businessman, I who was negotiating a i multi-million dollar arms < deal with the Syrians, on a s

flight between Athens and Saudi Arabia. He is convinced Mr Bahri’s Lear jet was intercepted and forced down on Libyan territory. “The evidence we have collected is pretty conclusive . . . I believe she is now in Libya,” Mr Drake said. A 52.17 M search throughout Ethiopia and Kenya was mounted by Fadi Shipping, the Syrian-owned companyheaded by Mr Bahri, but the aircraft was not found. Mr Drake has been to Athens to seek more information about his daughter’s disappearance, and with the help of the former British Defence Minister, l ord Chalfont, a friend and business associate, .he has taken up the case with the British Foreign Office. “I uncovered quite a lot, but there is a tremendous amount w'hich is not discloseable at this particular stage." he said. _—