Brisk trade in Lebanese take-aways

Press, 24 June 1985, Page 6

Brisk trade in Lebanese take-aways

By

HALA JABER,

Associated Press (through

NZPA) Beirut The hijackers of the T.W.A. jet that has been parked on the tarmac at Beirut airport for a week call the control tower every morning for food and newspapers, just like hotel guests ordering room service, airport officials say.

Their demands, like those of hotel guests, often are unusual. So is the food sent in for the gunmen and the three American crewmen aboard the Boeing 727. “What’s for lunch?” one of the hijackers of T.W.A. flight 847 radioed the tower

one day. “Cheese and jam sandwiches,” the tower replied in a conversation monitored by reporters. “Oh no,” the hijacker groaned. “No more cheese and jam sandwiches. We want meat, something with meat.”

In went 80 portions of chicken and rice, with 80 salads on the side and 80 coconut cakes.

Everyone knows there are not 80 people aboard the plane — just the three-man cockpit crew and a halfdozen gunmen. But, as in all hostage dramas, everyone plays a bizarre game of bluff and double-bluff. Despite the hijackers’

grumbles, cheese and jam sandwiches still are their staple diet. The occasional chicken or other meat is thrown in to keep them happy. The only development is that the hijackers now have to make the sandwiches themselves.

On Friday Middle East Airlines sent in 80 small jars of jam, 80 small butter packs, and the same number of bread rolls.

Airport officials said that the hijackers got daily deliveries of five newspapers — Beirut’s “Daily Star,” published in English, the French “L’Orient de Jour,” and three Arabic dailies.

When the gunmen first ordered the plane to Beirut with most of the original 153 passengers and crew members aboard, they ordered 400 sandwiches, 150 apples, 150 oranges, nearly 9 kg of bananas, two large cartons of orange juice, and two cartons of drinking water.

Even after the plane was virtually empty, the hijackers kept up their orders for large quantities of food. They apparently hoped that the pretense would confuse the United States, which, they believed, was about to launch a rescue mission. The food issue was complicated because the hijack-

ing took place during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when Islamic law requires the faithful to fast between sunrise and sunset.

After fasting on Tuesday the hijackers radioed the tower at 2 a.m. and asked for Lahm Baajine, the Lebanese equivalent of pizza.

What they got was 35 manakeesh, a typical Lebanese breakfast of cheese, thyme and sesame seeds baked on bread. Manakeesh is not on the menu of Middle East Airlines, Lebanon’s national carrier, which is catering for the hijackers. Officials said that Shi’ite militiamen

sympathetic to the hijackers had had to drive to a latenight bakery that makes the dish.

Officials said that the plane’s crew — Captain John Testrake, aged 57; the co-pilot, Philip Maresca, aged 42; and flight engineer. Benjamin Zimmermann, aged 45 — ate the same fare as their captors.

"They sometimes bring us airline food and sometimes Lebanese food,” Captain Testrake told the United States network, ABC-TV, on Wednesday as he sat in his cockpit. “It’s different for us, but very delicious. I’d say on the whole the food's ok.”