An El-Al giant Bristol Britannia passenger plane landed safely at Idlewild airport here Friday morning despite the fact that one of the eight wheels on its landing gear had dropped off when the plane rose from Croyden Airport at London. Sixty-three passengers, including Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, noted Zionist leader, and a crew of 11 were aboard.
After twice passing low over the airfield so that the control tower could check the condition of the craft’s landing gear, pilot Captain Zvi Tohar, the Israel national airlines’ chief pilot, carefully set the plane down on the runway, tipping it slightly to the right to compensate for the missing wheel on the left side. The landing was without incident, though fire trucks, an ambulance and other emergency equipment was standing by along the runway on a top priority alert.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
