A Paris-bound El Al jet reduced its altitude by 12,000 feet to ease the discomfort of an asthmatic passenger who left his medicine at home.
The passenger, Claude Leniess, was already airborne when his wife telephoned El Al to say he had forgotten his medications and his life could be endangered on the flight.
The message was passed on to the pilot, who checked his medical kit for an inhaler and then requested permission to lower altitude.
The plane descended from its normal cruising altitude of 43,000 feet to 31,000 feet and changed its flight path, at a considerable cost to El Al in extra fuel.
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.
