Airlines Group Ask Governments to Help End Aggression Against Civil Aviation

An “action program for aircraft and airport security” was presented here yesterday by the executive committee of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), an organization embracing 103 international airlines. It called on governments and airport authorities to join with airlines in a coordinated safety program to end “acts of armed aggression against civil aviation.” Representatives of Israel’s El A1 and the Arab-owned Middle East Airline were among the executives attending the session which was chaired by Keith Granville, managing director of British Overseas Airways Corp. (BOAC).

The call for international action to protect airliners and their passengers was the latest from commercial aviation sources since the Feb. 21 crash of an Israel-bound Swiss air jet. It warned that the increasing incidence of aerial hijacking and terrorist attacks on the ground and in the air “threatens to negate the very purpose of air transport.” The IATA committee proposed a number of technical measures such as screening passengers and checking luggage and cargo.

It noted that 22 governments have already ratified the 1963 Tokyo Convention on aviation safety and urged all other governments to do so. Meanwhile the legal committee of the International Civil Aviation Organization to which 119 nations belong is completing the draft of an anti-hijacking treaty. The International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations will meet in London tomorrow to consider the problem of airliner security. (New terrorist attacks on airliners and other civilian targets were threatened by an Arab guerrilla spokesman on a West German television interview last night. George Habash, who said he heads the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, warned that American planes might be targets because “the U.S. delivers Phantoms to Israel and is an enemy of the Arabs.” Habash said the hijacking of an Israel-bound TWA airliner to Damascus last August was a “weak Arab response.” He promised that “now we will do much better.”)

Meanwhile the International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations (IFALPA) will open its 25th annual conference here tomorrow. But the crucial item on the agenda–measures to protect airliners and their passengers from hijacking and terrorist attacks–will be discussed behind closed doors. This was announced at a press conference today by Capt. Ola Forsberg, IFALPA’s president. He said, however, that a special committee is working on recommendations dealing with airline security. These may be disclosed at another press conference when the sessions end. The IFALPA conference will be attended by delegates from about 40 of its 51 constituent associations, including an Israeli delegation headed by Capt. A. Shemer, of El Al. Lebanon and the Sudan will also attend, Egypt, which is not a member, will have observer status at the conference.