The Canadian government was urged today by the Canadian Airline Pilots Association to bar flights to Canada by Israeli commercial aircraft if Israel did not immediately guarantee that it would “never again” conduct or condone interference with civil flights. It was the first such action by any pilots association in response to the interception last Friday of a Lebanese civil airliner by Israeli jets.
The request was made in a telegram to External Affairs Minister Mitchell Sharp from John B. Wright, CALPA president, who called the interception “an act of unlawful interference with civil aviation.” Wright added that the pilots group, “in accordance with the accepted norms of international law for the protection of aviation,” was asking the Canadian government to obtain “immediate assurances” from the Israeli government that “it will never again participate in or condone” such acts of interference.
Wright stated that “should such an undertaking” by Israel “not be forthcoming, we request that Canada suspend all commercial air service by Israeli aircraft to and from Canada until such assurances are obtained.”
FLASH: The Security Council late this afternoon adopted unanimously a resolution condemning Israel for its Interception of a Lebanese Jetliner. See P. 3 for full story.
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