Dayan: Both Sides Were Mistaken

Defense Minister Moshe Dayan conceded yesterday that mistakes on both sides contributed to the downing of the Libyan airliner last Wednesday and the loss of 106 lives. He proposed a “hot line” with capitals of neighboring Arab states to be used to prevent such accidents. This was immediately rejected by Egyptian sources.

Dayan told members of a 25th anniversary Jewish National Fund mission last night that he regretted the immediate negative reaction from Egypt. He called it indicative of the Arab relations toward Israel in that “they are not ready to listen to a proposal for simple human precautions.”

Speaking at a press conference after discovery of the “black box” of the downed airliner, Dayan cited three elements in the tragedy: the failure of the airline pilot to realize he was over Sinai rather than Egypt until the last minute and his assumption that it was Egyptian MIG’s firing at his plane; the error of the Cairo airport ground control station which repeatedly “confirmed” the pilot’s misreading of his position; and the assumption of Israel’s defense officials that the airliner might be on a hostile mission.

In rejecting Dayan’s proposal for a hot line, which Dayan said had been in operation 20 years ago between him, as commander in Jerusalem and the Jordanian commander of the Jerusalem area with Egypt and other neighboring countries, the Egyptians said the proposal was an Israeli attempt to achieve through “a back door.” what they could not achieve through the “front door.” They reiterated Egypt’s fundamental position not to have any direct dealings with Israel in any field.

ELAZAR TAKES FULL RESPONSIBILITY

Gen. David Elazar, Army Chief of Staff, said yesterday that he assumed full responsibility for the decision to bring down the airliner. He said “under the suspicious circumstances of that moment, I thought then and I am sure of it now that the evaluation and decision to force the plane down were justified.” He added that “knowing then what we know now, we would not have given the order to force the plane down by use of fire.”

Elazar insisted there was no knowledge that there were passengers aboard the plane. He noted that the airliner “had managed to come through the Egyptian air defenses without being hit or even being warned, thus giving the impression that the plane was crossing into Israeli-held territory in coordination with the Egyptian defense system.”

Gen. Mordechai Hod, the Air Force commander, said his flyers were caught in a “terrible dilemma,” but after evaluating the situation in the short time at their disposal, they had to act as they did. He added “We could not have taken such a combination of errors into account.”

The data from the black box gave a dramatic recital of the consistency with which the Cairo ground control fed the airliner pilot with incorrect information as to his position.–Dayan told the press conference he could not understand how a competent airline captain could mistake Israeli Phantoms for MIGs and the Israeli markings for Egyptian.

Dayan repeated his initial stand that there was no need for an Israeli investigation, but he also stressed again that any official agency or authorized parties, such as the Libyan Airways, the Pilots Association, the Red Cross and Air France were welcome to all material on the crash and that Israel would provide maximum help in any such investigation. Reacting to calls from Arab capitals for revenge, he expressed the hope that the Arabs would understand that Israel understood “that what has happened was a catastrophe. I share their sorrow.”