The Secretary of the Dutch Ministry of Communications, A. Kruisinga, today confirmed that the Dutch government is considering staffing its most “threatened” airplanes with security guards who will be armed with pistols. Sources close to the Ministry said the Middle Eastern routes of KLM would “obviously” come under the threatened heading.
The pistols to be used by the security guards will be equipped with explosive dum-dum bullets, “since any other kind of bullets could perforate the plane’s body,” Kruisinga said. The use of dum-dum bullets was forbidden during World War I and still is proscribed by many international agreements, including the Geneva Convention. Until now only the Israeli El Al Airlines has put armed security guards on its planes.
In another development, KLM announced today that it has signed an agreement with Israel allowing it to make a fourth weekly landing at Lydda Airport. The agreement took effect yesterday when a jumbo jet with 200 passengers took off from Schiphol Airport here for Lydda.
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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.
