Officials here said today that the explosion yesterday evening in a Rome-to-Tel Aviv jet appeared to be an act of sabotage. The source of the explosion in the El Al Boeing 707 was found by officials to be a box marked “fragile,” and two women passengers reported that two Iranians they had gotten to know in Italy had given them the box as a farewell souvenir, saying it contained a phonograph. There were only minor injuries from the blast.
The apparent sabotage attempt duplicated one of a year ago in which Arab terrorists handed over valises with explosives to two airline passengers–both women, one Dutch and one Peruvian–who innocently accepted them and took them aboard. Those valises did not explode.
In yesterday’s incident the two women passengers were Welsh and carried British passports. Passengers returning here this morning from Rome in a special midnight El Al plane told reporters that the pair burst into tears on learning that their own luggage could have caused the deaths of themselves and 140 others. “We knew the two Iranians for a short time,” they said. “They were nice to us and gave us a present. Now we know it was a deadly present. Who would have thought that?” The Iranians have been detained by the Rome police for questioning. Piloting experts here hailed the capability and presence of mind of Capt. Yehuda Fux of Tel Aviv, who managed to make an emergency landing at the Rome airport. Fux, 35, has been a captain five years. His passengers thankfully joined in singing “Hevenu Shalom Aleichem.”
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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.
