French Skeptical About Pilot’s Story

An Israeli civilian plane, forced down yesterday by French fighter planes while overflying a restricted area near Lyons, was cleared by French authorities and resumed its flight today to West Germany. But French security authorities apparently are not altogether satisfied with the pilot’s story that he was forced off course by bad weather. This was indicated today by a report in Le Monde which said weather conditions in the Lyons area were good at the time and visibility was about eight miles.

Quoting unnamed French security sources, Le Monde stated the Israelis “probably tried to test the area’s defenses.” The plane, an Israel-made Arava transport, was enroute from Nice to an international air show at Hanover, West Germany, when it was intercepted by French planes over a strategic region where most of France’s nuclear missile launching pads are located. French officials developed the film in the plane’s cameras and found nothing of a security nature and no grounds to hold the plane and its crew.

But French official circles have expressed surprise that “an experienced test pilot flying a prototype could have accumulated so many mistakes,” Le Monde reported. Because no evidence of security violations were found, France has refrained from turning the episode into an international incident. Israeli circles have stressed that the grounding of the plane was “normal French procedure” and would not affect Franco-Israeli relations.

Observers recalled a similar incident in 1965 involving a US plane on a NATO mission which overflew the Plateau D’Albion area near the Pierrelate nuclear pile. The plane was grounded and the pilot found to have taken 175 photographs of the region and the pile, leading to a severe crisis in French relations with the US.