International Pilots’ Group Supporting Emergency Air Safety Conference

The International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations (IFALPA) threw its support today behind calls for an emergency international air safety conference to take up not only the technical means for preventing aerial hijacking and terrorist attacks against civilian aircraft “but ways of tackling the political situation which provokes such atrocities.” Such a conference may be convened in Geneva, Switzerland next week by the International Civil Aviation Organization. It was urged to do so yesterday by the Swiss and Austrian governments. Swiss and Austrian airliners were targets of Arab terrorists’ bombs on flights to Israel Feb. 21. The Austrian airliner landed safely at Frankfurt after a mid-air explosion. The Swiss air jet, bound for Tel Aviv, crashed near Zurich carrying 47 passengers and crew-members to their deaths.

IFALPA is an umbrella organization comprised of airline pilots groups in 51 countries with a total membership of 45,000. Its top leadership met here under the chairmanship of Capt. Olag Forsberg, of Finland. A statement was issued after today’s meeting urging the emergency air safety conference to discuss methods of preventing “politically motivated attacks on aircraft whether by hi-jacking, sabotage or armed aggression.” The IFALPA statement said that if such a conference is to be effective, it must have the full participation of governments, airlines, airport authorities and aviation employes’ organizations. Each of IFALPA’s constituent associations was asked to press its government to call such a conference or to participate in it. The Federation also urged the most stringent security precautions by all national authorities to ensure the safety of their own aircraft. An IFALPA spokesman said that pilots’ representatives all over the world will be able to assess practical security measures taken by various governments as well as steps on a political level by the time its annual conference opens March 11.

He said if by then progress in the two areas was deemed inadequate, IFALPA delegates would discuss independent action by airline pilots, including a 24-hour international strike. Meanwhile stringent security measures prevailed at virtually all British and Continental airports. A number of international airlines, including the largest British carrier, BOAC, maintained bans on cargo and mail service to Israel. A BOAC spokesman said his company hoped to resume mail and freight flights to Tel Aviv over the week-end.

DR. GOLDMANN PRAISES SWISS GOVERNMENT FOR CALLING AIR SAFETY CONFERENCE

The ban on such service was widely denounced in Israel and by pro-Israel elements in most countries. But Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress, said in a statement here yesterday that “The present emergency measures by some national postal authorities and airlines regarding the transfer of mail and freight to Israel may have been required on understandable grounds of security.” Dr. Goldmann added, “The continued interruption of these services would in effect be surrender to and encouragement of Arab terrorists and would harm only the victims of their criminal acts.” Dr. Goldmann’s statement praised the Swiss Government’s initiative in calling for an emergency air safety conference by the ICAO. He said the call “should be affirmatively responded to without delay.” The conference already has the backing of the U.S. and other governments.

A member of the Swiss Government was due in Montreal today with the file of its investigation of last Saturday’s Swiss air disaster. The standing committee on the preparation of a treaty to combat unlawful seizure and hijacking of aircraft will present its report to the governing council of ICAO in Montreal on March 2 for final discussion and adoption of the treaty as a whole.

(Expressions or shock and demands for protection against terrorist assaults against civilian aircraft continued in several countries today. In Buenos Aires, the DAIA, central representative body of Argentine Jewry, sent a message of condolence to the Swiss Ambassador, Antonino Janner. It praised the “calm and responsible attitude adopted by the Swiss Government” in the wake of the tragedy. The message denounced terrorists who attack civilian aircraft and added. “We believe it is necessary to adopt all feasible measures in order not only to avoid a continuation of these crimes but to secure and maintain the safety of commercial air services.) (In Washington, D. C. yesterday. Rep. Jacob H. Gilbert, a New York Democrat, urged Secretary of State William P. Rogers to seek United Nations action on an international agreement barring any nation from assisting or giving asylum to any person or group committing acts of sabotage in international commerce.)