The mystery and speculation about the kind of equipment that was being loaded onto a Jordanian plane at Dallas Airport continued to escalate this afternoon as differing versions were provided by the Jordanian Embassy and State Department sources. The Jordanian Minister, Dr. Nasir N. Batayneh, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the Jordanian jet was on a chartered flight from Amman to Dallas and return. He asserted that he did not know of any equipment having been taken aboard the jet.
A State Department source told the JTA that the Jordanian ALIA airline arrived in Dallas several days ago and took on “ordinary equipment” that had been “long anticipated” for delivery to Jordan as part of the on-going supply of military equipment from the U.S. to the Hashemite kingdom.
According to the source, the rumor that extraordinary equipment was being loaded onto the plane may have been sparked by the threat of a strike by cargo handlers and the Christmas rush and by some loose talk by the cargo handlers that special equipment was being loaded that had to be shipped immediately to Jordan.
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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.
