A TWA cargo plane and an Israel Air Force transport collided and burned on the main runway at Lydda Airport early today in an accident that killed two civilian military employees and injured two others. Minister of Transport Shimon Peres launched an immediate investigation and sent condolences to the families of the victims, Shmuel Wolf and Aharon Abutbul. Lydda Airport was shut down from shortly after 2:30 a.m., when the accident occurred, until noon today, delaying the departures of hundreds of passengers including Ambassador Yitzbak Rabin who was on his way back to Washington. The accident spotlighted mounting criticism by pilots of allegedly inadequate traffic safety controls at Lydda, Israel’s only international air terminal. Those charges are also under investigation by a special panel appointed earlier by Mr. Peres. The Transport Minister promised in the Knesset today that he would “publish and faithfully carry out” the findings and recommendations of the investigators.
According to first reports, the TWA Boeing707 was making its take-off run along the main runway when its right wing slammed into an Air Force Strato cruiser transport that was being towed by a tractor. The TWA plane had been cleared for take-off by the Lydda control tower only moments before the crash. Investigators will have to determine why the Strato cruiser was being hauled across a supposedly clear runway. Mr. Peres said in the Knesset that the committee investigating the accident, headed by former Air Force Commander Dan Tulkowsky, would also “consider operating procedures and arrangements at Lydda Airport” and determine whether they are consonant with safety. The TWA plane was bound for Zurich and Frankfurt with a cargo of vegetables and full fuel tanks. The pilot said he tried to avoid a head-on collision by veering left when he spotted the Strato cruiser blocking his take-off path. But his wing struck the Israeli transport and the tractor, instantly killing the two tractor men. The TWA pilot and his crew jumped to safety seconds before both planes exploded and burst into flames. Both were a total loss.
Eye-witnesses said that if the TWA jet had been a passenger plane the tragedy would have been a disaster of the first magnitude. The two dead men were employes of Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd., a private firm that does contract work for the Israel Air Force. It was the first serious accident at Lydda Airport in several years. But it focussed attention on recent charges by the Israel Airline Pilots’ Association that there are serious safety shortcomings at Lydda. The charges came to light after a plane carrying Premier Golda Meir to the United States last month narrowly avoided a mid-air collision over Lydda. Subsequent reports said there had been 58 complaints of near accidents in the air over Lydda in 1970. The pilots blamed a shortage of navigation equipment in the Lydda control tower and the fact that Lydda has only one international landing strip. They also charged poor discipline of airport personnel and inadequate safety procedures in the control tower. Transport Minister Peres named a special committee of aeronautical experts to investigate the charges and promised that $8 million will be spent over the next few years to modernize Lydda Airport.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
