British ground crews at London Airport halted their work stoppage against El Al and eight Arab airlines today and resumed servicing the liners. The crews had stopped work on the planes for “security reasons” following the destruction by a bomb of a Swiss air liner bound for Tel Aviv last Saturday with the loss of 47 lives and the attempted bomb destruction of another Tel Aviv-bound airliner.
The ground crews are employed by British Overseas Airways Corp. Their services to El Al planes have been restricted to “push and start” with El Al technicians doing all the necessary servicing. The Arab lines, however, have been dependent of the British crews for full service. An El Al spokesman said this afternoon that all El Al flights were leaving London on schedule.
The executive board of the International Federation of Airlines Pilots Associations met in London today to consider what action the pilots could take to prevent attacks on civilian aircraft. They heard a report from their president, Capt. Ola Forsberg. on his unsuccessful efforts to obtain United Nations action. Capt. Forsberg flew to New York for a 50-minute meeting Tuesday with UN Under-Secretary-General Ralph Bunche. He reported after the meeting that he saw little hope of UN action. Capt. Forsberg said the pilots would consider a strike unless there was considerable improvement in the security situation. His board, meeting in secret here, is expected to reach a decision on action by the federation’s 46,000 members some time Thursday.
A spokesman for the International Air Transport Association (IATA) demanded that governments take stern action against politically-motivated attacks on civilian aircraft. He said that in countries where the death penalty existed, it should be imposed for murder through such attacks.
Roy Mason of the Board of Trade announced that Britain would take part in an emergency meeting March 3 of the European Civil Aviation Administration to tackle “violent interference with Civil Aviation.” He said such acts as hijacking, attacks on grounded aircraft and sabotage could be dealt with only internationally.
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.
