"You are clear from Lod to Cairo."
The voice of the towerman at Lod Airport broke suddenly last week as he passed along that seemingly routine flight clearance to a visiting Swiss pilot. The controller could hardly be blamed for the unprofessional display of emotion. The jet that he was routing was a Swiss DC-9 on charter to the International Red Cross. Shortly before takeoff, a convoy of 18 Israeli ambulances with red Star of David markings drew alongside the jet, owned by a charter company called Balair. Slowly, in some cases painfully,...
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