AFTER two planes carrying passengers and mail for Israel were torn by explosions, a newsman asked Minister of Transport Ezer Weizman what he proposed to do. "This is not a problem for a Transport Minister," Weizman replied. His meaning was plain: it was a job more suited to someone like his brother-in-law, who happens to be Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan.
Both explosions were almost certainly the work of Arab terrorists. In one, a Swissair plane bound for Tel Aviv exploded and crashed after leaving the Zurich airport; all 47 people aboard were killed. In the other, an Austrian Airlines plane was damaged by a similar explosion, but the pilot managed to return safely to Frankfurt. Some dramatic Israeli retaliation against the savage and brutal act of terror seemed inevitable, but by the end of last week, there had been nothing more than a few relatively routine air strikes against Egypt (see following story). The most vigorous protests came not from Israel but from the press, pilots and public officials of nations across Europe.
The Angry Swiss. The commercial airline pilots, long victimized by Cuban hijackers as well as Arab gunmen, were particularly upset. In London, the International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations promised that unless measures were taken to end terrorist attacks, it might call out its 45,000 pilot members and ground commercial airlines all over the world. International airline executives, meanwhile, called an emergency meeting in Paris for this week to discuss ways of curbing the terrorism.
The Swiss, usually slow to anger, were furious. This was the second time that their cherished neutrality had been violated because of a remote conflict; one year ago, Arab terrorists shot up an El Al plane at Zurich airport. The Federal Council, Switzerland's Cabinet, took the unusual measure of demanding visas from future Arab visitors.
Airports all over Europe appeared to be under siege. Gun-toting police and even armored cars patrolled runways; Israeli and Arab airliners were shunted to separate service areas. Baggage was Xrayed, stethoscoped, or simply scrutinized top to bottom, and some passengers were frisked for weapons. Briefly, nine of the 16 airlines that serve Israel suspended airmail and freight services. But Israel complained that such restrictions seemed to punish the victims more than the victimizers, and by week's end all but two lines had resumed full service.
Withering Condemnation. Working together, Austrian, Swiss and German police slowly assembled clues. In the Swiss case, that was particularly difficult; the Swissair plane crashed with such pulverizing force that no piece of wreckage measured more than a yard in length. Nevertheless, investigators determined that each bomb had exploded when the plane reached about 12,000 ft., indicating that altimeters had been used as fuses. Checks of shops in Frankfurt turned up a pair of Arabs who had bought altimeters and tested them in the nearby Taunus Mountains. They were picked up for questioning, and alarms went out for two others.