dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (09/06/83)
Yes, Israel did shoot down a Libyan civilian plane over the Sinai in 1973. The plane was heading towards Israel, and for some reason did not respond to the usual instructions from the military planes which signalled it to land. It was scheduled to Cairo. At the time, the Black September terrorist arm of the PLO was quite active. (The Munich Olympics were only about nine months before.) One of the plans which Black September was actively working on was to take a plane, fill it with explosives and crash it into the middle of Tel Aviv in order to kill as many people as possible. "... as a bleak sandstorm was raging over the Sinai, a huge aircraft suddenly penetrated into Israeli-controlled airspace. It was identified as a Libyan aeroplane. The Israeli air force radioed stern warnings to the pilots, and two fighter planes took off immediately, signalling them to turn back; but the plane stubbornly continued its flight towards Israel. Those were the days when the Israelis expected at any moment that an explosive-laden Black September plane would attempt to crash in the centre of Tel Aviv. As the Libyan aircraft kept on its course, the air force pilots were ordered to shoot it down. Which they did. "From the smoldering debris, spread across the barren desert, Israeli soldiers recovered 104 scorched bodies. They were all civilians. There had been not an ounce of explosives on board. The plane had been a genuine Libyan airliner, on its way to Cairo. It had been blown off course by the desert storm. Until the last second the pilots had believed that they were approaching Cairo, and even mistook the Israeli Phantom fighters for Egyptian Migs which were escorting them to the airport. "The world was deeply shocked; no apologies from Israel could erase the tremendous grief that swept Libya..." Bar-Zohar & Haber, "The Quest for the Red Prince", William Morrow & Co., New York, 1983, pp. 178-9. I seem to remember the newspapers being pretty upset at the time, although not as much as in the KAL case. It's possible Israel acted too hastily; on the other hand, given the atmosphere at the time, the very real danger to Israeli citizens' life, and the fact the plane came from Libya (Black September's strongest supporter, run then as now by Qaddafi), the reaction is understandable. I don't know whether Israel offered compensation to Libya; I doubt it would have been accepted. Incidentally, the book quoted from is the story of Israeli Intelligence's search for Ali Hassan Salameh, the leader of Black September, and makes excellent reading. Dave Sherman -- {allegra,cornell,floyd,ihnp4,linus,utzoo,uw-beaver,watmath}!utcsrgv!lsuc!dave