February 21, 1970, a cold and wet Saturday, Switzerland was shaken when Swissair 330 bound for Tel Aviv, crashed shortly after take-off from Zurich. Swissair Flight 330 was a regularly scheduled flight from Zurich International Airport in Kloten, Switzerland, to Hong Kong with a planned stopover in Tel Aviv, Israel.
About nine minutes after take-off, during the ascent on a southerly course, a bomb detonated in the aft cargo compartment of the aircraft. The bomb was triggered by a change in atmospheric pressure. The crew desperately tried to turn the plane around and attempt an emergency landing at Zürich but had difficulty seeing the instruments due to smoke in the cockpit. The aircraft deviated more and more to the west. “330 is going down,” co-pilot Armand Etienne told the control tower in German and added “Goodbye everybody” in English. The flight crashed a short time later due to a loss of power, killing everyone on board: 38 passengers and nine crew.
Let us look for a moment at the co pilot Armand Etienne. He was actually born in Odessa, Russia in 1918, but his family came from Lausanne, Switzerland. Armand moved to Australia and joined the RAAF in 1939 when war broke out.
Completing his training he was then assigned to a Squadron operating American-built PB-Y "Catalina" Flying-Boats. One of his fellow crews was forced into the sea, and he promptly set out on a rescue mission to pick them up. He took off to fly the mission in broad daylight, and after flying low over Japanese-held territory, he soon located his stranded comrades, and then safely brought them home. For this remarkable rescue under the eyes of the Japanese, he was decorated for his outstanding courage and grim determination with the Distinguished Flying Cross (D.F.C.).
He joined Swissair in 1953. Armand is often referred to as a Captain but on the fateful flight 330, he was the co-pilot. RIP and thank you for your service.
Continuing with our story, the PFLP-GC (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command) initially claimed responsibility out of their HQ in Beirut Lebanon, but they retracted it after a few days. One possible motive was revenge against Switzerland for three Palestinians who had been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment by a Swiss court.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) was established in April 1968 by Ahmed Jibril. Jibril recently passed away, July 7th. At the time, being of Syrian descent, he was a member of the PFLP, the PLO, and a captain in the Syrian Army. He wanted to focus more on terrorism and less on politics. The PFLP-GC is not to be confused with PFLP of George Habash. Monty Python "Life of Brian" anyone?
A black instructional marking in French was applied to any mail which translated reads:
Correspondence is from "Coronado" that fell at Würenlingen. Zürich 58 Post Office
Correspondence is from "Coronado" that fell at Würenlingen. Zürich 58 Post Office
Now here we have an interesting side to the story. Within a few days the main suspect was named as a Jordanian who had intended of blowing up an Israeli plane. As a result of a flight diversion, it ended up on a Swissair plane. Yet no suspects were ever taken to court, despite arrest warrants, and despite this being defined as the worst terrorist attack in Swiss history. The Swiss investigator handed his report to the federal attorney-general but complained later that the Swiss authorities seemed to throw a “cloak of silence” over the case.
In September of the same year, a Swissair flight which was on its way to New York, was hijacked and ended up at Dawson's Field, a disused airstrip in Jordanian desert.
In 2016, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) newspaper reported that, while Switzerland was desperately trying to get negotiate to get their hostages released, Swiss Foreign Minister Pierre Graber allegedly secretly contacted the PLO. Using a member of the Swiss parliament as an intermediary, but without informing his fellow government ministers, apparently Graber had come to an agreement under which those charged for the attack on the Swissair plane would be released in return for freeing the hostages. The allegations emerged in a book entitled, “Swiss Terror Years."
In addition the investigation into the bombing of the Swissair flight would be quietly shelved, no wonder no one was charged and everything was hushed up. Switzerland also agreed to use its diplomatic offices to push for international recognition of the PLO.
The agreement was apparently designed to prevent terrorist attacks on Swiss territory. Strangely Reuters reported that apparently a Swiss investigation found no evidence that a government minister struck a secret deal with the Palestine Liberation Organization. In my opinion, there must have been something as there were no more terror attacks in Switzerland. This does show that terror works.
The Swissair bombing also had an understandable effect on mail including letters and parcels. After the bombing many international carriers suspended mail and cargo services to Israel, claiming that the measure was temporary. One captain of a Swissair flight refused to take outgoing mail, of course he was scared, but agreed when he was informed that he was acting contrary to his company's instructions.
Of course Israel approached the International Postal Union to act against any delays in foreign mail deliveries but this did not help. As a result mail sent or routed to Israel through the UK, Italy, and the USA was required to be sent only by surface mail in the immediate future. Airmail to Israel was no longer permitted.
Hebrew inscription "Arrived via surface mail" via the sea
Once again terrorism wins the day. Check out my blog about the Munich massacre at the Olympics.
Thank you. Very sad and interesting story.
ReplyDelete