U.S. Officers in Liaison Role for Malta Jet Attack

Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger today said three U.S. military officers accompanied Egyptian commandos who stormed the hijacked Egypt-Air jet in Malta but said the officers were on standby “for liaison purposes.”

Weinberger, in a live interview from Brussels with NBC’s “Today” show, also said the U.S. officers could not have prevented the loss of 60 lives that occurred during the hijacking and storming of the plane.

“I think the large loss of life was caused by the suicidal impulses of the hijackers, who threw hand grenades in an extremely confined narrow area when they must have known that that would cause their own injury or death as well as the deaths of a great many people nearby,” Weinberger said.

Fire Sweeps Plane

Egyptian commandos stormed the plane Nov. 24 and fire swept through the cabin. Maltese sources said that the commandos apparently used too many explosives to blast their way into the cabin and that this “very likely” started the fire.

Late last week, a senior Maltese official claimed U.S. officers had helped coordinate the assault by the Egyptian commandos on the airliner.

Weinberger, who is attending a meeting of NATO defense ministers here, refused to provide further details on the operation.

“The best way to deal with (terrorism) is to deal with it quickly and in as effective a manner as possible and that clearly involves not discussing before, during or after what we would do or how we would do it,” he said.