The World : Libyan Crew Asks Asylum

A three-man crew landed a Libyan military helicopter at an air base in Egypt’s Western Desert near the Libyan border and requested political asylum, the second such defection this month, the official Middle East News Agency said. The three officers asked for permission to land as soon as their Chinook helicopter entered Egyptian airspace, the news agency said. On March 2, two Libyan officers, part of a five-man crew, asked for asylum after landing their C-130 military transport in southern Egypt. Egypt offered to return the plane and the three officers who did not request asylum, but there have been no reports of progress in indirect talks. Libya and Egypt severed relations in 1977.