Bomb Discovered on Jetliner Scheduled to Carry Gemayel
A bomb was found Friday in the cockpit of a jetliner that was to carry Lebanese President Amin Gemayel on official visits to Yemen and Sudan, Beirut airport officials said.
“The bomb was safely defused by explosive experts at the airport,” said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Middle East Airlines Boeing 707 was being readied to fly to Larnaca, Cyprus, to pick up Gemayel for his trip to Sana, the capital of Yemen, when the bomb was found at mid-afternoon, the official said.
Gemayel, 44, a Maronite Catholic, has been unable to use Beirut airport, the nation’s only working aviation facility, since Muslim militias wrested control of the city’s Muslim sector from the Lebanese army in February, 1984. Gemayel had already left his presidential palace in Baabda in the Christian heartland northeast of Beirut by an army helicopter to Larnaca and was waiting for the plane, the official added.
The official said the president, whose trip was delayed for two hours, boarded another Middle East Airlines plane and flew on to Yemen.
The Beirut airport, which is now controlled by Syrian troops, is surrounded by Shia Muslim slums.
Gemayel has escaped at least two assassination attempts during his six-year term that expires in September.
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