4 Western Aid Flights Reach Sarajevo; More Due Today

Four U.S. and Canadian planes carrying food and medicine landed at Sarajevo’s shell-scarred airport Sunday, and the U.N. refugee agency said it hopes more loads of urgently needed supplies will arrive today.

The airlift to the Serbian-besieged Bosnian capital was halted for the day shortly after noon, because of bad weather rather than the occasional crackle of gun and mortar fire that could be heard from the airport.

The dangers to humanitarian flights in the region were highlighted by the second attack in less than a week on U.N. helicopters approaching Zagreb airport in Croatia.

The United Nations Protection Force said it expressed consternation to the Croatian government after two U.N. helicopters came under fire while approaching Zagreb on a medical evacuation mission Friday.

It said its director of civil affairs, Cedric Thornberry, had written to Croatian Vice President Ivan Milas asking what steps the government was taking to prevent any other such occurrences.

Both helicopters landed safely and without damage at Zagreb airport. A similar attack last Monday was later blamed by Croatia on a soldier opening fire without orders.

The rain and low clouds that settled over Sarajevo on Sunday provided a foretaste of the difficulties facing pilots trying to ferry relief supplies to the city during the harsh winter ahead.

Fog often used to close the airport in peacetime, and some of the first aircraft taking part in the current airlift brought in radar equipment along with food and medicine.

A U.S. C-130 Hercules carrying 21,000 packed meals from an air base in Germany on Saturday became the first aid plane to reach Sarajevo since a previous airlift was halted Sept. 3 after an Italian aircraft was shot down.