Airline: Israeli official denied seat on plane because of bodyguard's gun

CINCINNATI - A Comair pilot refused to fly Israel&#39;s deputy foreign minister because one of his bodyguards did not have required paperwork to bring his loaded gun on the plane from Cincinnati to Toronto, a company spokesman said. <br> <br> An Israeli radio station reported Sunday that the pilot thought Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior posed a security risk and refused him a seat. Melchior told Israel Radio that the singling out of Israelis as security risks on planes is ``intolerable.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Comair spokesman Nick Miller told The Cincinnati Enquirer that Melchior being banned from the plane had nothing to do with his nationality. <br> <br> ``Comair does not tolerate discrimination of any kind,&#39;&#39; he said. <br> <br> Melchior, who was being escorted by State Department officials, told the radio station that he waited on the plane Thursday for more than an hour before the pilot evacuated it, saying there was a security risk. <br> <br> Miller said Melchior and his party were allowed to fly out about two hours later on the next Comair flight from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to Toronto after the proper documents were produced. Comair is a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, based in Atlanta. <br> <br> ``Comair&#39;s decision to reaccommodate the deputy foreign minister and his party on a later flight was based solely on the need to comply with federal regulations and airline policies that govern the safety and security of flight operations,&#39;&#39; Miller said. <br> <br> Melchior has since returned to Israel. <br> <br> This is the third time an Israeli official has been pulled from a flight because of a pilot&#39;s sense of a security risk, the radio station reported. The others reportedly were Alon Pinkas, the Israeli consul general in New York, and a bodyguard of Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. <br> <br> Melchior, who had been on an unofficial trip to visit friends in the Cincinnati area, said the Israeli embassy in Washington had taken the matter up with the State Department. <br> <br> The State Department is aware of the incident but does not know of any formal protest being made to the agency, spokesman Philip Reeker said Monday. <br> <br> Giora Becher, consul general for Israel with the Israeli consulate in Philadelphia, said Monday that there should be some way to prevent similar problems in the future. <br> <br> ``I do feel that it&#39;s a matter of courtesy and protocol if everything is OK that a pilot should allow a foreign dignitary on the plane,&#39;&#39; he said.