Airline says pilot followed procedures; Israeli official upset

By

Posted 8:06AM on Monday, August 12, 2002

CINCINNATI - A Comair pilot refused to fly Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior from Cincinnati to Toronto over a procedural matter, not because of his nationality, an airline spokeswoman said. Melchior was barred from the flight Friday because the airline had to follow proper procedures, Comair spokeswoman Meghan Glynn told The Cincinnati Enquirer. She would not elaborate. "We do not discuss security matters in detail," Glynn said. An Israeli radio station reported Sunday that the pilot thought Melchior posed a security risk and refused him a seat. Melchior, who was being escorted by State Department officials, told Israel Radio that he waited on the plane Friday for more than an hour before the pilot evacuated it, saying there was a security risk. When Melchior disembarked, he said he was told he was not allowed to get back on the plane. "The security officials and the company all put pressure on him, and there were negotiations," Melchior told the station. "But the pilot is sovereign on his aircraft, and he is empowered to make such a decision, and he did it in spite of all the pressure from the company and security officials." Melchior said he flew out on another Comair plane about a half-hour later. He has since returned to Israel. Comair is a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, based in Atlanta. The Israeli embassy in Washington had taken the matter up with the State Department, Melchior said. This is the third time an Israeli official has been pulled from a flight because of a pilot'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. "This singling out of Israeli diplomats ... and removing them from a plane in such a manner, and the very fact that we are Israelis (is deemed) to pose a security risk, is intolerable," Melchior said.