From: mtaghavi@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Amir Taghavi)
Subject: Arafat safe after emergency landing
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 16:21:14 GMT

	PARIS (UPI) -- Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser
Arafat was found ``safe and sound'' Wednesday in the Libyan desert after
his plane made an emergency landing during a sandstorm, PLO officials
said.
	The plane carrying Arafat, a Soviet-made Antonov-26, was found about
14 hours after disappearing from radar screens Tuesday evening during a
sandstorm that forced it to land about 60 miles southeast of the al-
Sarah Palestinian guerrilla camp that Arafat reportedly planned to
visit.
	``Arafat has arrived in (the Libyan capital) Tripoli and he has
personally sent telegrams to PLO officials saying he and 12 others are
safe and sound,'' Nemer Hammad, the PLO representative in Rome, said on
Italian television.
	Libyan news reports said Arafat was safe, but that three others had
died when the plane came down. Other reports said all aboard had
survived.
	Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi said hearing that Arafat was
safe was ``a tremendous relief. We're still too traumatized to be
overjoyed, but we are still very happy.''
	Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories and in Lebanese
refugee camps celebrated upon word that Arafat, known to Palestinians as
Abu Ammar, was safe. ``We prayed he would be saved and now we are very
happy,'' said Mustafa Natshe, former mayor of Hebron in the occupied
West Bank and a delegate to peace talks with Israel.
	In Gaza City, the largest metropolis in the occupied territories,
hundreds of people danced for joy. Some held up pictures of the PLO
leader while others chanted, ``By our souls and blood we are ready to
sacrifice for you, Abu Ammar.''
	In Lebanon, Palestinian guerrillas fired machine guns and rocket-
propelled grenades into the air. At refugee camps, women ululated and
danced while children waved Palestinian flags and pictures of Arafat.
	``We thank God for his return safely to the Palestinians,'' said a
17-year-old resident of Ein El Helweh refugee camp on the outskirts of
the southern port city of Sidon.
	News that Arafat plane's was missing set off an intense international
search for the PLO leader, who has come to personify the struggle by
Palestinians to find a homeland. Libya appealed to all civil aviation
authorities, satellites and the International Red Cross for help in
finding the plane.
	Palestinian sources said Washington agreed to help in the rescue
operations by using its satellites to locate the plane, and some reports
said the plane had first been spotted by an American spy satellite.
	But in Washington, President Bush said he did not know whether U.S.
satellites were used and added he was about to receive an intelligence
briefing from national security adviser Brent Scowcroft. ``I haven't
discussed it yet,'' he said.
	A State Department official who requested anonymity said she ``didn't
believe the United States had authorization for satellite coverage to
locate Arafat's plane,'' and that the administration was still
considering its options when Arafat's plane was found.
	``We were still in an information-collecting mode when he was found,''
she said.
	There were conflicting reports over the number of people with Arafat
and whether anyone was killed when the plane came down.
	A Libyan radio broadcast monitored in Nicosia, Cyprus, and the
official Libyan news agency JANA said three of 14 people traveling with
Arafat were killed when the plane came down 60 miles southeast of the
al-Sarah Palestinian camp that Arafat was scheduled to visit.
	JANA, monitored in Beirut, Lebanon, quoted Libyan searchers as saying
three crew members were killed as ``a result of the plane landing.'' But
the news agency added Arafat was ``in good shape and necessary measures
were taken to evacuate him and his bodyguards to Tripoli.''
	An Iraqi News Agency dispatch monitored in Beirut quoted a source at
the Palestinian Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, as saying he received a
telegram from Arafat that said, ``I am fine and there is no need to
worry.''
	Earlier reports had indicated all aboard the plane had survived. 
``They are all safe and sound, the crew and all those that were aboard
the plane,'' said Ibrahim Souss, the PLO representative in Paris.
	In Washington, a State Department official said the Bush
administration had received confirmation through diplomatic channels
that Arafat and ``all 12 members of his party are alive.''
	Jordanian radio, quoting Palestinian sources in Tunis, Tunisia, where
the PLO has its headquarters, said there were 14 people with Arafat and
all were safe.
	The plane was found near the al-Sarah camp, about 185 miles southeast
of the Libyan city of Koufra.
	The airplane, which was on a flight from Khartoum, Sudan, to Tunis,
was scheduled to make a brief stop at the al-Sarah camp to allow the PLO
leader to to visit Palestinian forces stationed in the area, according
to Palestinian officials.
	But JANA denied reports that Arafat was planning to visit the camp,
saying, ``Such a report is baseless and mere imagination because Arafat
was on a direct flight from Khartoum to Tripoli.''
	An PLO representative in Cairo, Said Kamal, said the pilot had first
tried to land at the Koufra Airport in southeast Libya to refuel. But a
violent sandstorm prevented the landing and the pilot then decided to
try a landing at the al-Sarah camp near the Chadian border.
	``But after overflying the area for half an hour, and given the
impossibility of landing at the airport, the pilot announced he would
attempt an emergency landing in the desert,'' Kamal said.


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