Libya: The Flight Into Egypt

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Relations between Egypt and its unruly neighbor Libya are not the best. Just last month Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he would shake the hand of Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi only if it were "not booby-trapped." Last week relations got worse when five Libyan air-force men flew their American-built C-130 military cargo plane to Abu Simbel in southern Egypt and requested political asylum.

The plane, which reportedly had ferried food and other supplies to Libyan forces in Chad, is one of eight American-built carriers Libya bought before Gaddafi expelled U.S. forces in 1970. Libyan radio claimed bad weather had forced the plane down and warned Egypt to return it. Meanwhile Egypt, chary of Libyan troublemakers, withheld a decision on three of the airmen and granted asylum to two of them.