960405

Israeli 747

lands into

Jordan after

'94 treaty

AMMAN: A plane of the Israeli carrier El Al, avoiding thick fog over Tel Aviv, landed Friday at a Jordanian airport for the first time since the two countries signed a peace treaty in 1994, aviation sources said.

The Boeing 747 landed at Queen Alia Airport on the outskirts of Amman, said Jasser Ziad, director general of the civil aviation authority. The airliner was on its way back from Paris.

Ziad said it was the first such landing in Jordan by an Israeli commercial plane. It came just two days before Israel and Jordan are to launch air links, under a transport accord based on their October 1994 peace treaty.

The El Al passengers were at the Amman airport, waiting for visibility over Tel Aviv to improve before flying home, Ziad told AFP.-AFP