1.
GV EXT Led Airport building
0.05

2.
GV Coffins on tarmac TILT TO tail of aircraft
0.10

3.
MV PAN Tourist Minister Kol arrives
0.22

4.
LV PAN U.S. Ambassador Barbour arrives
0.30

5.
SV Cameramen
0.32

6.
GV & SV Ceremony (2 shots)
0.40

7.
GTV Coffins
0.43

8.
SV & LV Coffins leaded onto aircraft (2 shots)
1.07



Initials BB/1600 DME/BOB/BB/1615



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The coffins of the sixteen Puerto Rican victims of Tuesday's airport massacre at Tel Aviv were ceremonially leaded aboard an aircraft for San Juan on Sunday (4 June) as government leaders and diplomate stood silently by.

The Puerto Ricans had flown to Israel on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and were among the 27 people killed in the attack--for which the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has claimed responsibility.

Among these forming a guard of honour for the coffins were the staff of the United States Embassy in Tel Aviv, representatives of the Japanese legation, and Israel's Minister of Tourism, Mr. Kol.

During the ceremony the united States Ambassador to Israel, Mr. Walwarth Barbour, read a letter from President Nixon to Israel's Prime Minister Mrs. Golda Meir in which the United States President says "no political cause or ideological gains can possibly excuse the indiscriminate murder of unarmed human beings."
SYNOPSIS: At Led Airport in Israel--a ceremony on Sunday as the bodies of Puerto Rican victims of last week's airport massacre wore put aboard an aircraft for home. Israel's Minister of Tourism was among these attending the ceremony. His government has reacted with anger to the attack--for which the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claims credit.

The United States Ambassador Mr. Barbour brought a message from President Nixon saying that no pause could possibly justify such killings.

The sixteen Puerto Ricans were among the twenty seven people killed during the raid. They were pilgrims, arriving at Tel Aviv on a visit to the Holy Land. They had stepped from their aircraft at Lod just five days earlier and a few yards away from where their coffins lay, at the centre of the ceremony of mourning. The bodies were being flown home to Puerto Rice for burial. As the coffins were placed aboard the United States Air Force jet, armed police kept watch from a discreet distance.