Copyright 1985 Associated Press

The Associated Press

March 19, 1985, Tuesday, AM cycle

SECTION: International News

LENGTH: 723 words

HEADLINE: Foreigners, Fearing Iraqi Attacks On Airliners, Flee Iran

BYLINE: By ROLAND PRINZ, Associated Press Writer

DATELINE: VIENNA, Austria

BODY: Hundreds of foreigners, worried by Iraq's threat to attack any aircraft in Iranian airspace, fled from Tehran on Tuesday aboard special West German, Austrian and Turkish evacuation flights.

According to the airlines, more than 800 foreigners were flown out of the Iranian capital, which has been struck repeatedly by Iraqi bombs and missiles.

Japan appealed to both of the warring countries to guarantee safe passage so a plane could airlift Japanese nationals out of Iran, but it did not say how many Japanese might be involved.

There were no reports of any Americans in the evacuation airlift. Only a handful of private U.S. citizens remained in Tehran following the takeover of the American Embassy and the seizure of hostages by militant followers of Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The 52 American hostages were freed on Jan. 20, 1981, after being held for 444 days.

Iraq, responding to ground-to-ground missile attacks on its capital of Baghdad, said Monday it would attack any aircraft over Iran starting at 8 p.m. Tuesday Baghdad time _ noon EST.

Iran said it protested to the International Air Transport Association and to the International Civil Aviation Organization.

Many airlines had canceled service to both countries, which have been at war since September 1980 in a dispute over their common border.

Airline officials gave this report of Tuesday's flights:

West Germany's Lufthanasa sent a Boeing 747 to Tehran and a spokesman said it flew 357 foreign nationals to Frankfurt.

Austrian Airlines sent two jetliners to Iran and they carried 259 passengers to Vienna, including all of its Austrian employees.

Turkish Airlines evacuated some 200 Turkish nationals and other foreigners on two flights, according to an airline spokesman in Ankara.

Both Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines had suspended flights to Tehran earlier because of the intensified air war, and Tuesday's flights were arranged specifically to evacuate their nationals.

"I have gone through the sixth air raid in a week. That is enough," Adolf Oberleuthner, the station manager of Austrian Airlines in Tehran, told reporters. He said the airline had evacuated all of its Austrian employees.

Capt. Wilhelm Menke, pilot of the first Austrian Airlines DC-9 to fly out of Tehran, said in Vienna "there was some confusion, because originally there were only 40 passengers" booked, but it departed with 131.

"While passengers were still boarding the plane, there was very strong anti-aircraft gunfire going on and several ground-to-air rockets were fired," Menke said. "I was given the so-called 'red alarm' via radio, but I decided I wouldn't allow passengers to disembark. After 30 minutes or so, the alarm was over" and the flight left.

Menke said Tehran air traffic controllers changed the route normally followed by commercial airliners, advising him to fly a northern route close to the Soviet border.

Among the passengers on that flight were three wives of British diplomats who remained in Tehran. Two were carrying their babies.

"The chance you may get hit by random bombing is slight, but there is always some fear," said one, who spoke on condition she not be identified.

A Red Cross worker who quit her job in Tehran said, "Five years ago, it was great, it was paradise. Now it's hell down there."

"When there were bombs somewhere Monday, I was in the street, walking," she added. "Everybody was looking around. It's kind of funny. At midnight, when you hear shots from anti-aircraft crews, people run up to their roofs to see what's going on ... because there aren't any shelters." She also asked not to be identified, saying she had relatives in Iran.

Ulrike Macher, 24, of Graz, Austria, said her husband stayed in Iran, where he works on a power project, but she left to bring her three-year-old son back to Austria. "The boy minded the war the least," she said. "He only kept asking me when the next bomb falls."

The Dutch Foreign Ministry reported Tuesday that several dozen Dutch nationals left Iran over the weekend in an evacuation completed by private initiative and not sponsored by the government.

Some of Tuesday's evacuees who spoke to reporters at Vienna's airport identified themselves as Austrians, Romanians, Yugoslavs, Hungarians and Britons. Many said they were dependents of diplomats.