September 1950 TWA flight Israel-bound mail seized in Egypt - DISCOVERY: 15 SEP 1950 airmail cover from BRINDISI (Italy) to HAIFA, franked 145L & tied by 3 strikes of local postmark; subsequently opened & resealed by the Egyptian censor using K-type-C label & tied by K-Type1 (#53) censor mark. The cover was returned to sender and resent (without requiring additional postage as per UPU regulations) and received in HAIFA, backstamped 25-1-1951 Head Post Office receipt and same day HAIFA-22 post office arrival. Opened partially at left through label; two filing holes; light vertical fold.
This cover was carried on a certain TWA flight (probably the Saturday departing Flight 918 from LaGuardia) departing ROME on 18 September with 14 passengers and 21 bags of mail (from the US, UK, Argentina, Brazil, Spain and Italy) and scheduled to arrive at LYDDA the same day, however due to engine trouble the plane was forced to land in CAIRO where the Egyptian authorities seized and censored the mail on-board, and refused to release it (TWA flew to both Cairo and Lydda airports - but never on the same day, so managing to delicately service both belligerents). Until now the published research (Kibble & others) on this event documented that only USA originating mail was released, after pressure by the American government. Here, this is the only known example of non-US mail which was recovered. As per the 25 January arrival backstamp, this predates Kibble's earliest known date of 28 February as the earliest dated mail from this incident known to be received in Israel.
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