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CNN Live Saturday

Saudi Prince Asks U.S. Airport to Ban Women From Air Traffic Control Duties

Aired April 27, 2002 - 18:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to begin this hour with an incident earlier this week, which is now only coming to light. It involves a visit by the Saudi Crown Prince to Texas. And apparently, his representatives asked that airport officials ban women from air traffic control duties while he was there. CNN's Kathleen Koch has been investigating this story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Regional and national aviation officials say the request from Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's representatives went to the manager of the privately run airport at Waco, Texas. No women air traffic controllers speaking to his aircraft. The airport complied, angering the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

MARK PALLONE, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION: It was insulting to the controllers that the request would even come through.

KOCH: Some in Congress and with women's rights groups also found the request inappropriate.

REP. IKE SKELTON (D), MISSOURI: We have very, very fine air traffic controllers. Men and women -- they do their job, they do a fine job, and there's no sense in us trying to bend to their culture.

TERRY O'NEILL, NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN: Excluding a woman from her place of work is not a little request. It is abusive. It is telling a woman that she doesn't belong there.

KOCH: Saudi officials deny the incident ever happened.

PRINCE SAUD AL-FAISAL, SAUDI ARABIA'S FOREIGN MINISTER: I can say without going back to my people that is absolutely nonsense that they would do something like that.

KOCH: While FAA sources say there may have been conversations with some of the Texas facilities, a spokeswoman explains the agency, "Didn't get any formal request from the Saudis" and that, "There was no direction from the FAA to handle the plane any differently."

It isn't the first time U.S. and Saudi customs and sensibilities have clashed. The Pentagon in January angered some in the Muslim country by lifting its requirement that female troops stationed there wear head-to-toe robes in public, like Saudi women do.

An expert on Saudi Arabia says the surprising incident doesn't bode well for U.S.-Saudi relations.

JEAN FRANCOIS SEZNEC, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: It would certainly mean that there are some Arab people in the entourage of Prince Abdullah who have some real problems with the United States, which means that that would create some difficulties in the relationship.

KOCH: But with the Saudis denying it happened and the White House saying no comment, both countries apparently prefer to downplay the incident, and any lasting impact it might have.

Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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