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59. France admitted a delay in allowing the airspace request, but it may make sense

in light of the Portuguese account of events

Portugal said it had told Morales a day or two in advance of the flight that refueling at Lisbon would be impossible, that Morales plane had then filed a new flight plan with refueling at Las Palmas, but that as it approached Portugal the plane nevertheless demanded to refuel at Lisbon, which was denied per prior notice

If the filed flight plan was towards Las Palmas but the plane was headed towards Lisbon, the in-flight request to enter French airspace would have differed from the traverse of French airspace in the filed flight plan. And in fact the French said they had been confused by the prospect of two different possible Bolivian planes in their airspace, as would be understandable if the expected plane along the notified path had not be seen but another unnotified plane suddenly appeared elsewhere. Since, after all, they had a filed flight plan for Morales, which did not correspond to this "second" place, they would have wondered what plane it was and who was on board

... French President Francois Hollande told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday that there was "conflicting information" about the plane passengers. He said permission was granted as soon as he knew it was Morales' plane ... "The foreign minister called his Bolivian counterpart to tell him about France's regrets after the incident caused by the late confirmation of permission for President Morales' plane to fly over (French) territory," said ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot ...

France apologises to Bolivia over jet row
Morales’s plane not allowed to country because of 'conflicting information' about passengers, says French President.
Last Modified: 04 Jul 2013 10:46