Non-Flight Status

Last month's airline hijackings unnerved the Administration for some reasons that were not immediately obvious. First, the Pan Am 747 blown up by Palestinian guerrillas at Cairo airport turned out to have been carrying some classified NATO documents. In addition, two passengers on one of the planes that landed in the Jordanian desert work for the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency. The two likely had a fund of military secrets stored in their heads.

The Pentagon wasted no time issuing an order prohibiting the shipment of classified material by commercial passenger planes. The Defense Department also put out the word that officials involved in highly classified work should stay off commercial flights; instead, they should take military or chartered aircraft, or travel by ship, train, bus or car.

Thus, a new Washington status symbol is born. Those who are still flying because of the secrets that they do not know probably won't dare to appear at cocktail parties for weeks. They might have to explain why they were allowed to hop aboard an unguarded shuttle flight from New York.

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