| Occurrence summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 3 May 1986 |
| Type | Bombing |
| Site | Bandaranaike International Airport |
| Passengers | 128 |
| Crew | 20 |
| Injuries | 41 |
| Fatalities | 21 |
| Survivors | 129 |
| Aircraft type | Lockheed L-1011-385 TriStar |
| Aircraft name | City of Colombo |
| Operator | Air Lanka |
| Tail number | 4R-ULD |
| Flight origin | London Gatwick Airport, London United Kingdom |
| Stopover | Zurich Airport, Zurich Switzerland |
| 2nd stopover | Dubai Int'l Airport, Dubai United Arab Emirates |
| Last stopover | Bandaranaike Int'l Airport, Colombo Sri Lanka |
| Destination | Malé Int'l Airport, Malé Maldives |
Air Lanka Flight 512 was an Air Lanka Lockheed L-1011 Tristar which had arrived at Bandaranaike International Airport from London Gatwick Airport via Zurich and Dubai and was about to fly on to the Maldives Islands in the Indian Ocean when an explosion ripped the plane in two. The flight carried mainly French, German, British and Japanese tourists. 21 people were killed on the plane which included 13 foreigners – of whom two were British, 2 German, 3 French, 2 Japanese, one Maldivian and one Pakistani – and injuring 41.[1]
The bomb may have been placed in crates of meat and vegetables being freighted to the Republic of Maldives. It is believed the bomb was planted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to sabotage peace talks between the Tamils and the Sri Lankan government. A search of the aircraft the next day uncovered a parcel containing uniforms with the insignia of the Black Tigers, the commando wing of LTTE, the fiercest of the Tamil terrorist groups.[1][2]
Exactly one year before the bombing of the flight, passengers booked on the flight leaving from Gatwick were telephoned to state that they should proceed to Heathrow for a flight to Zurich where they would rejoin UL512 for the rest of the journey.
At Zurich passengers were held in a security lounge and then taken to a blast proof shed on the airfield where they were asked to remove shoes and under armed escort were invited to a full search of their own baggae before being put on UL 512.
Once aboard passengers were offered no explanation but were invited to free drinks by an obviously unsettled flight crew.
|
||||||||||||