Air Lanka Flight 512
| Air Lanka Flight 512 | |
|---|---|
 The later unlucky machine at Le Bourget Airport in November 1983 |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Bomb attack |
| place |
Bandaranaike International Airport , Colombo Sri Lanka
|
| date | May 3, 1986 |
| Fatalities | 21st |
| Survivors | 127 |
| Injured | 41 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
 Lockheed L-1011 TriStar
|
| operator |
Air Lanka
|
| Mark |
4R-ULD
|
| Surname | City of Colombo |
| Departure airport |
London Gatwick Airport , United Kingdom
|
| 1. Stopover |
Zurich Airport , Switzerland
|
| 2. Stopover |
Dubai Airport , United Arab Emirates
|
| 3. Stopover |
Bandaranaike International Airport , Colombo Sri Lanka
|
| Destination airport |
Ibrahim Nasir International Airport , Malé Maldives
|
| Passengers | 128 |
| crew | 20th |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
The Air Lanka flight 512 (flight number: UL512 ) was a flight of the national airline Air Lanka from Sri Lanka , which ran from London via Dubai and Colombo to Malé in the Maldives . On May 3, 1986, the flight was carried out with a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar . A serious incident occurred on the flight that day when a bomb exploded on board the plane during the layover at Bandaranaike International Airport , which tore the aircraft in two. 21 people were killed and another 41 injured.
plane
The aircraft involved in the accident was a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar and thus a machine from the last civil aircraft series built by Lockheed until 1984 . The aircraft had the factory number 1061. The machine completed its maiden flight on January 14, 1974, before it was delivered to Japan Air Lines on January 28, 1974 and registered with the aircraft registration JA8502 . On March 19, 1982 Air Lanka took over the machine and registered it first as 4R-ALH , later with the aircraft registration 4R-ULD . The three - engine long - range wide - body aircraft was equipped with three Rolls-Royce RB211-22B engines. By the time it was destroyed, the machine had completed 28,915 operating hours in 16,666 take-offs and landings.
Passengers and flight history
Most of the tourists from France , the Federal Republic of Germany , Great Britain and Japan had taken the Air Lanka flight 512 . The flight ran from London-Gatwick Airport via Zurich-Kloten Airport and Dubai International Airport to Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo and then on to Malé in the Maldives .
explosion
The boarding was delayed because the machine had been damaged during loading. During boarding, a huge explosion shook the machine. The fuselage was torn in two, the stern section with the center engine fell to the ground. The explosion was so violent that the shock wave even burst some windows of the airport terminal at Bandaranaike Airport.
Victim
21 people were killed on board the machine, including three British, two FRG citizens, three French, two Japanese, two citizens of the Maldives and one Pakistani. In addition, 41 people were injured.
Originator and attack plan
The Sri Lankan government concluded that the bomb was planted by the Tamil militant organization Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to torpedo peace talks between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government. The authorities said that when the machine was searched the following day, a piece of cargo was found that contained Black Tiger uniforms and badges. The Black Tigers were a division of the LTTE that organized suicide bombings.
The time fuse of the bomb was actually programmed so that it should explode in flight. Due to delays, the explosion occurred on the ground. According to all information, this fact had saved the lives of numerous passengers.