May 3 in History
1986 – Twenty-one people are killed and forty-one are injured after a bomb explodes on Air Lanka Flight 512 at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka
A Lockheed L-1011 Tristar Air Lanka Flight 512 (now SriLankan Airlines) was ripped in two and completely destroyed in an explosion on this day in 1986. The flight from London Gatwick Airport via Zurich and Dubai to Colombo (Bandaranaike International Airport) was about to take off to Malé, Maldives (Velana International Airport) when the explosion happened.
The flight carried mainly French, West German, British and Japanese tourists; 21 people were killed on the aircraft, including 3 British, 2 West German, 3 French, 2 Japanese, 2 Maldivian, and 1 Pakistani. 41 people were injured.[
Boarding of the flight had been delayed due to the aircraft being damaged during cargo / baggage loading. The boob, hidden in the aircraft’s ‘Fly Away Kit’ (a collection of small spare parts), exploded, during boarding had been timed to detonate mid-flight. the delay likely saved many lives.
The Sri Lankan government concluded that the bomb was planted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to sabotage peace talks between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government. They reported that a search of the aircraft the next day uncovered a parcel containing uniforms with the insignia of the Black Tigers, the suicide wing of LTTE.
-Wikipedia
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