It's a long thread abt 1984,Aug 2, Chennai Airport bomb blast killed 33, injured 38. I promise you, It is very interesting. In 1983, saw start of Sri Lankan civil war.
1. Tamil Eelam Army(TEA) Kathiresan & allies wants to put a bomb in the luggage of Air Lanka flight UL-122 1/n
1. Tamil Eelam Army(TEA) Kathiresan & allies wants to put a bomb in the luggage of Air Lanka flight UL-122 1/n
2. Flight UL-122, depart from Chennai Airport at 8.15PM. Bomb was timed at 11 PM, so luggage will be in cargo complex of Colombo Airport, blast is intended to damage Air Lanka properties
3. Two Luggage of accused was tagged in Chennai to reach London & Paris through Colombo 2/n
3. Two Luggage of accused was tagged in Chennai to reach London & Paris through Colombo 2/n
4. Those days, Indian customs only checks 5% of all luggage's. So accused thought, it will get through the plane without any problem. But due to its weight, the luggage was held by custom officials for checking, As per rules, they check the luggage only in front of the owner. 3/n
5. The accused Kathiresan have no intention of boarding the plane, so he left the airport. Custom officials were waiting for owner to turn up. So they kept the luggage in the customs point. Accused, realized that, luggage's are held up at Chennai Airport customs point. 4/n
6. The accused, donโt want that bomb to blast in Chennai. So, At 9.50PM(hour before), made the multiple anonymous call to the airport manager to warn about bomb with specific details. How Chennai airport reacted is for the History books, let us see the chronology of the event 5/n
7. At 5.35 p.m. Indian Airlines flight IC 574 from Colombo lands at Madras. 31 Sri Lankans on board scheduled to catch a connecting Air-India flight at 5 a.m next morning, they were put in the arrival lounge (Sad Victims of Terror/Negligence, most escaped civil war in Lanka) 6/n
8. At 9.50 p.m. Laila Singh, airport manager, receives an anonymous telephone call claiming that "two dark brown suitcases lying with the customs contain bombs." On being asked what kind of bombs, the caller replies "rock-blasting material. Don't ask any more questions." 7/n
9. At 9.55 p.m. Singh telephones J.C. Tamhane, deputy director informs him about the call. He calls the fire station and asks for a tender and an ambulance to be kept near the airport terminus, but nothing reached on time. โLaila Singh took good ten minutes to call othersโ 8/n
10. At 10 p.m. Singh rings up Shivaprasad, deputy chief controller of explosives. Shivaprasad refuses to come unless they provide transport as he lives 14 km away. After a minute f argument, Singh gets authorization to send a jeep. He only reached after everything was over. 9/n
11. At, 10.15 p.m. Singh contacts K.Kasim, police DCP, in charge of airport security. Kasim merely thanks Singh & puts the phone down. Singh also calls police DSP, Kalimullah Khan. Khan says, "What should I do? Why don't you inform the inspectors at the airport?" 10/n
12. At, 10.20 p.m. Singh, still not able to reach airport police, walks across to the Indian Airlines control room and informs duty officer Pattabhi about the call. Pattabhi confirms that there are two brown suitcases lying with the customs 11/n
13. Singh then goes to the customs area, inform customs officers R. Damodaran & Augustine Thomas about the bomb call. They laugh it off as a hoax & tell him that suitcases may have kidnapped Gold. Singh tell them not to touch the suitcases till the explosives experts arrive. 12/n
14. At, 10.30 p.m. Singh returns to his office after seeing a suitcase, but doing nothing about it.
15. At, 10.40 p.m. The anonymous caller calls again with the terse message that "the bombs in the suitcase are going to explode by 11 p.m.". Accused request Singh to act fast 13/n
15. At, 10.40 p.m. The anonymous caller calls again with the terse message that "the bombs in the suitcase are going to explode by 11 p.m.". Accused request Singh to act fast 13/n
16. At, 10.45PM, Singh frantically calls airport security police but again gets no answer. He also tries to contact the announcer on the public address system to broadcast a warning to passengers but again not able to reach them. 14/n
17. At, 10.44 p.m. Singh rushes out into the arrival hall in search of police personnel. He finds a group eating their dinner and tells them to warn passengers to evacuate the area. Singh rushes to the public address room to broadcast a warning but finds the door locked. 15/n
18. At, 10.49 p.m. Singh rushes to the customs area and informs Damodaran and Thomas about the second call. They ask Alexander, a baggage loader, to wheel the two suitcases out onto the airport tarmac. Singh then shouts at the passengers to get out of the building. 16/n
19. At, 10.52p.m. The bombs in the suitcases explode. Damodaran, Thomas, Alexander and 29 other people in the lounge(Sri Lankan Tamils waiting for connecting flight) are killed instantly.
20, At, 12.10p.m. Explosives experts arrive, 2hrs, 20min after they have been informed 17/n
20, At, 12.10p.m. Explosives experts arrive, 2hrs, 20min after they have been informed 17/n
21. The effect of the blast was devastating. Debris from the shattered building covered the bodies and the final death count came only 3 days later. The airport was shut down to international traffic for 3 days.
22. Civil aviation minister set up a Inquiry Commission,
18/n.
22. Civil aviation minister set up a Inquiry Commission,
18/n.
23. If Air India/Aviation Ministry learned from their mistake of boarding the luggage without passengers (during war/crisis time), they would have avoided, Air India Flight 182, killing 329 people, bomb was placed in the luggage of the passenger who didnโt board the flight 19/n
24. After Air India 182(Emperor Kanishka) blast, now it is a international aviation rule that does not allow any luggage into the plane without passenger boarding.
25. The actual accused Kadiresan, Maheswaran, Thambiraja, Sri alias Uma & Vigneswara Raja, all went absconding 20/n
25. The actual accused Kadiresan, Maheswaran, Thambiraja, Sri alias Uma & Vigneswara Raja, all went absconding 20/n
26. Police arrested other five people Saravanabhavan(Sri Lankan Tamil medical student), constable Chandrakumar, Air Lanka workers - Loganathan & Vijayakumar(both ) & Balasubramanian, Madurai hotel and lorry owner 21/n
27. On May 2, 2000, Madras High court released all the five who were convicted by lower court, after spending decades in jail. The main accused are still missing. 22/n.
This post is based on official record
This post is based on official record
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