Air Lanka Flight 512
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Air Lanka Flight 512 was an Air Lanka (now SriLankan Airlines) flight from
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Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...
(
Bandaranaike International Airport Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) (commonly known as Colombo International Airport, Colombo–Bandaranaike International Airport, and locally as Katunayake International Airport) (IATA airport code, IATA: CMB, ICAO airport code, ICAO: VC ...
) and
Malé Malé is the capital and most populous city of the Maldives. With a population of 211,908 in 2022 within its administrative area and coterminous geographical area of , Malé is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. The city i ...
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(Malé International Airport, now
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). On 3 May 1986, the
Lockheed L-1011 Tristar The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar (pronounced "El-ten-eleven") is an American medium-to-long-range, wide-body trijet airliner built by the Lockheed Corporation. It was the third wide-body airliner to enter commercial operations, after the Boeing 747 ...
serving the flight was on the ground in Colombo, about to fly on to Malé, when an explosion ripped the aircraft in two, destroying it. 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. During boarding, a bomb, hidden in the aircraft's 'Fly Away Kit' (a collection of small spare parts), exploded. The bomb had been timed to detonate mid-flight; the delay likely saved many lives. The
Sri Lankan government The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) (; ) is a Semi-presidential republic determined by the Sri Lankan Constitution. It administers the island from both its commercial capital of Colombo and the administrative capital of Sri Jayawardenepura Kott ...
concluded that the bomb was planted by the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; , ; also known as the Tamil Tigers) was a Tamil militant organization, that was based in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eela ...
(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. Among the dead was the British wildlife artist Mouse MacPherson, her husband Tim and young daughter Iona.


See also

* Air Ceylon Avro 748 4R-ACJ bombing * Lionair Flight 602


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Air Lanka Flight UL512 1986 murders in Sri Lanka Accidents and incidents involving the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar Airliner bombings Attacks on civilians attributed to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Aviation accidents and incidents in 1986 1980s massacres of the Sri Lankan civil war Improvised explosive device bombings in Sri Lanka Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam attacks against airliners Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam attacks in Eelam War I Mass murder in 1986 Mass murder of Sinhalese 1986 crimes May 1986 in Sri Lanka SriLankan Airlines accidents and incidents Terrorist attacks on airports in Sri Lanka Terrorist incidents in Sri Lanka in 1986