Date:	Thursday 7 September 1978
Time:
Type:	Hawker Siddeley HS-748-212 Srs. 2
Owner/operator:	Air Ceylon
Registration:	4R-ACJ
MSN:	1571
Year of manufacture:	1964
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	UI
Location:	Colombo-Ratmalana Airport (RML) -   Sri Lanka
Phase:	Standing
Nature:	Ferry/positioning
Departure airport:	Colombo-Ratmalana Airport (RML/VCCC)
Destination airport:	Colombo-Katunayake International Airport (CMB/VCBI)

Narrative:
The pilot and first officer were carrying out pre-departure checks when loud explosion in the mid-section of the fuselage caused a fire. The aircraft was to be ferried to nearby Katunayake Airport to pick up passengers for a flight to Maldives.
Liberation Tigers claimed responsibility for explosion. However, there was also speculation that extremist Sinhalese may have planted bomb and were endeavouring to implicate Tamils to incite persecution by government authorities.
It was thought that the bomb was planted by two youths who remained on board the aircraft after it landed from Jaffna, debarking after flight attendants and all other passengers. They were reportedly sitting in area where bomb later exploded.

Wikileaks
Aircraft hijackings and other criminal acts against civil aviation : statistics and narrative reports / FAA

photo (c) via Werner Fischdick; Colombo-Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB); September 1975

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