dwight@timeinc.UUCP (Dwight Ernest) (06/24/85)
Heard several hours ago that early on the morning of Sunday, 23 June, an Air India flight from Montreal to Bombay, which was about to changeover from HF to VHF control about 100 miles off the southwest coast of Ireland, disappeared from controllers' radar screens, about 45 minutes out of Heathrow. The 747 with 325 souls on board was cruising at FL 310 and its crew had ended a brief communication with Shannon on HF about 10 minutes before the disappearance. No distress signal was received. No ELT signal was heard. An ELT activation switch on the control column either was not used or malfunctioned. The radar target simply disappeared. About an hour later, wreckage was found strewn over a five-square-mile section of the North Atlantic that has been positively identified as having come from the Air India 747. There are apparently no survivors, and none are expected to be found. It is thought that whatever happened to the aircraft happened so suddenly as to preclude any action on the part of the flight crew. Air India officials have been quoted as saying that "sabotage could not be ruled out." Indeed, some suspicious checked baggage set off metal detector alarms prior to its being loaded at Montreal; the luggage was removed from the aircraft and subjected to decompression to test for the presence of some kind of altitude-triggered explosive device. None was found. It's unclear whether the baggage was opened for inspection; it is known to have been loaded back on the aircraft, however. Then, about an hour later, a Canadian Pacific flight originating in Vancouver arrived in Tokyo about 15 minutes ahead of its schedule. During luggage unloading, there was a massive explosion of one of the pieces of luggage as it was in a container away from the aircraft. Preliminary examination reveals that at least one piece of baggage contained an explosive device that evaded detection. The explosion killed at least two airport ground crew members and injured up to half a dozen others. We all know what such an explosion would have meant had it occurred inflight. All of this, combined with: * the Frankfurt International Airport concourse bombing earlier in the week; * the hijacking, of course, of TWA flight 847 last week; * various other incidents of terrorism and/or sabotage relating to air travel, too numerous to mention. Any comments from pilots and/or air travellers? Can airport security be further tightened? Should it be? What impact will this have on the airline industry? Would YOU take an international flight in this climate of apparent risk? How much risk is there, really? I'd be especially interested in any technical comments that any pilots (like me, a student) might want to make... Food for thought, food for tears, food for grief. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- --Dwight Ernest KA2CNN \ Usenet:...vax135!timeinc!dwight Time Inc. Edit./Prod. Tech. Grp., New York City Voice: (212) 554-5061 \ Compuserve: 70210,523 Telemail: DERNEST/TIMECOMDIV/TIMEINC \ MCI: DERNEST "The opinions expressed above are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Time Incorporated." -----------------------------------------------------------------------------