Lionair Flight 602 was a Lionair

Antonov An-24 The Antonov An-24 (Russian/Ukrainian: Антонов Ан-24) (NATO reporting name: Coke) is a 44-seat twin turboprop transport/passenger aircraft designed in 1957 in the Soviet Union by the Antonov Design Bureau and manufactured by Kyiv, Irku ...

RV which crashed into the sea off the north-western coast of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

on 29 September 1998. The aircraft departed

Jaffna Airport Jaffna International Airport ( ta, யாழ்ப்பாணம் சர்வதேச விமான நிலையம், translit=Yāḻppāṇam Carvatēca Vimāṉa Nilaiyam; si, යාපනය ජාත්‍යන්තර ගුව ...

with 48 passengers and a crew of seven; it disappeared from radar screens ten minutes into the flight. Initial reports indicated that the plane had been shot down by the

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...

using a

MANPADS Man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS or MPADS) are portable surface-to-air missiles. They are guided weapons and are a threat to low-flying aircraft, especially helicopters. Overview MANPADS were developed in the 1950s to provide military ...

, which has since been confirmed. All aboard were presumed killed.

Aircraft and crew

The Antonov AN-24RV was leased from

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

ian company

Gomelavia Gomelavia ( be, Авіякампанія Гомельавія; russian: Авиакомпания Гомельавиа) was an airline based in Gomel, Belarus. It was established in 1996 and operated domestic and regional, scheduled and chartered ...

to operate flight 602. It was captained by Anatoli Matochko and had six other crew including a Sinhalese stewardess. There were 48 passengers, all

Tamils The Tamil people, also known as Tamilar ( ta, தமிழர், Tamiḻar, translit-std=ISO, in the singular or ta, தமிழர்கள், Tamiḻarkaḷ, translit-std=ISO, label=none, in the plural), or simply Tamils (), are a Drav ...

, including 17 females and 8 children.

Crash

The aircraft went missing ten minutes after taking off from

at 13:40 on 29 September 1998 on a scheduled flight to

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

; all those aboard were presumed killed. The pilot reported depressurisation a short time before contact was lost. Following the downing of Flight LN 602 all civil aviation between Colombo and Jaffna was suspended for many months by the Sri Lanka Civil Aviation Authority.

Pre-crash warnings

Lionair, the main operator of Colombo-Jaffna flights, received a warning letter a month before the incident from the ''Tamil Eelam Administrative Service'', stating that if the airline continued to ignore a prior warning about carrying

Sri Lanka Armed Forces The Sri Lanka Armed Forces is the overall unified military of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka encompassing the Sri Lanka Army, the Sri Lanka Navy, and the Sri Lanka Air Force; they are governed by the Ministry of Defence (Sri Lank ...

personnel, it would be attacked after 14 September. The airline closed its office in

Jaffna Jaffna (, ) is the capital city of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a peninsula of the same name. With a population of 88,138 in 2012, Jaffna is Sri Lanka's 12th most ...

four days before the incident.

Investigation

In October 2012 the

Sri Lankan Navy ta, இலங்கை கடற்படை , image = Sri Lanka Naval Seal.png , image_size = 180px , caption = Emblem of Sri Lanka Navy , dates = , c ...

discovered wreckage which was believed to be the disintegrated parts of the missing Antonov on the sea bed off Iranaitivu Island. Information concerning the crash site was gained from a former LTTE cadre who had left Sri Lanka and was arrested on his return by the Police Terrorist Investigation Department. He confessed to having fired a missile at the aircraft from the island on the orders of Poththu Amman, a leading member of the LTTE. The Navy salvaged the first pieces of the wreckage in May 2013, nearly 15 years after the event. Clothing and remains from 22 victims recovered in the salvage operation were put on display in Jaffna for identification in January 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lionair Flight LN 602 Airliner shootdown incidents Attacks on civilians attributed to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Aviation accidents and incidents in 1998 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam attacks in Eelam War III Mass murder in 1998 Terrorist incidents in Sri Lanka in 1998 20th-century aircraft shootdown incidents September 1998 events in Asia Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam attacks against airliners Accidents and incidents involving the Antonov An-24

Aircraft and crew

Crash

Pre-crash warnings

Investigation

See also

References