RIYADH, 13 September 2005 — Preliminary investigations indicate that the hoax phone call last Thursday saying that a bomb was on board Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight SV781 originated from within Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA).
There was no bomb but during the emergency evacuation of the aircraft, one Sri Lankan woman died and 74 other passengers were injured.
A special two-man team from the Kingdom is currently in Colombo to assist with the investigation.
According to information obtained by Arab News from Colombo, the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder have been handed over to Kingdom officials.
“We do not have facilities in Sri Lanka to read the recordings in these machines,” H.M.C. Nimalasiri, Sri Lanka’s director general of aviation, told Arab News.
The Saudia team of Abdullah Al-Salem and Ghazi Al-Taifi held talks Saturday with the director general. The director general said, “Saudia crew deserve a special word of praise since they responded promptly to the signal from the airport control tower for emergency evacuation.”
He pointed out that the injuries were mainly due to panic among the passengers who were trying frantically to slide down the chutes. He said the SriLankan airlines emergency team at the airport also did a commendable job in assisting the passengers to evacuate the aircraft.
The dead woman, Fathima Nazeema, mother of six, first came to work in Saudi Arabia about eight years ago.
A Saudia official said that the airline had paid her funeral expenses and appropriate compensation would be paid to the next-of-kin according to IATA regulations.
