Saudia stampede
Woman Dies in Plane Stampede
Maha Akeel & Mohammed Rasooldeen
A woman passenger was killed and dozens were injured yesterday following a stampede on board a Jeddah-bound Saudi Arabian Airlines jumbo jet after a bomb scare. The bomb alert proved a hoax.
Saudi Arabian Airlines said in a statement that the pilot of Boeing 747-300 Flight SV781 from Colombo to Jeddah via Riyadh received a call from the control tower at 10 a.m. while taxiing for takeoff that there was a bomb on the plane. He immediately decided to evacuate the plane that carried 424 passengers and 19 crewmembers.
The tower and airport authorities directed the pilot to take the plane to a secluded area of the airport and evacuate the plane. The captain then ordered the opening of the emergency exits and rolling out of the slides.
The Sri Lankan woman who died was wearing an abaya. She hit her head on the tarmac after sliding down the escape chute, said D. Atthanayake, airport duty manager, citing preliminary inquiries. “It was a chaotic situation,” he added. “Only tomorrow morning we will be doing the post-mortem,” said Dr. SC Wickramasinghe, who runs Negombo Hospital north of the capital where four other injured were being treated.
At least 19 people were admitted to nearby hospitals while 75 others suffered bruises and other minor injuries, according to air force spokesman Ajantha de Silva. Police said bomb squad officers were checking the plane, but had found nothing and believed the bomb alert was a hoax. Security authorities at the airport said they were trying to trace the caller.
The stranded passengers were put up in hotels near the Colombo airport. They will be brought to the Kingdom in an alternative plane. A Saudia source told Arab News that the alternative plane departed from Jeddah at 4 p.m. (Saudi time). An airline official at the Colombo International Airport told Arab News that the alternative flight would leave Colombo at 4 a.m. (Sri Lanka time) today, and would arrive in Riyadh at 6 a.m. and at Jeddah at 8.15 a.m.
The incident came a day after peace broker Norway announced it had suggested the airport, named after President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s late father and former Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike, as a neutral venue for talks with Tamil Tiger rebels. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rejected the site in a statement issued to the media after the bomb hoax.