30th July 2000

By Alia

Lucky escape

Passengers who took off on a Colombo bound flight from Chennai's Anna International Airport found they were back in the South Indian capital within an hour. Some of the other inbound flights to Bandaranaike International Airport, as well as those outbound, were delayed.

All this was after the panic caused by the crash of a Chinese built F-7 supersonic trainer aircraft. It crashed on the SLAF side of the runway triggering off a bush fire.

Air Force officials are heaving a sigh of relief that no damage was caused other than to the trainer jet.

SLAF officials say pilot error caused the incident. "Luckily it did not veer towards the international terminal before the crash occurred," said one of them. He was right.

A supersonic aircraft with full thrust would have meant total disaster !

LTTE plans

Intelligence sources say the LTTE is making plans to scuttle the upcoming Parliamentary general elections.

They say cadres have been deployed for this purpose though details of how it is to be done is not yet known.

New posting

LTTE's Banu, the head of their "artillery wing", who has hit many a headline which spoke of him being killed, has received a new assignment.

He now heads an LTTE group from Batticaloa which includes some area leaders from the eastern capital. Banu's operational base has been established in Kilinochchi.

Special assignment

A letter written by the head of a service arm to the managing director of a foreign firm has become the talking point in defence circles.

Giving the name of a retired officer now serving in that company, the letter tells the managing director (a foreign national) that he has been identified for a "special assignment whilst continuing to be employed by you in his present capacity…"

"…. the services of …..(name given) …. is obtained for the greater benefit of the country, and by it, you also would be indirectly contributing to this cause," says the head of the service arm.

The letter winds up by saying "Due to its sensitive nature, please keep this matter totally confidential."

To say the least, as one senior Defence official pointed out, the letter is so "unprofessional."

Not on a Wednesday

The weekly Cabinet meetings on Wednesdays will not be a regular feature anymore.

For security reasons, the meetings are to be held on selected working days at short notice.

Rajpal Abeynayake's Column

Editorial/ Opinion Contents