Jungle Telegraph

25th October 1998

Lion Air Force

The periodic bulletins giving the latest came on the phone to the Naval staff at Kankesanthurai. Air Traffic Controllers at Palaly said the Sri Lanka Air Force Antonov 32 would arrive in an hour....... then again...... in half an hour....... and .......any moment now.

Men at the Navy base Uttara were looking at the sky for the AN 32 to make its descent over the Palk Straits waters. There was none. So the military passengers who were headed for Colombo that Thursday evening had to stay behind in Palaly.

That included Navy Commander, Rear Admiral Cecil Tissera and his entourage.

They had gone on a day trip during which the Navy Chief declared open an office complex for the Navy at KKS. All of them had to make do with a borrowed change and toothbrush.

It was Thursday evening when news reached that the AN 32 was on ground at Anuradhapura. Spare parts were needed from Colombo to make it airworthy.

Even by Friday morning, the AN 32 had not arrived. A Lionair aircraft which was chartered brought some of the senior officers and men to Colombo. The flight was soon dubbed Lion Air Force or LAF instead of SLAF.

It was Friday evening when the Navy Chief and his entourage

arrived in Colombo.

That's the tale of an Air Force with only one AN 32 operational for flights to the north.

In for top post

Ousted CID Director, Bandula Wickremasinghe, insiders say, is in for a top post.

If he was earlier considered for a top slot in the commando arm of the Police, the Special Task Force (STF), he is now in line for a high post in the Directorate of Internal Intelligence (DII) - one arm of the bifurcated National Intelligence Bureau (NIB).

Early this week, Superintendent of Police, Keerthi Gajanayake of the DII was named Director, CID.

He is an old hand in the CID who served a short stint in the NIB and later at the DII.

False Signal

The blip on the radar at the SLAF's main eastern base in Trincomalee remained for just over 15 minutes last Monday night.

It was a well lit, unidentified aircraft, heading in a northerly direction.

Alarm bells rang. Security Forces Headquarters in Jaffna was alerted. Soon defence installations in the peninsula were ready for the threat.

It was only the following morning that Zonal Commander, Wing Commander Roshan Gunatilleke, reported to SLAF headquarters that it was a commercial airliner, still climbing at an altitude of 23,000 feet.

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