Mystery Plane Suspects Bailed
By N’fa Alie Koroma
(Tuesday August 25, 2009) Eight suspects, including an amputee, who were onboard the mysterious plane which landed in Lungi on August 19, have been released on Police bail.
The suspects who were among the crew and passengers on board the flight (eight in all), include Americans, Egyptians and British nationals, are however required to report on a daily basis.
Investigations conducted by Premier News into the mysterious landing of another strange aircraft at the Lungi International Airport say that the plane landed without permission from the airport authorities.
The sources further stated that the chartered flight, with American registration number N748AA, had two pilots and six passengers and was flying from London to Freetown, through Cairo, Egypt.
According to the Police, the suspects told them that they came to the country to conduct feasibility studies on the fishing and mining industry.
The Law enforcement officers maintain that nothing of a criminal nature was discovered in the plane except an undisclosed amount of foreign currencies.
However, sources at the Lungi International Airport, say that a huge volume of chemicals believed to be cocaine was found among the confiscated items onboard the flight.
The Acting Director-General of the Sierra Leone Civil Aviation Authority, Badara Allieu Tarawalley, said that on the day of the incident, he received information from the General Manager of the Airport Authority that another mysterious plane was about to land at the airport.
He explained that he told the Police to cordon the flight when it landed and to carry out investigations regarding its origin and mission.
He maintains that the crew on the flight violated the operations schedule for non-scheduled flights over-flying the territory of Sierra Leone, by failing to request for a landing permit at least 72 hours ( 3 working days) in advance.
He stressed also that the crew breeched section 55 (1) of the Civil Aviation Act 2008, which states that no one shall enter the airspace of the country without a certificate issued by the Aviation Authority.
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