A former judge who reviewed new information on the mysterious 1961 plane crash that killed UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold says "it is plausible that an external attack or threat may have been a cause of the crash."
Tanzania's former chief justice Mohamed Chande Othman said in a report released yesterday that the chartered DC-6 plane registered as flight SE-BDY could have crashed as a result of a direct attack or a momentary distraction of the pilots at a crucial moment in their descent.
"There is a significant amount of evidence from eyewitnesses that they observed more than one aircraft in the air, that the other aircraft may have been a jet, that SE-BDY was on fire before it crashed, and/or that SE-BDY was fired upon or otherwise actively engaged by another aircraft," Othman said.
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"In its totality, this evidence is not easily dismissed," the recently retired judge said.
Othman said it also remains conceivable that the crash resulted from pilot error.
He said he also has been trying to get documents from South Africa on "Operation Celeste" which purportedly raise the possibility of a bomb being placed on SE-BDY to sabotage it and "remove" Hammarskjold.
Despite "the significant amount of new information," Othman said, further investigation is needed to finally establish the facts.
Widely considered the UN's most effective chief, Hammarskjold, a Swedish diplomat, died when his plane crashed near Ndola Airport in modern-day Zambia, then the British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia.
He was on a peace mission, flying into a war zone infested with mercenaries and riven by Cold War tension. Congo won its freedom from Belgium in 1960, but foreign multinationals coveted its vast mineral wealth and the country was challenged by a Western-backed insurgency in Katanga province, which hosted mining interests belonging to the United States, Britain, and Belgium.
An independent panel reviewing new information about the crash said in July 2015 that the United States and Britain retained some classified files, and that South Africa had not responded to several requests for information.
The panel put to rest claims that Hammarskjold was assassinated after surviving the crash a point echoed by Othman who said it is almost certain the UN chief and members of his party were not killed after landing, and that all passengers died from injuries during the crash, instantaneously or soon after.
It has long been rumoured that Hammarskjold's plane was shot down, and the panel provided new information about a possible aerial attack or interference. In February, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed Othman to review the new information.
Othman said in the report that he reviewed a "significant amount of new information," especially on probable intercepts of UN communications and the capacity of the armed forces of Katanga to have staged a possible attack on Hammarskjold's plane.
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