AIRLINER CRASH

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32967, 13 July 1972, Page 15

AIRLINER CRASH

Allegation of plot (N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) SAIGON, July 12. The suitcase-bomb that destroyed a Cathay Pacific Airways airliner over South Vietnam on June 15 was smuggled aboard the aircraft in Bangkok, as part of an insurance plot, by a man wearing a police official’s uniform, aviation sources in Saigon said. A little more than an hour after leaving Bangkok on a ' flight to Hong Kong, the Convair 880 exploded at 29,000 feet over Vietnam’s Central Highlands, killing all 71 passengers and 10 crew members. Sources close to the crash investigation who had earlier disclosed the finding that a bomb had been responsible identified the luggage as being delivered in the name of Miss Somwang Promprim, one of the 36 passengers who j boarded at Bangkok. Insurance policies totalling at least SNZIOO,OOO had been I taken out on Miss Somwang and a girl, aged seven, travelling with her shortly before they boarded the aircraft, insurance company officials in Bangkok said today. The crash investigators, who are convinced that insurance was the motive for the bombing, are said to believe that the total involved will be close to $NZ250,000. Miss Somwang has been identified by the sources as the fiancee of Lieutenant Somchai Chaiyasut, a police officer attached to the Thai police aviation division, and the girl travelling with her, as Sonthaya Chaiyasut, : daughter of Somchai and his former wife, Alice, who is a • niece of Mr Antonio Villegas, • the Mayor of Manila, the • sources said. There have been no arrests . but the Thai police are said I to be continuing their investi-