Breaking News re- Flight Swissair Flight 111 - " incendiary device may have been planted "

Edmonton Journal - Sept 15 , 2011

More than a decade after Swissair Flight 111 crashed into the waters off Peggy’s Cove, N.S., new questions have surfaced over what actually caused the plane to go down and how the investigation was conducted.

Tom Juby, a veteran RCMP forensic investigator assigned to the probe, said he uncovered evidence early on that suggested an incendiary device may have been planted on the plane but that he was prevented by his superiors from following up fully on the evidence and was even directed to alter his notes.

After trying for the past several years to get senior RCMP officials to re-examine the case, he said he decided to go public.

“My opinion is it was extremely suspicious and we should’ve continued testing,” Juby, now retired, said Wednesday in a phone interview. “I was shut down.”

Juby is scheduled to appear Friday in a documentary about the Swissair crash on the CBC’s The Fifth Estate.

Flight 111, which was flying from New York to Geneva, crashed on the night of Sept. 2, 1998, killing all 229 passengers and crew members. The Transportation Safety Board later concluded that wiring above the cockpit likely sparked flammable material and that the fire quickly spread.

But Juby says an abnormally excessive amount of magnesium, iron and aluminum was found in some of the short-circuited wires, which could suggest the use of an incendiary device.

Followup testing performed from 1999 to 2001 could not locate a source for those elements, Juby said.

He says his bosses decided no further testing was needed and demanded that he remove from his notes any references suggesting that the cause of the crash may have been criminal.

In April 2007, Juby asked the RCMP’s top brass to re-examine the way the investigation was handled.

According to a briefing note obtained by Postmedia News, then-RCMP Commissioner Beverley Busson asked the force’s Office of the Ethics Advisor to “fully examine the allegations of cover up” in July 2007. A Department of Justice lawyer was also assigned to take part in the review.

In a four-page letter dated March 18, 2009, Sandra Conlin, then the RCMP’s ethics adviser, told Juby she couldn’t find any evidence that Juby’s superiors tried to influence the outcome of the investigation.

A spokeswoman for the RCMP said Wednesday that the force stands by Conlin’s findings.

And the Transportation Safety Board stands by its finding that the crash was an accident, said spokesman Chris Krepski.

CBC.ca September 15, 2011
An investigator looking into the crash of Swissair Flight 111 near Peggys Cove, N.S., says he was prevented by senior RCMP and aviation safety officials from pursuing his theory that an incendiary device might have been the cause.

"There was sufficient grounds to suspect a criminal device on that plane," retired RCMP sergeant Tom Juby, who was an arson investigator assigned to the Swissair file, told CBC's The Fifth Estate.

"I'm convinced that the investigation was improperly done," he said.

The flight from New York to Geneva crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Sept. 2, 1998, killing 229 passengers and crew. The plane carried a Saudi prince, a relative of the former shah of Iran and high profile UN officials. A half a billion dollars of diamonds and gems were also never found.

The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada said that it was an accident caused by a fire in the cockpit, likely sparked by an electrical fault.

But Juby said high levels of magnesium — a key ingredient in an incendiary device — were discovered in the cockpit area. Several other investigators and a federal scientist who The Fifth Estate spoke to supported Juby's informed suspicions.

Metallurgist Dr. Jim Brown discovered suspicious levels of magnesium and other elements associated with arson in melted wiring from the section of the plane that suffered the greatest fire damage.

"There was a lot of magnesium. More than I would have expected," he said.

Instead, the TSB was focused on the crash being the result of an accident. Any hint of criminal activity meant it would be forced to drop the probe and turn it over to the RCMP.

Juby said the RCMP did not support his findings and that he was pressured to stop his own inquiries. He said the RCMP brass ordered him to remove any reference to magnesium or a suspected bomb from his investigative notes.

Juby said he has tried but failed to set the record straight inside the RCMP for years. He said the system failed too.

"If Canada can't follow through on 229 potential homicides, then you know, what happens when there's only one?" he said.

The RCMP and the TSB repeatedly refused to comment about Juby's allegations.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/09/14/swissair-investigation.html

Interesting

Very interesting.

"The flight from New York to Geneva crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Sept. 2, 1998, killing 229 passengers and crew. The plane carried a Saudi prince, a relative of the former shah of Iran and high profile UN officials. A half a billion dollars of diamonds and gems were also never found."

This almost looks like a James Bond movie.... Incredible.