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Alas Chiricanas Flight 00901

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Alas Chiricanas Flight 00901
N60CZ, the aircraft involved in the accident in April 1991 at Orlando International Airport while still in service with Comair.
Bombing
DateJuly 19, 1994
SummaryIn-flight explosion by bombing, unsolved crash
Sitenear Enrique Adolfo Jiménez Airport
Colón, Panama
Aircraft
Aircraft typeEmbraer EMB 110 Bandeirante
OperatorAlas Chiricanas
RegistrationHP-1202AC
Flight originEnrique Adolfo Jiménez Airport
Colón, Panama
DestinationTocumen International Airport
Panama City, Panama
Passengers18
Crew3
Fatalities21
Survivors0

Alas Chiricanas Flight 00901, registered HP-1202AC, was an Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante aircraft flying en route from Colón city to Panama City which exploded shortly after departing Enrique Adolfo Jiménez Airport, on the night of July 19, 1994. All 21 on board were killed in the bombing. Twelve of the victims were Jewish.[1] Both Panamanian and American authorities consider the bombing an unsolved crime and an act of terrorism.

The wreckage of the Bandeirante was strewn about the Santa Rita Mountains near Colón. Panamanian investigators quickly determined that the explosion had been caused by a bomb, probably detonated by a suicide bomber aboard the aircraft. Only one body was not claimed by relatives; this body is believed to be that of a man named Jamal Lya.[2] Officials suspected that the incident was an act of terrorism by Hezbollah directed against Jews in part because it took place one day after the AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires, and due to an expression of support by "Ansar Allah", a Hezbollah affiliate in South America.[3][4]

In 2018, the President of Panama Juan Carlos Varela said "recent evidence" and intelligence reports "clearly show it was a terrorist attack," and that he would ask local and international authorities to reopen the investigation. The FBI have in its investigations identified the perpetrator to have been a passenger named Ali Hawa Jamal.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Panama 1994 plane crash a 'terror' attack". BBC News. May 22, 2018. Archived from the original on March 14, 2020. Retrieved August 2, 2020.
  2. ^ "ALI HAWA JAMAL - DECEASED". Federal Bureau of Investigation. Archived from the original on June 10, 2023.
  3. ^ "Palestinian Jihadist group splits from Hezbollah". Jerusalem Post. December 6, 2012. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  4. ^ Thomas, Andrew R.; Vaduva, Sebastian (2014). Global Supply Chain Security: Emerging Topics in Research, Practice and Policy. Springer. p. 48. ISBN 978-1-4939-2178-2. Archived from the original on March 22, 2024. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
  5. ^ "Panama says new evidence shows 1994 plane crash 'terrorist' incident". BBC News. May 22, 2018. Archived from the original on May 27, 2018. Retrieved May 27, 2018.