Former investigator alleges probe into 1998 crash that killed 229 was botched
A former RCMP officer involved in the investigation of the 1998 crash of Swissair Flight 111 near Peggy’s Cove, N.S. told the CBC that his superiors at the police force ordered him to drop his suspicions that the plane was brought down by an explosive device. “There was sufficient grounds to suspect a criminal device on that plane,” Tom Juby told CBC’s The Fifth Estate. The Transportation Safety Board has always maintained that an electrical fire brought down the plane, but Juby says he found evidence of an explosive device in the cockpit area that was deliberately removed from the final report. “I’m convinced the investigation was improperly done,” Juby told the CBC. A Saudi Prince, a relative of the Shah of Iran and several UN officials were among the 229 people killed when the plane went down in the Atlantic Ocean. Five hundred million dollars worth of diamonds were also on board and remain missing. Juby said that if his suspicions are true, then the inquiry into the plane crash should have been a homicide investigation.