Malév Flight 240

Malév Flight 240 was a regular service from Budapest Ferihegy International Airport, Hungary, to Beirut International Airport, Lebanon. On 30 September 1975, the aircraft operating the route, a Tupolev Tu-154 of Malév Hungarian Airlines, on its final approach for landing, crashed into the Mediterranean Sea just off the coast of Lebanon. All fifty passengers and ten crew on board are thought to have been killed.[1][2] No official statement was ever made on the crash and its cause has never been publicly disclosed.

MALÉV flight 240
HA-LCI, the aircraft involved in the accident, seen earlier in 1975
Occurrence
Date30 September 1975
SummaryCrashed into sea; Cause Undetermined
SiteMediterranean Sea
near Beirut, Lebanon
Aircraft
Aircraft typeTupolev Tu-154A
OperatorMalév
RegistrationHA-LCI
Flight originBudapest Ferihegy International Airport, Hungary
DestinationBeirut International Airport, Lebanon
Passengers50
Crew10
Fatalities60
Survivors0

On 27 September 2007, Hungarian politician György Szilvásy, then Minister of Civil Intelligence Services, wrote a letter[3] to Róbert Répássy, Fidesz party member of the Hungarian Parliament, stating that Hungarian civilian national security services (Információs Hivatal and Nemzetbiztonsági Hivatal) had produced a report on the crash in 2003, and that the report stated that there were no available original (secret service) documents concerning the case. Szilvásy's letter affirmed that the report remains top secret, for reasons not connected to the crash.[3]

Hungarian television station Hír TV has carried a documentary film covering the incident.[4] In December 2008, Dutch broadcaster NTR aired a piece on Malév Flight 240 alleging that there is existing photographic documentation of the search and rescue or recovery operation, and that fifteen unidentified bodies were recovered.[5]

According to unidentified witnesses, the plane was shot down, seen by a British military pilot and radar operators on a British radar station in Cyprus.[6][7]

References
  1. "Malév Flight 240 Accident description". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  2. "Accident Synopsis 09301975". Airdisaster.com. Archived from the original on 12 February 2009. Retrieved 18 November 2007.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. "Letter from György Szilvásy to Róbert Répássy" (PDF) (in Hungarian). 27 September 2007.
  4. CINEMART Productions of Hungary; Producer: Ferenc Szohár
  5. "Den Haag Vandaag (The Hague Today)". NTR (NOVA video). 20 December 2008.
  6. "Still no hope in the most mysterious crash – Aeronautics". Retrieved 13 January 2021.
  7. "Crash of Malév Flight 240". World History Project. Retrieved 13 January 2021.

Video recordings

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