Lloyds wants to scour Swissair crash site for lost diamonds

Airline Industry Information, May 19, 2000

AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION-(C)1997-2000 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

British insurance company Lloyds of London wants to search the crash site of a Swissair flight off the coast of Nova Scotia for some lost diamonds worth some USD300m.

The Swissair MD-11 crashed on 2 September 1998 killing all 229 people on board and was apparently carrying 4.4lbs of diamonds and 6.6lbs of jewellery in a special container.

Salvage crews at the site worked at recovering the remains of the victims and pieces of the aircraft for months but did not recover any diamonds according to United Press International.

Lloyds of London wants to send a special team of divers to search for the diamonds and believe that the reason that they have not been found is that the tube carrying the precious stones may have shot off the aircraft during impact and got buried in the seabed.

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