Air CeylonAvro 748 4R-ACJ bombing was an incident on 7 September 1978, when an Air Ceylon Hawker Siddeley HS 748 destroyed in a fire while parked at Ratmalana Airport following a fire started by the explosion of a bomb in the aircraft. Two pilots had been carrying out pre-departure checkups, while a ground crew personal was cleaning the cabin. All three were on the aircraft at the time of the explosion and escaped unhurt. On 7 September 1978, the Air Ceylon 4R-ACJ landed in Ratmalana Airport, following an internal flight from Jaffna Airport. The plane with a replacement crew was scheduled to carryout a ferry flight to Bandaranaike International Airport in order to undertake the next scheduled flight to Malé. Taking over the aircraft Captain Ronnie Perera and First Officer Ranjit Pedris, started pre-flight checkups. Captain Perera found the cabin untidy and ordered it be cleaned before departure. This delayed the flight, while a cleaner from the ground staff started cleaning the cabin, under Captain Perera directions. Pedris continued the pre-flight checks. Shortly thereafter an explosion rocked the aircraft. Pedris was in the cockpit and exited the aircraft, while Captain Perera and the cleaner exited the aircraft from the rear door. The control tower alerted the emergency services, which responded but faced equipment limitations that prevented them from stopping the fire from destroying the aircraft completely. Had the flight not been delayed for cleaning, the bomb would have detonated mid-flight; the delay likely saved many lives.
An immediate cord of the airport was carried out and all passengers from flight from Jaffna was detained and questioned. The Captain Errol Cramer, who had piloted the flight from Jaffna to Colombo had noticed two passengers loitering in the cabin before departing. In the subsequent investigation into the bombing, two men who had traveled in the flight from Jaffna to Colombo were arrested, tried and found guilty of placing a bomb under a seat before leaving the aircraft. They were found to be members of the movement that later became the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
