Metropolitan Police held a press conference at 2:30pm today as part of the investigation of the 23rd November plane crash on the Thames near Rainham Marshes, Essex. Chief Investigator William Stuart and AAIB commissioner Murray Russell revealed that adhesive tape found on the drone debris which caused flight US132’s engine failure matched tape found on an improvised explosive device (IED) found on the shore of Abbots Farm Nature Reserve in Essex. A second IED was found near a footpath on Lookouts Hill near Thamesmead. It is theorised that perpetrators were on nearby Galleons Hill and anyone who may have seen anything suspicious on 23rd November is urged to contact Metropolitan Police on 105.
Chief Investigator William Stuart also disclosed that Essex Police had received a warning phone call at 8am that morning, claiming to be from ‘Mersea Pathfinders’, a protest group against flight paths over areas of natural beauty in Essex. Past protests by Mersea Pathfinders were seemingly peaceful community marches contained to a small area of the village of West Mersea. The call, appearing to have come from Hawaii, was being investigated by global police networks, however direct action was delayed due to the vague nature of the call. Two arrests have been made in East Mersea with charges of possession of explosives, with one more person in questioning for the possession of software and electronic equipment with intent to endanger the safety of an aircraft, a crime with a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
The amateur pipe bomb was found to be made of copper piping purchased in Braintree, Essex. The IEDs have been disabled in a controlled explosion east of Clacton-on-Sea, where the military’s bomb disposal unit detonated the device at 20 metres underwater. According to bomb disposal units, the device was “rudimentary and non-viable”, meaning that if the IED had not become detached during the collision, the plane likely wouldn’t have incurred much further damage.
The next course of action for Metropolitan Police will be to verify statements for a criminal investigation, as in the authority of William Stuart, this incident was “not just an accident.” The motive for the attack is not yet known, however no possibilities, including terrorism, are being ruled out. Security services and the UK Civil Aviation Authority are looking to expand security measures around commercial airports, including testing drone-alert security systems in air traffic zones around north-east Essex, north Kent and south Suffolk.