Dive for gems shocks crash relatives BY ARTHUR LEATHLEY, AVIATION CORRESPONDENT The hunt for flight 111's sunken treasure FAMILIES of more than 200 people killed in an aircraft crash have condemned a "deplorable" plan by the British insurers Lloyd's to try to salvage �150 million in lost treasure from the seabed where the bodies of their loved ones lie. Lloyd's, the London insurance market, has applied for permission to search for jewels, gold and currency off the coast of Nova Scotia, where a Swissair jet crashed with the loss of all 229 people on board in September 1998. A huge salvage operation is being planned by the insurers, formerly known as Lloyd's of London, to retrieve a tube containing more than 4lb of diamonds and 10lb of other jewels, together with huge quantities of gold and banknotes carried on the ill-fated Flight 111. Lloyd's insisted that the application was intended to ward off other speculators and divers prepared to search the ocean bed some 200ft below the surface. Navy divers from the USS Grapple filmed the ghostly wreckage of the crashed jet in 1998 during the initial search for Swissair Flight 111. They may now be recalled to help in the Lloyd's treasure hunt However, victims' relatives, lawyers and politicians say that commercial greed was leading to the desecration of the victims' underwater graveyard. The Swissair jet crashed into the Atlantic near the fishing village of Peggy's Cove after pilots had failed to make an emergency landing at Halifax, Nova Scotia. Most of the bodies and many belongings on board the New York-Geneva flight are still missing after salvage teams were forced to give up their search weeks after the disaster. The diamonds had been packed into a stainless steel tube, which may have disintegrated on impact or been driven deep into the seabed, according to investigators. Gold and banknotes were stored in shockproof safes. They included a consignment of millions of dollars in US notes being transferred from an American bank to a branch in Switzerland. The original recovery operation, which included navy divers, draggers and a giant vacuum dredging ship, recovered millions of pieces of wreckage from the sea bottom, but neither diamonds nor other valuable cargo. Lloyd's said in a statement last night: "Restrictions relating to access to the crash site were recently lifted by the Canadian authorities. This enables anyone, including speculators, to dive at the site and to recover items from the seabed. The Lloyd's application for a licence is simply intended to preserve our rights to the recovery of items against which we have paid insurance claims." Adam Smyth, the British legal director of International Aviation Safety Association, a campaign body formed by relatives of Swissair victims, described the action as utterly deplorable. "As far as we are aware, Lloyds of London have made little or no effort to consult those who lost loved ones in the crash or other groups concerned. To say that this is causing further distress is an understatement. This proposal is reprehensible and there is every possibility that they may recover something more precious to the families than diamonds." Ian Shaw, whose daughter, Stephanie, died in the crash, said: "It is appalling. It is another example of how mercenary urges go before any sense of morality. "It is a desecration of those who died and those who endured the appalling sights and devastation of that night." Mr Shaw referred to the crash site as "a holy place" and thought that it would be the wish of the Canadian people to keep it a protected area. Bill Eastbrooks, a member of the Nova Scotia legislature, described the reported plan as tasteless. The proposed search, planned for this summer, will not be able to make use of Canada's diesel submarine Okanagan, used immediately after the disaster, as it has since been decommissioned. However, the USS Grapple, used in the original search and again last year in the hunt for wreckage from the jet in which J. F. Kennedy Jr, his wife and sister-in-law died is likely to be available. "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything." Communist Tyrant Josef Stalin (Listen anytime to Votefraud vs Honest Elections "crash course" radio show over the internet at www.sightings.com in the archives, April 3rd, 2000 show, Jeff Rense host, Jim Condit Jr. guest) <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. 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