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C-MIN 137/15
Subject No. 14: Subjects relating to air navigation
1.
Request from the Governments of Japan, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation and the United States for completion of the investigation regarding
the shooting down of Korean Airlines Boeing 747 (Flight No. KAL-007) on 31 August 1983
Opening the meeting, the President of the Council indicated that he had circulated the request of the Governments of Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the United States by his memorandum PRES AK/333 dated 14 December 1992. The letters from the Representatives of Japan and the United States on the ICAO Council, and from the Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Montreal, had made direct reference to Article 54(n) of the Chicago Convention; this reference had not been made in the letter from the Representative of the Russian Federation on the ICAO Council. The President directed the Council's attention to Rules 27 d) and 25 b) of the Rules of Procedure for the Council, in accordance with which the Council decided to include this item in its Work Programme for the 137th Session. He then extended a welcome to the Delegation of the Republic of Korea, which had been invited to participate with observer status under Article 53 of the Chicago Convention and Rule 32 of the Rules of Procedure for the Council.
2. The subject was documented in C-WP/9684, in which the President invited the Council to consider the request under Article 54(n) of the Convention on International Civil Aviation; and C- WP/9685, in which the Secretary General provided background information regarding the request and information to facilitate the Council's consideration thereof. Introducing his paper, the Secretary General-in order to clarify the nature of the investigation which had been conducted in 1983 and whose completion was now requested-quoted a sentence from the report of the Air Navigation Commission presented to Council in 1984 (reference document C-WP/7809, paragraph 2.2), to the effect that the report of the Secretary General did not constitute an Annex 13 investigation but presented the results of an investigation instituted to determine the facts and technical aspects relating to the flight and destruction of the aircraft. Commenting on the financial implications for ICAO, and the approximate figures provided in paragraph 3 of C-WP/9685, the Secretary General indicated his intention, if the Council were to decide to complete the investigation, to immediately explore all ways and means to finance this task and to submit a proposal to the Council through the Finance Committee.
3. Before expressing the views of the Canadian authorities on this subject, the Representative of Canada wished for all present to pause for a moment and remember with sympathy, the victims and the families of victims who, from around the world, were most certainly waiting to hear the Council's decision regarding the investigation into the truth behind this tragic accident involving 269 innocent victims. Three of the eight Canadian families affected by this incident had requested permission to be present during the Council's deliberations on this subject. Out of symbolic recognition for all the victims of tragic incidents of civil aviation around the world, and this incident in particular, the Representative of Canada introduced Mrs. Carole Moreau, who had lost her husband François Robert on Korean Airlines Flight KAL 007; Mr. Philippe Robert de Massy, whose brother François had died in the crash; and Mr. Tom Hendrie, whose daughter Marie Jane had also been a victim. With reference to Mr. Hendrie, the Representative of Canada indicated that when a search had been undertaken for wreckage of the crash, the only piece of evidence that had floated to the surface and reached a beach was the certificate of Canadian citizenship of Marie Jane Hendrie, which the
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