The Litvinenko Inquiry

The Litvinenko Inquiry
both planes had in fact already been tested and that no contamination had been
found 40
d. In fact, aircraft EI-DNM flew into Heathrow on that day, 1 December 2006, and
was tested for contamination by AWE scientists. They discovered secondary
alpha radiation contamination in the area of the seats on which Mr Kovtun and
Mr Lugovoy had sat on the flight on 18 October 41
e. These findings were, clearly, in complete contrast to the communications that
were being received on the same day both from the airline and from the Russian
government to the effect that EI-DNM had been checked and was free of
contamination
f. EI-DDK was in fact scheduled to fly to London on the next day, 2 December.
That flight, however, was cancelled. Transaero explained at the time that the
cancellation was due to disruption to their scheduling caused by the testing of
EI-DNM in London 42
g. It appears that EI-DDK did not in fact return to the UK for some time after that,
and that it was never tested by UK authorities 43
Some seven years later, in 2013, the Investigative Committee of the Russian
Federation (ICRF) made a disclosure of documents to me in what were then the inquest
proceedings into Mr Litvinenko’s death. The documents purported to be records of the
testing of both aircraft in Russia. 44 DI Mascall stated in evidence that these documents
had never been formally provided to the Metropolitan Police Service, and that he saw
them for the first time in 2013. 45 Although the effect of these documents is not entirely
clear, they appear to indicate that the original Russian tests did reveal contamination
on EI-DNM, but did not reveal any contamination on EI-DDK. If that is the effect of
these documents, it is quite obviously inconsistent with what Mr Knott was told both
by the Russian government and by Transaero in 2006.
6.70 In summary, there is an inconsistency between the assertion made by the Russian
authorities on 1 December 2006 that both planes had been tested and found to be
clean, and the documents received in 2013 suggesting that the results of the Russian
testing of one of the planes had been positive. There is also a conflict between the
initial assertion by the Russians that EI-DNM was not contaminated, and the outcome
of the tests conducted on that aircraft by AWE. Moreover, the delay of seven years in
the production of the Russian test results remains unexplained. In the circumstances,
I do not consider that any weight can be placed on what the Russian authorities have
said about the testing of either of these aircraft, in particular the assertion that EI-DDK
was tested and found to be clean.
6.71 Mr Lugovoy and Mr Kovtun were transported from their aircraft to the terminal building
by an airport bus. The bus that carried them was subsequently identified and tested,
with no trace of contamination being found. There was evidence that the bus was
regularly cleaned. 46 For the reasons that I have explained above, (in paragraphs
40
Mascall 9/11-12; 9/18-20; INQ019202
41
Mascall 9/35-37
42
Mascall 9/22
43
Mascall 9/27
44
COM00046001; COM00198001
45
Mascall 9/27-28
46
Mascall 9/65-66; 9/126
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