In the immediate aftermath of the LTTE air attack on two fuel storage facilities in Colombo in the wee hours of Sunday morning the tourism ministry attempted to boost confidence among civil aviation agents in order to avoid any flight cancellation by airlines.

Following yesterday’s defensive air attacks by the Sri Lanka Air Force, this meeting was, which was carried out in order to thwart two suspected LTTE light air crafts, Tourism Minister Milinda Moragoda summoned a meeting with civil airline managers to brief them on the situation early last morning.

“Even last Thursday the military forces activated an air defence system at the Katunayaka air force base after detecting a suspicious light aircraft causing the Bandaranaike International Airport to be temporarily closed down following security measure, and since Cathay Pacific Airways suspended its flights to Colombo on the first failed attempt of an LTTE air attack. Thus the Minister does not want that to be repeated after Sunday’s incident, ’’ a Ministry spokesman said.

The Minister assured the airline managers that the government is capable and prepared to face such air attack and hence not to panic.

Meanwhile, according to the new and tough security measures, Colombo City will be forced into darkness at short notice on the orders of the Defence Ministry during feared air attacks by the LTTE. Accordingly, back-up power plants could not be utilized to generate electricity especially by tourist hotels and high-rise buildings when the Ceylon Electricity Board switches off supply under these security measures in future. They have been told that such blackouts by the CEB would follow any possible air attacks and they should await the resumption of electricity supply without using their standby power generators.

The first occasion when such power supply was cut off was last Thursday night when two aircraft said to belong to the LTTE made a second attempt to attack the Sri Lanka Air Force base at Katunayake.

The base adjoins the Bandaranaike International Airport and is separated only by the runway.

Power supply was cut off for more than two hours by the Operations Command Colombo.