Summary Unknown Survivors 0 Registration HA-LCI Operator Malév Hungarian Airlines Passenger count 50 | Passengers 50 Aircraft type Tupolev Tu-154B Date 30 September 1975 Fatalities 60 Crew count 10 | |
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Site Mediterranean Sea
near Beirut, Lebanon Destination Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport Similar Agadir air disaster, ČSA Flight 540, Interflug Flight 1107, 1975 Tan Son Nhut C‑5 accid, Eastern Air Lines Flight 66 | ||
Malév Flight 240 was a Tupolev Tu-154 tri-motor jetliner of Malév Hungarian Airlines, which was flying on the Budapest to Beirut regular route when it crashed near the Lebanese shoreline on 30 September 1975. All 50 passengers and 10 crew on board died. No official statement was ever made on the crash and its cause has never been publicly revealed.
In recent years, rumors persist that the plane was shot down, either because it carried arms to some Arab group, or because it was supposed to carry the members of a PLO delegation (but in the end did not).
On 27 September 2007, György Szilvásy, then Minister of Civil Intelligence Services wrote in a letter to Róbert Répássy (Fidesz), member of the Hungarian Parliament, that the Hungarian Office of National Security produced a report on the crash in 2003. The report can be summarized as follows: There are no available original (secret service) documents concerning the case. The report remains top secret, for reasons not connected to the crash.
On 6 January 2009 questions relating to this crash were put forward to the European Commission.