Did killer dump Suzy in canal?
POLICE are being urged to search a canal where Suzy Lamplugh’s body may have been dumped.
Following her disappearance in 1986, a witness told police that he had seen a man matching John Cannan’s description throw a suitcase into the Grand Union Canal in West London. But his information was never acted on, and Ms Lamplugh’s body has never been found.
The man even travelled to Cannan’s trial for the murder of Shirley Banks at Exeter Crown Court in 1989 to satisfy himself that he was the man he saw on the towpath as he walked to work early one morning. The witness has since died, but his wife made contact with investigators two years ago.
Former detective superintendent Jim Dickie told The Mail on Sunday: ‘This is a big question mark hanging over this case and it has not been ruled out. I think the Lamplugh family deserves closure if there is a body there. Equally, it might help keep Cannan in prison if they recover a body because there may be vital forensic evidence that could lead to criminal charges.’
The Metropolitan Police says the canal is regularly dredged and the area was searched by divers during a separate investigation in 2014. However, Mr Dickie said the exact spot pinpointed by the witness has not been scoured.
THE DUKE of York escaped potential disaster when a Royal Flight was dramatically aborted moments before take-off when its pilot spotted a ground technician waving a scribbled note saying: ‘Stop!’
The engineer quickly wrote the makeshift sign after spotting oil seeping from the undercarriage as the jet prepared to depart. He frantically waved it at the pilot just as the Cessna Citation prepared to taxi towards the military runway at Leuchars in Fife, Scotland.
With the engines roaring and Andrew on board, the pilot saw the warning with seconds to spare and abandoned his take off. Conducting
‘Leak was so serious the jet had to be shut down’
his own inspection, he confirmed that oil was ‘ seeping’ from the undercarriage retraction mechanism and leaking elsewhere, and grounded the flight. The technician, identified only as Corporal Nicoll, later received a safety award for his quick thinking.
The Prince, who had been playing golf at St Andrews five miles away, was driven to a lounge to await another flight back to London.
The incident, which has only just come to light, happened on September 20, 2019.
Aviation safety expert Justin Goatcher said: ‘If the flight had taken off, it sounds as though the problem would have been at the other end. The leak may have prevented the landing gear from lowering, causing i ndeterminable consequences.’
Describing the incident, the RAF magazine Air Clues said: ‘As both engines i were running, i C Cpl l Nicoll i ll wrote a note about what he had found and held it up to the cockpit window for the captain to read.
‘The captain proceeded to open a small cockpit window and handed Cpl Nicoll his phone indicating for him to take pictures of the fault.
‘After reviewing the photographs taken by Cpl Nicoll, the captain decided to shut down one of his engines i and d conduct d hi his own inspection of the fault.
‘The pilot concluded that the leak was serious enough that the aircraft must be shut down and declared unserviceable.’
Several hours after the incident, the duke flew home to face new claims from Virginia Roberts, the woman who alleges socialite Ghislaine Maxwell told her to have sex with ih the h d duke k after f a night out in London. In a TV interview broadcast that evening in America, Ms Roberts gave new details of their alleged encounter in 2001 when she was 17. Andrew has repeatedly and firmly denied all accusations of impropriety with women, including underage girls.
Earlier this month it was reported that the Queen’s official fleet of