The Missing Tycoon.

Unsolved mystery of the 1983 Malaysian plane crash.

This weekend’s hottest news is about the disappearance or the probably the plane crash of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. This reminded me of one of my favorite unsolved mysteries in Sri Lanka. (The other interesting mystery is the disappearance of the LTTE intelligence leader during the end of the war.)

Date February 13th, 1983 the private Learjet was travelling from Malaysia to Sri Lanka. The private jet was carrying the wealthiest man in Sri Lanka, and must have been one of wealthiest in the world at that time, Upali Wijewardene when it disappeared mysteriously over the Malacca Strait. What has happened to that plane and the crew has been a mystery to this day.

There has been many theories in what has really happened, but no one is certain what has really happened.

• Theory 1 : The jet crashed in to the Malacca Strait due to the bad weather or mechanical failure happened that day, killing everyone on board.
• Theory 2 : The plane crashed due to a mechanical failure or an explosion as part of a planned assassin by competing businessmen or because of his future plans to enter politics.
• Theory 3 : According to some Upali Wijewardene wanted to fake his death and just vanish because he had enough money for the rest of his life.

The reason for so many theories is the fact that even though the search from Malaysian and Singapore navies no wreckage of the jet or the body of Upali Wijewardene has ever been found.

In 2012 some wired alternative theory was published in some websites which said the Upali Wijewardene was alive in Mexico. According to the latest theory Upali Wijewardene saved the plane crash and was taken by a cargo ship that was travelling nearby. According to the story then he went to Mexico continued his already flourishing drug business as Rafael Caro Quintero (although it’s not proven that he was a drug dealer in 1983) until he was captured by Mexico police.

Many have tried to solve the mystery but no one has ever found an answer or an explanation to what really happened leading to the crash and what happened after the crash (if there was any plane crash). So even after 30 years no one really know what happened to the flight or the crew and one of the wealthiest men on earth at that time in a flight that took off from Malaysia in 1983.