Passengers cheered and clapped as the first aircraft touched down yesterday at Sri Lanka's only international airport, 36 hours after the suicide attack by Tamil Tiger rebels.
The airport resembled a bombed-out site after the attack in which 11 military and civilian aircraft were destroyed.
But within seconds of landing, they were all gasping in horror as the Sri Lankan Airlines Airbus A 340 taxied to the terminal past the charred remains of all the aircraft the Tamil rebels had bombed and damaged in a pre-dawn raid on Tuesday. Thirteen Tamil rebels and seven military personnel died in the attack and the six-hour firefight that followed, military officials said.
"I feel like crying when I think of all the times I flew in these brunt-out planes," an air hostess, Ms Peshani, said, her eyes brimming with tears. It's too horrendous to believe what has happened, she said, adding that soon there would be neither aircraft nor tourists in Sri Lanka.
A few yards away, chaos reigned in the departure lounge as over 3,000 tourists, mostly Europeans, desperately awaited a flight out of the war-torn country. "I am dying to go home, even though we have been well taken care of," a Briton, Mr Richard Gregory, said, as airline officials struggled to calm the scared and agitated crowd, and flight schedules got pushed back continuously.
Others relived the nightmare of when they were caught in the crossfire between the rebels and the military in which no foreign tourist was hurt. Sri Lankan Airlines said it was scrambling to keep its operations going and to meet deadlines after the attack destroyed half of its fleet. It said it would resume flights in the evening once its six remaining aircraft, which were overseas, returned later in the night.
At least six flights were expected to leave for European destinations by midnight. Colombo hotels have been asked by the official Ceylon Tourist Board to provide free accommodation to those stranded, while it has set up a crisis centre at the airport to help those put out by flight cancellations.
Meanwhile, the revelation that the guerrillas enjoyed a picnic at a public park close to a military checkpoint has embarrassed the country's defence establishment. Police said they seized a privately owned bus with darkened windows which they believe transported the militants to the military base and to the adjoining Bandaranaike International Airport for their suicide mission.
Media reports suggested that local residents had alerted the authorities about the unusual gathering of a group of men near the airport, but the warnings were not taken seriously.
Police said the suicide squad, including bombers with explosives strapped to their bodies, first sabotaged the power supply in the area before cutting the barbed-wire fencing to enter the supposedly highly-guarded air force base.
"We found 13 pairs of boots and one pair of slippers worn by the Tigers," a police investigator said. "We believe they launched their attack barefoot, cut through the perimeter fence and crept in. It was a one-way journey for those who went in."
Other accounts suggest the rebels waded through an open canal from a nearby lagoon that runs under the air base's perimeter fencing and is used to drain water from the runways.
An air chief marshall, Mr Jayalath Weerakkody, has appointed a court of inquiry headed by a two-star officer to investigate lapses. President Chandrika Kumaratunga too has ordered a high-level probe into the attack.
Security agencies had reportedly warned the government that the Tigers might strike to mark the 18th anniversary of anti-Tamil riots in Colombo in July 1983.