Radioactive trace ‘found on plane’ in Litvinenko inquiry

Radioactive contamination was detected on a grounded plane used by the suspected murderers of poisoned spy Alexander Litvinenko after reassurances from Russian authorities that nothing was found, an inquiry has revealed.

Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun, who are wanted for Mr Litvinenko’s murder but remain in Russia where they deny any involvement in his death, travelled to London from Moscow on October 16, 2006 for two days.

During this visit, the two men met Mr Litvinenko for a business meeting at a Mayfair-based private security firm before returning to Russia on October 18, 2006.

Mr Litvinenko is believed to have been poisoned at a later date — November 1, 2006 — by polonium-210 in a subsequent meeting with Lugovoi and Kovtun at a Mayfair hotel.

He died three weeks later on November 23, 2006.

After Mr Litvinenko’s death, Metropolitan Police detectives attempted to test the planes used by Lugovoi and Kovtun during their first visit in October.

Through contacts at the British Embassy in Moscow, Scotland Yard was told by senior staff at Transaero airline and Russia’s chief public health officer that the inbound and outbound planes had tested negative for radiation, the inquiry heard.

But after police grounded one of the planes, they detected traces of polonium-210.The Russians then grounded the other plane in Moscow when they learned UK authorities had grounded the first aircraft and detectives have never been able to examine it for contamination, the inquiry heard.

But in 2013, the then inquest into Mr Litvinenko’s death received a report from Russian authorities on tests conducted on the other plane, although it is unclear what the report concluded.

The inquiry heard from Goran Krgo, house manager at the Best Western Shaftesbury Hotel in London, where Lugovoi and Kovtun stayed on October 16, 2006.

Mr Krgo said he remembered the men “vividly” due to their “comical” clothing and “excessive jewellery”.

He told the inquiry he and his colleague started laughing at the men when they emerged wearing “business suits”.

“The colours didn’t match, the suits were either too big or too small, they didn’t look like people used to wearing suits,” Mr Krgo said.

“I believe the expression is they looked like a donkey with a saddle.”

Mr Krgo told the inquiry the two men checked out a day early on October 17.

The inquiry was shown 3D renderings of the hotel rooms Lugovoi and Kovtun stayed respectively.

The models showed areas of radioactive contamination detected during the investigation into Mr Litvinenko’s death.