ABC News
Wed, Jul 31 2002 5:46 AM AEST

Defence force tells inquiry radar contact could have been doomed ship

A senior defence officer has admitted a radar contact by surveillance of Australia's northern coastline on October 19 last year may have been the so called SIEV-X which sank, killing around 300 asylum seekers.

Commander of the Maritim Patrol Group, Air Commodore Phillip Byrne, has told the Children Overboard inquiry the contact was made by a surveillance flight.

He says it was just outside the surveillance area, which prevented further investigation.

Air Commodore Byrne told Labor Senator John Faulkner it will never be known if the contact was the ill fated boat.

"What we're looking at is whether it is possible any of these traces may have been Siev-x and no doubt this is something which has exercised your own mind," he said.

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