NYTimes.com Article: China Jet Broke in Sky Before Crash

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China Jet Broke in Sky Before Crash

May 26, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS






Filed at 10:10 a.m. ET



PENGHU, Taiwan (AP) -- The China Airlines jet that crashed
Saturday with 225 people aboard broke up into four parts in
the sky before plunging into the Taiwan Strait, the chief
Taiwanese crash investigator said Sunday. No survivors have
been found.

Military radar provided a clear picture of the Boeing
747-200 splitting into four pieces, said Kay Yong, managing
director of Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council. ``There was
an in-flight breakup above the altitude of 30,000 feet. We
are very positive about this,'' he said.

He did not say what might have caused the plane to break
apart.

Taiwan's government on Sunday ordered China Airlines to
ground four Boeing 747-200 cargo planes in its fleet until
inspections show they are safe. The four jets are 13 to 22
years old.

The government also demanded that the airline, Taiwan's
largest carrier, step up inspections of its 46 passenger
jets.

Rough seas slowed the search for bodies and debris from the
plane. By Sunday, 78 bodies were pulled from the shimmering
water that reeked of jet fuel.

Swells up to 10 feet high battered fishing boats and coast
guard ships scanning the crash site north of the Taiwanese
island chain of Penghu, about 30 miles off Taiwan's western
coast.

Officials said they did not know what caused the crash of
Flight CI611, which went down Saturday afternoon about 20
minutes after taking off from Taipei en route to Hong Kong.
The crew did not send distress signals before the plane
disappeared from radar screens.

The transcript of the pilots' conversation with the control
tower was released Sunday and included no mention of any
problem with the plane.

James L.S. Chang, a China Airlines vice president, declined
to speculate on the cause of the crash, but he said it was
unusual.

``At such a high altitude, 35,000 feet, to have something
go wrong -- and the pilot didn't even have time to send a
distress signal. Now, that's a big question mark,'' Chang
said.

Near the crash site Sunday, the smell of fuel was thick in
the air and there was a rainbow-colored glimmer on the sea
from an oily slick as big as a football field.

Rescue officials said 78 bodies had been found. The
passengers included 190 Taiwanese, 14 people from Macau and
Hong Kong, nine Chinese citizens, one Singaporean and one
Swiss citizen.

The Boeing 747-200 had been flying for 22 years, and China
Airlines was to remove it from its fleet next month and
deliver it to the small regional carrier Orient Thai
Airline, which had already purchased the aircraft, China
Airlines said.

China Airlines said the plane was well-maintained and had
been completely overhauled last year.

Suspicions that an in-flight explosion caused the crash
were fueled by debris found in rice fields in Taiwan's west
coast county of Changhua, near the plane's flight path.

Farmers found scraps of airline magazines, immigration
forms and luggage claim stickers with ``Flight CI611''
printed on them. They also found a China Airlines seat
cover that appeared to be stained with blood.

In Penghu, Chang Shing-yeu, the director of a coast guard
helicopter squadron, said pilots spotted the plane's cabin
door, a wheel and what appeared to be part of the belly.

More than 400 rescue workers, 22 coast guard boats and two
helicopters were searching for bodies and the plane, said
Chang Cheh-chin, deputy director of a Penghu-based coast
guard unit.

He said pilots had seen ``mostly flotsam, chairs and life
preservers that have floated to the surface.''

Soldiers unloaded corpses in gray body bags from a large
coast guard vessel. Nearby, 40 rescue workers in red suits
unpacked high-tech search equipment, including
remote-controlled underwater cameras. Others laid out lines
of thick rope for pulling up wreckage.

Troops were placing the debris, including seats and a sink
from the aircraft restroom, in a roped-off area.

After a series of crashes in the 1990s, China Airlines
became known for having one of the world's worst airline
safety records -- 12 deadly accidents since 1969.

The airline's last fatal crash was in 1999, when a jetliner
flipped over and burst into flames, killing three people
during a crash landing in Hong Kong.

In recent years, China Airlines has been aggressively
retraining pilots and revamping its safety procedures.

The company published a half-page ad in Taiwan's major
Chinese-language papers, apologizing for the crash in
large, bold Chinese characters.

The apology, signed by the company's chairman, Y.L. Lee,
said: ``We want to express our deepest regrets to the
victims' families and the public. We will do our best to
help the families to recover.''

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Taiwan-Plane-Crash.html?ex=1023433082&ei=1&en=fdb351380f330067



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