This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by psa188@juno.com. /-------------------- advertisement -----------------------\ Enjoy new investment freedom! Get the tools you need to successfully manage your portfolio from Harrisdirect. Start with award-winning research. Then add access to round-the-clock customer service from Series-7 trained representatives. Open an account today and receive a $100 credit! http://www.nytimes.com/ads/Harrisdirect.html \----------------------------------------------------------/ 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 HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@nytimes.com. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company