- TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan
investigators said on Sunday they heard a series of unidentified sounds
in the cockpit recordings of a China Airlines jet that mysteriously broke
up in mid-air and crashed into the sea last month, killing 225 people.
-
- "Our initial judgement is that it is not a sound
from normal operation of the plane," Kay Yong, managing director of
Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council, who is also lead investigator for the
air disaster, told reporters.
-
- "I do not know what the sound is," he said.
-
- The recording raises more questions on an already mysterious
accident. Aviation experts have floated several theories for the crash,
including metal fatigue, an internal explosion, a mid-air collision or
a military accident.
-
- A team of experts including U.S. investigators from the
Boeing Co, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal
Aviation Administration had listened to the recordings dozens of times,
Yong said.
-
- He said the investigation was still in the fact-finding
stage and declined to comment on possible causes for the sounds.
-
- The recording was taken from one of two "black boxes"
recovered earlier this week from the submerged wreck of the Boeing 747-200
which crashed off the Taiwan-held islands of Penghu, or the Pescadores,
en route to Hong Kong.
-
- By Sunday, some 161 bodies, including that of the co-pilot,
had been recovered from the crash site and 153 identified.
-
- Investigators have said it might take more than a year
to determine the cause of the disaster -- China Airlines' fourth fatal
accident since 1994. Together, the accidents have claimed more than 650
lives.
-
- Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited
without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable
for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance
thereon. Copyright © 2002 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
|
