Crashed Plane's Black Boxes Cannot Be Retrieved Immediately: Official

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, May 27, 2002

Crashed Plane's Black Boxes Cannot Be Retrieved Immediately: Official

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Searching staff have found the position of the black boxes of the crashed Taiwan plane, but they cannot be retrieved unless all the vehicle engines nearby were turned off, according to reports from Taipei.

The cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder, also known as black boxes, were temporarily located at 11933' east longitude, 2352' north altitude, 50 to 60 meters deep in the sea,north of Mudou Islet in the Taiwan Strait, the reports said.

A minesweeper has left Kaohsiung for the accident area to help retrieve the black boxes, said Lin Ling-shan, top official in charge of Taiwan's transportation and communications.

He said the electric power of the black boxes can last 30 days,so they must be retrieved as soon as possible but the priority nowis searching for bodies of the victims.

The search and rescue work, involving 3,000 people and dozens of air and sea vehicles, has been going on since China Airlines Hong Kong-bound Flight CI611 was found crashed into the Taiwan Strait around 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

All the 225 aboard are feared to have been killed.

Eighty bodies have been pulled from the sea so far. Most of them suffered serious fracture, but with intact appearance and without signs of being burned, the reports said.

Military radars had discovered that the aircraft was flying in an abnormal direction and at an abnormal speed between 3:28 p.m. and 3:32 p.m., and that it was flying at an altitude of 31,000 feet when it disappeared from military radar screens at 3:32:19 p.m.

In his last conversation with the flight control tower at 3:16:30 p.m., the pilot reported that the aircraft was flying at a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet, said Kay Yong, executive director of Taiwan's aviation safety council.

Yong said the conversation indicated that the aircraft was not in distress at that time. A recording of the conversation was madeavailable to the press Sunday afternoon.

Yong said that it is improbable to find out what happened to the aircraft during the 12 minutes before it disappeared from radar screens unless the "black boxes" are found.

Yong also said that the plane suffered inflight breakup above an altitude of 30,000 feet (9,100 meters) and broke into four large parts.

The bulk of the wreckage has been found in the waters of the Taiwan Strait north of the Penghu Islands, about 50 kilometers west of the main island of Taiwan.

Debris from the aircraft including pages of magazines, documents, money and a blood-stained pillow case have been found by residents in villages as far away as central Taiwan.

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Wrap-up: 83 Bodies Recovered in Taiwan Air Crash

Family Members of Mainland Victims of Air Crash to Go to Taiwan

Reason for Taiwan Plane Crash Not Determined

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