Cause of Crashed Taiwan Plane's Disintegration to Be Determined

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

Cause of Crashed Taiwan Plane's Disintegration to Be Determined

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Taiwan's aviation safety authorities said Monday they have still had no answer on what exactly caused the disintegration of the China Airlines flight CI611 which disappeared from radar screens Saturday at a high altitude, according to a report from Taipei.

Kay Yong, an aviation safety official, declined to speculate onwhat happened to the ill-fated aircraft before it broke apart in mid-air and plunged into the Taiwan Strait in pieces at around 3:40 p.m. Saturday.

Yong was quoted as saying that the reasons for the crash will have to be determined after the "black box" is found, adding that at the moment, the authorities do not exclude any possibilities regarding what caused the airplane to disintegrate.

He said all possible factors, including weather conditions, mechanical problems, external forces and human error, will be examined to help determine the cause.

In addition to relying on the "black box" information, investigators will also try to piece together, compare and doublecheck every piece of debris recovered from the plane crash to findout what happened, Yong noted.

Search-and-rescue sources from Penghu said that they have already located the position of the "black box" and that diving toretrieve the flight data recorder is expected to begin shortly, Yong noted.

The ill-fated flight, with 225 people aboard, disappeared from radar screens about 18.5 kilometers northwest of Penghu less than half an hour after it took off from Taiwan's international airportat 3:08 p.m. Saturday.

As of Monday noon, 83 bodies had been retrieved from the watersnear Penghu, and 50 of those have been identified by family members.

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