DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: BOEING 757 AIRCRAFT CRASH SITUATION UPDATE скачать в хорошем качестве

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: BOEING 757 AIRCRAFT CRASH SITUATION UPDATE

(8 Feb 1996) English/Nat The search for survivors of Tuesday's plane crash off the coast of the Dominican Republic had to be suspended after night fall. The plane carrying 189 people, mostly German tourists, had crashed shortly after takeoff from Puerto Plata International Airport. Coast guards had the gruesome task of pulling the dead from the shark-infested waters. At least 105 bodies have so far been discovered, and there is little hope for any survivors. The cause of the accident is not yet known. As night fell on the Caribbean island of the Dominican Republic, rescue workers had to interrupt their search for survivors. Working among sharks and floating debris, rescuers in inflatable rafts pulled more than 100 bodies from the deep blue waters of the Atlantic, after a chartered jet loaded with German tourists crashed just off the coast with 189 people aboard. There were no signs of survivors and the cause of the crash was still a mystery. The bodies were taken to a makeshift morgue at Puerto Plata, protected by heavily armed Dominican guards. The Boeing 757 was carrying the tourists home from the Caribbean on Tuesday night when it crashed about 12 miles (20 kilometres) off the coast into shark-infested waters. An air and sea search by the U.S. Coast Guard and Dominican military on Wednesday turned up only empty life rafts and debris from the aircraft. At least 105 bodies have so far been recovered, and there is little hope for survivors. SOUNDBITE: "At that time we saw about a mile and a half to two miles of debris, probably about 150 yards wide, just scattered bits of the aircraft. Question: What's the possibility that there could be survivors down there? You always hold out and hope that there's a survivor. We'll keep looking until the search is called off." SUPER CAPTION: Commander Barry Harner, U-S Coast Guard Flight 301, operated by a Dominican airline, Alas de Transporte Internacional, took off from the Puerto Plata International Airport about 11:45 p.m. Tuesday (0345 GMT Wednesday) in a light rain. Bound for Frankfurt and Berlin, the plane was owned by a Turkish company, Birgenair, and leased to the Dominican airline. The Hamburg-based Oeger Tours said the airline switched from a planned Boeing 767 to a Boeing 757 shortly before takeoff because the 767's hydraulic system was not functioning properly. A spokeswoman for Schoenefeld airport in Berlin, however, claimed that the planes had been switched because the flight was underbooked for the larger 767. The plane carried 176 passengers, including four children, and 13 crew members. Most of the passengers were German tourists, while 11 crew members were Turkish and two were Dominican. Aircraft from the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy and the Dominican military flew low over the crash site Wednesday, directing rescue workers in inflatable boats to bodies. Volunteers from Puerto Plata and nearby towns joined the search for survivors as rain squalls in the morning gave way to calm seas. Radar operators noted five minutes after takeoff that the plane had turned around and was headed back to land, said a spokesman for Dominican Republic's civil air agency. There had been no radio contact with the plane to indicate there was a problem, the last message from the plane being "Stand by". The type of aircraft involved in the crash, a Boeing 757, had had a spotless technical record until two months ago, when an American Airlines flight crashed shortly before landing in Colombia. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...