NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, February 8, 1996
7A
No survivors found in wreckage of charter plane in Caribbean Sea
The Associated Press
PUERTO FLATA, Dominican Republic — Working among sharks and floating debris, rescuers in inflatable rafts pulled more than 100 bodies from the deep blue waters of the Atlantic yesterday after a chartered jet loaded with German tourists crashed with 189 people aboard.
There were no signs of survivors and the cause of the crash was unknown.
The Boeing 757 was carrying the tourists home from the Caribbean on Tuesday night when it crashed about 12 miles northeast of this oceanside resort.
An air and sea search by the U.S. Coast Guard and Dominican military yesterday turned up only empty life rafts and debris from the aircraft.
Knight-Ridder Tribune
At least 105 bodies were recovered, Coast Guard officials said.
"There's a lot of debris. ... You can see at least 50 bodies floating. It doesn't look like anybody would have survived that," said Coast Guard helicopter pilot Scott Matthews.
Boeing representative Dick Kenny said the plane — the second Boeing 757 to crash — was built in 1985. An American Airlines Boeing 757 crashed Dec. 20 as it approached Call, Colombia, killing 160 people.
Boeing 757 crash
Dominique Alain Nationaliste
Airlift ALW 803 on route to
Frankfurt via Berlin crashed
Flight 301, operated by a Dominican airline, took off from the Puerto Plata International Airport about 11:45 p.m. (9:45 p.m. CST) Tuesday in a light rain. It reached an altitude of 7,000 feet and appeared on radar screens to veer right, as if turning back, before going down, Dominican officials said.
Gen. Hector Roman, director of the Dominican Republic's civil aviation agency, said the pilot radiocded that he was returning to Puerto Plata, and the last message from the crew was, "Stand by."
Roman's account, however, was disputed by an air traffic controller on duty in the tower yesterday, and by Maj. Alan Arias Batlle, part of a committee assigned by the country's Civil Aeronautics Office to investigate the crash.
"He just called in to air traffic controllers his position and then the aircraft disappeared from the screen," said the controller, who refused to give his name.
"All the communication was normal," Arias Battle said. "In no moment did they speak of an emergency."
Bound for Frankfurt and Berlin, the plane was owned by a Turkish company, Birgenair, and leased to the Dominican airline.
Tour operator Vural Oeger of 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. He said Alas had only those two aircraft in service.
Rosamarie Meichsner, a representative for Schoenefeld airport in Berlin, gave a conflicting account.
She said the planes had been switched because the flight was underbooked for a 767, which holds about 300 people. The 757 holds 224 passengers.
The plane carried 176 passengers, including four children and 13 crew members. Most of the passengers were German tourists, although 11 crew members were Turkish and two were Dominican.
Aircraft from the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy and the Dominican military flew toow over the crash site yesterday, directing rescue workers in inflatable boats to bodies. Volunteer boaters from Puerto Plata and nearby towns joined the search for survivors as rain squalls in the morning gave way to calm seas.
The bodies were taken to a makeshift morgue at Puerto Plata, protected by heavily armed Dominican guards.
Sharks in the crash area prevented divers from entering the water, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Timothy Lavier in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In addition, the water's depth — about 4,300 feet — makes scuba diving almost impossible, he said.
The U.S. Navy has offered a dive team to try to retrieve the aircraft's flight data and cockpit voice recorders, he said.
Dominican Air Force Col. Manuel Mendez Segura said Dominican investigators speculated that the plane struck the water nose down.
"It's a relatively new aircraft, and I believe it did not have prior mechanical problems." Mendez Senura said.
The German Transportation Ministry said it might start an investigation into the airline Alas.
The plane didn't have a permit to land in Germany because Alas never asked for one, the ministry said. Tour operator Oeger said that no landing permit was needed when a plane was substituted at short notice.
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