REASON FOR CRASH

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27633, 14 April 1955, Page 13

REASON FOR CRASH

Sabotage Held Unlikely (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) HONG KONG. April 13. The Hong Kong Government said in an official statement issued today that the likelihood of sabotage in the Air India plane which crashed in the sea on Monday was “extremely remote.” The plane’s engineer, Mr A. S. Karnik, who survived the crash, said in a statement radioed to Royal Air Force headquarters in Singapore that the Constellation crashed because of a fire in the hydraulic fluid in the port wing. Mr Karnik said: “The aircraft crashed because of a hydraulic fire in the port wing. “The aircraft broke in three on hitting the water, the three bits being the cabin, the cockpit, and the tail. The cabin part sank immediately and two survivors, the first officer and the navigator, managed to escape from it. I got out of the tail.” A Hong Kong Government spokesman today confirmed that the British Charge d’Affaires in Peking warned the British authorities in Hong Kong of the Chinese Government’s suspicions of a plot to sabotage the Constellation. The spokesman said that as a result of the warning from Peking “we did take more than the usual precautions.” He added: “As soon as news of the plane’s crash was received we started investigations and are continuing investigations, but nothing abnormal has turned up so far.” The spokesman said there was nothing further tp be said at the moment.