Cause Of Airliner Crash Unsolved

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31501, 16 October 1967, Page 13

Cause Of Airliner Crash Unsolved

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) ATHENS, Oct 15. Two days of investigations have produced no clues as to why a British airliner crashed into the Mediterranean off Turkey on Thursday, a British airline official said yesterday. Captain William Baillie,

who Is heading an investigating team for British European Airways on Rhodes, said autopsies on the bodies of some of the 66 victims and the recovery of parts of the Comet airliner might reveal the cause, but that this process could take three months.

The plane, flying from London to Nicosia, Cyprus, with a stop in Athens, plunged into the sea from a cruising altitude of 29,000 ft, eight minutes after the pilot was in contact with the Nicosia air tower. His last message did not indicate that there was any trouble.

Captain Baillie said this timing was determined by the fact that the wrist watches of the passengers all stopped at 5.25 a.m.

He said, however, there were indications that persons on the plane became aware of some kind of trouble because they had managed to put on life jackets. They apparently were killed by the sharp impact of the plane on the water, he said. So far 51 bodies have been recovered from a 16-mile area.

For Sale.—The Al Capone house at Miami Beach is for sale. With it, if the purchaser wants to keep him, will go the caretaker since the Capone era, 74-year-old Daniel Brown.—New Yorjt, October 15.