Crash survivors sought

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33635, 10 September 1974, Page 17

Crash survivors sought

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)" ATHENS, September 9. A small armada of ships and planes scoured the lonian Sea today for survivors of a Trans World Airlines Boeing 707 which crashed yesterday with 88 people, including one Australian, on board. The plane was on a scheduled flight from Tel Aviv to New York through Athens and Rome when, 30 minutes out of the Greek capital, the pilot issued a distress signal. Athens radio said that the pilot reported that one of the plane’s four engines was on

fire and he was heading for Corfu. Adverse weather forced him to attempt a forced landing at sea, the radio said. The Ministry of Merchant Marine has instructed ships to seek the flight recorder which could yield the cause of the crash. Civil aviation officials said that they could not comment on the , possibility of sabotage—a Palestinian youth group reported to have claimed rei sponsibility for the crash— I until the box was found, i The plane had 79 passen- > gers—many of them Ameri- : cans—and a crew of nine on i board. A complete passenger list was expected later today, : after the next of kin have ! been informed. i The Minister of Merchant

I Marine said that witnesses .reported seeing the plane plummeting into the sea with one of the engines on fire.

The plane crashed some 60 miles west of the lonian island of Cephalonia. The first wreckage and bodies were sighted at noon yesterday, and 12 hours later, rescuers had recovered 35 bodies, the Ministry said.

Several hours after the illfated jet went down, a radio station in France said that a group called the Organisation of Arab Nationalist Youth for the Liberation of Palestine told the French news agency, A.F.P., that they had planted a bomb on board. Civil aviation officials said that the plane was searched before take-off from Athens,

>and it was unlikely that a ibomb had been planted there (or in Tel Aviv. i The Greek destroyer [Navarino today headed nine ships seeking wreckage or survivors. Two special aircraft and Greek Air Force helicopters have joined the [hunt, but hopes of finding survivors are fading. During its stop in Athens, 30 passengers—2o Americans, seven Greeks, two Libyans and one Chilean—boarded the plane. A T.W.A. spokesman said that most of the passengers who boarded the plane in Tel Aviv were (Americans and Japanese re [turning from holidays in Israel. The Greek Civil Aviation [Department has ordered (searchers to recover all (wreckage which could be pieced together to shed some light on the disaster.

Although sabotage appears to be excluded by officials in Athens, Rome, and Tel Aviv, the airline has been the target of Arab commandos in the past. In December, 1969, three (Lebanese commandos, one 'of them a woman, made an (unsuccessful attempt to hijack a T.W.A. jet on the same Tel Aviv-New York run. The armed trio was arrested while boarding the plane in Athens.