Hopes for S.A.A. crash victims fade

Press, 1 December 1987, Page 10

Hopes for S.A.A. crash victims fade

NZPA-Reuter Johannesburg With debris scattered over more than 50 square miles of the Indian Ocean, hope has almost died of finding any survivors from a South African Boeing 747 that crashed on Saturday with 160 people aboard.

Five mangled corpses, including one mutilated by sharks, were found on Sunday by ships and aircraft combing waters northeast of Mauritius where the South African Airways (S.A.A.) jumbo jet went down just 10 minutes before it was due to land. Heavy swells and sea currents are carrying the few floating fragments of the airliner away from the island, where an International rescue effort is being co-ordinated, said witnesses who flew over

the crash site. “It’s getting very desperate but we must not lose hope,” Viv Lewis, the deputy general manager of S.A.A., told reporters in Mauritius when asked if anyone could have survived. “We will continue with the search until we are certain that there is no further sign of life.” The , airliner, whose pilot reported -smoke in the flight cabin minutes before it crashed, plunged into 3600 m of Water. Ex-

perts questioned whether the flight recorders monitoring the aircraft’s last minutes could be recovered. Mr Lewis said no signal had been detected from the recorders, which are designed to transmit for about 30 days, but stressed that the airline had plans to retrieve the devices. S.A.A.’s chief executive, Gert van der Veer, said on television on Sunday night that S.A.A. had asked for a United States team of experts to help

retrieve the recorders. He said American pathologists were on their way to help identify bodies from the wreck. He said the wreckage found so far indicated that the aircraft had broken up on impact with the water. S.A.A. has been given permission by Mauritius for South African Navy and Air Force units to join the search, which so far has been conducted by ships and aircraft from France, the United States, Australia and Mauritius.