Korean jet exploded in mid-air?

Press, 2 December 1987, Page 10

Korean jet exploded in mid-air?

NZPA-Reuter Kanchanaburi A South Korean airliner which went missing as it approached Bangkok Airport may have blown up in the air, a Thai Government Minister said yesterday. The communications Minister, Banharn Silpa Archa, said in Bangkok it was still not sure whether the Korean Air Boeing 707 with 115 people aboard fell on Thai or Burmese territory or over the Andaman Sea. In Seoul, an airline spokesman said a bomb was the most likely cause of Sunday’s crash.

Mr Banharn told reporters: "(The plane) may have exploded in mid-air while it was flying at about 30,000 ft, causing it to disintegrate into small pieces (and) making it hard to find the scattered fragments.” In Seoul, a K.A.L. spokesman said , the plane appeared to have blown up in flight. He told, reporters the airline could not think of any other reason for the crash. “We have considered many possible causes but by all indications bomb explosion is the most probable cause of the incident,” the spokesman said.

“The plane was equipped with four engines and advanced communications systems and any technical troubles must have been signalled,” he said. “Only a sudden terrorist attack such as a bomb blast could be a viable explanation.”

The K.A.L. spokesman said no-one had claimed responsibility for any bomb attack that could have caused the crash.

“But we have ko groups in mind that might have planned terrorist attacks,” he said. “North Korea always wants to sabotage our country and the Red Army urban guerrilla group was reportedly planning to dis-

rupt the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.” He spoke as security forces searched junglecovered mountains in western Thailand for 'the third day for traces of the airliner.

Thai and Korean investigators admitted they had no clear idea what had happened to the plane, which was bn a flight from Bagdad to SeouL Thai aviation officials have said, the pilot’s last radio message said he was on course for Bangkok and expected to land in about 40 minutes. There was no further message. A Korean ~ Embassy spokesman, Seong Eon Lee, said there was only a “slim chance” of a mechanical problem. ?■ “If there had been a mechanical problem, the pilot would have had time to warn the control tower,” he said. A South Korean investigator was more cautious. “We have no news about anything. We just don’t know. We’re not discounting anything, including sabotage or an accident,” said Peter Hyun, a member of the K.A.L. investigating team. j K.A.L.’s chairman, Cho Choong Hoon, and other airline officials overseeing the search from Kanchanaburi were taken on a helicopter flight over the jagged, forested hills along the Burmese border where the Thai search was concentrated.