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CNN Live At Daybreak

Midair Collision Victims' Relatives Taken to Crash Site

Aired July 04, 2002 - 05:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Relatives of the Russian children killed in Monday's midair collision over Germany are being taken to the scene of the disaster. They have brought medical and dental records, as well as photos, to help identify the victims.

Our Stephanie Halasz joins us live by phone from Ueberlingen, Germany with more -- good morning.

STEPHANIE HALASZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol.

That's right, about two hours ago over 100 family members arrived on a special charter. They were taken by buses to attend a memorial service. Later today, they will have a chance to go to the crash site and lay flowers and perhaps gather a bit of soil from the crash site. Of course, very horrible and very difficult for them. There is a crisis intervention team here with psychologists that will care for them.

On other developments, the search mission continues for all of those bodies. Sixty-eight bodies of the 71 killed in that crash have been recovered by the police. Six hundred policemen are now searching for the remaining three bodies. They do not yet know where those are. Over 1,000 policemen are out this morning in various missions and at the German Federal Institute for Flight Safety, the data recorders are starting to be analyzed -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Any word on what's on the black boxes yet?

HALASZ: No. The German Federal Institute for Flight Safety, it's just much, much too early to, you know, to get that information. They're really just starting their work. Really, the questions here are arising for Sky Guide, the company that's handling for the Swiss Aviation Authority.

Of course, we know that only one man was on duty that night. The second man had gone on a break, on an unscheduled break. Also, we know that the early collision warning system, which is a special system that the Swiss have in place, was being maintenanced that night. Now, this is not unusual and that system has seen a fair bit of criticism.

Also this morning, we're hearing that, the Swiss are saying that in any case, the air space over Switzerland is very tight. Only 20 percent of it can be used for commercial purposes and the rest is blocked for the military -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, thanks for that update.

Stephanie joining us live by phone from Ueberlingen, Germany.

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