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Officials Still Trying to Determine Cause of Crash Over Germany

Aired July 02, 2002 - 14:03   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour in Germany, where the wreckage of two planes lies smoldering on the ground. Germern -- German, rather, officials fear that there are no survivors from last night's collision high above Ueberlingen, Germany.

CNN's Alessio Vinci is there now, and he joins us live -- Alessio.

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello Kyra.

Well, the massive recovery operation which began yesterday, last night, shortly after the two planes collided will temporarily be suspended here in the next hour or so when it will be too dark for investigators and rescue officials to sift through the debris.

We already know -- they have already said earlier today that they do not hope or think that they will find any more -- or any survivors at the crash site.

You may see here behind me some of the fire workers whose are returning from the site where they spent a good part of their day.

Now, the rescue operation will, indeed, resume tomorrow at first light.

Now, Germany recovery officials are searching through a huge area: some 20 square miles, more than 30 square kilometers. And so far they have recovered more than 26 bodies. And they do confirm the number of the dead: 71. Two of them were the pilot and the copilot of the Boeing 757 owned by the freight company DHL. The other 69 were onboard of a Russian Tupolev owned by Bashkirian Airlines. Twelve crewmembers, five adults; and the rest, unfortunately, a tragedy within a tragedy, 50 or more young children. Mostly age -- between 12 and 18 on a vacation trip from Russia to Barcelona in Spain. A trip that ended, of course, tragically.

Now, if you look at the pictures here that were shot yesterday by an amateur cameraman shortly after the debris of the two planes came raining down on this small little town in Southern Germany, one can understand why German officials are saying that it was a miracle that nobody on the ground was actually killed by the falling debris.

From what I understand -- we heard some eyewitnesses saying there was a huge, loud bang, almost like an earthquake. They smelled -- the intense heat and the smelling of the burning fuel. They said that for quite a bit of time down there it was really a raging inferno.

Now, of course, besides the recovery there's also an investigate going on, trying to give some answers on how all this has happened. There was no firm or official statement yet about how -- what may have happened.

We do know from Swiss air traffic controllers that they did try to ascend at least two signals, two warnings to the Russian Tupolev, saying that he was flying on a collision course with the Boeing 757. But, of course, according to those officials, those warnings were not heard, or at least the Tupolev did not respond to them.

And, of course, the question is: How could this happen when both planes, according to both DHL and Bashkirian officials, had the so- called transponder, which is a special device which not only identifies the planes and locates the planes, but also gives a warning to both the pilots and the air traffic controllers that the planes are on a collision course.

And, of course, those devices now -- the black boxes have been found. The two black boxes have been found of both planes. The recorder devices, only that one of the Russian plane has been found. Investigators here, both U.S., German and Russian investigators hope that when they analyze the content of those boxes, perhaps some answers will be able to be found, given as to why those two planes in the middle of the night, in a clear sky, empty skies, collided with each other.

Back to you Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Alessio, I understand the debris field spreads out for miles. How is this impacting the investigation at this time?

VINCI: Well, of course the larger the site, the more difficult it is to find not only those boxes and those recording devices, but also any clues that would give investigators an idea about what exactly has happened.

I mean, there is no doubt that those two planes came down because they crashed into each other. But, of course, investigators would like to find out

(AUDIO GAP)

VINCI: Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Alessio Vinci live from the site there.

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