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CNN Saturday Morning News
Body Recovered at China Airlines Jet Crash
Aired May 25, 2002 - 08:05 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: Well, now the details on that crash of a China Airlines jet with 225 people on board. So far, only one body has been recovered.
CNN's Mike Chinoy joins us now by phone from Hong Kong to tell us more -- hello, Mike.
What can you tell us?
MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello.
Well, the plane crashed about, not quite five hours ago. It was en route from Taipei to Hong Kong, one of the busiest air routes in Asia. China Airlines, the national carrier of Taiwan. The plane was a Boeing 747-200, built in 1979, one of the oldest planes in the fleet. China Airlines officials here in Hong Kong saying it was due to be retired soon.
The reports we are getting from China Airlines officials and government officials are that there was no distress signal from the pilot. The plane was at its normal cruising altitude of 35,000 feet when it suddenly disappeared from the radar screen and went down in the sea near the Penghu Island group, a small group of islands about 30 miles off the western coast of Taiwan.
Military search planes and helicopters are now circling the area and there are no reports of any survivors at this point. There is no word at all on what may have caused the crash. Local Taiwan TV stations are quoting farmers in an area some, on Taiwan itself as saying they've seen some bits of debris on the ground, raising the possibility of a midair explosion. But Taiwan government officials are quoted at this point as discounting that possibility.
China Airlines has one of the worst safety records of any airline in the world. There have been several major fatal crashes in the past decade. The last crash was actually here in Hong Kong a couple of years ago, a plane flipping over while making a landing in a typhoon.
In the last couple of years, the airline has reshuffled its management and undertaken a major effort to improve safety standards, but it had a near miss with a jet taking off at Anchorage Airport nearly running into a barrier and crashing in January. And serious concerns do exist among aviation analysts about training and safety for China Airlines. An investigation is under way at this point here in Hong Kong. Relatives are at the airport in a state of shock and grief, relatives who'd gathered waiting for their loved ones to arrive. China Airlines apologizing for the accident, saying it will do everything it can to cooperate with investigators to find out what caused it -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Mike Chinoy, live from Hong Kong. Thank you.
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