WEATHER DELAYS PLANE INQUIRY

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31003, 8 March 1966, Page 17

WEATHER DELAYS PLANE INQUIRY

(N Z PA. Reuter —Copyright) TOKYO, March 7. Heavy rain and strong winds today forced a postponement of an intensive investigation into last Saturday’s crash of the 8.0.A.C. Boeing 707 jetliner into the slopes of Mount Fuji with the loss of all 124 people aboard.

Seven members of the 17 8.0.A.C. investigating team now in Tokyo left today for Gotemba, near the site of the disaster, to collect eyewitnesses’ ac- : counts, Transport Min- ' istry officials said. .Earlier, aviation experts dis- i closed that they had found j the key flight-recorder among the wreckage. The chairman of 8.0.A.C., Sir Giles Guthrie, who is head- ’ ing the investigation, said the ] instrument would be returned to London for careful study i by British aviation author!- i ties. i “We hope this black box i will give us a clue to solve

the mystery surrounding this terrible crash,” he said. Japanese officials say privately they believe either sabotage or violent winds around Mount Fuji’s peak shattered the huge jet’s tail assembly, and sent it spiralling 3000 ft into the mountain. A member of the United States Civil Aeronautics Board. Mr John G. Adams, flew into Tokyo today to assist in probing the causes of the three air crashes in Japan since February 4, when an All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 crashed into Tokyo bay killing all 133 persons aboard. Mr Adams said the board was greatly concerned because all three aircraft involved had been manufactured in the United States. At the same time Japanese

Civil Aviation Board officials said today they are not taking any action for the time being on whether to ban “bonus flights” around Mount Fuji. An official for the board said that both foreign and Japanese airline company aircraft could fly around Fuji only when weather conditions were perfect to give passengers a chance to have a close look at the mountain. Even before the crash, he said, permission to fly around Fuji was granted only when pilots could make visual flights i under perfect weather condi- ■ tions.