CAUSE OF CRASH STILL BAFFLING

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31004, 9 March 1966, Page 13

CAUSE OF CRASH STILL BAFFLING

(N’.Z. Press Association—Copyright) TOKYO. March 8. The flight recorder aboard the 8.0.A.C. 707 jetliner that crashed on the slopes of Mount Fuji on Saturday has not been found, the 8.0A.C. chairman, Sir Giles Guthrie, said today.

It was reported earlier that the recorder had been found. Si r Giles Guthrie also said that neither he nor 8.0.A.C. officials in Tokyo knew of any cause of structural failure for the Boeing’s crash.

In London, the British Aviation Minister, Mr Fred Mulley, said last night that preliminary investigations showed that the plane suffered structural failure before crashing. Sir Giles Guthrie’s statement was issued at a news conference in Tokyo through a 8.0.A.C. spokesman. The spokesman said he did not know who told Mr Mulley there had been a structural failure or how Mr Mulley knew it.

He said they had no knowledge of the cause of the crash. “No one in 8.0.A.C., including the chairman and ail the experts we brought from London, have any knowledge of the cause of the crash.” Not Found Meanwhile, aviation experts combed the wreckage in snow and icy winds for clues to the disaster that killed 124 persons. Concerning the flight recorder, Sir Giles Guthrie said: “The ‘black box’ which has been referred to in many factual and unconfirmed reports since the crash last Saturday, is in fact a yellowcoloured box which in this particular aircraft was seated in the forward part of the aircraft below the cabin floor near the flight deck. “It has not been found.” Autopsies already finished

on a Japanese stewardess and a British pilot. Bernard Dobson. showed that both died ' outright. I A Japanese aviation official said today the possibility of [an explosion in the luggage [compartment was one of four [ areas under investigation to I determine the cause of the (8.0.A.C. jetliner crash. I Juichi Narashashi, assistant chief of the Aviation Bureau's

flight service section, said preliminary investigation showed the other three possibilities to be air turbulence, an engine explosion or other faulty equipment aboard the plane. At the crash scene on the slopes of the sacred mountain, rain, sleet and heavy fog shrouded the wreckage and hampered the investigation.