SRI LANKA: SEARCH FOR WRECKAGE FROM WORLD'S SECOND WORST AIR CRASH BEGINS IN MOUNTAINOUS COUNTRY.
Record ID:
383692
SRI LANKA: SEARCH FOR WRECKAGE FROM WORLD'S SECOND WORST AIR CRASH BEGINS IN MOUNTAINOUS COUNTRY.
- Title: SRI LANKA: SEARCH FOR WRECKAGE FROM WORLD'S SECOND WORST AIR CRASH BEGINS IN MOUNTAINOUS COUNTRY.
- Date: 7th December 1974
- Summary: 1. SV People looking up to scene of crash on mountain 0.05 2. MV Sign 0.06 3. MCU Police and rescuers (2 shots) 0.13 4. MV Buses with rescuers drive off 0.18 5. MV & SV Traffic and rescuers (2 shots) 0.26 6. LV Helicopter flying over jungle terrain 0.30 7. SV Mountain 0.37 8. MV & CU People walk on mountain path (2 shots) 0.43 9. CU People carrying small pieces of wreckage 0.48 10. GROUND TO AIR Helicopter flies past 0.51 11. SV Elephant leads rescuers along path to mountain 0.58 Initials BB/1900 NC/DE/BB/1910 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 22nd December 1974 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NEAR ADAM'S PEAK, MASKELIYA CENTRAL SRI LANKA
- Country: Sri Lanka
- Reuters ID: LVA397ENZO8VWN73ADJUIEBW9IUL
- Story Text: Police, Army and Air Force personnel began the difficult task of searching for wreckage and bodies from the world's second worst aviation disaster which occurred on Wednesday night (4 December) in central Sri Lanka.
A Dutch-owned DC-8 crashed into a precipitous cliff on a 4,500 foot (1,500 metre) mountain. One hundred and ninety-one people died in the crash. Most were Indonesian Moslems who were flying to Mecca on a pilgrimage.
Police said they had found no whole bodies, only limbs, pieces of clothing and tufts of hair along with small pieces of wreckage from the aircraft.
The terrain is so rough that helicopters were unable to drop searchers near the crash scene.
Thousands of people converged on the area and pieces of the aircraft were found up to three miles (about five kilometres) from the crash site.
At one stage a trained elephant was used to clear a path through the jungle.
The searchers were concentrating on bringing out the remains of the passengers although recovery of the airliner's "black box" flight recorder was high on their list of priorities.
This records all vital functions on board the aircraft and could lead to an explanation of the crash, the cause of which is not yet known.
The aircraft crashed near a large tea plantation -- the Theberton Estate -- and officials were alerted by its Superintendent.
The world's worst aviation disaster occurred last March when 346 people were killed in the crash of a Turkish DC-10 near Paris.
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