COLOMBIA: AUTHORITIES CONTINUE SEARCH OF AIR FRANCE CHARTERED PLANE WRECKAGE AFTER CRASH ON OUTSKIRTS OF BOGOTA

Record ID: 505972

  • Title: COLOMBIA: AUTHORITIES CONTINUE SEARCH OF AIR FRANCE CHARTERED PLANE WRECKAGE AFTER CRASH ON OUTSKIRTS OF BOGOTA
  • Date: 22nd April 1998
  • Summary: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA APRIL 21, 1998 (REUTERS) SLV/LV PLANE CRASH LOCATION AT MOUNTAIN (2 SHOTS) VARIOUS RESCUE AND CIVIL DEFENCE WORKERS AT CRASH SITE (3 SHOTS) SV/CU CIVIL AVIATION WORKERS CARRYING THE PLANE'S BLACK BOX (2 SHOTS) SV/CU AUTHORITIES AT THE SITE LOOKING AT DEBRIS (2 SHOTS) SLV MILITARY SOLDIERS AT THE SITE GV VIEW OF CITY OF BOGOTA, SOLDIERS STANDING ON E
  • Embargoed: 7th May 1998 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
  • Country: Colombia
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVAEI8H0D4GGNCMDLS8SPQUZV8R0
  • Story Text: Colombian authorities continued searching through the devastation left by a tragic plane crash in which all passengers died.Family members began arriving at the capital's airport looking for answers about their deceased relatives.

    Mangled limbs, charred possessions and a few family snapshots lay scattered among the still-smoldering wreckage of a Boeing 727 on Tuesday atop a wind-swept ridge overlooking Bogota.

    It was all that was left of the Quito-bound TAME jetliner that burst into flames when it plowed into peaks on the eastern edge of the capital Monday afternoon, killing all 43 passengers and 10 crew members aboard.

    The crash was Colombia's worst air disaster since December 1995 and close to the spot where another airliner went down in 1973.

    "The wreckage is spread across more than one kilometer (half-a-mile).There are body fragments everywhere," Luis Enrique Belano, the chief Red Cross official at the scene, told Reuters.

    "The plane hit the mountain and blew up immediately -- it was practically full of fuel," he added, as he surveyed the disaster site at an altitude of about 11,000 feet (3,400 metres).

    Scores of bright yellow life jackets dangled from the trees and a safety instruction sheet was wedged between two branches.But most of the passengers -- at least 27 of them thought to be Europeans -- would have had little time to read "What to do in case of emergency." The Ecuadoran military-operated TAME craft, leased to Air France, veered wildly off course and crashed just three minutes after taking off from Bogota's El Dorado airport.

    Among the scrubby grass and jagged rocks, a twisted foot poked out from underneath a tangled seat back.It was severed from its badly charred leg.

    A battered torso had fallen about four feet (one meter) away.A hand, sliced off at the wrist, lay near a deck of Air France playing cards -- the four of clubs backed by the seven of diamonds had fallen face up.

    A suitcase of multicolored ties, a doll whose plastic head had melted in the inferno and a soft toy burned almost beyond recognition were the final reminders of the victims.

    Halfway down a steep escarpment, a family photo showed two newborn babies in a hospital nursery.Higher up another photo of a smiling woman and child rested alongside a set of business cards -- "Ossi Marxer, Architect, Nestle".

    Marxer's nationality was not immediately available but he was certainly not the only businessman on board the doomed jetliner.Swede Bjorn Hornfeldet, regional director for Electrolux, also perished.

    Five of his company colleagues turned out at the crash site at first light armed with chain saws to help police carve out a heliport on the mountainside to allow human remains to be airlifted out.

    A team of some 30 members of the Red Cross, police, soldiers and investigators from the chief prosecutor's office began combing through the wreckage from first light.

    There are just bits of body left.It's horrible but it's a job and we've got to do it," one soldier said.

    Down at the base of the hill rescue workers ushered a black sedan with diplomatic license plates through a roadblock -- testimony to the high number of foreign victims.

    "This operation is very difficult because of the terrain...It could take one or two days to collect all the remains," Belano, of the Red Cross said.
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