Colombia-Plane Crash
1-12-1995
^By ANDREW SELSKY=
^Associated Press Writer=
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) _ All around the wreckage of a DC-9 were mutilated bodies _ and a 9-year-old girl with just a broken arm, the only survivor of a crash that killed 52 people including her parents and younger brother.
Authorities are hoping Erika Delgado can help them find out what happened in the Wednesday night crash of the Intercontinental Aviation plane as it approached the Caribbean resort city of Cartagena.
Although an initial report said the plane exploded in the air _ raising painful memories of the 107 people who died when drug traffickers blew up a plane five years ago _ the report later was in doubt.
Civil Aviation Director Alvaro Raad Gomez said it would be "premature and irresponsible" to speculate on the cause of the crash.
The pilot of another plane told authorities he saw an explosion rip through the plane as it flew at 14,000 feet, Raad Gomez said. But authorities said when they sought details from the pilot, he no longer claimed to have seen an explosion.
"A few hours after saying he saw a mid-flight explosion, he did not stick to that story," said Civil Aviation assistant director Humberto Fonnegra. No explanation was given for why the unidentified pilot changed his story.
"We're discarding the idea that there was a mid-flight explosion," Fonnegra said. "If there had been an explosion that high, the plane would have come down in thousands of pieces, not two."
Police, soldiers, civil defense crews and local farmers recovered all 52 bodies by this morning, finding some by floodlights before dawn and the rest after the sun rose over the field. The bodies were loaded onto trucks and taken to a makeshift morgue at a sports arena in Cartagena, 10 miles from the crash site, media reports said.
"The scene at the disaster site is terrible," one of the farmers helping recover bodies told RCN radio. The farmer described a site strewn with decapitated and mutilated bodies.
"The girl seems to be the only survivor," said Raad Gomez. "She said she fell out of the plane when it broke up and fell into a swamp."
A witness on the ground said the plane hit the ground with an explosion. The pilot appeared to be attempting a crash landing in the swamp, Argemiro Vergara told RCN radio.
The young survivor was hospitalized with a broken arm and was reported in good condition today. Her parents and younger brother apparently died in the crash, but that information was kept from her temporarily to avoid shock.
Flight 2056 originated in Bogota, 380 miles south of Cartagena. All 53 people aboard were Colombian, authorities said.
The plane had been cleared to descend to 8,000 feet to prepare for landing Wednesday when air-traffic controllers lost contact at 7:36 p.m., said Alfonso Ramirez, the airline's president.
In a conversation with the tower minutes before the crash, the pilot gave no indication of an emergency, Ramirez said.
Navy divers were looking for the plane's voice recorder and flight data recorder in the 6-foot-deep swamp, Raad Gomez said.
In November 1989, an Avianca Boeing 727 leaving Bogota blew up minutes after takeoff, killing all 107 people aboard. Investigators blamed the Medellin cocaine cartel for a bomb that exploded near the plane's fuel tanks.
^By ANDREW SELSKY=
^Associated Press Writer=
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) _ All around the wreckage of a DC-9 were mutilated bodies _ and a 9-year-old girl with just a broken arm, the only survivor of a crash that killed 52 people including her parents and younger brother.
Authorities are hoping Erika Delgado can help them find out what happened in the Wednesday night crash of the Intercontinental Aviation plane as it approached the Caribbean resort city of Cartagena.
Although an initial report said the plane exploded in the air _ raising painful memories of the 107 people who died when drug traffickers blew up a plane five years ago _ the report later was in doubt.
Civil Aviation Director Alvaro Raad Gomez said it would be "premature and irresponsible" to speculate on the cause of the crash.
The pilot of another plane told authorities he saw an explosion rip through the plane as it flew at 14,000 feet, Raad Gomez said. But authorities said when they sought details from the pilot, he no longer claimed to have seen an explosion.
"A few hours after saying he saw a mid-flight explosion, he did not stick to that story," said Civil Aviation assistant director Humberto Fonnegra. No explanation was given for why the unidentified pilot changed his story.
"We're discarding the idea that there was a mid-flight explosion," Fonnegra said. "If there had been an explosion that high, the plane would have come down in thousands of pieces, not two."
Police, soldiers, civil defense crews and local farmers recovered all 52 bodies by this morning, finding some by floodlights before dawn and the rest after the sun rose over the field. The bodies were loaded onto trucks and taken to a makeshift morgue at a sports arena in Cartagena, 10 miles from the crash site, media reports said.
"The scene at the disaster site is terrible," one of the farmers helping recover bodies told RCN radio. The farmer described a site strewn with decapitated and mutilated bodies.
"The girl seems to be the only survivor," said Raad Gomez. "She said she fell out of the plane when it broke up and fell into a swamp."
A witness on the ground said the plane hit the ground with an explosion. The pilot appeared to be attempting a crash landing in the swamp, Argemiro Vergara told RCN radio.
The young survivor was hospitalized with a broken arm and was reported in good condition today. Her parents and younger brother apparently died in the crash, but that information was kept from her temporarily to avoid shock.
Flight 2056 originated in Bogota, 380 miles south of Cartagena. All 53 people aboard were Colombian, authorities said.
The plane had been cleared to descend to 8,000 feet to prepare for landing Wednesday when air-traffic controllers lost contact at 7:36 p.m., said Alfonso Ramirez, the airline's president.
In a conversation with the tower minutes before the crash, the pilot gave no indication of an emergency, Ramirez said.
Navy divers were looking for the plane's voice recorder and flight data recorder in the 6-foot-deep swamp, Raad Gomez said.
In November 1989, an Avianca Boeing 727 leaving Bogota blew up minutes after takeoff, killing all 107 people aboard. Investigators blamed the Medellin cocaine cartel for a bomb that exploded near the plane's fuel tanks.
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