Saw Jetliner Explode Before Fatal Plunge, Captain of Ship Says

As helicopters and ships crisscrossed the ocean off Ireland in search of more bodies from the Air India explosion and crash that killed 329, the captain of a Panamanian ship reported that he saw the jet explode near its rear fuselage and turn over twice before its fatal plunge, officials said.

A spokesman for a Spanish maritime radio organization said a radio monitor heard a conversation between the captain of a Panamanian ship and his company in London about the time the jetliner vanished Sunday.

The spokesman, Jesus Ferreiro of Radio Onda Pesquera, said Esteban Fraile, captain of a container ship, described seeing the Boeing 747 fly above him and then watching “what he said was the rear part of the plane” explode. Fraile said the plane then rolled over twice and fell six miles into the sea.

Fraile, who was situated about 10 miles from where the plane fell into the ocean, radioed an alarm to London and then headed toward the wreckage. Ferreiro said that the conversation was not recorded and that the Panamanian ship’s location today was not known.

Air India Flight 182, was on a flight from Toronto to India via London when it dropped off radar screens at 31,000 feet and plunged into the ocean off the coast of Ireland. All 329 people aboard were killed, and authorities suspect that a terrorist bomb caused the disaster.

198 Bodies Missing

Officials said today they hope that the recovered bodies and the flight data recorders will reveal the cause of the worst plane disaster ever at sea.

Rescuers recovered another body today to bring the total plucked from the water to 131. The bodies of 198 people remained missing, and one official said, “There are no more bodies out there now,” indicating that they probably sank. Divers also reported seeing many sharks in the area.

“The factors and circumstances seem to indicate an explosion in midair, but it’s difficult to say what caused it,” S. S. Sidhu, chief of a seven-man Indian investigating team, said in London on his way to Ireland.

“My team of experts will be looking at the facts and analyzing them,” Sidhu said. “We will be going first to the site as far as that is possible.”

Royal Air Force Flight Lt. Jim Woodburn, who is aiding in the search, said the wreckage “is now spread out over 20 miles.”

Inquiry ‘Will Take Time’

Irish Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald inspected the search-and-rescue operation at Cork, on the southern coast of Ireland, and visited the regional hospital where Irish pathologists began examining the bodies to help determine whether a bomb caused the disaster.

“Their work involves the examination of the possibility of criminal action,” he told reporters. “It will be meticulous and will take some time. That possibility cannot be ignored.”

British transport officials, at the request of India, chartered a survey ship with sophisticated electronic receivers to search for the jet’s two “black box” flight recorders. The vessel Guardian Locator was to head for the site Tuesday, and a mini-submarine was ready to pick up the recorders when they are located.

Officials said the boxes, actually painted bright orange for visibility, were thought to lie under 4,000 feet of water and would have recorded the last moments of the flight. The recorders should send out a directional beacon signal for about a month, they said.

Jumbo jet’s fatal plunge, Page 14.