Probers Planning to Raise Air-India Wreckage

Investigators plan to raise the wreckage of an Air-India jumbo jet that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in June off the Irish coast, killing all 329 people on board.

The wreckage, scattered over an area 4 1/2 miles long and 1 1/2 miles wide, could provide clues to the cause of the disaster, Henry Boycko, a spokesman for the Canadian Safety Board, said Thursday.

Boycko said film taken by submersible robots showed about 80% of the wreckage--including the cockpit--and a number of bodies lying on the ocean floor.

Canadian, Indian and American officials are formulating plans to raise the vital pieces of the wreck by mid-November, before “bad weather sets in,” he said.

The project is believed to be one of the deepest ocean salvage operations ever contemplated. The wreckage is lying on the ocean floor beneath a mile of water.