Jet Probers Study Parts of Fuselage : Investigators Seek Cause of Blowout; Ocean Searched for Victims, Debris

Federal investigators began an inch-by-inch inspection Saturday of the fuselage around a truck-sized hole that ripped in the side of a United Airlines Boeing 747 near Hawaii and hurled nine passengers to their deaths from more than 20,000 feet.

Searchers crisscrossed the Pacific Ocean but found no bodies.

“We’re looking hopefully for survivors,” Coast Guard spokesman Keith Spangler said. “But, you know, a normal human being just can’t last that long, even in 70-degree waters. Plus they fell 22,000 feet.” If anyone lived through the fall, Spangler said, chances for survival were slim. He said the sea was infested with sharks.

At least one of the victims was sucked into the whirling blades of a jet engine. A medical examiner found “multiple small body parts” inside.

Search for Clues

The investigators, headed by Lee Dickinson, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, were trying to find out why one cargo door and a large part of the 747 fuselage came apart early Friday as United Flight 811 climbed away from Honolulu International Airport and turned toward Aukland, New Zealand, carrying 357 people.

A hundred miles south of Hawaii, the door and a section of metal above it tore out of the fuselage and the jumbo jet decompressed. In addition to the passengers who were sucked out, 27 others, including several crew members, were hurt by flying debris. Two engines failed, and pilot David Cronin returned and landed the jet like a lead sled--hard but safely.

It was the third in a recent series of structural failures on Boeing planes. Last April, the top of a 737 peeled off during an Aloha Airlines flight from Hilo to Honolulu, killing an attendant and hurting 61 others. In December, an Eastern Airlines 727 was forced down in West Virginia after a 14-inch hole opened its fuselage. Nobody was hurt.

Dickinson said his 16-member team would investigate every possibility to determine the cause of the latest accident. “All doors are completely wide open,” he added.

But he said his experts would pay particular attention to the cargo door and its locking mechanisms--and the aircraft cargo area. By nightfall Saturday, the Coast Guard had not recovered the door, and Dickinson said the chances of finding it diminish with each passing hour. He said the door was one thing investigators would especially like to see.

Last year, the Federal Aviation Administration called the attention of airlines operating 747s to an instance in which a cargo door opened partially in flight. It said this could “result in rapid decompression of the airplane.” The FAA ordered the airlines to reinforce cargo door locks with steel plates.

The agency gave the airlines until next Dec. 31 to complete the modification.

When asked Saturday whether locks had been reinforced on the United jet, Russell Mack, the airline’s vice president of corporate communications, said the modification had been made on six of the 25 United 747s in the same model series. But Mack added: “This plane had not been done.”

Pilot Hailed as Hero

Other members of Dickinson’s team will talk to flight crew members, including Cronin, a 34-year veteran pilot whom United hailed as a hero for bringing the severely damaged jet and its 348 remaining occupants down safely.

Despite its damage and the lack of power from two of its four engines, Cronin landed the aircraft with nothing more than a hard jolt--and some ruptured tires.

The first officer was G. A. (Al) Slater. R. M. (Mark) Thomas was the second officer. All three men are based in the Los Angeles area.

The flight had 15 attendants, credited by passengers with maintaining calm on the plane. The attendants are based in Honolulu.

Some investigators have been assigned to document survival factors: the type, severity and cause of the injuries sustained; how the cabin flew apart, and rescue efforts on the ground. Still others will study the plane’s maintenance records. Others will check its engines. And another group will review the contents of its cockpit voice and flight data recorders.

Dickinson said neither he nor any members of his team will try to offer any explanation shedding light on the accident for several weeks. “We will not be making any causal determinations while we are here on scene . . . “ he said. “But (eventually) we will figure out what happened and why.”

Other aviation experts also were focusing attention on the cargo door, its locks and surrounding structure. Although representatives of Pratt & Whitney, which made the engines on the jet, are aiding the investigation, experts say its two engine failures are probably the result of foreign-object ingestion from the fuselage blowout.

It is unlikely, these experts said, that the engine failures caused the accident.

The FBI also was assisting in the investigation.

Special Agent Harlan Frymire said the bureau was looking into “several calls claiming responsibility” for the disaster.

But he said such calls are typical after a spectacular incident.

None of the calls “dovetailed” with other information authorities had, Frymire said.

Interviews Completed

He said agents had finished interviewing all passengers, crew members and other airline employes with access to the plane--such as baggage handlers--and had found “no irregularities.”

No one who was supposed to have boarded Flight 811 in Honolulu failed to do so and hence might be responsible for bombing the plane, he said.

However, he added: “We still consider the cause to be undetermined.”

Meanwhile, the Navy and Coast Guard almost doubled their search area to cover 3,000 square miles of the Pacific.

A Coast Guard cutter recovered “what appeared to be part of the fuselage” Friday night, spokesman Spangler said. The 4-by-6-foot piece of metal was turned over to investigators, along with several smaller pieces of debris. A Navy helicopter reported spotting what appeared to be a luggage rack Saturday morning.

Spangler said most of the debris was spotted in the open water 88 miles south-southwest of Honolulu Harbor.

“Anything that’s floating, we’re picking up,” he said.

Searchers speculated that large pieces of debris probably sank in the 15,000-foot-deep ocean.

Spangler said three helicopters, two planes and four vessels would continue combing the sea until nightfall, then decide whether to resume at daybreak.

Hospitals in Honolulu reported treating 27 people, mostly for minor injuries. Five remained hospitalized Saturday.

After leaving the plane, 200 passengers boarded other flights. Those who did not want to continue were put up in hotels.

The nine passengers missing and presumed dead were identified as: Anthony and Barbara Fallon of Long Beach, Calif.; Harry and Susan Craig of Morristown, N.J.; Rose Harley of Hackensack, N.J.; Mary T. Handley of Bay City, Mich.; Lee Campbell of Wellington, New Zealand, and Dr. John Michael Crawford and John Swann, both of Sydney, Australia.

All had been seated in the business-class section of the plane.

United towed the damaged 747 to Hickam Air Force Base, adjacent to Honolulu International Airport, and concealed it from public view.

The jumbo jet is 18 years and three months old. After 20 years of service, Boeing says, its jets need increased inspections and repairs because they crack more frequently.

Other Incidents Listed

Here, compiled by the Associated Press, are recent incidents involving airliner aging and metal fatigue:

--Jan. 20, 1989. A Piedmont Airlines 737 dropped an engine shortly after takeoff from Chicago. None of three passengers and crew were injured and the plane landed safely. The aircraft was seven years old, but authorities blamed metal fatigue and a cracked bolt.

--Sept. 21, 1988. An American Airlines 727 made a belly landing at Dallas-Ft. Worth after metal fatigue in its landing gear prevented the pilot from opening the wheel well door. The 88 passengers and crew evacuated with three people injured. Boeing had recommended inspections eight days earlier after finding metal fatigue in the same area in other 727s.

--May 9, 1988. A 20-year-old American Airlines 727 was forced to make an unscheduled landing at Detroit after a 15-inch crack in a wheel well caused a drop in cabin pressure. None of the 112 aboard were injured.

--Dec. 5, 1987. An engine fell off a USAir 737 in Philadelphia, causing no injuries. The FAA ordered inspection of engine-mount bolts on some 737s.

Staff writers Tamara Jones, Patt Morrison and Ron Harris in Hawaii contributed to this story.