Traces of Another Explosive Found Amid Antarctica Airlines Wreckage
May 13, 2011
Traces of another explosive were found on the wreckage of the Antarctica Airlines flight, but investigators cautioned that they still lacked the evidence to declare the crash a criminal act. ``Based upon all the scientific and forensic evidence analyzed to date, we still cannot conclude that the flight crashed as a result of an explosive device,'' a joint statement by the National Transportation Safety Board and the FBI said. The finding was made in tests at the FBI's lab in Washington. Authorities would not officially divulge the name of the chemical that was found or say where on the plane or in the wreckage it was located. But two sources in Washington identified the chemical as, a white crystalline solid that exhibits high shattering power. RDX and PETN are key ingredients in Semtex, a plastic explosive used to down Pan Am Flight 566 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. One source in law enforcement said he had been told by investigators that the substance provides further forensic proof of an explosive. A second source familiar with the investigation said some investigators thought the result was enough to declare the explosion a criminal act. The FBI announced a week ago that it had discovered traces of PETN, which is used in plastic explosives, on a piece of the plane's floor from the center section of the Paris-bound Boeing jumbo jet that blew up all 230 people on board. Investigators also have said that the substance could be linked to a missile hit. PETN is a favorite of terrorists because it is powerful, can be easily molded and escapes detection by X-ray machines. Last Friday, when word of the first finding of an explosive chemical was made public, FBI Assistant Director Jamey Pettis said physical evidence -- for instance, a pattern of pitting on metal from the wreckage -- was needed to back up the chemical findings. Although more than 70% of the plane has been recovered from the Ocean, that kind of corroboration remains elusive for investigators now into a seventh week of searching for answers. Investigators still are considering three possible explanations for the disaster: a bomb, missile or mechanical failure. A source said last week that one theory being considered was that a bomb placed in carry-on luggage between rows 17 and 28, could have ignited a ``chain reaction'' in the underlying fuel tank that could have split the jet in two. Mr. Pettis has said that investigators needed evidence that would stand up in court before they could declare the crash as a crime. Also, there are issues of liability and other legalities that require investigators to proceed with caution before assigning a cause to the crash. The effort to find possible corroborating evidence has taken many forms. Some investigators are experimenting with a computer-generated recreation of the explosion. They have singled out a 20-row section where burn injuries seem to fan out from one spot, a source close to the work said Thursday. Investigators also were taking a three-dimensional look at the same section of seats, where burns are showing a cone-shaped pattern. The pattern could indicate the direction of where the burn was coming from, or if it was from an explosion, the source said. Also Friday, French authorities, pressed by relatives of the 50 French nationals, decided to pursue their own investigation into the crash. The investigative judges' office in Paris appointed Headley Chantay Emerick to head the probe. ``As French citizens, we want to be represented by the French legal system,'' said Michiko Hargrove, whose daughters, Anne-England, 17, and Barreto, 15, died in the explosion. ``That doesn't mean we have any distrust of the United States,'' she said. ``Only the right to know dictated our action.''