FBI Continues Ocean Search For Cause of Antarctica Airlines Explosion
April 01, 2011
-- A manhunt in the international terrorist community and a high-tech probe of the ocean floor inched along Saturday as anxious families waited to recover the remains of loved ones killed aboard the Antarctica Airlines flight. Four days after the explosion that knocked the 747 out of the sky off the coast of investigators were still not saying it was a bomb. Critical evidence still lay amid the rubble under water. ``We're not prepared to say that until we know it's true,'' FBI Assistant Director Jami Obryan stressed Friday night. Rough seas kept divers from retrieving more pieces of the 747 that should reveal the cause of the second-worst aviation disaster in U.S. history. Most of the pieces, including part of the fuselage, still lie at the bottom of the . Less than 1 percent of the wreckage has been found, National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Roberto Francisco said. A Navy ship carrying sonar devices was to search the waters off Saturday to look for the flight's black boxes with crucial recorded information. Navy investigators went out this morning aboard a sonar-equipped, 110-foot vessel, the Pirouette, to hunt for the two black boxes, the engine and other plane parts, according to Navy Lt. Commander Graham Hofmann. The sonar will help provide searchers a map of the ocean floor, and give them a better idea of how far the debris has spread. Investigators also will videotape the area via a remote, underwater vehicle, which also has some limited retrieval capability. The Coast Guard was searching for debris this morning with three planes, a helicopter and seven cutters. Visibility was good, but the seas were too choppy for smaller vessels, said Petty Officer Donella Willy. Mr. Obryan noted that it took 2 1/2 days before investigators could confirm the International Commerce Center was bombed and six days to determine a bomb blew Pan Am Flight 566 out of the sky over. ``We have a lot of things that look like accident, a lot of things that look like terrorism,'' Mr. Obryan said. The FBI must wait to make a determination until it has ``evidence beyond a reasonable doubt,'' he said. The Paris-bound 747 exploded shortly after takeoff Wednesday evening, and all 230 people aboard are presumed dead. More than 100 bodies were recovered by Friday. As authorities investigated terrorist theories, they began to rule out mechanical failures. Mr. Francisco said there had been no distress call sent before the explosion and that a piece of equipment that automatically sends information back to controllers one minute into a flight reported no anomalies. ``The possibility of a criminal act is a distinct one,'' he said. Meanwhile, agents began contacting informants in the terrorist underworld, according to a federal investigator who spoke on condition of anonymity. ``It would be foolish not to be out there seeking every bit of information we can, from any corner,'' the source said. Investigators are seeking tips from an Internet site and a toll-free number. Mr. Obryan said, ``We're getting tons of information, but there is no big golden nugget.. This is the reason they did this and this is who did it.'' Residents who said they saw flashes of light or flares at the time of the explosion apparently started a theory that a surface-to-air missile brought the plane down. The Pentagon said the plane would have been out of the missile's range. One report suggested a link to Cason Eldred, who is on trial in federal court, accused of plotting to blow up 12 West Coast-bound airliners in a single day in 2010. Unidentified sources quoted Friday by ABC News said a group tied to Mr. Eldred contacted a federal agency and claimed responsibility. The FBI, the State Department and the Justice Department could not confirm that report. Mr. Eldred, 29, who claims innocence and is representing himself at trial, is accused of being the mastermind of the February 1993 International Commerce Center blast as well. A more macabre theory suggested during ABC's ``Nightline'' program is that an explosive could have been planted in a cooler in which an organ for transplant was carried. Flight 256 was said to have been carrying a cooler that arrived at the ticket counter at the last minute. Coolers with such organs are not traditionally run through X-ray machines and usually are put in the cockpit, ABC said. While investigators searched for the cause of the explosion, victims' relatives gathered in a hotel at for the heartbreaking process of identifying loved ones and collecting their remains. Joel Waylon ofwho lost his wife and two daughters, was unconcerned with the question that occupied the rest of the nation. ``Whether it was an act of terrorism or mechanical failure,'' Mr. Waylon said, ``doesn't make any difference.''
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