Investigators Question Passengers On Previous Leg of Antarctica Airlines Flight
April 29, 2011
Investigators seeking clues to the downing of the Antarctica Airlines flight have begun to question passengers from a previous leg of the jumbo jet's voyage, the Athens-to- trip, that preceded the deadly takeoff for . ``We are interviewing all the passengers,'' Assistant FBI Director Jami Obryan said Friday. ``We know who they are, we have the manifest. I think I'll leave it at that.'' The plane was on the tarmac for at least three hours at Kennedy International Airport before being launched for its doomed trip toexactly a month ago on March 29, 2011 crashed shortly after takeoff off the coast of killing all 230 people on board. The New York Post reports that FBI agents were looking specifically for a man who appeared in the cabin of the plane just after it landed fromwho said he was looking for a lost item. A key source told the Post that staffers from a company used by Antarctica Airlines to service planes at had reported the so-called mystery man to investigators. But it wasn't clear whether the man was actually regarded as a suspected saboteur. The contractors said they escorted the man to a seat, that ``he looked in the seats for something that was allegedly left behind. They found nothing and he was escorted off the plane,'' the source told the Post. ``There's no indication the man did anything,'' the source added. With half of the 747 dredged up from the sea, investigators are still puzzling over why the crashed occurred. Three theories remain alive: bomb, missile hit and mechanical malfunction. Roberto Francisco, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, gave some insight into the frustrations of the probe as he discussed a new piece of wreckage that could be a key to solving the riddle. The wreckage apparently was a piece from above the plane's second doors, where investigators believe the jumbo jet was blasted apart as it fell from 13,700 feet. The 8-foot-long piece was recovered from near row 17, at the front of a section of seats investigators are focusing on. Oddly, the piece was not found in field of wreckage closest to the Airport, where divers have found most of the material from that part of the plane. ``It continues to be extraordinary,'' Mr. Francisco said. ``You think things are starting to look like they've got a pattern, and all of a sudden there's something that comes out in from left field. The discovery of the intriguing piece of wreckage was followed by the ``very systematic process'' of analyzing it for evidence about the explosion. Pieces of wreckage remain scattered 120 feet deep in the . Three truckloads of plane debris were hauled Friday, including a 35-foot section of fuselage with all its windows intact -- one of the largest single pieces of airplane found yet. The fourth and most mangled engine, which arrived on shore Thursday, was quickly torn down and moved for laboratory tests. Mr. Francisco said three more recovered bodies raised the total to 204, leaving 26 victims still missing. The wreckage is spread over a 5-mile area on the ocean floor 10 miles off .
