NICHOLAS IONIDES / SINGAPORE
Investigators focus on one passenger as signs point to incendiary device setting off fire
Chinese investigators are focusing on sabotage by one of the passengers as a likely cause of the 7 May crash of a China Northern Airlines Boeing MD-82.
Industry sources in China say there was a raging fire in the cabin. Indications are that an "incendiary device" might have caused it. The sources say the blaze broke out "two or three" rows from the rear of the aircraft. It spread rapidly and the cabin side of the cockpit door had been "burnt black". The sources say the pilots were not wearing oxygen masks.
Tests are being conducted on cabin parts to determine the nature of the incendiary device. Investigators are focusing on one passenger seated where the fire started and said to have been well insured.
The MD-82 was flying a domestic service between the capital Beijing and Dalian when it crashed into Dalian Bay about 10km (5nm) from the coast, "less than 2min" after the pilots reported the fire. The degree of heat damage to wreckage also indicates the fire spread fast. All 103 passengers and nine crew on board were killed.
The sources say investigators have dismissed weather and crew error as possible factors, adding that mechanical failure has "effectively been ruled out".
An initial decoding of the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder was carried out at a Civil Aviation Administration of China laboratory, after which work was shifted to the USA. China has since increased its security screening of passengers and baggage.
Source: Flight International
