One cabin crew member and another passenger were retrieved on Sunday from the wreckage of the China Airlines (CAL) Boeing 747-200, as searchers raced to find two crucial black boxes before their signals fade.
Local divers found the two male bodies in a huge section of the plane about 60 metres below in waters north of Penghu, the rescue and search centre of the crash, CAL officials said.
The divers also found three other bodies in the wreckage, which they expected to pull out later in the day. The number of bodies found has now increased to 108.
No survivors have been found since the ill-fated airliner, with 225 people on board, ploughed into the waters of the Taiwan Strait on May 25.
The fresh retrieval came one day after at least 100 relatives of the victims sailed for the second time since the crash to the site to perform a traditional Taoist ceremony to ”summon the spirits” of the dead. Taoists believe such a ceremony would help retrieve the bodies.
Retrieval of the remains, and the black boxes — the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder which hopefully would shed light on the crash — was stalled in the past week due to bad weather.
Aviation officials are worried that as the days go by, signals from the two black boxes, designed to last for a month, are getting weaker.
Search experts from Singapore’s Global Industries are to arrive on Friday to help in the retrieval work.
Kay Yong, head of the Aviation Safety Council (ASC), said the aircraft disintegrated in mid-flight and plunged into the sea about 20 minutes after takeoff on a flight from Taipei to Hong Kong.
Members from the US National Transportation Safety Bureau, Boeing Company, and engine-maker Pratt and Whitney, are also joining the investigation.
Taiwanese media have raised a number of theories as to what might have caused the unusual mid-air disintegration, including a terrorist bombing, metal fatigue, catastrophic mechanical failure, design flaw, or a stray missile.
But Taiwan security and aviation authorities have ruled out a terrorist attack, an errant missile as well as weather and air traffic control as factors for the break-up. – Sapa-AFP