AHMADABAD, India, Oct 20, Reuter: Investigators on Thursday began probing the cause of an Indian Airlines Boeing 737 crash that killed 130 people, but officials said they were confident the domestic carrier’s other aircraft were safe.

Experts from the United States were expected to arrive at the crash site in the Western City of Ahmadabad in a day or two to help in the investigation, a senior Indian Civil Aviation Official said.

He said the U.S. National transport safety board; the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing were all sending representatives.

An Indian Airlines official told reporters in New Delhi there would be no special checks on the carrier’s other aircraft, despite reports from the United States that cracks found in another ageing 737 there had sparked safety fears.

“That would be reacting in a panic situation and there is no necessity for panic. We know that we have done all we should have done,” he said?

‘The Aircraft which crashed in fog at Ahmadabad after a flight from Bombay was 18 years old.

Meanwhile rescue workers recovered 15 bodies from the site of a second plane crash 2,000 km (1,250 miles) away on the other side of India which killed all 34 people on board. The two planes went down within two hours of each other on Wednesday.

A 25-year-old Fokker friendship Turboprop operated by India’s second domestic carrier Vayudoot, crashed in thick forest near Gauhati in the northeastern state of Assam.

Officials said rescue work by police, air force and army teams was still being hampered by difficult terrain and bad weather.

Civil Aviation Minister Shivraj Patti visited the area by helicopter and told reporters later:

“It was a terrible sight with bodies strewn all over. The aircraft appears to have crashed into a hill and has broken into several pieces.

There were grim scenes at eh Ahmadabad hospital where the charred bodies of crash victims: were laid out in a narrow corridor and beginning to smell badly.

Most relatives flown to the city were too dazed to complain as they wandered about in the hope of being able to take the right body home for traditional Hindu cremations.

Indian Airlines Officials however were angry.

“You could have put the bodies on mattresses, properly covered. They deserved some dignity in death,” shouted a senior official at a hospital administrator as reporters looked on.

Once a body had been identified — one only by a ring the corpse was wearing — they were put into crude coffins made from packing cases.

Some may never be identified. One body had no arms or legs and the face was unrecognizable. On it was a piece of paper that said, “129.” its only identification.

“We may have to do a mass cremation for the rest after waiting two more days,” a hospital administrator said.

Article extracted from this publication >> October 28, 1988