Martinique-bound plane crash burned for 20 minutes, says official
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP): The West Caribbean
Airways flight bound for Martinique, which crashed in Venezuela killing all
160 aboard burned for about 20 minutes on the ground, a Venezulan official
said Monday, a fact which rendered unlikely the theory that the plane had run
out of fuel before crashing. Evidence from
the crash site suggests a fire ignited and burned for about 20 minutes after
the plane plunged into a marshy area in northern Venezuela on August 16,
Antonio Rivero, head of Venezuala's civil safety agency, told AFP.
"The fire covered a surface area of about 50 meters (164 feet)," despite the
marsh and ongoing rainfall, said Rivero, one of the first to reach the site of
the crash. The crash of the twin-engine
McDonnell Douglas MD-82 aircraft on a flight from Panama to Martinique killed
152 French passengers from Martinique and eight crew from Colombia.
According to a Caracas airport tower recording of communications with the
plane, reported Sunday in El Nacional newspaper, the pilot reported trouble
with both engines before crashing. This has
led to some speculation that the plane may have run out of fuel. However, the
likelihood that leaking fuel fed a post-crash fire weakens that theory.
Another theory which has been reported is that the plane was using low-quality
fuel which affected engine performance.
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