French aid search for black boxes

Two investigators from the French Air Accident Investigation Bureau joined the search yesterday for the black boxes of the downed TransAsia Airways cargo aircraft near Penghu's Makung.

According to the Executive Yuan's Aviation Safety Council (ASC), the French investigators used the global positioning system to detect the underwater locator beacons that the black boxes were equipped with.

The French-built ATR-72 plane, with two pilots on board, crashed into the sea near Penghu after taking off from Taipei en route to Macau early Saturday morning.

Rescue teams continue to search for the two pilots, Pan Teh-chung (潘德宗) and Liu Ching-hai (劉清海).

There were no other passengers or crew on board.

Kay Yong (戎凱), managing director of ASC, said the cause of the air crash is still under investigation.

"We need to recover the black boxes to answer all the questions about the cause of the crash," Yong said.

"Before the black boxes are found, ASC will not come to any conclusion on the cause of the air crash," Yong said.

"At the present point, all speculations about the cause of the air crash are meaningless," Yong said.

A navy minesweeper detected signals sent out by the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder of the cargo plane near Penghu's West Island Sunday morning.

The location of the black boxes was 10.9km southwest of West Island and 60.5m beneath the sea surface, according to Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA).

Billy Chang (張國政), director of CAA, denied yesterday a Chinese-language newspaper's allegation that the navy hid the true location of the black boxes.

"The navy did not hide anything," Chang said.

Meanwhile, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (林陵三) said yesterday he has asked the navy to help search for the black boxes.

"On Sunday night, I phoned Minister of National Defense Tan Yao-ming (湯曜明) to ask him to dispatch the navy the help recover the black boxes," Lin said.

"The CAA has banned all ships from approaching the area where the black boxes were located," Lin said.

Huang Tai-ping (黃太平), deputy director-general of General Maritime Patrol Agency (GMPA), said there was not much progress in yesterday's rescue attempt.

"But we will continue to search for the pilots. We will not give up," Huang said.

Liu Tsan-ming (劉燦明), brother of pilot Liu Ching-hai, said he would give a NT$2 million reward for anyone who finds his brother's body.

"I hope fishermen can also help us find my brother," said Liu Tsan-ming, who also expressed gratitude for the navy's help in the rescue effort.

However, wind and waves around the Penghu Islands are getting stronger with the approach of a cold front. Bad weather could hinder the recovery work of the black boxes, according to GMPA.