Switzerland Crash 3 - WRAP Adds presser to Crossair crash site pictures
TAPE: EF01/0820
IN_TIME: 04:00:47 - 07:31:21
DURATION: 3:10
SOURCES: Tele 24/APTN
RESTRICTIONS:
DATELINE: Near Zurich - Nov 24/25, 2001
SHOTLIST: (Note: Clean video - no supers)
Tele 24 - Switzerland
1.Rescuers searching smouldering wreckage in forest
2. Fuselage of aircraft in trees, pan to right of more wreckage
3. Pan to left of fire engines parked under floodlights
4. Firemen inspecting rescue maps on wall of command centre
5. Rescuers walking around smashed cockpit, zoom out rescuers standing around marked crash scene
6. Rescuers standing in front of ambulance
7. Police at scene
8. Rescuers standing in front of police van
9. Pan to left of smouldering wreckage in forest
10. Journalists standing in news conference tent
11. Wide shot of officials at conference
12. SOUNDBITE: (Swiss-German) Peter Grueter, Cantonal Chief of police in Zurich
" When we heard that plane went down near the village of Basser we sent out all policemen available to the crash site. At 2215 police found the wreckage in the forest up on the hill near the Birchwil area. The Zurich Cantonal police quickly organised anything necessary in order to lead the rescue operation."
13. Pan of officials at conference
APTN File
14. Still of Avro RJ-100 Jumbolino landing
15. Still of Jumbolino in air
STORYLINE:
At least 10 people were killed when a Swiss regional airliner crashed on approach to Zurich airport late on Saturday.
Nine survivors walked away from the wreckage, officials said.
The plane, an Avro RJ-100 Jumbolino belonging to Swissair subsidiary Crossair, was carrying 28 passengers and 5 crew members on a flight from Berlin.
The death toll was expected to rise.
"We have seen additional bodies but have not yet recovered them," Zurich police chief Peter Grueter told a news conference.
He refused to speculate about the final number of dead.
Rescue workers with sniffer dogs worked through the bitterly cold night searching for the 14 missing people, issuing an appeal for local people to help find possible survivors in a wooded area near Birchwil, a Zurich suburb some 3 kilometers (2 miles) east of the airport.
All the nine confirmed survivors made their own way on foot to rescue workers, said Zurich airport's chief medical officer Remo Reichlin.
Three had serious burns while the other six had less severe ones.
There was no indication whether the pilot and crew, all Swiss nationals, were among those who escaped. Neither was there any breakdown of nationalities of the victims.
The cause of the crash, the second to strike Crossair in less than two years, was not immediately known.
Weather conditions were poor at the time of the accident at 10:08 p.m. (2108GMT), with rain and some snow.
Crossair chief Andre Dose said terrorism did not appear to be to blame.
While authorities refused to speculate on the cause of the tragedy, several aviation experts hinted at pilot or navigational equipment error.
A fireball engulfed the middle part of the plane after the crash, but the cockpit and tail areas were left largely unscathed, local police and airport officials said.
Crossair chief Dose said the all-important flight recorders had been recovered from the crash site, which was relatively flat and easily accessible.
The Jumbolino was not among the newest of the Crossair fleet, but it was considered highly reliable and there had never been any known problems with the plane.
The Jumbolino is a small, four-engine jetliner, which Crossair flies in two versions, one with 82 passenger seats and the other with 97.
The tragedy happened as the plane was approaching runway 28, a new night landing strip brought into operation four weeks ago following agreement by the Swiss transport ministry to limit overflight noise above nearby Germany.
Crossair, a subsidiary of the ailing Swissair Group, flies routes between Swiss cities and to other destinations in Europe.
It is taking over parts of the Swissair operations in complicated, government-financed bailout that is meant to be completed next spring.