Mystery noises on Taiwan black box

It may take up to a year to explain the disaster

A dozen mysterious noises have been detected on the cockpit voice recorder of a China Airlines plane that crashed last month killing 225 people.

Taiwan safety experts, pilots, and US investigators helping with the crash investigation said they were not sounds that would come from a normal cockpit.

The black boxes are still being analysed

However, a chief investigator with Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council (ASC), Kay Yong, said more analysis would be needed to determine the significance of the noises.

The investigators hope that the contents of the tape could help to explain why the Hong Kong-bound Boeing 747-200 broke up into four separate pieces shortly after take-off on 25 May.

'Normal' conversation

The recorder, or "black box", when amplified 10-fold, revealed seven thumping sounds between 13 and 19 minutes before the plane came apart; four slightly different sounds between seven and three minutes before the crash; and finally a faint thud a second before the recording cut, said Mr Yong.

The chief investigator said that the conversation in the cabin did not indicate any problems.

If the crew heard any of the unusual noises, Mr Yong said, "they certainly did not talk about it".

He said that his agency will perform a computer analysis of the sounds in order to learn more.

The second black box, the flight data recorder, is still being analysed.

Search for bodies

Of the 225 victims, 160 bodies have been recovered so far.

One of the eight corpses found on Saturday, in wreckage about 60 metres (200 feet) under the sea, was that of co-pilot Hsieh Ya-hsiung.

The United Daily News paper quoted prosecutors as saying that Mr Hsieh's body was found strapped in to his seat, indicating that he had not felt the need to get up and investigate a problem immediately before the crash.

Experts say it might take up to a year to determine the cause of the disaster - which is the Taiwanese carrier's fourth fatal accident in eight years.

The lack of answers as to why flight CI 611 crashed has prompted angry relatives to complain about China Airlines' response to the disaster, and there have been calls from Taiwanese politicians for the state-controlled airline to be privatised.