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- THE WEEK, Page 19WORLDA Cargo Plane's Descent into Hell
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- The crash of a 747 in Amsterdam leaves at least 51 dead
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- Like most tragedies, the crash of an El Al 747-200F cargo jet
- last week came without warning. Six minutes after taking off
- from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport bound for Tel Aviv, the pilot
- reported a fire in a right-wing engine. Seconds later another
- engine failed and the freighter hurtled into a 10-story
- apartment building just 10 miles from the airport. As rescue
- workers uncovered the remains of 51 victims on the ground --
- many others were incinerated and will never be found --
- investigators searched for an explanation. El Al says an engine
- fire on the same plane last July was unrelated to the disaster.
- But recurring problems with microscopic cracks on the "fuse
- pins" that connect engines to the wings of Boeing jumbo jets are
- a possible culprit. As yet, there is no evidence linking fuse
- pins and the crash. But a similar crash in China last December
- led to a Federal Aviation Administration directive requiring
- fuse-pin inspection on early-model 747s.
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