Looters steal "black box" from Cambodia crash site
 5 September 1997 - 01:44 JST, Tokyo time (16:44 GMT)
      PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (Reuter) - Looters have made off with a
 vital "black box" flight recorder from the wreckage of a Vietnamese
 plane which crashed in Cambodia killing at least 64 people, an
 aviation official said Thursday.
      Preliminary findings found that the pilot was off course when
 the Vietnam Airlines Tupolev Tu-134 made its approach at Phnom Penh
 airport Wednesday but too low to regain altitude and correct his
 flight path, he said.
     Sok Sambaur, deputy director general of Cambodia's airport au-
 thority, said one of the plane's flight recorders had been recovered
 but the second was stolen when hordes of looters descended on the
 crash site.
     He said he did not know if it was the flight data recorder or
 flight deck voice recorder which had been stolen.
     People were seen rifling the pockets of victims, rummaging
 through the wreckage and carting off broken pieces of the aircraft.
 Sok Sambaur said a reward had been offered for the return of the
 recorder.
     "We need another one, it's missing ... it was taken by one of
 those onlookers," he said. "We have to let people know by TV and
 radio there's nothing valuable inside and we need it to further
 investigate the accident and we will give a reward."
     He said a request had been made to the aircraft's Russian manu-
 facturers for an investigator to come and help analyze the one
 recorder which had been found but added if the second one was not
 recovered the investigation might never be conclusive.
     "We've got to have both," he said. He said preliminary findings
 were that the pilot was off course when he came in to land after
 flying from Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam.
     "The reason the plane crashed was mis-approach and the captain
 of the plane tried to go around, with full throttle power to try to
 go up in altitude and it was too low," Sok Sambaur told reporters.
     "Maybe the pilot was too anxious to gain altitude and pulled too
 hard...and the plane stalled. We don't know the exact reason, that's
 a presumption," he said.
     He said Cambodian and Vietnamese investigators Thursday listened
 to an air traffic control recording of exchanges between the tower
 and the flight's captain but had been unable to reach any
 conclusions.
     "We cannot conclude which side, either ATC (air traffic control)
 or the captain of the plane is at fault," he said.
     There were thick rain clouds over the airport but witnesses said
 it was not raining at the time of the crash. There was a heavy
 shower shortly after the accident.
     Two children were the only survivors of the crash, hospital
 officials said. One of the two, an 18-month-old Thai boy, was flown
 back to Bangkok Thursday.
     At least 64 people died, 58 passengers and six crew, but there
 was still confusion over the total number of casualties as airline
 officials were not sure if all of the infants on the flight were
 recorded on its manifest.
     Most of the victims were from Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong,
 embassy officials said.
     The dead included 21 or 22 people from Taiwan, 21 from South
 Korea and about eight from Hong Kong, embassy officials said.
     Other victims included one from China, one from Japan, one from
 Australia and one from Britain, they said.
     The flight manifest listed two Vietnamese passengers and its
 six-person crew was reported to have been Vietnamese.
     At least two Cambodians were also on board, according to the
 manifest and a Canadian was also on the passenger list but a
 Canadian Embassy official said it had yet to be confirmed if the
 person was on board.
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            Kuwait to buy U.S. military helicopters
    4 September 1997 - 04:17 GST, Dubai time (00:17 GMT)
     WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuter) - Kuwait plans to buy 16 U.S. AH-64
 "Apache" attack helicopters and more than 11,000 air-to-ground mis-
 siles and rockets for $800 million to boost its defenses, the Penta-
 gon said on Wednesday.
    The sale would include the helicopters built by McDonnell Douglas
 Helicopter Systems, a division of Boeing Co (BA.N), and 384 Hellfire
 missiles and 10,918 Hydra rockets made by Lockheed Martin Corp.
    The planned sale, latest in a long series of U.S. arms purchases
 by moderate Arab states in the Gulf, will also include four T-700
 helicopter engines built by General Electric Co (GE.N). Also in the
 package will be 30mm cartridges, pilots helmets and display sighting
 systems and spare parts.
     "This sale will enable Kuwait to upgrade its anti-armor, day-
 night missile capability, provide for the defense of vital installa-
 tions and provide close air support for military ground forces," the
 Pentagon said in notifying Congress of the proposed sale.
     U.S. Marines and other troops regularly conduct joint military
 exercises with Kuwaiti forces in Kuwait. The United States also has
 tanks and other equipment stored in Kuwait in case American troops
 are needed to defend it again.
     The United States also has some 200 warplanes stationed in
 Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, many of which fly regular missions over
 southern Iraq to enforce a "no-fly zone" declared by Washington
 and other western governments.
     The U.S. Defense Department announced in August that it will
 send about 20 Air Force jet fighters to Bahrain in September on a
 temporary deployment to help U.S. warplanes in the region keep
 watch over the no-fly zone.
     The air expeditionary wing, similar to units sent briefly to the
 Gulf in the past, will include F-15 and F-16 fighter jets from the
 366th Wing at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho.
     The aircraft will fly to Bahrain in mid-September just as the
 U.S. Navy aircraft carrier John Kennedy leaves the Gulf at the end
 of a six-month tour of duty. They are expected to remain in Bahrain
 through most of October.
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