Four Survive American Airlines Crash in Colombia

BUGA, Colombia (AP) _ Investigators found a “black box″ from an American Airlines jet today amid the bits of mangled machinery and human remains that were scattered over a Colombian mountainside when the plane crashed.

The box, one of two on board that recorded technical data about the flight, could hold clues to why Flight 965 from Miami to Cali veered 13 miles off course and crashed Wednesday night.

Investigators were also trying to find out how four of the 164 people on board the plane survived. Reports Thursday said two others may have survived, but the airline said today that aid workers and local officials found only four survivors.

Rescuers today also found a dog that survived the crash. The small brown dog, which rescuers dubbed “Milagro,″ or Miracle, was found in an animal carrier believed to have been in the plane’s baggage compartment, according to an American Airlines official at the crash site, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Search operations resumed at dawn, when helicopters lifted off from Buga, 40 miles and four minutes flying time from Cali, in southwestern Colombia. The choppers carried Red Cross teams, soldiers and American Airlines officials.

Investigators from the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board also traveled to Colombia to investigate. The “black box″ was to be handed over to them.

Alberto Davila, assistant director of Colombia’s civil aviation authority, said the plane’s voice recorder, which captures conversations among crew members and between them and ground controllers, had yet to be recovered.

The jetliner lost radio contact about 9:45 p.m. Wednesday. There was no word of trouble from the cockpit, but Alvaro Cala, director of Colombian civil aviation, said the plane was 13 miles east of its intended flight path.

Cala said there was no evidence of an explosion on the plane and that all ground radar and radio systems were operating normally. He said a probe would take at least six months.

American Airlines and the Hospital Universitario in Cali identified the four survivors as Gonzalo Dussan Monroy, 36, of Somerville, N.J.,; his 6-year-old daughter Michelle; Mercedes Ramirez, of Blue Springs, Mo.,; and Mauricio Reyes, a Colombian business student at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Dussan’s wife and son died in the crash.

Dussan said he didn’t know anything was wrong until he felt the freezing cold of the Andes Mountains and a pain in his shoulder.

“When I woke up … and saw everything scattered around me, I realized we were in an accident,″ Dussan said, strapped to a stretcher but miraculously alive. “But I really wasn’t conscious of what was happening.″

Later, amid the sound of approaching rescue helicopters, he said he walked to a clearing and called out his daughter’s name. Michelle responded, and he knew she was alive.

“I want to thank God for what happened today,″ Dussan said.

Most of the passengers on Flight 965 apparently were, like Dussan, Colombians headed home for the holidays in Cali, but the U.S. State Department said at least 48 of them were Americans.

The airline said it would not release a full passenger list until relatives were notified.

Rescuers reached the site Thursday, braving rocky terrain and the threat of leftist guerrillas. Local farmers who got there first pilfered belongings of the dead.

“The peasants are taking stuff away in bags,″ said Juan Carlos Millan, an official with the Cali prosecutor general’s office. “Who knows how many possessions are lost.″

In Buga, dozens of anxious relatives waited at the edge of the landing field, straining against a line of military cadets whenever helicopters arrived. Authorities set up a morgue today at a sports center.

“I’ll stay here as long as it takes,″ said Jaime Bonilla, whose sister was on the flight. “I’m going to wait to see the body for myself.″

For a few, there was elation.

“After all I’ve cried, what incredible joy,″ said a weeping Andres Reyes when he learned his brother, Mauricio, 19, was alive.

When news that Reyes survived reached his Delta Sigma Phi fraternity, his friends turned what was meant as a memorial service into a celebration.

In Seattle, Boeing spokesman Bill Curry said it was the first crash involving a 757, a twin-engine, medium- to long-range jetliner.

Robert L. Crandall, American Airlines’ chief executive officer, said there were no reports of bad weather and that the flight crew knew the terrain.

Crandall said the airplane was delivered to American in August 1991. It had an extensive maintenance check in January, and a less complete one last month.

The crash was the deadliest involving a U.S. airliner since a Pan Am flight went down over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988. That crash, blamed on terrorists, killed 270 people.

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EDITORS: People seeking information about passengers on Flight 965 can call an American Airlines help number at 1-800-245-0999.