Probe begins into deadly cargo jet crash

Transportation Safety Board officials have begun looking at what might have caused a Boeing 747 cargo plane to crash while leaving the Halifax airport early Thursday, killing all seven crew members on board.

The investigation remains in the hands of the RCMP's Major Crimes Unit until criminal involvement has been ruled out, however. That's the same protocol that emergency workers in the province followed after Swissair's Flight 111 crashed off Peggy's Cove in 1998.

"We're going to be going 24 hours, around the clock," RCMP spokesman Const. Joe Taplin told reporters at an afternoon briefing on the crash of MK Airlines flight 1602.

The downed cargo plane.

In Ottawa, Transport Minister Jean Lapierre said the investigation will be aided by the eyewitness accounts of two people who happened to be at the end of the runway when the crash occurred at 3:52 a.m. local time.

• Interactive: Cargo Plane Crash

The airport workers apparently saw the jet's tail hit an earthen mound topped by navigation towers before it snapped off. That sent the plane ploughing into thick bush near the end of the runway, sparking a huge orange fireball as the 200,000 litres of fuel on board ignited.

An aerial view of the runway in Halifax. (Photo courtesy Space Imaging ) Click here to enlarge image

Mark Lush said everything seemed normal until the very last minute.

"I seen the MK roll by on the taxiway or on the runway and that was it. And then I seen a flash and someone yelled, 'A fire! Fire!' And I looked and all I seen was smoke and red flames at the end of the runway."

No room to take off?

Already, speculation is mounting that the 20-year-old plane turned onto the Halifax International Airport's longest runway at the wrong place, and simply ran out of room for a proper takeoff.

Investigators said it's too early to rule out any cause, though, including some other kind of human error, a load of cargo that was too heavy, a bird being sucked into an engine, or even terrorism.

Within three minutes, the first emergency crews were at the main crash site, about a kilometre into the woods near a quarry, but it took about three hours for 60 firefighters and 20 trucks to extinguish the blazing jet fuel.

Hours later, the site was still so intensely hot that investigators couldn't approach the fuselage wreckage to search for the plane's flight data recorders.

Victims from Zimbabwe, South Africa

Emergency officials did manage to recover some remains of the seven male crew members. Six of them were from Zimbabwe and the seventh was from South Africa.

The plane's home base was in the African country of Ghana.

"While little is known about the reasons why MK Airlines flight 1602 tragically crashed, what we do know is that today seven families are grieving the loss of loved ones," Nova Scotia Premier John Hamm said in the legislature Thursday afternoon, as politicians observed a minute of silence.

"On behalf of the government and the people of Nova Scotia, I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to the crews as they try to come to terms with their loss."

Officials from the Transportation Safety Board arrived mid-morning to begin helping the RCMP investigation, with a view to taking it over if and when it is declared a safety matter instead of a criminal one.

"We're gathering data. We're looking for abnormalities," said Bill Fowler of the Transportation Safety Board.

Fowler said transportation safety officials from the United States and Britain will provide help and support during the investigation, because the flight originated in the U.S. and the cargo company is based in the United Kingdom.

Concerns for environment

Provincial environment officials were also at the crash site to contain any damage caused by the jet fuel spill.

There were reports that the cargo plane carried radioactive depleted uranium as ballast in its rudders and wings, a practice common among wide-body aircraft. A Transportation Safety Board spokesman said the material does not pose a threat to those working on the wreckage.

Passengers were stranded at the airport for several hours as the airport shut down in the immediate wake of the crash. Seventeen flights were either cancelled or delayed by the shutdown at the airport, located about 35 kilometres from downtown Halifax.

Commercial flights started leaving the airport again at around 9:30 a.m. local time.

Flight bound for Spain

The cargo flight had stopped in Halifax to pick up a load of lobster and fish and refuel before heading to Zaragosa, Spain. Originating in Hartford, Conn., it had already picked up a partial load of lawn tractors.

At the time of the crash, the weather was partly cloudy with some light winds blowing.

In an interview from Sussex, England, MK Airlines representative Steve Anderson told CBC that the 20-year-old plane had an "exemplary" service record.

"She's been an absolute gem," he said.

The airline had been flying out of the Halifax airport once a week for the past 18 months, Anderson said.

The cargo company had experienced three other crashes in the past 12 years, all of them in Nigeria. One crew member died in one of the previous crashes.

MK AIRLINES 747-200 AIRCRAFT HISTORY

Delivered to South African Airways June 11, 1980 Sold to Garuda Indonesia Nov. 11, 1992 Sold to South African Airways and converted to freight Dec. 3, 1994 Sold to MK Airlines March 20, 2000 Source: Airfleets.net

AIR CARGO

The industry is worth $40 billion US worldwide. Air cargo carries less than 1 per cent of the freight transported by weight but 40 per cent by value. Fatal air cargo crashes in Canada: Oct. 14, 2004: Halifax, Boeing 747, 7 crew members killed. Oct. 8, 2000: Port Radium, N.W.T., Shorts Skyvan, 2 crew members and 1 passenger killed. March 17, 2000: Ennadai Lake, Nunavut, Douglas Dakota, 2 crew members killed. March 19, 1999: Davis Inlet, Nfld., de Havilland Twin Otter, 1 crew member killed. Jan. 13, 1999: Mayne Island, B.C., Douglas DC-3, 2 crew members killed.

MORE INDEPTH COVERAGE