Search team locates body of crashed Asiana cargo plane

An international search team has located the fuselage of a South Korean cargo plane that crashed into waters off the southern resort island of Jeju last month, a government official said Wednesday, raising hopes of finding the jet's black box that could help determine the cause of the crash. The Boeing 747 operated by Asiana Airlines Inc. crashed July 28 shortly after its two pilots reported an in-flight fire while en route to China's Pudong, a district of Shanghai. The pilots still remain missing with the exact cause of the crash or the reported fire still unknown. "The Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board that is investigating the case has identified the locations of 39 parts of the aircraft," Kim Han-young, an official from the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, told reporters. "They (located parts) including the plane's tail, which will likely contain the aircraft's black box," he said. The best scenario right now is to find the black box safely intact in the tail, Kim said, adding the tail will be the first part to be lifted out of the water. "Even if it is not, we will eventually find it as the depth of water at the crash site is only about 80 meters," he said. The search team also includes 10 investigation experts from the United States' Federation Aviation Administration, along with four experts from Singapore and Taiwan. A black box is designed to automatically send out beacon signals in case of an accident, but the team has not yet detected any signals. South Korea has been using sonar and unmanned submersible vehicles to locate the black box. Meanwhile, the ministry official dismissed suspicions the crash may have been intentional as one of the two missing pilots was said to have taken out a number of life and property insurance policies totaling more than 3 billion won (US$2.8 million), just a month before the accident. "Considering the strict aviation regulations and structure of the aircraft, there is no possibility it is a case of insurance fraud," he said.