NO SURVIVORS FOUND AT CONOCO CRASH SITE

Sept. 16, 1991
An international team of investigators has converged on a site in northern Borneo where a Conoco Inc. corporate jet carrying 12 passengers crashed Sept. 4. Malaysian police and military personnel Sept. 10 found remains of six bodies near a section of fuselage about 1-1/2 km from the site of the high impact crash (OGJ, Sept. 9, p. 26). A team of U.S. forensic specialists was sent to help with identifications, Conoco said. Conoco also said early evidence gave little hope that searchers would

An international team of investigators has converged on a site in northern Borneo where a Conoco Inc. corporate jet carrying 12 passengers crashed Sept. 4.

Malaysian police and military personnel Sept. 10 found remains of six bodies near a section of fuselage about 1-1/2 km from the site of the high impact crash (OGJ, Sept. 9, p. 26). A team of U.S. forensic specialists was sent to help with identifications, Conoco said.

Conoco also said early evidence gave little hope that searchers would find survivors.

The company also reported the aircraft's cockpit voice recorder, or "black box" had been discovered intact.

Searchers Sept. 6 discovered wreckage of the aircraft about 4,500 ft up a steep mountain ridge covered by rain forest, about 40 miles south of the airport at Kota Kinabalu, where the Gulfstream G-2 jet was headed for a refueling stop when it disappeared.

According to reports, small pieces of wreckage were scattered over a large area. The impact of the crash gouged a trench in the earth around the crash site, Conoco said.

Constantine S. Nicandros, Conoco president and chief executive officer, said a company travel policy that allows two Conoco executive vice-presidents to fly together was not under review.

Among those presumed lost were Colin H. Lee, Conoco executive vice-president of refining, marketing, supply, and transportation, and W.K. Dietrich, executive vice-president of exploration and production.

In addition to Malaysian nationals searching the site, investigators included operations and aviation officials of Conoco and its Du Pont Co. parent, aircraft manufacturer Gulfstream Aerospace, and U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. The U.S. State Department was relaying information to Conoco's Houston headquarters.

Conoco said those aboard the jet at the time of the accident were on an 18 day trip that was to have included business stops at Tokyo, Jakarta, Singapore, Bangkok, and Dubai, and nine refueling or rest stops. The aircraft left Houston the morning of Aug. 29.

Copyright 1991 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.