" is to collect information." A 16-member team from the NTSB is working with Federal Bureau of Investigation laboratory specialists from Washington and FAA representatives. "We're not here to determine a probable cause," he said. NTSB investigator Lee Dickinson refused to rule out any possible causes of the incident. Boeing issued a tentative warning to operators of the 719 other 747s in service to make certain that cargo doors are properly closed before takeoff. United had completed the installation on six of the twenty-five 747s to which the order applies, Mack said. United spokesman Russell Mack in Chicago said the airline inspected the door lock system but had not installed a new part, as required by the end of this year. After a cargo door opened in flight, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) last July ordered airlines to improve cargo door lock systems on older 747s. But the airline acknowledged yesterday that it had not completed ordered modifications to the latches. Officials close to the investigation said United had no previous reports of trouble with cargo door latches in the weeks before the accident. Still unclear is whether the loss of the cargo door was the cause or result of the fuselage ripping open. The wreckage recovered today has not been identified as coming from the jet. If structural failure caused the damage, the most telling evidence would have fallen into the Pacific when the chunk of fuselage and the right forward cargo door broke away as Flight 811 cruised at 22,000 feet. Structure specialists from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Boeing Co., the 747's manufacturer, were examining the aircraft for possible signs of metal fatigue around the borders of the 10-by-20-foot hole in the right side of the plane between the cockpit and the wing. United Flight 811, bound for Auckland, New Zealand, was 42 minutes into its early morning flight when the side of the aircraft above the forward right cargo area tore open, sweeping out the nine passengers and sending debris hurtling through the cabin. While Coast Guard and Navy ships and helicopters searched a 3,000-square-mile-area about 100 miles south of Honolulu for debris and bodies, federal investigators and aircraft industry specialists attempted to piece together clues that might explain what caused the accident. There was no sign of the missing passengers, who were swept out of the aircraft when a gaping hole ripped in the fuselage, but a Honolulu medical examiner reported that human remains and bits of clothing were found in the Boeing 747's right inboard engine.
25 - As investigators questioned the pilots and ground crew today, Coast Guard and Navy rescue workers recovered from the Pacific two seats and a 4-by-6-foot piece of metal believed to have fallen from the United Air Lines jumbo jet that ruptured in flight Friday, hurtling nine passengers to their deaths.
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