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THE operation to salvage the Hercules transport plane which crashed into Victoria Harbour killing six people caused further damage yesterday after poor working conditions led to a mistaken assessment of the wreckage.

  It was not known last night if the investigation into the cause of the crash has been set back by the further breaking up of the plane after the salvage team pulled more than expected from the harbour bed.

  The Government last night said the wings of the plane, carrying the four engines which will be the main focus of the investigation, were thought to have broken off in the impact.

  But they were discovered to be intact with the forward fuselage when it was pulled from the water, and the weight caused part of the wreckage to slip back into the sea.

  The damage to the aircraft is more severe than originally feared, but no one would comment on whether the further damage would hamper the investigation.

  During the operation yesterday, the bodies of the final two victims were recovered. Officials last night made preparations for the six dead to be flown to Jakarta for burial.

  The bodies of flight engineer Bambang Haryono-Kartowardoyo and assistant mechanical engineer Eldon Karta-Stahaan were taken ashore at 5.30 pm and transferred to Kowloon Public Mortuary.

  They appeared to be in the sitting position and are likely to have died strapped in their seats.

  Some of their personal possessions, including watches, passports and money were handed over by fire officers to the police.

  They were spotted by divers at 3.56 pm, inside a section of the plane being lifted from the water.

  The bodies were brought by boat to the Kowloon public pier and loaded into two steel coffins before being taken away.

  More than 50 onlookers queued to get a glimpse of the bodies despite the stench produced from them being three days in the water and the strong smell of oil from the wreckage.

  Two accident investigators from Britain were last night on their way to Hong Kong to help piece together the final few moments before the Hercules L-100-30 crashed on take-off at 7.14 pm on Friday.

  A spokesman for the Accident Investigations Unit in the UK said the two black boxes recovered from the tail section on Sunday had arrived in Farnborough and were being examined.

   A chartered Garuda Airlines plane was due to arrive at Kai Tak last night from Jakarta carrying six coffins, an Indonesian Consulate spokesman said.

  The spokesman said the aircraft was to return to Jakarta early this morning with four bodies recovered from the wreckage.

  It was not known whether the bodies of the last victims recovered yesterday would be on the flight or if their return would be delayed until the bodies were inspected by a coroner.

  Senior consulate staff spent much of yesterday at the Universal Funeral Parlour in Hunghom to work out how the bodies would be transported.

  Four crew members who were injured in the crash also returned to the Indonesian capital at noon yesterday on a plane chartered by Palita Air Service of Jakarta, the owners of the ill-fated Hercules.

  Two others remained at Queen Elizabeth Hospital last night. Forty-year-old cabin attendant Joseph Hermanus-Tapilatu remained in critical condition while 33-year-old flight officer Hairs Permana remained in fair condition.

  The 12-year-old plane was the one used to ferry 33 Vietnamese boat people to Hanoi last week and was on its way back to Jakarta with 12 crew.

  A Government spokesman said the crash would not interrupt the Orderly Repatriation Programme.

        But Hong Kong-based Far East Air Charters, agents for HeavyLift Cargo Airlines which chartered the plane from owners Palita, said no future forced Vietnamese repatriation flights were planned at this stage.



Salvage error damages plane crash wreckage