The bodies of three more passengers from the crashed China Northern Airlines plane were found Thursday, bringing the number retrieved to 69 by late Thursday night.

Two of the three bodies were picked up with trawl nets, according to the Liaoning Division of the Coastal Guard.

The bodies were said to be intact -- unlike many of the others found.

The search team, which includes 51 divers, ruled out hopes of finding any passengers from the MD-82 passenger jet alive.

Although the plane's black boxes were still not recovered, the rescue team had received weak radio signals transmitted by the flight data recorders.

Navy ships detected wreckage from the jet in the turbulent seas near the accident site with the use of advanced sound-detecting instruments, Song Jiahui, director of the Salvage Bureau under the Maritime Safety Administration, said Thursday.

"We have found 17 possible black box sites in an area of about 3.5 square kilometers, and rescue workers are busy searching," Song said.

The area had been sealed off to prevent the entry of unauthorized ships which might interrupt the search work.

More than 40 ships, plus two large ships from Yantai and Tianjin, are searching for wreckage and bodies around the clock.

The accident is the first plane sea crash in China, and Song Jiahui admitted his administration lacked experience in dealing with such events.

However, he promised his team are doing their best.

The identities of 97 victims among the 103 passengers have been confirmed, and the relatives of 96 victims contacted, said Shan Chunchang, deputy director of the State Administration of Work Safety Supervision.

More than 40 legal medical experts have been called in to identify bodies. Due to the dismemberment of many of the bodies, Shan admitted the job would probably take a relatively long period of time.

Some 400 relatives of victims had arrived at Dalian by Thursday morning, and about 100 more are expected to arrive Friday.

Causes of the crash remained unknown Thursday.

The pilots were very experienced and healthy, said Yang Yuanyuan, vice-minister of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China.

The captain, Wang Yongxiang, had completed 11,000 hours of flying time before the accident, Yang said.

Their investigation also showed that the plane met the take-off conditions around 8:30 pm at Beijing Capital International Airport.

"Until the black boxes are unveiled, we do not know what caused the accident," Yang said. He added that MD-82 planes will not be grounded, because there is no strong evidence of a fatal technical problem.

Yang said that the jet crash would inevitably prolong the two-year reform timetable that his administration had set earlier this year in regrouping China's aviation industry. "We have to invest most of our energy on resolving problems arising from the accident, so the reform plans might be put on hold for a while," he said.

(China Daily May 10, 2002)