Experts have decoded the flight recorders of an airliner that exploded and crashed into a lake in northern China, killing 55 people, but the cause of the accident is still not clear.

The flight data and cockpit voice recorders were recovered from the icy lake Wednesday near the city of Baotou, where the China Eastern Airlines plane crashed Nov. 21 seconds after takeoff.

The devices were examined by experts in Beijing, Xinhua News Agency said.

“The cause of the accident is still unclear,” the report said, quoting Xu Li, a spokesman for the investigating team.

The team did not disclose the contents of the recorders, but the Beijing Times said the voice recorder recorded three sentences by the captain and the shouts of passengers.

The captain said: What’s wrong? What to do?

The passengers shouted: tragedy!

The newspaper said the contents were obtained from “certain channels,” but were not confirmed by the investigating team.

Authorities have said they found no evidence of terrorism.

All 47 passengers and six crew members aboard the Canadian-built Bombardier CRJ-200 plane were killed. Two people were killed on the ground.

Every victim would get 211,000 yuan (US$25,000) compensation from China Eastern Airlines, the company said Saturday.

(Shenzhen Daily December 1, 2004)