Black Boxes Found in India Crash

Investigators searching for clues as to what caused India's worst air disaster in more than a decade recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder today from the charred remains of an Air India flight. The crash yesterday of the Boeing 737-800, which overshot a hilltop runway in southern India and plunged over a cliff, killed 158 people. Only eight survived, many of them by jumping from the wreckage just before it burst into flames.

A four-member US forensic team also arrived in India to help in the investigation, said an Air India spokeswoman. She refused to speculate on the cause of the crash. Arvind Jadhav, Air India chairman and managing director, said 146 of the 158 bodies have been identified and were being handed over to the relatives for funeral. All eight survivors were still hospitalized today. One survivor said it felt like a tire burst after the plane landed. "There was a loud bang, and the plane caught fire," he said. (More India stories.)