Who will pay for the search for the flight recorder?

The three companies responsible for the recovery of the flight recorder, the apparatus which will help to determine the cause of the 7 February plane crash off the coast of Puerto Plata which cost the lives of all 189 people on board, have not come to an agreement on how much each will pay in order to retrieve it. The dispute is between the constructor of the plane, Boeing, the manufacturer of the aircraft’s engines, Rolls Royce, and N.H.K. Aviation of London, which insured Alas Nacionales, the company that chartered the plane. General Francisco Frias Carbucia, the administrator of Puerto Plata’s Gregorio Luperon Airport, from which the plane took off, told the Listin Diario newspaper that the cost of recovering the “black box” is estimated at US$1,000,000. The recorder contains important conversations of the flight crew and details of the mechanical performance of the aircraft. It has been located on the sea bed, 7,200 feet under water.
1-7 March 1996