Miami Crews Find Body in Car at Crash Site

MIAMI — Investigators searching the wreckage of a cargo plane that crashed on the edge of Miami International Airport found a body Friday in a charred car--the first known victim on the ground.

Investigators believed that three bodies recovered Thursday were the crew members of the Fine Air Services Inc. flight, and they continued searching Friday for the body of the fourth person on board, an employee of the company shipping the cargo.

But they warned that none of the four bodies had been identified because they were so badly burned.

It was not immediately known if the person found in the car was one of two people who were reported missing after not returning home Thursday night.

The aging DC-8 carrying 80,000 pounds of fabric for Levi’s dress slacks crashed soon after taking off for the Dominican Republic. The plane’s shattered and burning fuselage slid across a busy street next to the airport and to the doorsteps of small businesses and shops.

The National Transportation Safety Board was analyzing the cockpit voice recorder and flight-data recorder in Washington. Among the potential causes being considered are mechanical problems, pilot error or shifting cargo.

Many of the shops and offices at International Airport Center, and the normally crowded Milam Dairy Road, remained closed Friday.

Also Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration revealed that roughly half the pilots for Fine Air face 60- to 90-day suspensions for allegedly flying company DC-8s into high-altitude airports in Quito, Ecuador, and Bogota, Colombia, against regulations.

The three crew members who died in Thursday’s crash were not among the 29 cited.

The alleged violations involve a version of the DC-8 that is not rated for high-altitude airports, said an FAA official who wanted to remain anonymous. Fine Air stopped using that model in those cities when the error was pointed out, the source said.

The airline announced Friday that it is scrapping its 2-day-old offering of stock to the public. The decision means trades of the stock will be canceled and investors who bought shares will be reimbursed. After the crash, the stock fell $1.37 1/2 to $14.50, a drop of 9% for the day and off 15% from its peak.