World Notes BRITAIN

At first it looked like a lethal 10 million-to-1 long shot: both engines of a twelve-week-old British Midland Airways Boeing 737 bound for Northern Ireland apparently failed. The plane crashed just short of an emergency landing last week, killing 44 of the 126 aboard.

But preliminary evidence showed that the right engine of the jet, which had been functioning properly, was shut down by the crew in flight, while the left engine, which had caught fire, was allowed to remain in operation. Still unanswered: Why?

While not ruling out pilot error, investigators are focusing on the possibility that the plane's electronic fire-alarm system failed and indicated trouble in the wrong engine, leading to a tragic mistake. As other Boeing 737s are being checked, the remains of Flight 92's engines have been sent back to their French co-maker, SNECMA, for examination.