deap-sea

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="002285a1erlcgo.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>glialessandrini</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="glialessandrini"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="glialessandrini"><U>glialessandrini</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id133.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="underwater city discovered"><U>underwater city discovered</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id132.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="télé lumière"><U>télé lumière</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id131.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="elton johns"><U>elton john's</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id126.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="magida"><U>magida</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id119.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="400 years old"><U>400 years old</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id124.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="psychic"><U>psychic</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id102.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="relax !"><U>relax !</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id99.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mir 20march"><U>mir 20march</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id96.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="antelias record"><U>antelias record</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id95.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="miss internet"><U>miss internet</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id88.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="tabbouleh"><U>tabbouleh</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id91.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="the Maronites"><U>the Maronites</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="the sixth day"><U>the sixth day</U></A>   |   <B>deap-sea</B>   |   <A HREF="id7.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="cinema"><U>cinema</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MZ??"><U>MZ??</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id45.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ski in leb"><U>ski in leb</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id12.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Beirut"><U>Beirut</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="fairuz"><U>fairuz</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Eiffel tower"><U>Eiffel tower</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id85.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="the man"><U>the man</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="001d2c00dkelyh.gif"> <div> <B><IMG SRC="017c8a90.jpg" border=0 width="200" height="169" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>deap-sea</I></div> <div> <B>Beirut’s deep-sea treasure remains a $3.5m mystery</B></div> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="223" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER ROWSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 1 WIDTH="219"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="219" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> <tR> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <div> <B>After days of searching, treasure hunters have failed to find the wreck of a plane that crashed into the sea off Beirut in 1957 and its precious cargo of 400kg of pure gold. </B></div> <div> <B>Swedish treasure hunter Sverker Hallström and his team arrived in Beirut last week from Malaysia. Their sophisticated ship was fitted with high-tech equipment in preparation to launch a search for the remains of the first aviation catastrophe in Lebanon’s history. </B></div> <div> <B>The incident occurred when a plane heading to Bahrain crashed 17 minutes after take-off, causing the death of 20 Lebanese, four British, two Americans and a Kuwaiti. </B></div> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="122" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 14 WIDTH="118"><div> <B>OPTIONS</B></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <div> <B>Hallström said he suspected that the plane, which was piloted by Shukrallah Abi Samra, had been carrying a large number of gold bars estimated at $3.5 million. </B></div> <div> <B>But Hallström admits that the existence of the gold on the board the plane is not confirmed. There has been speculation that the cargo papers had been forged by an international gang in order to claim the insurance. </B></div> <div> <B>The cause of the crash also remains unclear. Hallström believes that the wreck lies 1400 meters under the sea, and roughly 13 km from Beirut’s coast. </B></div> <div> <B>The team received permission for the search from the Lebanese government who had agreed that Hallström would take 75 percent of any gold that he succeeded in recovering. </B></div> <div> <B>At the end of the hunt, the disappointed Hallström said that the sunken wreck had probably been covered by mud and algae. </B></div> <div> <B>The 55-year old treasure hunter has a career of valuable discoveries in the five oceans of the world. The most famous was the 1990 discovery of the Vung Tau wreck, the ship that sank off the Vietnamese coast in 1690. </B></div> <div> <B>The ship was carrying 26,000 pieces of valuable porcelain, which were later sold for $7.5 million in an auction in Amsterdam. </B></div> <div> <B>Written by M.H.</B></div> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="636" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="622"><div> <B>Monday, January 22, 2001 </B></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="7"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="7" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>