Terrorism ruled out of Taiwan air disaster

A Taiwanese security official has said that there was no evidence that a terrorist or a missile caused a China Airlines jet to break up over the Taiwan Strait.

There has been speculation that a bomb or a missile might have caused the crash on Saturday that killed 225 people.

The pilots did not send a distress signal before the Hong Kong-bound aircraft disappeared from radar screens 20 minutes after taking off from Taipei.

But Huang Lei, deputy director of the National Security Bureau, said that his agency has investigated the theories and has found no evidence to back them up.

Yesterday crash investigators confirmed that the plane had disintegrated in mid-air before plunging into the sea.