INVESTIGATORS OF PLANE CRASH FIND 'BLACK BOX'.

Byline: Associated Press

Investigators of the plane crash that killed 189 people last week got their first big break Thursday when they located the plane's "black box" recorders on the deep sea floor.

Encouraged by the discovery, searchers began mapping the rugged ocean floor 12 miles off the north coast of this Caribbean nation, where the Alas Nacionales Flight 301 went down Feb. 6, carrying mostly German tourists returning from Caribbean holidays. All aboard were killed.

The investigators hoped to determine the exact depth of the recorders and to chart any other debris from the downed Boeing 757 before sending a robot to recover the recorders.

Initial mapping could take two days, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Cesar Beltran, who was told of the discovery in a phone call from the captain of the 105-foot search vessel Seaward Explorer.

President Joaquin Balaguer, meanwhile, declared Thursday a day of national mourning, and churches across the country held services to honor the crash victims.

Flight 301 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean minutes after takeoff from Puerto Plata's international airport.

The plane was leased by Alas, a small Dominican company, from Birgenair, a Turkish company that has said it was responsible for all Alas operations.

Investigators so far have been hampered by a lack of evidence. Rescuers recovered only 72 bodies from the sea and could find no airplane scraps bigger than a suitcase.

Dominican civil aviation authorities leading the probe have said there was no warning that the plane was in trouble, but ground controllers say the crew might have been trying to turn the plane around and return to Puerto Plata.