SEARCHERS contended with a choppy and chilly Atlantic Ocean yesterday in their gruesome hunt for bodies and clues from the TWA airliner blown apart in the sky off Long Island, New York.

Investigators have not yet decided whether a bomb caused the crash, which killed 230 people on the Paris-bound flight early on Thursday.

America's CBS radio said last night it believed the investigation had now officially become a criminal one.

``They've looked for any possible mechanical malfunction or meltdown and they have virtually concluded that there is nothing that could have happened structurally. For that reason, they are saying we can't find any other probable explanation other than an outside force like a bomb,'' said a CBS reporter.

``There is no smoking gun but the preponderance of evidence is leading down that path,'' the radio said.

It added that speculation that a surface-to-air missile might have hit the passenger jet had been virtually discounted.

Mr Jim Kallstrom, assistant director in the New York FBI office, said: ``We are taking every prudent step to investigate. We're not ready to say what this is at this point.''

The bodies of 140 victims have so far been retrieved.

Suffolk County medical examiner Charles Wetli said the main cause of death was ``blunt force injuries'' but it was possible some of the victims drowned.

``That does not mean they were conscious,'' he said. He added that some showed chemical burns from flaming jet fuel but that they were probably inflicted after they were already dead.

Coastguard Petty Officer Charles Smith said that waves, 15-knot winds, and squalls at the site of the crash about 70 miles east of New York City were expected to worsen later in the day.

``It makes it somewhat more difficult for the search,'' he said.

Rescuers were working from eight coastguard cutters and 20 small boats in an area of 2700 square nautical miles, and Navy divers were to begin their search for the aircraft flight data and cockpit voice recorders late yesterday or early today.

Divers, electronic sensors, and sonar units were being loaded on to a ship in New Jersey, about 100 miles from the crash site, said Commander Stephen Pietropaoli.

Pinging signals indicating the location of the recorders had not yet been detected. ``One thing we don't know yet is whether the pingers are working,'' he said. ``Sometimes they don't operate. Sometimes they become detached.''

Pentagon experts who studied prints of radar images from just before the crash discounted the possibility of a Stinger missile attack, saying an apparent image on the screen was an electronic ``glitch'' rather than an airborne object.

Italian international footballer Christian Panucci, forced to fly home from the Olympic Games because of injury, yesterday revealed how luck saved him from death in the crash.

Panucci, 23, who was to have captained Italy's side at the Atlanta Games, said he had been advised at New York's John F Kennedy International Airport to catch Wednesday's TWA flight to Paris and join a connecting flight to Rome.

However, the AC Milan player realised his baggage from Atlanta had been mislaid and when he went to report the loss, staff of Italian airline Alitalia told him they had a direct flight to Milan leaving later the same day from Newark, New Jersey. He took that.

``Previously, I couldn't stop thinking how unlucky I had been to miss out on my Olympic dream,'' said Panucci.

``Now I can't stop thinking how lucky I was not to have caught that doomed flight.''

Panucci said he learned that the Paris-bound TWA flight had crashed when he landed in Milan. ``My heart sank,'' he said.

q Two of the lawyers acting for the men accused of the Lockerbie bombing will address an international legal seminar in London in September.

Edinburgh solicitor Alastair Duff and Mr Ibrahim Legwell of Libya will address a joint seminar of the International Bar Association and the Arab Lawyers Union at the Cavendish Conference Centre on September 9. They represent the two Lybian suspects, Abdel Baset Ali Mohamed Al-Megrahi and al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah.

The event will offer a unique chance for lawyers, embassy officials, and other interested professionals to gain an insight into the various perspectives of handling a cross-border criminal case.