Witnesses to the crash were a group of Italian fishermen who rushed to the scene to recover the bodies and to search for possible survivors, of whom there were none. The aircraft wreckage was eventually found on the sea floor; it was subsequently raised and transported to the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) for investigation. Initial findings and reaction To find more evidence concerning the cause of the crash, the bodies were brought to the coroner for post-mortem. During the examination, pathologist Antonio Fornari found broken and damaged limbs, which had apparently occurred after death. He also discovered in most of the victims a distinct pattern of injuries, consisting of fractured skulls and ruptured and otherwise damaged lungs, which he identified as the actual cause of death. Fornari was confused by the pattern of injuries because he could find no evidence of an explosion. The ruptured lungs were a sure indicator that the air cabin had depressurised, because the sudden decrease in pressure would have caused the lungs to expand until they ruptured. To support this theory, and also to confirm the cause of the skull fractures, the crash was simulated at the RAE in Farnborough by reproducing the conditions of the actual plane prior to the crash. To make this possible, a model fuselage was constructed that was similar to that of the Comet. Dummies were seated within the fuselage to replicate the possible movements of the passengers during the crash. In order to simulate the crash, the investigators deliberately ruptured the model fuselage by increasing the air pressure inside until it exploded. The movement of the dummies within the air cabin revealed the cause of the skull fractures: at the moment that the fuselage exploded, they were thrown out of their seats and slammed head-first into the ceiling. Upon examination of the aircraft wreckage by the RAE, it became evident that the aircraft had broken up in mid-air, and there was initially some speculation that the aircraft might have been brought down by a bomb. Suspicion then shifted to the possibility of an engine turbine explosion, and modifications were instigated in other Comets, where the turbine ring was encased with armour plate to contain a possible disintegration of the turbine disk. The possibility of failure of the pressure cabin was also considered, but this theory was discounted because the Comet's cabin had been designed to a considerably higher strength