THE BATTALION Page 11
W'
orld
TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1980
iing candil
r esidentsi
ing thefi
diplomat
Failures ‘stun officials
Choppers got no special care
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Navy mainte
nance men aboard the USS Nimitz
were not told their helicopters would
be employed on the disastrous 500-
mile flight that sank American
hopes for a rescue of the 53 hostages
Tehran.
And Pentagon officials said the
Light RH-53 “Sea Stallion” choppers
(were not the same aircraft as those
performed flawlessly through
sandstorms and other difficult condi-
[tions during practice runs in the Un-
id States.
Officials said the eight choppers
conMlised in the rescue mission were
ia and Ajltransferred from the United States to
Jthe Indian Ocean island of Diego
he wonll|Garcia as long ago as December.
From there, the 7-year-old aircraft
that hewlwere shipped to the carrier USS
Cuba,”ljJlimitz and maintained by crews.
A senior military officer said those
Latin Analnaintenance teams did not know the
is isjustdpielicopters were to be used for any-
:hing but routine operations and
inly one or two officers on the entire
filliamP.lhip knew just how important the
:s hehaiiAiachines really were,
he presdl President Carter and military offi-
to staterJ
irofoneofj
le, saidKij
of"
cials were in agreement the rescue
plan had an excellent chance for suc
cess.
It was to have worked like this:
Six C-130 Hercules transport
planes flew early Thursday from a
base in Egypt, made a rest stop on
the Gulf of Oman, then made it to a
desert rendezvous point near Tabas,
200 miles southeast of Tehran,
where they were to refuel the heli
copters.
The eight choppers, carrying 90
men from an elite antiterrorist group
trained at Fort Bragg, N.C., were to
fly from the deck of the Nimitz 500
miles, mostly across desert, to the
desert refueling point.
From there, the choppers, each
capable of carrying 55 passengers,
were to take the men to a mountain
hideout near Tehran. The rescuers
were to have driven to the embassy
compound in trucks and other vehi
cles, attacking Friday night, and us
ing incapacitating gas if necessary.
The raiders, the hostages, and
presumably their Iranian agents and
helpers were then to have been pick
ed up by helicopters, taken to a new
rendezvous point with the C-130s
outside Tehran for a freedom flight
away from Iran.
But Pentagon officials said they
were stunned that three of the heli
copters failed on the first leg of the
mission.
Of the eight CH-53s that left the
Nimitz, one developed trouble with
its gyros during a sandstorm, causing
the artificial horizon to disappear
from the panel. With safe flight en
dangered, they chose to return to the
Nimitz.
A second helicopter came, down on
Iranian territory short of the rendez
vous point for unexplained mecha
nical reasons, and its crew was res
cued by its “buddy” aircraft.
Once all the other crafts had land
ed, a third helicopter was found to
have drastic hydraulic problems.
Since officials felt they needed a
minimum of six helicopters to carry
out their rescue plan, the comman
der recommended the mission be
aborted.
It was at that point that one of the
remaining five good helicopters
crashed from an altitute of 15 feet
into a parked C-130 transport.
Tito 5 con dition
improves —barely
llnited Press International
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia —
Doctors Monday reported Presi
dent Josip BrozTito, 87, emerged
from a state of shock and was im
proved enough his condition
could be described as “very
grave'’ rather than “exceptionally
grave.”
“By application of correspond
ing measures of medical treat
ment, the critical stage of shock
into which Cojnrade President
fell in the afternoon of April 22
has been overcome,” the official
medical bulletin said.
“But, the general condition of
his health is still very grave. In
tensive medical treatment is
being continued.”
Tito, hospitalized for 107 days,
presumably was still in a coma.
Doctors had described Tito’s
state of health as “very grave” for
about six weeks until just a week
ago — April 21 — when internal
bleeding and liver failure forced
them to downgrade their descrip
tion of his condition to “excep
tionally grave.”
Tito lapsed into critical condi
tion with the onset of shock April
22, and remained in that state for
two days.
He suffers liver failure and
acute jaundice, total kidney fai
lure, pneumonia, high fever, in
ternal bleeding and cardiac weak
ness and serious disorders of the
digestive organs.
These were complications
which followed his Jan. 20 leg
amputation.
OOOOQOOOOOOoooooo
SKYWAY TWIN
, 2000 E. 29th
822-3300 i
France starts withdrawing troops
lout of civil war-stricken Chad
tterisjl
jmment 1 '
t is said
any Mai United Press International
ie state® PARIS — France Monday began
r Clem rithdrawing its last 1,100 troops
rom Chad, engaged in a civil war
ad where renewed fighting began a
nonth ago between rival Moslem
actions.
French Foreign Ministry sources
1 the withdrawal operation from
»air base near the capital city of
r i’djamena would take several
leeks.
I The French forces had been under
|trict orders to remain neutral and
I say it's
it.’
Nugent!
has dont|
lers, ski]
/as
nission.
favors a
serve as a protective mission during
the fighting that began March 21 in
N’djamena.
More than 1,000 people were kil
led and 3,000 injured in the fighting
in the impoverished African nation.
Thousands of others have fled into
neighboring Cameroon, including
nearly the entire 800-member fore
ign community.
French sources said sporadic
shelling and bombing have con
tinued in N’djamena since the latest
cease-fire collapsed April 9.
USED
“The French military troops have
accomplished their protective mis
sion,” a statement from the Elysee
presidential palace said Sunday.
“The withdrawal is being carried out
under the provisions of an accord
with the Chadian government of na
tional unity.”
The latest round of fighting in
volves a power struggle between
forces of President Goukouni Oued-
dei and Defense Minister Hissen
Habre.
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