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Page 7
Aggies feast on Hogs 81-67
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— Page 11
Texas A&M m m «•
The Battalion
Vd. 83 Mo. 87 USPS 075360 14 pages
College Station, Texas
Thursday, January 30, 1986
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Associated Press
;APE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The
last Guard pulled (iOO pounds of
Jtal and tiles from Challenger out
the Atlantic Ocean Wednesday,
1 expeits impounded every bit of
a for clues to the death of seven
pie in the world’s worst space di
eter.
■NASA said the five men and two
llinen aboard the 100-ton shuttle
jnpbably had no warning of the im-
"iding explosion. The debris col-
ted by Wednesday afternoon did
bo' include any clothing or personal
Tectsof the astronauts.
Ja cone-shaped object, possibly
|>m the nose of one of the shuttle’s
id rocket boosters, was spotted,
t it was too big to put aboard the
M ill cutter ship Dallas. A buoy ten-
■r was sent to the area.
■The largest piece of debris found
after a full day ol searching was 15
■t by 15 feet. Other pieces were 12
|‘t long and 10 feet long. Most
Reagan to attend Houston memorial service
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President
Reagan will fly to the Johnson
Space Center in Houston Friday
to lead the nation in a tribute to
the seven Challenger astronauts
killed in the worst accident in the
history of space exploration, it
was announced Wednesday.
Accompanied by his wife,
Nancy, Reagan will attend mid
day memorial services in the com
munity that was home to all of the
crew members except school- _
teacher Christa McAuliffe of
Concord, N.H., and mission spe
cialist Judith A. Resnick of Cleve
land, Ohio.
The president sent a written
message of condolence to stu
dents and staff at Concord High
School, where McAuliffe has
taught history since 1982. The
White House said contents of the
message would not be released
until the children returned to
school Thursday.
As the American flag flew at
half-staff over the White House,
Reagan telephoned McAuliffe’s
husband Steven and extended
condolences to him, his son Scott,
9, and daughter Caroline, 6.
Reagan also talked by tele
phone with relatives of the other
six crew members. He spoke with
June Scobee, wife of mission com
mander Francis R. Scobee; Mar
vin Resnik, father of the only
other female member of the
crew; Marcia Jarvis, wife of pay-
load specialist Gregory Jarvis;
Jane Smith, wife of pilot Michael
Smith; Cheryl McNair, wife of
mission specialist Ronald McNair;
and Claude Onizuka, brother of
mission specialist Ellison Oni
zuka.
Presidential spokesman Larry
Speakes said Vice President
George Bush reported to Reagan
on his trip to Cape Canaveral to
meet with families of the victims,
relaying the request of June Sco
bee, wife of shuttle pilot Francis
R. Scobee, to “please do not let
this stop the shuttle program.”
See President, page 14
nario you can possibly imagine,” he
said. “There was nothing anyone
could have done for this one. It just
stopped.”
He described the mood in the
control room as “extremely profes
sional under the circumstances, very
somber, there was not much said.”
When computer screens showed
no more data was coming in, he said,
engineers watched the views from
television cameras.
“We were hoping something bet
ter would come out of it,” he said.
After a while, we resumed gathering
data, put it all up and called it a day.”
See NAS A,page 14
were of aluminum, some containing
piping, others covered with tiles.
More helicopters will be used to
day to see if a large object could be
seen in shallow areas. Sonar equip
ment was to be added later.
Experts were studying computer
readouts that timed events at one-
thousandths of a second, hoping to
learn if the problem could have been
a rupture of the shuttle’s huge exter
nal tank. Much speculation has fo
cused on the tank as the source of
the explosion.
Flight director Jay Greene said
data from the tank is not read in
Mission Control, but that it is re
corded and will be available for the
analysis of the tragedy.
“The (external tank) data would
be a useful thing to have now, but it’s
not an operational requirement to
have it (during launch),” he said.
“There is a lot of recorded data sent
down that we haven’t looked at yet.”
Mission Control, with all its so
phisticated technology, had no
warning of the impending explo
sion, said Greene, who was directing
Challenger’s climb to space.
“We train awfully hard for these
flights and we train under every sce-
Also see:
• Unmanned flights, page 4
• Satellite owners, page!
• America mourns, page 9
• McAuliffe’s peers grieve, page 9
• 12-year-old Resnik, page 9
• NASA guards families, page 9
0
21 die in plane crash
near port in Mexico
Free As A Bird
Birds fly by the sun en route to their night roosts Wednesday. This was taken from a field near Beef Cattle Road.
Associated Press
LOS MOCHIS, Mexico — An
AeroCalifornia airliner DC-3 carry
ing 21 people crashed Wednesday
on a hill near the fog-covered air
port of this Pacific port, and an air
line spokeswoman said all aboard
were killed.
“There were no survivors,” said
Mara Castellon, spokeswoman for
the airline’s main office in La Paz on
the Baja California peninsula.
She said the two-engine propeller
plane was flying from Ciudad Con-
stitucion on Baja California to Los
Mochis, carrying 18 passengers and
three crew members.
Ernesto Zavala Valdes, the
spokesman for AeroCalifornia in
Los Mochis, said all aboard were
Mexican citizens.
He said the plane crashed because
“of lack of visibility.”
Associated Press reporter Cam
Rossie, who was flying above the Los
Mochis airport in a six-seater Cessna
at the time of the crash at about
10:15 a.m. EST, saw the accident.
“It burst into flames, and from the
air you could see the tail section was
separated,” she said in a telephone
interview.
“And it looked like the plane was
totally destroyed,” she added.
“We were approaching,” Rossie
said.
“Our pilot said we were not going
to land in Los Mochis because of fog
and the airport was closed,” she
said.“Then he changed his mind and
said we would go ahead and go to
Los Mochis and see what it looks
like.
“We were in the air, and this DC-3
was in the air.
“He said we’ll wait and see if it
lands, see how it does.
“It (the AeroCalifornia plane)
made an attempt at the landing
strip, partially covered with fog.
“We were circling the hill by the
airstrip, and the DC-3 plane couldn’t
land on its first attempt and so it
came back around and it started to
climb over the hill.
“Its wing went down and it
crashed on the side of the hill.”
A man answering the telephone at
the AeroCalifornia office in Los Mo
chis said there were 18 passengers
and three crew members aboard.
Travel information guides in
Mexico City list AeroCalifornia as a
regional airline.
It is based in La Paz on the Baja
California peninsula, directly across
the Gulf of California from Los Mo
chis.
S Council approves change
Cable rates to increase Feb. 1
By CRAIG RENFRO
Staff Writer
jThe College Station City Council
■ednesday night unanimously ap
proved an ordinance which will al-
■w McCaw Cablevision to increase
Jble service rates effective Feb. 1.
1 Under the ordinance, the cable
ptes for the 30-channel package will
■crease from $12.50 per month to
SI 5,
Bjoseph DiBacco, regional vice
ptisident for McCaw, said increased
Rpenditures in operations, in-
leased programming and copyright
Bsts, and the need for additional
ppital to make cable service im-
jjiovements are reasons for the in
crease.
I The franchise agreement McCaw
as with the city states that the cable
impany must notify the city 30 days
i advance of a rate increase. After
Notified, the city can do nothing, and
It the company set the rate, or the
Hty can set a rate that allows McCaw
| reasonable rate of return can their
r vestment.
McCaw notified the city of its plan
~fl) increase the rates on Oct. 31. Both
liege Station and Bryan sus-
^nded the rate increase and hired
ck Hopper, a rate consultant from
ustin, to’ analyze the proposed
ike.
Hopper’s report made no specific
From left to right, Mayor Gary Halter, Council
Members James Bond and Fred Brown, and
Photo by RANDY MERRILL
Texas A&M Student Government representative
Mike Hachtman at the City Council meeting.
recommendations but stated McCaw
is entitled to an increase — though
not the full amount requested. The
report also said the company may
need increased revenues to bring its
performance to long-run expecta
tions.
To determine if McCaw’s request
was justifiable, the city manager of
fices of B-CS constructed a rate of
return analysis, which said McCaw
ran an efficient operation and said
McCaw was entitled to the full in-
According to the analysis, cable
industry indicators said McCaw
maintained a desirable level of oper
ating expenses but was not receiving
a fair rate of return on investment.
William Cole, College Station city
manager, said both cities worked ex
tensively on the analysis.
“McCaw must be in the business
for the long-haul,” Cole said. “Be
cause if they are operating in the
short-run, they are in for a loss, but
in later years their rate of return will
be very good.”
Texaco loses bid
to remove judge
who upheld order
Associated Press
HOUSTON — Texaco Inc.
has lost its bid to remove a Texas
judge who ordered the nation’s
third-largest oil company to pay a
record $11.1 billion for its role in
thwarting Pennzoil Co.’s merger
with Getty Oil Co.
Second Administrative Judge
Thomas Stovall Jr. said Wednes
day he rejected Texaco’s request
to disqualify State District Judge
Solomon Casseb Jr., who pre
sided over the last eight weeks of
the 4'/2-month trial.
“I see no need for further
hearings on this matter,” said Sto
vall, adding that Texas Supreme
Court Chief Justice John Hill
signed a certificate of Casseb’s re
tirement in May.
Stovall appointed Casseb to the
case in October after the original
trial judge, Anthony Farris, be
came ill.
Texaco spokeswoman Anita
Larson in White Plains, N.Y., said
the company had no comment on
Stovall’s ruling. Pennzoil spokes
man Bob Harper also declined to
comment.
In its motion for a new trial.
Texaco alleged Casseb was not le
gally qualified to serve as a “re
tired judge” because he had not
served enough time on the bench
to qulaify for state retirement
benefits.
Upon resuming work as a re
tired judge, Casseb failed to take
the oath of office, Texaco ar
gued.
A hearing on the request for a
new trial has not been set by Cas
seb.
o pi
19£
January 1984 for $10.1 billion,
the second largest merger in U.S.
corporate history.
But a state district court jury in
Houston ruled in November that
Texaco should pay Pennzoil
$10.53 billion in damages for
wrongfully interfering in a pre
vious Pennzoil-Getty Oil merger.
Casseb upheld the damage
award — the largest in U.S. his
tory — and added $600 million in
interest.
Texas law requires that Texaco
post a bond of $12 billion — the
amount plus interest and court
costs — before it can appeal.