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l tie tsattalion
College Station, Texas
Friday, October 16,1987
Airliner carrying 37
down in Italian Alps
[he Army ROTC Ranger Challenge team pre
mies Thursday af ternoon for the brigade compe
tition to be held Nov. 7 at Camp Bullis, north of
Photo by Sam Myers
San Antonio. The team perfects maneuvers such
as grenade throwing and this simulation of cross
ing a water obstacle by means of a rope bridge.
BARNI, Italy (AP) — An Italian
airliner carrying 37 people on a
flight from Milan to West Germany
slammed into the northern foothills
of the Italian Alps during a heavy
rainstorm Thursday night, authori
ties said.
There was no word on whether
there were any survivors at the crash
site on Mount Crezzo. One witness
said he saw “a ball of fire” from
where the plane apparently went
down.
Driving rain, heavy fog and rough
terrain hampered rescuers’ efforts
to reach the plane, which crashed
near Barni, a small town about 40
miles north of Milan.
Air traffic controllers lost contact
with Flight 460 of the state-run Al
italia subsidiary ATI about 7:30 p.m.
(1:30 p.m. CD F), 15 minutes after it
had taken off from Milan’s Linate
Airport for Cologne, West Ger
many, airline spokesman Roberto
Panico said.
Right before the plane vanished
from the radar screens at 7:29 p.m.,
pilot Lamberto Laine radioed the
control tower, “We are in emer
gency,” the news agency ANSA re
ported, adding that nothing else was
heard from the plane.
News agencies and state-run RAI
television quoted some officials as
saying the plane apparently struck
the 2,300-foot level of Mount
Crezzo, near Lake Como. Local offi
cials said the exact site had not been
pinpointed.
“I heard a very loud noise, like a
plane flying very low, and shortly
thereafter a blast that shook the
hotel,” said Cinzia Barni, 25, daugh
ter of the owner of the Italia Hotel.
“I ran outside and a boy told me that
he had seen a flash of light on the
mountain.”
At the Madonnina Refuge, an inn
at about 3,280 feet elevation in the
vicinity of Mount Crezzo, proprietor
Franco Villa said he was eating din
ner with his family when they heard
a loud noise. Running to the win
dow, they saw “a ball of fire” on the
mountain, followed by the sound of
an explosion, he said.
The plane was carrying 34 passen
gers and three crewmembers, Panico
said. He said the plane, an ATR 42,
was on a special flight carrying
mostly employees of a German firm.
The crash site was a sparsely pop
ulated area between the southern
two forks of popular Lake Como,
about 16 miles from the Swiss bor
der.
Frantic rescuers work
to save toddler in well
MIDLAND (AP) — A frightened
toddler trapped for more than a day
22 feet down an abandoned back
yard well talked to her mother and
cried Thursday as anxious rescuers
pounded their way through solid
rock with jackhammers.
Eighteen-month-old Jessica Mc
Clure fell into the well about 9:30
a.m. Wednesday while playing with
See related story, Page 6
other children at a private day-care
center run by her aunt and her
mother.
Midland Police Chief Richard
Czech said Thursday night the res
cuers had hit much harder rock than
they had anticipated but that “I’m
going to guess that maybe by six in
the morning, if the good Lord’s will
ing, we’ll be done.”
Floodlights were turned on as
dusk fell Thursday. Dozens of
friends and neighbors gathered to
wait and pray with Jessica’s parents.
Chip, 18, and Reba Gayle McClure,
17. Jessica is their only child.
Earlier Thursday, Midland police
Cpl. Jim White said he listened to
the child through a microphone that
had been lowered to her.
“The only thing I heard her say is,
‘Mommy,’ ” he said. “The rest is just
crying and moaning.”
Rescue workers using hand-held
hydraulic drills inside a shaft sunk
64 inches away from the abandoned
well had chiseled about 40 to 50
inches through solid rock but still
had about two feet to go. Midland
Fire Chief James Roberts said.
“We don’t have any best estimate”
on when rescuers might reach Jes
sica, he said.
“If you would have asked me yes
terday morning early, (I would have
said) we wouldn’t be here today,” he
said. “The rock has been much
harder. Nobody visualized that rock
being that hard.”
An earlier, smaller pilot shaft was
drilled to within six inches of the
well, but the later drilling was on a
shaft that is 12 to 20 inches wide, one
through which a rescuer could fit, he
said.
Midland police Sgt. Jeff Haile
said, “We are just trying frantically
to get to the little girl through the
rock. The workers are starting to
feel anxiety and it’s combining with
their fatigue.”
4-day football strike ends; union goes to court
WEW YORK (AP) — The 24-day
'(FI strike ended Thursday when
the union capitulated and went to
court instead of trying to fight the
club owners at the bargaining table,
■"earns began reporting back en
masse even without a new contract
agreement, but left after being told
thee had missed the deadline to play
l|gnd get paid — for this weekend’s
> " ' ■
[related stories, Pages 9,10,11
ames, and again would be replaced
' rton-union players and their tea-
nmates who went in earlier,
j “{t was unfair to the players to
tontnue to sacrifice any more,” said
anion head Gene Upshaw, who said
player representatives from all 28
teams voted to end their strike.
Upshaw said the union would
pursue its aims in an antitrust suit
filed against the league in Minneap
olis.
“We tried bargaining, now we’ll
let the courts decide,” he said.
The union statement came almost
five hours after teams started re
porting amid chaos and confusion in
city after city.
The deluge started in late morn
ing, shortly after a telephone dis
cussion between Upshaw and man
agement negotiator Jack Donlan
ended without accord on a back-to-
play agreement. Many player rep
resentatives claimed they had been
told by the union that management
might waive the 1 p.m. Wednesday
deadline to report for this week’s
games.
“We sent the players back,” Up
shaw said. “They are ready to play.
They want to play.”
When they arrived, however, they
found management telling them, in
effect, “thanks, but no thanks,” and
most left as quickly^as they had ar
rived.
The fallout from management’s
hard line was immediate.
Harry Carson, captain of the Su
per Bowl champion New York Gi
ants, said, “Some people are very,
very bitter. And it’s not just here, it’s
across the league.”
The Giants were one of many
teams to walk in, then walk out when
they found they wouldn’t be paid.
Much of the chaos stemmed from
the union’s apparent misunder
standing that the owners would ad
just the deadline. But the owners
said that was a misconception.
“They came back too late,” said
Dan Rooney, president of the Pitts
burgh Steelers and a member of the
NFL Management Council executive
committee. “We set a deadline two
weeks ago to come in so we wouldn’t
have a situation vvhere the players
could come, in at any time. We had to
have a date.”
John Spagnola, player representa
tive of the Philadelphia Eagles, led
his team into, then out of, Veterans
Stadium. “Apparently their deadline
is a true deadline,” he said.
Indeed it was.
Not only did the Eagles and Gi
ants leave, but so did the Redskins,
Browns, Falcons, Rams, Dolphins,
Bills, Cardinals, Patriots, Bengals,
Chargers and Saints, all after meet
ing with team officials. Most said
they would be back next week, when
they can play and get paid.
“We offered our services to play
Sunday,” said Mike Kenn of the Fal
cons, a union vice president. “They
said they would not pay us, so ba
sically that’s a lockout. So we went
back out.”
But the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
and Minnesota Vikings didn’t show
up at all.
Player representative Steve Jor
dan of the Vikings, said, “Until I
hear from Gene Upshaw that the
strike is over, the strike isn’t over.”
Player representatives Keith
Fahnhorst and Keena Turner of the
San Francisco 49ers met with Coach
Bill Walsh in the morning and said
the players would come back in the
afternoon.
Fahnhorst accused the owners’
Management Council of wanting “to
rub our noses in it” by not paying the
players or allowing them to play.
“We have to report to show them
we’re back,” he said. “If they don’t
pay us, there might be some legal re
course.”
Management said players could
practice and be paid at the per diem
rate, $750 a week for veterans and
$500 for rookies, plus $38 a day for
meals.
But there was only the slightest
chance that they would play this
weekend in place of the replace
ments who have played for the last
two weeks. That’s even more impor
tant this week, because once a player
has been in three games, he becomes
eligible for at least a half share of
playoff money.
Management Council spokesman
John Jones said, “They’re welcome
to report.”
Director: Computer system will help
Placement Center run more smoothly
By Cindy Milton
Staff Writer
"Ainew $ 17,000 scheduling and fili
ng [computer system installed at
tacas A&M’s Placement Center this
'emtster should help the center run
hori smoothly, Lewis Van Pelt, the
nter's director, said.
The system will file student re-
mes and schedule interviews,
ning less hassle for students and
eCenter’s personnel, Van Pelt said,
^■he new system will do things
<|>ld one didn’t,” he said. “It will
n ore adequately monitor the stu-
■entg and let us know of their pro
cess. ’
D’Ann Wheeler, administrative
secretary at the Placement Center,
said the new system is expected to
save at least $18,000 each year.
“We’re saving money by making
our own data sheets intead of letting
the data-processing center do it,” she
said.
Wheeler said the savings might
not show up on paper for a few years
because of the equipment’s initial
cost and the costs of disks and other
student equipment. But the system is
certain to save money in the long
run because it is centralized and cuts
back on expenses, Wheeler said.
Students using the Placement
Center to find a job are issued a pre
formatted floppy disk — all the stu
dent has to do is fill in the blanks and
return the disk to the Placement
Center, Van Pelt said. Before, stu
dents had to fill out a set of forms,
including placement registration
and resumes for the center’s files, he
said. These forms were made into
data sheets at the University’s data-
processing center and then sent back
to the Placement Center files.
In the new system, Van Pelt said,
all information about the student is
plugged into the computer disk with
a PC- or IBM-compatible computer
— in the library or computer center
on campus — and the student auto
matically is put into Placement Cen
ter files.
Students can update their regis
tration information and resume at
any time during the semester simply
by changing the information on
their disks and returning them to
the center. The center keeps hard
copies of the disks and printed cop
ies of the student information are
filed.
But the new system doesn’t stop
here — it also makes interview
schedules from “bid cards” turned in
by registered students, Van Pelt said.
Job recruiters send the center
See Computer, page 12
no use OKs plan to notify workers of health risks
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
louse voted Thursday to establish a
e\v|S25 million program for the
overnment to individually warn
Uncj(ieds of thousands of workers
ichlyear that they face a high risk
| cancer and other disabling dis-
tses from exposure to hazardous
ibstanceson the job.
Voting 225-186 largely along
>rty lines, Democrats pushed the
tigh-risk occupational and disease
ttification” bill through the House
‘spite a threatened veto from Pres
ident Reagan and vehement objec
tions from business groups fearing
massive liability suits.
Republicans succeeded in attach
ing an amendment by Rep. William
Dannemeyer, R-Calif., that would
automatically include health-care
workers in the high-risk group-he-
cause of their possible exposure to
the AIDS virus.
For all other workers, the bill
would establish a nine-member
panel of medical and scientific ex
perts in the Department "of Health
and Human Services to determine
which groups are most at risk.
The National Institute of Occupa
tional Safety and Health would then
be required to send individual no
tices to between 100,000 and
300,000 of them every year.
“This is a cost-effective-pr-ogra.m
that, in the long run, can prevent de
bilitating occupational diseases that
cause 100,000 deaths and 400,000
disabilities each year,” said the bill’s
sponsor,4lep. Joseph Gaydos, D-Pa.
NIOSH officials estimate nearly
one-fourth of Americans have been
exposed to carcinogens and other
hazardous substances on the job,
and that most of them are unaware
of it.
The Labor Department in 1984
said in a study that occupational dis
eases “are costing the government
alone about $5.4 billion a year in So
cial Security disability, Medicare and
Medicaid payments.
State agrees to pay
$204 million to reform
mental health care
DALLAS (AP) — Attorneys for
the state and plaintiff mental pa
tients signed a historic agreement
Thursday that officials predict
will improve state facilities and
services for the mentally re
tarded.
The Texas Department of
Mental Health and Mental Retar
dation will receive about $204
million in federal and state
money to improve its care under
See related story, Page 3
the agreement signed in U.S. Dis
trict Judge Barefoot Sanders’
court, an attorney said.
Under the agreement, staff-to-
client ratio at state schools will be
inGreased-by T5_percent over the
next three years, including doc
tors, nurses and physical thera
pists, the department said.
The department also will be re
quired to begin the process of
complying with the Accreditation
Council on Developmental Defi
ciencies’ standards at the Austin,
Denton, Fort Worth and San An
tonio state schools.
In the 18-month period prior
to the initial accreditation at the
four schools, interim im
provement measures will be es
tablished for medical services, be
havior treatment programs and
the prevention, reporting and in
vestigation of client abuse and ne
glect, the department said.
David Ferleger, the plaintiffs’
attorney, said the state agreed to
include all 13 state schools in its
planned improvements.
The original 1983 case had
named only three schools to re
ceive extra funds.
Ferleger says the state was
muscled into the agreement be
cause Friday is the deadline Sand
ers set for a settlement.
He had threatened to hold the
state in contempt if one wasn’t
reached.
“We proposed that the judge
look into holding contempt hear
ings for the other schools, one by
one,” Ferleger said. “And the re
sult politically would have been a
disaster for the state.”
Also under the agreement, the
court will continue monitoring
the state’s progress and mainte
nance over the next 10 years, Fer
leger said.