The Battalion Monday, Nov. 7, 1988 Page 9
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*tiei Air crashes prompt questions on chatter
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two fatal
aiiliner accidents have prompted ques-
ti|)us about idle chatter in the cockpit and
raised concerns by some safety officials
that pilots may not always be focusing on
business when they should be.
■ Federal investigators at the National
’Jiansportation Safety Board are closely
examining the tape covering nearly 30
minutes in the cockpit of Delta Air Lines
Flight 1141 last August before the Boe
ing 727 crashed seconds after takeoff,
killing 14 of the 108 people aboard.
■ More than half of the tape, covering a
lengthy taxi period at the huge Dallas-
Fbrth Worth International Aiiport, in
volves impertinent conversation among
the pilots and two (light attendants on
subjects ranging from the recent pur
chase of a house to the habit of birds
nesting near airports.
Nearly 11 minutes of the tape were
omitted from the transcript because they
were considered irrelevant, including a
reference, according to sources, of the
disclosure in news reports a few days be
fore the crash of idle chatter aboard a
Continental Airlines that crashed in
Denver 10 months earlier.
If there is an accident, one participant
in the Delta cockpit reportedly reminded
his colleagues, their words might end up
in the newspapers, too.
Later, the plane’s captain told investi
gators he did not care for the lengthy
presence of the flight attendants in the
cockpit, but that it was not his nature to
order them from the cockpit during the
long takeoff delay.
Investigators emphasized that so far
there has been no clear evidence linking
these conversations — some of which
was technically legal because the plane
was not moving — with the possible
cause of the crash.
But investigators are trying to deter
mine whether the flight crew forgot to
3ush, Dukakis both claim
last-minute race momentum
>to by Kathy Have'
Associated Press
■ George Bush and Michael Dukakis
both laid claim Sunday to precious, last-
njinute momentum in their campaign
marathon, the vice president declaring
th( tide was “moving in our direction”
abd the combative underdog insisting he
Was “rocking and rolling” to an election
ulset Tuesday.
■ The political equivalent of a nuclear
exchange occurred on television, where
the Republicans and Democrats spent
millions of dollars in advertising for the
failing hours of the campaign. The two
Jindidates bought time for 30-minute
■mmercials on all three major networks
foi election eve on Monday.
■ Although national polls pointed to a
jetory by GOP nominee Bush, both
ndidates battled the clock and physical
haustion in a final drive to snare unde
led voters and nail down the presi
dency.
■ NBC News said Bush led nationally
by five percentage points, and that one of
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p “There ain’t no stopping us now un
less we stop ourselves,” the vice presi
dent said at a breakfast rally in Colorado
Springs, Colo.
■ “We can’t turn the White House over
tl the people who claim to be on our side
but who left the country on its back,”
Bush said.
■ Countered Dukakis, also beginning his
day in Colorado: “He’s slipping and
sliding, we’re rocking and rolling.” He
sought to raise fears over the possibility
that Bush — if elected — might put vice
presidential running mate Dan Quayle in
charge of the White House crisis man
agement team.
“Gives you the chills, doesn’t it?”
Dukakis asked. “Think about it — the
Cuban missile crisis, with Dan Quayle in
charge.”
Democrats voiced confidence they
would retain or perhaps widen their ma
jorities in the House and Senate in Tues
day’s balloting, and they got little dissent
from Republicans on that score.
One of the tightest Senate races was in
Florida, where a late-hour poll showed a
virtual dead heat between Democratic
Rep. Buddy MacKay and Republican
Rep. Connie Mack for the seat being va
cated by Democratic Sen. Lawton
Chiles.
Democrats also hoped for modest
gains among the 12 statehouse races on
the ballot.
It was the costliest campaign in Amer
ican history, and just one piece of it, a
series of California ballot initiatives, had
a price tag of more than $100 million.
Bush aide Alixe Glen described the
vice president’s rapidly changing itine
rary as a “Magical Mystery Tour.” Du
kakis tried to defy the clock and was fly
ing overnight from Spokane to Cleveland
and then St. Louis — and then back to
the West Coast for a noon rally Monday.
A series of state polls provided a pic
ture of several dose races. One poll gave
Bush a 17-point lead in Texas, with its
29 electoral votes. But Dukakis was re
ported gaining on Bush in the latest sur
vey in Colorado, and holding an eight-
point lead in Iowa.
NBC News said its nationwide survey
completed Saturday night showed the
vice president with a lead of 48 percent
to 43 percent, down from two weeks ear
lier, and that a very high 21 percent of
the voters are undecided or may still
change their minds.
properly set the jetliner’s wing flaps,
which help it gain lift, and whether the
conversations distracted them from pre
paring the plane for flight.
An exchange lasting 7 minutes and 42
seconds between co-pilot Carey Kirkland
and a senior flight attendant began as the
crew was going through one of the pref
light check lists. Finally, the exchange
was cut short by Capt. Larry Davis,
prompting an apology from Kirkland
about “sitting here talking to the flight
attendant,’’ according to the transcript.
Later flight engineer Steven Judd told
investigators he had been uneasy about
the attendant’s lengthy presence.
While there is no link established be
tween these discussions and the accident,
some NTSB investigators are uneasy
about the casual and relaxed demeanor
the exchanges reflect.
Furthermore, several aviation safety
officials not involved with the Delta in
vestigation suggested such extraneous
discussions before takeoff are common.
“It’s very difficult to legislate against
people interacting in a job situation,”
says Clay Foushee, an aviation safety re
searcher at NASA’s Ames Research
Center in California.
Foushee said while some easual ex
changes may help a flight crew feel at
ease and work together, there also have
been numerous pilot complaints received
through NASA’s anonymous aviation re
porting system over the years about pilot
distractions, including inappropriate
conversation and untimely presence in
the cockpit of flight attendants.
Earlier this year, the NTSB in its final
report on the Nov. 15, 1987, crash of the
Continental Airlines jetliner in Denver
also raised concerns about idle chatter in
the cockpit. That crash, which killed 28
people, was attributed to the pilot taking
off in snow with ice on the wings.
Four minutes before takeoff, the two
Continental pilots engaged in almost
three minutes of nonpertinent social con
versation — reportedly involving a flight
attendant — which would suggest inat
tention to more important details such as
the weather and its effects on icing, the
safety board said.
Since 1981, the Federal Aviation Ad
ministration has had a sterile cockpit rule
that prohibits any conversation among
flight crews not related to the operation
of the aircraft when the plane is taxiing
and in motion, and when flying below
10,000 feet in an approach or departure.
Flight attendants also are specifically
prohibited from entering the cockpit dur
ing those periods.
The requirement was prompted by
concerns at the FAA about an unusually
high number of cases in the late 1970s,
including several accidents, in which pi
lots were distracted from their duties by
idle chatter and other requirements such
as making cabin announcements during
“critical phases of flight.”
FAA and other aviation officials con
cede they have no idea how often the rule
is ignored.
Israelis bomb Lebanon business
SIDON, Lebanon (AP) — Israeli heli
copter gunships rocketed the shop of a
boat dealer suspected of links with PLO
guerrillas Sunday, demolishing the busi
ness and wounding five people, two of
them seriously, police said.
The Israeli army said its warplanes de
stroyed a Palestinian guerrilla base in
south Lebanon. It did not mention cas
ualties.
Lebanese police said four Israeli Co
bra helicopter gunships blasted the shop
and a nearby citrus grove with eight
rockets in two raids. The shop in the
southern port of Sidon was closed at the
time.
A police spokesman, who cannot be
named under standing regulations, said
the shop owner, Mahmoud Hijazi, was
suspected of renting two motorboats to
PLO guerrillas and selling the guerrillas
spare parts.
It was the sixth Israeli air strike
against guerrilla targets in south Lebanon
in three weeks and the 21st this year. By
police count, 108 people were killed and
204 wounded in raids since Jan. 3.
Hijazi’s motorboats, anchored off the
beach about 600 yards from his shop,
were not hit in the raid, police said.
Earlier police reports said aircraft at
tacked guerrilla bases in the teeming Ein
el-Hilweh refugee camp on Sidon’s
southern outskirts. Police said the guer
rillas in the camp opened up with anti
aircraft fire but were not targeted.
Israeli-backed Lebanese militiamen
also killed three guerrillas who appar
ently landed in a boat on the Medittera-
nean coast just north of Israel, the army
command said.
An Israeli army announcement said
the base attacked Sunday was used for
launching attacks and ammunition stor
age. It said all planes that took part in the
raid returned safely.
The brief announcement gave no fur
ther details.
The attack followed mock raids by six
Israeli jets against the Palestinian guer
rilla strongholds at midmorning.
Palestinian camps south of Sidon have
taken the brunt of the stepped-up Israeli
raids, which have by police count have
killed 40 people and wounded 91 in the
past three weeks.
The blitz is in apparent retaliation for a
suicide car-bombing that killed eight Is
raeli soldiers in south Lebanon on Oct.
19 and a firebomb attack that killed an
Israeli mother and her three children in
the Israeli-occupied West Bank Oct. 30.
Voter turnout
major issue
for Nov. 8
Associated Press
Democrats and Republicans are both
concerned with voter turnout in the
Nov. 8 election.
Only half of eligible voters are ex
pected to turn out for Tuesday’s bal
loting, when a president, vice presi
dent, 33 senators and 435 House
members will be chosen.
Republicans and Democrats alike
are keenly aware that getting people
to vote will be their No. 1 challenge.
Political parties, unions and other
groups are running phone banks to
reach swing voters as well as party
faithful.
As usual, workers will hand out
leaflets, arrange for baby-sitters and
escort people to the polls. But there
are also some more unusual strate
gies.
In Arkansas, where the deer-hunt-
ing season opened Saturdayj Republi
cans mounted a direct-mail campaign
encouraging hunters to get an absen
tee ballot if they won’t be back from
hunting in time for the election.
Coalition ’88, a group of homosex
uals and others who want two Cali
fornia AIDS initiatives defeated, will
have hundreds of volunteers on Elec
tion Day erecting “human bill
boards” at 70 major intersections in
Los Angeles urging voters to get out
and turn down the two propositions.
Both parties are conducting mas
sive drives for the state’s 13.5 million
registered voters but worry about the
dampening effect of a ballot with nine
state initiatives and possibly hundreds
of local measures.
State GOP chairman Bob Naylor
says: “I’m very concerned that peo
ple will be confronted with long lines
at the polls, get early results from the
East Coast and absentee ballots and
say, ‘What the heck. I won’t vote.’”
Nationwide, public-interest groups
predict that only 50 percent or fewer
of the eligible voters will turn out,
one of the lowest percentages this
century and down from the 1984 fig
ure of 53 percent.
The AFL-CIO will have 500,000
volunteers out on Election Day, a ma
jority of them in states with the most
union members, which also happen to
be states with big electoral votes.
DON’T STOP AT THE TOP
VOTE FOR REPUBLICANS ALL THE WAY DOWN THE BALLOT
WOULD YOU RATHER SUPPORT SOMEONE FROM THE PARTY OF:
Jimmy Carter Mike Dukakis
Walter Mondale Teddy Kennedy
Jim Wright
OR WOULD YOU RATHER SUPPORT SOMEONE FROM THE
PARTY OF:
Abraham Lincoln
Ronald Reagan
George Bush
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HELP THE AGGIE GOP TONIGHT TO HELP:
George Bush
Beau Boulter
Joe Barton
Ed Emmett
Kent Hance
Tom Phillips
Gary Norton
Randy Sims
Hub Kennedy (Write-in)
Wes Peyton
Nathan Hecht
Paul Murphy
We will meet at 7:00 in 701 Rudder Then get to work for the Ticket of the 90’s
Lets Have A Victory As Big As Texas In 1988.