iber 4,1997
lursday • September 4, 1997
W The Battalion
orld
ietnam plane crashes
it Cambodian airport
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A/ednesday
THAILAND LAOS
Chong Chom Pass
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP)
A Vietnam Airlines jetliner
shed in a ball of flames today
landing approach to Phnom
ih’s international airport . Police
iat least 62 people were killed.
Hie Soviet-built Tupolev 134
me, arriving from 1 lo Chi Minh
t,went down in a rice paddy
it a half-mile south of the
iway during a heavy dqwn-
ur,clipping palm trees and ex
iling into flames on impact,
messes said.
The cause of the crash was un-
jwn. The wreckage was still
ming more than one hour after
1:40 p.m. crash.
toss for firetrucks and rescue
ikerswas made difficult by a nar-
flooded dirt road that was the
way to the crash. A plume of
oke rose over the airport.
South Korean Ambassador Park
jngTai said IB passengers from
jth Korea were on board. Tai-
nese state radio, citing Tai-
nese businessmen and lawmak-
I fseng Chen-nung from Phnom
ih’s airport, said at least 21 Tai
wanese had been aboard.
Khieu Kanharith, Cambodia’s
secretary of state for information,
said the passengers were also be
lieved to include an unspecified
number of Germans.
Bodies from the crash were
strewn around the fire-blackened
wreckage. Witnesses some police
officers joined civilians in trying
to loot scattered luggage and
pieces of the plane until they were
chased off by other officers blow
ing whistles.
Police, speaking on condition of
anonymity, gave the initial number
of dead at 62, and said there were
four survivors, two adults and two
children. It was not known how
many people were aboard.
Police were looking for scraps of
paper and passports that might
help identify the victims.
Witnesses said that the plane ap
peared to be making a landing ap
proach when the pilot realized he
had overshot the runway. The nose
started to rise, but then the plane
crashed.
"I was playing and I heard the
sound of the plane, and then a very
noisy BOOM!” said Roeun Phirum, a
12-year-old boy. “The plane hit a
bunch of trees and went into the pad
dy and slid about 200 meters (yards).
It hit a cow tied to bamboo trees.”
Rescue workers rushed one of the
survivors, a small child, covered in
mud and debris, to an ambulence.
Thousands of Phnom Penh resi
dents converged on the crash scene.
Some looting broke out, but was
stopped by police and Cambodian
soldiers.
Only the tail section of the plane
and a portion of the fuselage re
mained intact.
Ib Vanna, a farmer who was
plowing his field, was about a half-
mile from the plane when it
crashed.
“There was this huge explosion,”
Ib Vanna said. “It sounded like the
gas tanks had exploded.”
Vietnam Airlines was one of the
first commercial carriers to resume
service to Phnom Penh’s Pochentong
International Airport in the wake of a
bloody coup in July where fighting
was heavy around the airport.
CAMBODIA
) Mekon
) ,v River
■ , |
VIETNAM
Detail
area
Ho Chi
Minh City
Mekong
River
Delta
South
China
Sea 50 miles
50 km
TUPOLEV Tu-134
Wing span: 95 ft. 1 3/4in.
Length: 121 ft. 6 1/2 in.
Height: 30 ft.
Rear-engine
twin-turbofan
Went into
service
Sept. 1967
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iirrcnt status
I Palestinian civil control
»ith Israeli security
Dial Palestinian
>ntwl
utal Israeli control
Shots fired near West Bank
ittrranean
Sea
Tel Aviv
Leieu* »
Jenin
*■ Tulkarem
, V
Qalqilya
West Bank
Ramullah j
Nablus
Jericho
Jerusalem
45
Bethlehem
f
Hebron
Dead
Sea
■ Gaza
Strip
ISRAEL
AP
NATAF, Israel (AP) —Assailants fired shots at an Is
raeli pickup truck driving near the West Bank today,
killing the driver and passenger, police said.
Police chief AssafHefetz said the possibility that the
shooting was a terrorist attack “is being checked, but it
is not strong and at the moment we think it is more
probably criminal."
The shots were fired at about 3:15 p.m. (8:15 a.m.
EOT) near the Israeli village of Nataf, which is close to
the border between Israel and the West Bank.
The identity of the gunmen was not known. Wit
nesses said they saw people fleeing the area of the
shooting in a car, which media reports said was a taxi.
Hefetz said one of the victims, whose body was
found on a dirt path a few yards outside the truck, had
a criminal record.
Media reports described him as a loan collector
lured to the area by the killers.
The other victim, a gardener, was slumped over the
steering wheel of the pickup truck, which was loaded
with flower pots. Media reports said he may have been
killed by accident or because he was a witness to the
mob-style slaying of the other man.
One of the first to arrive at the scene was the chair
man of the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency, Avra-
ham Burg, who lives in Nataf.
Dozens of police and soldiers also arrived in the area
and sealed off the road to Nataf.
Hefetz said he expected progress in the investiga
tion “very soon” based on evidence found at the scene.
A « C » S
American Chemical Society
Student Affiliate Chapter
Come See What
It's All About!
Thursday, September 4, 1997
@ 6:30 p.m.
New Chemistry Building Rm 2102
"As Iron Sharpens Iron, So One Man Sharpens Another.”
Proverbs 27:17
Date
Time
Place
Dress
Sept. 8
7-9pm
Clayton Williams Alumni Center
Coat and Tie
Sept. 10
7-10pm
Kyle Field Press Box
Nice
Sept. 11
7-10pm
Faculty Club (Rudder Tower)
Nice
Sept. 13
2-5pm
Hensel Park (S. college)
Casual
Tf?
The Aggie Men’s Club
Selections 1997
For additional information, please contact
Pablo Merheb- Selection Chairman at 694-0026
or
Check out our internet Web site at http://amc.myrad.net
The Aggie Men’s Club at Texas A&M University
WAS CREATED BY A GROUP OF STUDENTS WITH THE INTENT
OF PROVIDING AN ATMOSPHERE OF CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
and Brotherhood. If you are interested please feel
FREE TO ATTEND OUR SELECTION PARTIES.
Persons with disabilities should call 845-1515 so accommodations can be made as needed. S