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Page 6 • Monday, June 7, 1999
EWS
The I
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Officials looking
to plane systems
for crash details
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Fed
eral investigators removed part of
the twisted and charred fuselage of
an American Airlines jet yesterday
in an effort to get to computers that
controlled the aircraft’s mechanical
systems.
The computers could help inves
tigators learn whether Flight 1420’s
spoilers, reverse
thrusters and brak
ing systems were
functioning properly
when the plane
landed in a storm
Thesday night and
skidded off the end
of the runway, broke
apart and caught
fire, killing Capt.
Richard Buschmann
and eight passen
gers.
Investigators con
sider information
from the computers
crucial to determin
ing whether me
chanical failure, hu
man error, weather
or some combination caused the
first domestic commercial airline
deaths in 1 1/2 years.
“Everything is a possible cause.
What we need to do is ... start nar
rowing the scope,” Greg Feith, lead
investigator for the National Trans
portation Safety Board (NTSB), said.
The computers are located in
the lower part of the MD-82’s
fuselage, underneath the cockpit
and inaccessible until the main
wreckage is lifted and removed,
Feith said. Removal of the larger
pieces will likely begin today,
when a lull in air traffic would
permit closing a runway to move
the hull to a private hangar near
the crash site.
Investigators have recovered and
are analyzing the plane’s flight data
recorder and cockpit voice recorder,
and have interviewed witnesses.
“They give us a lot of informa
tion, but they don’t give us all the
answers,” he said.
The jet’s spoilers
— panels on the
trailing edge of the
wings — were sup
posed to be raised
at touchdown to
break the plane’s
lift and slow the air
craft. Reverse
thrusters from the
engines are en
gaged until the
plane slows to a
speed at which the
pilot can safely
steer it on the
ground.
In an interview
Friday, First Officer
Michael Origel said
he believes the cap
tain set the spoilers. A flight data
recorder indicates they never
popped up when the plane landed.
While much of the early investi
gation focused on a severe thunder
storm, Origel told the NTSB the
plane approached the airport
through a break in the clouds.
Origel, who was released Sat
urday from a hospital where he
had been recovering from a bro
ken leg, told authorities he be
lieved the jet hydroplaned on the
runway. Investigators have said
the runway was adequately
grooved and that the jetliner had
a firm grip on the pavement.
'They (the plane's
onboard comput
ers) give us a lot
of information,
but they don't
give us all the
answers."
— Greg Feith
Lead investigator. National
Transportation Safety Board
Spending, youth crime
lead issues in Congress
HYDE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Guns
and money dominate the agenda
as Congress returns today from a
weeklong Memorial Day break,
with Republicans hoping to master
two issues that
have caused them
fits this year.
The House Ju
diciary Commit
tee plans to write
a wide-ranging ju
venile justice bill
this week that Re
publicans hope
will avoid the
kind of setbacks GOP senators en
dured in May.
Senate Democrats, seizing on
the public outcry after shootings
April 20 at Colorado’s Columbine
High School, forced Republicans to
add gun restrictions to a juvenile
justice bill approved by a 73-25
vote.
The House and Senate also could
vote this week on spending bills,
from agriculture to defense, for the
budget year beginning Oct. 1.
These must-pass measures
have caused heartburn for Re
publicans; the bills cut domestic
programs too much or not
enough, insist competing groups
of GOP lawmakers.
“I hope we can agree on an agen
da and transmit that agenda to peo
ple concerned about our focus,”
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a presi
dential contender who has taken on
Senate leaders before, said.
On the crime front, the House’s
juvenile justice bill will not reach
the full chamber until the week of
June 14.
Rep. Henry Hyde, chair of the
House Judiciary Committee, has
said the bill’s gun-control provi
sions will be similar but not iden
tical to the Senate’s. These include
background checks of firearms
purchasers at gun shows and re
quirements that handguns be sold
with trigger locks.
Hyde’s bill is expected to be
broader than the Senate measure,
however, offering proposals he
said would “curb the culture of vi
olence that has engulfed our
young people.”
FRffijpN
improvisationed comedy
Auditions:
Join the ranks of
the Laugh Army.
Monday, June 7
7:00 pm in MSC 027
(next to the Barbershop)
Callbacks on June 8
For Info. Call 731-1 148
Piece of cake
.. BRADLEY ATCHISONTli
Amanda Ramccyk (left) presents Betty T. Dickchat with her prize after Dickchat won the Cake walk at the thirri n i r mo
Oncology's Cancer Survivors Day Sunday. The celebration was held at Central Park in College Station in conjunction with Nattonahm
KLA seen as key to peace de
KUKES, Albania (AP) — Intent on remaining
an armed force and swelled by new recruits
bent on revenge, the Kosovo Liberation Army
could upset NATO’s plans for the future of the
province.
The rebels are fighting hard to push as deep
into Kosovo as possible before Yugoslav forces
leave and American and other international
peacekeepers arrive. NATO
says Yugoslav forces are coun
terattacking, hoping to crush
the rebels before then.
“As the Serb forces pull out
and the NATO forces move into
Kosovo, we expect the Kosovo
Liberation Army ... not to try
to take advantage of the situa
tion,” NATO spokesperson
Jamie Shea said. “NATO forces
n
MILOSEVIC
will be operating under strict rules of engage
ment and, of course, they will not tolerate any
hindrance to their mission. More specifically,
we hope the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) will
renounce violence.”
Regardless of the outcome of the latest fight
ing, the bloodied, 17,000-strong KLA is in a po
sition to become a key player in postwar Koso
vo, having gathered sweeping popular support
by taking on far superior Serb forces.
“The KLA will be the sole force in Kosovo
creating institutions. It will be the strongest
force influencing the future of Kosovo,” Kadri
Kryeziu, a spokesperson for the group, said in
the frontier town of Kukes on Sunday.
On the brink of extinction after the Serbs ac
celerated their crackdown when NATO began
airstrikes March 24, the resurgent KLA can
rightly claim to have helped the allies achieve
Talks slow as B-52s bomb Serbfi
KUMANOVO, Macedonia (AP) — Talks
bogged down Sunday between NATO and Yu
goslav generals on putting a Kosovo peace
plan into action, while the alliance kept up the
pressure by pounding Serb troops with attacks
by B-52 bombers.
Maj. Tfey Cate, speaking for the American
delegation, said there had been “very little
progress” on the second day of meetings and sig
naled the discussions were at a critical stage.
“There is very little chance of us going into
another day,” he said during a break after 10
hours of talks. He said the session would re
sume Sunday night and “will go through
tonight until it is complete.”
The head of the Italian contingent. Col.
Carmine di Pascale, said, “There are all kinds
of problems.”
He and other alliance officials would not
elaborate on the difficulties.
NATO insists the talks are only to spell out
terms of a withdrawal and areitt«J
tions. The Yugoslav side reportedl'^
ing more time to extract its troops,i';
guarantees that convoys would noi’i
bushed by ethnic Albanian rebels.
As the talks labored on, Airfe
dropped bombs on Yugoslav armyp.’
near the Albania-Kosovo border, j
The strikes were directed at troopsj
guerrillas of the Kosovo LiberationAnr
Yugoslav artillery continued to lire.
Russian Lt. Gen. Yevgeny Barmiancb
military attache at the embassy in Belgrs
rived at the meeting in the afternoon.
Although Russia helped draft theplanj
not participated in the implementationii'
Barmianchev came only as an observer
NATO has said it will persist in itsar
paign, which was in its 75th day Sun);
til it verifies Yugoslav army and special
units are pulling out of Kosovo.
victory in Kosovo. NATO acknowledges that
KLA attacks flush out Serbian armor and
ground troops, exposing them to deadly
airstrikes.
The Serb crackdown prompted a flood of vol
unteers from the vast refugee population and
ethnic Albanians living in Europe and North
America. Many among the hundreds of thou
sands of expatriates help fund the guerrillas via
a three percent “Homeland Calling” levy on
their incomes.
At refugee camps, children chant “UCK,” the
Albanian acronym for the KLA, and teen-agers
wish they were 18 so they could joiiu
roes in the mountains. Mothers proud 1
sons and daughters to tight. ^{,*1
A large majority of the Kosovo refu;
gard the KLA as its shield againstfuM
repression — a role the guerrillas aret
assume.
That is not necessarily good news
United States and its partners as they!
for a peacekeeping mission. NATO exp
KLA to transform into a political movef
Although NATO launched itsairca!
ostensibly to protect Kosovo Albania
THE SUMMER THROWDOWN!
CORY
MORROW
WITH SPECIAL GUEST
BLIND LUCK
THIS THURSDAY»jQ
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