STATF.8NATTON
uesday.
Page 6
THE BATTALION
ruesday, March 7,1
Stop, drop and roll
CHAD ADAMS 11 ih Bahai ion
Shilo Owens, a sophomore community health major, loads a dummy into the Rollover Crash
Convincer to demonstrate the dangers of drinking and driving, not wearing a seatbelt and driving
with the windows down. Picture inset: the Rollover Crash Convincer in action.
Plane drives past runway,
into fence, misses gas static
Mai
At least 1 killed in plant explosion
RADFORD, Va. (AP)—Anxious rel
atives waited outside Monday as rescuers
searched for two workers missing after an
explosion tore apart an industrial plant and
killed at least one employee. Six workers
were hospitalized.
“There’s a lot of twisted metal every
where you look,” Fire Chief Lee Simpkins
said following the blast Sunday night at
New River Castings, a plant that makes
auto parts.
Families of the two missing women
waited outside the plant Monday as dogs
from Fairfax County’s search and rescue
team were being brought in to search the
rubble.
The last hot spot of flames was extin
guished this morning.
The cause of the explosion was under
investigation, but there were reports of a
natural gas buildup.
Simpkins estimated damage at $30
million to $50 million. Witnesses said at
least one wall at the main plant was de
stroyed.
About 100 workers were in the plant
at the time of the 9:30 p.m. blast, Simp
kins said.
An unknown number were treated for
smoke inhalation and minor cuts and
bruises at an ambulance station set up out
side the plant.
The worker found dead was identilied
as Curtis Grooms, 29.
Marie Hamilton said her daughter-in-
law, Karen Anderson Hamilton, 35, was
one of the missing workers.
“I’m just hoping and praying that she’s
in a cubbyhole somewhere and all
right,’’’said Hamilton.
She said her son, Douglas, was work
ing at the plant when the explosion hap
pened but was uninjured. The couple had
been married just six months.
“I’m hoping and praying ... that
things will be all right, but I’m afraid
not,” she said.
At one point, Karen Hamilton’s father,
Edward Anderson, broke through a barri
er and ran toward the building, saying, “If
they’re not going to look for my kid. I’m
going myself.” Authorities restrained him.
Roy Davis said his girlfriend, Debbie
Sheppard, 37, was the other missing
woman.Representatives of United Cities
Gas Co. were at the scene.
Witnesses said flames rose 20 feet
above the plant roof.
“All of a sudden I saw a big orange ball
of fire, and everything was pitch black,”
OHIO
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W. VA.
Richmond©
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Radford
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) — A South
west Airlines jetliner landing with 142
people aboard barreled off the end of a
runway, slammed through a fence and
struck a passing car before screeching to
a halt about 50 feet from a gas station.
The cause of the accident was not
known, officials said Monday.
Up to 15 people on the plane sus
tained minor injuries in Sunday night’s
accident at Burbank Airport, officials
said. The driver of the car and her 4-year-
old daughter were not hurt, although their
car's hood was pinned under the aircraft.
The carrier, known for bargain ticket
prices, has not had a fatality in its 30-year
history. Southwest officials said.
Flight 1455 left Las Vegas about two
hours behind schedule, passenger Kevin
McCoy said.
“They told us it might be a rough
landing, but none of us were expecting
this,” McCoy told KNBC-TV.
Airline officials did not know of any
turbulence reported to the passengers,
spokesperson Ginger Hardage said.
McCoy said the plane made a short
approach toward the mnway and seemed
to be going fast.
“The angle that we approached the
runway was much steeper than I was
used to,” said McCoy, who was sitting in
the second row.
The Boeing 737-300 ripped a gaping
hole through the airport fence and
stopped on Hollywood Way about 50
feet from a Chevron station.
It came to rest with its nose on the
ground. Although the plane leaked about
10 gallons of fuel, there was no lire.
The front landing gear collapsed but
what caused the plane to hurtle off the
runway was under investigation, said
Louis Diaz, a spokesperson with the
Federal Aviation Ad
ministration.
The weather had
been stormy in the
area throughout the
day Sunday. I lowev-
er. Southwest CEO
Herb Kelleher told
reporters Monday at
company headquar
ters in Dallas that
rain had stopped
falling at the airport
about four-hours be
fore the accident, and
another Southwest
plane had landed un
eventfully on the
6,000-foot runway
about two minutes
before Flight 1455.
Kelleher said he
would not expect the
cause to be deter
mined for at least a
Southwest’s near miss
MINNEAPC
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Marino is washe
Dennis Gree
league’s career p
Southwest Airlines Flight 1455 skidded off the Burbank Airport runway, slamme:
through a retaining wall and came to a halt on a street, narrowly missings
gas station. The Boeing 737-300 en route from Las Vegas touched dovm
shortly after 9 p m EST on Sunday.
Source: Compiled from AP wire reports
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anonymity confi
year. “Nobody who considers himself
an expert will attempt to offer a cause
of the crash right after it happened,”
Kelleher said.
He said he did not know where the
plane touched down on the runway or
whether its thrust reversers functioned.
The reversers redirect the engine thrust
to slow a plane after landing.
Kelleher had said earlier that the
plane’s last maintenance check was per
formed Thursday and “there were no
visible problems with the airplane.” He
said it was built in 1985 and has run
through a total of 32,000 takeoffs and
landings, which he said was not a lot.
The pilot, who was released from a
hospital after treatment for a blow to his
head, has been flying 737s since
has more than 18,000 flying hours as
was hired by Southwest in 19
her said.
Aggies 1
The first officer, who was released
ter evaluation at a hospital, has bet
w orking at Southwest since 1996andk gQ0 No.
15 years of experience, Kelleher said.
The plane may be a total loss, Kelli-
her said. “It’s the most serious accideS
we’ve had in 29 years,” he said,
Cranes hoisted the
Fresh off of 1
ifth-ranked Bay!
he Texas A&M
he road once ;
108,000-poifl j 0na ||y ran ked
The Aggies
oface the thi
aircraft off the street today andmovedi
onto airport property.
The plane’s front emergencydocAity of Houstc
failed to open when passengers tried to: p.m. Tuesday,
evacuate; it might have been i
when the plane went through thefetiR.
Kelleher said.
FBI approved tear gas in Waco siege
A&M (9-10,
wept in a confe
irst time since
Jniversity swep
he first sweep
dnce 1991.
The Cougars
i Auto plant
explosion
150 miles
N.C.
150 km
S.C.
Atlantic
Ocean
plant worker Scott Hetherington told the
newspaper.
The explosion “sounded like some
thing was coming through the roof of my
house,” said Sherri Birkelbach, who lives
about three blocks away.
Seven workers were hospitalized but
one was released this morning. Two were
in serious but stable condition and the con
ditions of the others weren’t available.
Others were treated for smoke inhala
tion and minor cuts and bruises.
DALLAS (AP)—-The FBI gained Attorney General Janet
Reno’s approval to use tear gas at the Branch Davidian siege
by providing misleading or incomplete data, according to The
Dallas Morning News.
The newspaper’s copyright story in Monday’s editions
quoted a confidential report of a veteran FBI behavioral ex
pert’s interview, in which he said key infonnation was not pro
vided to Reno when the agency began lobbying her to approve
gassing the Mount Carmel compound near Waco.
Peter Smerick, a retired agent whose psychological profiles
were termed the best predictors of the 1993 Branch Davidians’
deaths by negotiators involved in the 51 -day siege, told agency
interviewers that he believed “the FBI misled the attorney gen
eral by giving her ‘a slanted view of the operation’ in Waco.”
Smerick, in the 1995 report obtained by the newspaper,
blamed FBI headquarters for convincing the attorney general
that using tear gas was the only means to peacefully end the
standoff.
Lawyers representing the Branch Davidians in a federal
wrongful death lawsuit said they have not seen the 15-page FBI
report, written by the agency’s general counsel’s office, and la
beled “attomey-client privileged and confidential.”
Five profiling memos, warning that using force against ti
sect would intensify a “bunker mentality” in which “they woii
rather die than surrender,” were not in the briefing book that FB
leaders gave Reno when they started lobbying her on April 11
1993 to approve using tear gas.
Seven days later. Branch Davidian leader David Koreshan
about 80 of his followers died as the compound burned.
Smerick said in the FBi report that he and one of the agency
top negotiators had “concluded that the best strategy wouldha«
been to convert the Branch Davidian compound into a prison ai:
simply announce to Koresh that he was in the custody oftheUnii-
ed States.”
In late 1993, Smerick retired from the FBI and is now a lx
havioral consultant.
“Smerick speculated that FBI headquarters viewedthisop-
tion as one which would have caused them to ‘lose face’ami
therefore was unacceptable,” the report stated.
The memos by Smerick also warned that the sect considers!
its home “sacred ground” and would “fight back to thedeafil
law officers tried to enter the compound.
R
THE TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY STUDENT MEDIA BOARD IS ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR
[•
The Battalion
- Including radio and online editions -
Summer 2000
(The summer editor will serve
May 22 through Aug. 11, 2000.)
Fall 2000
(The fall editor will serve
Aug. 14 through Dec. 15, 2000.)
ditor
Aggieland
2001
Qualifications for editor in chief of The Battalion are:
Be a Texas A&M student in good standing with the University and enrolled in at least six credit
hours (4 if a graduate student) during the term of office (unless fewer credits are required to grad
uate);
Have at least a 2.00 cumulative grade point ratio (3.00 if a graduate student) and at least a 2.00
grade point ratio (3.00 if a graduate student) in the semester immediately prior to the appoint
ment, the semester of appointment and semester during the term of office. In order for this provi
sion to be met, at least six hours (4 if a graduate student) must have been taken for that semester;
Have completed JOUR 301 (Mass Communication, Law and Society), or equivalent;
• Have at least one year experience in a responsible editorial position on The Battalion or compa
rable daily college newspaper,
-0R-
Have at least one year editorial experience on a commercial newspaper,
-OR-
Have completed at least 12 hours journalism, including JOUR 203 and 303 (Media Writing I and
II), and JOUR 304 (Editing for the Mass Media), or equivalent.
Qualifications for editor in chief of the Aggieland yearbook are:
Be a Texas A&M student in good standing with the University and enrolled in at least
six credit hours (4 if a graduate student) during the term of office (unless fewer credits
are required to graduate);
Have at least a 2.00 cumulative grade point ratio (3.00 if a graduate student) and at
least a 2.00 grade point ratio (3.00 if a graduate student) in the semester immedi
ately prior to the appointment, the semester of appointment and semester during the
term of office. In order for this provision to be met, at least six hours (4 if a graduate
i fat
student) must have been taken for that semester;
Have completed JOUR 210 (Graphics) and JOUR 301 (Mass Communication, Law
and Society), or equivalent;
Have demonstrated ability in writing through university coursework or equivalent
experience;
Have at least one year experience in a responsible position on the Aggieland or com
parable college yearbook.
Application forms should be picked up and returned to Francia Cagle in the Student Media office, room 014A Reed McDonald Building. Deadline for submitting application: noon Wednesday,
March 22, 2000. Applicants will be interviewed during the Student Media Board Meeting beginning at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, March 28, 2000, in room 221F Reed McDonald.
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