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OSU players, staff killed in plane crash
Investigators search for clues in Colorado accident
BYERS, Colo. (AP) — The
crew of a twin-engine plane that
crashed during a snowstorm was
told ice could form on the wings,
but conditions were not harsh
enough to keep the plane ground
ed, investigators said Sunday.
The crash Saturday evening
killed 10 people, including two
Oklahoma State basketball players
and six team staff.
The advisory the crew was giv
en before takeoff about the possi
bility of ice forming on the wings
would not have kept the plane from
flying, National Transportation
Safety Board investigators said.
“This group wants to see if de
icing was performed on this air
craft before it took off,” said John
Hammerschmidt, head of the
NTSB crash investigation team.
Witnesses said the plane
climbed and banked hard to the
right before it crashed. They told
investigators the propeller plane’s
engines revved and eased several
times before the fiery crash in a
field about 40 miles east of Denver.
"It sounded like he was flying
full power. Then 1 heard a thump
and saw a low glow,” said Jon Car-
rick, who lives about two miles
southwest of the crash site.
Cesar Ronquillo, another area
resident, said the plane’s engines
were whining when he heard a
loud noise.
“1 saw the plane turning around,
go up again but all of a sudden go
straight down,” he said.
Visibility was about 1 1/2 miles
when the plane crashed, said Jerry
Snyder, a spokesman for the Fed
eral Aviation Administration.
There was no distress call from
the plane, said Arnold Scott of the
NTSB's Denver office.
As light snow fell, an NTSB in
vestigation team looked for clues
to the cause of the crash amid
twisted wreckage scattered across
a quarter mile.
“We have some very detailed
and painstaking work ahead of us
in what are not the best weather
conditions,” Hammerschmidt said.
The victims' bodies were re
moved Sunday and taken to the
Adams County Coroner’s Office.
The engines, de-icing boots and
other pieces of the plane are to be
taken over the next few days to a
hangar in Greeley, where investi
gators planned to create a mockup
of the plane..
The Beechcraft King Air 200
Catpass was one of three planes
carrying the Oklahoma State
men’s basketball team and asso
ciates back to Stillwater, Okla.,
after they lost to the Colorado
Buffaloes in a Big 12 Conference
game in Boulder.
The victims were Oklahoma
State players Nate Fleming and
Daniel Lawson, sports informa
tion employee Will Hancock, di
rector of basketball operations Pat
Noyes, trainer Brian Luinstra,
broadcast engineer Kendall Dur-
fey, broadcaster Bill Teegins, pi
lot Denver Mills and co-pilot
Bjorn Falistrom.
Also killed in the crash was stu
dent manager Jared Weiberg, the
nephew of Big 12 commissioner
Kevin Weiberg.
Texas A&M offers support
to fellow Big 12 campus
By maureen Kane
The Battalion
The grief that Oklahoma State
University (OSU) is experiencing
following the crash of a plane carry
ing students and staff is well under
stood by the Texas A&M student
body.
The plane carried three Oklahoma
State University students, two of
whom were OSU basketball players,
and five staff members. The plane
crashed about 80 miles northeast of
Denver during the OSU basketball
team’s return trip to Stillwater, Okla.,
Saturday night.
Texas A&M President Dr. Ray M.
Bowen, who served for a year as in
terim president of OSU, said he has
talked to OSU administrators to ex
press A&M’s sympathy.
“1 have spoken to Dr. Halligan
(OSU President) and expressed our
condolences and offered any assis
tance,” Bowen said. “He is greatly
appreciative.”
The same message was also sent
to OSU basketball coach Eddie Sut
ton and his assistant coach.
Hundreds of miles from the site of
the tragedy, at Reed Arena Sunday,
See OSU on Page 6A.
UPD to
enforce a
no-skate
state law
Jy Tamra Russel l
fhe Battalion
The University Police Department
Lid Research Park administration will
t oon begin enforcing the state law that
rohibits skaters and unauthorized ve-
icles on public streets.
John Millhollon, director of Re-
earch Park, said growing traffic in the
park is a reason for the stricter en
forcement.
I “We didn't have a lot of traffic
here before, but the traffic has come
to the point that for the safety of
(everyone, we need everyone to use
the sidewalks and stay off the street,”
Millhollon said. “We’re not doing it
to be mean; it’s just that the safety of
the people using our facilities is our
■lain concern.”
I Bob Wiatt, director of University
Police Department (UPD), said Re-
ftarch Park has a series of problems
with all the skates, bikes and motor ve
hicles in the park.
We're not going to
run out and*start
issuing citations.”
— Bob Wiatt
UPD director
“You have to behave in a proper
manner and being on the street is dan
gerous for everyone, so we’re asking
skaters to stay on the sidewalk,” Wiatt
said. “People can enjoy the facilities,
but they need to be safety conscious.”
I Wiatt said UPD has responded to a
few accidents involving skaters and bi
cyclists at Research Park, but all the ac
cidents were minor.
1 Millhollon said he did not know of
any accidents at Research Park, but
added he will not wait for someone to
be hurt before enforcing the appropri
ate laws.
B The Research Park administration
plans to distribute fliers around campus
and take out an advertisement in The
Battalion alerting students to the
stricter enforcement.
I? “We don’t know when we'll begin
enforcing this; we have to get ap
proval,” Wiatt said.
B Wiatt said final approval must come
from Charles Sippial, vice president of
administration. Once Sippial gives the
OK, UPD and Research Park officials
wrl begin educating students about the
change.
I Wiatt said the department does not
bjan on immediately writing citations.
He said educating the public is the
first step.
1 “We’re not going to nan out and start
issuing citations,” Wiatt said. “We’re
going to start with the pamphlets, the
advertisements and telling people per
sonally, then we’ll start writing cita
tions.”
Larva’s in the air
BERNARDO GARZA/The Battalion
Dr. Ligia Puentes, a visiting ecologist from at the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural His-
Costa Rica, examines a butterfly larva. Dr. tory in Bryan. The project is funded entire-
Fuentes has set up a butterfly habitat area ly by Puentes and through donations.
Quake in India
kills thousands
BHUJ, India (AP) —
Exhausted searchers using
everything from sophisti
cated rock-cutting tools to
their bare hands clawed
through rubble Sunday,
hoping to find survivors
lingering among the thou
sands believed buried by
western India’s massive
earthquake.
More than 6,000 bod
ies had been found since
Friday’s quake, and the
death toll was expected to
increase. Some authorities
*
estimated it would reach
10,000; others said 16,(XX)
or more. A leading rescue
official said there could be
up to 30,000 dead in one
town alone.
As India’s prime min
ister appealed for help,
frantic rescuers and
dogs uncovered a few
signs of life Sunday
amid the destruction in
Gujarat, the western In
dian state that took the
brunt of the blow.
In Anjar, 30 miles
southeast of the hardest-
hit town, Bhuj, a 3-year-
old girl was unearthed
from the rubble alive.
“She was chanting
some Arabic verses,”
said a soldier who partic
ipated in the toddler’s
rescue. “She was totally
unscathed,” he said, de
clining to give his name.
Across town, sniffer
dogs located another sign
of life in a heap of rubble.
After three hours of dig
ging, soldiers found a
man, only his face visible
under twisted and crum
pled masonry. Unable to
reach him, rescuers re
leased water from a plas
tic pouch, drop by drop,
into his mouth.
Chipping slowly at
the blocks so as not to
unsettle the unstable
mound, the soldiers re
moved the pieces of de
bris one by one. Three
hours later, the man was
free, and a cheer went up
in the crowd. Too weak
to speak, too exhausted
to smile, the man, identi
fied only as Maganbhai,
was carried away.
In Bhuj, a desert town
just miles from the
quake’s epicenter, work
ers dug for 30 hours and
shouted with joy when
they found a baby and
her mother alive in the
rubble.
Indian students call
for help from Aggies
By Shannon Galary
The Battalion
Thousands were killed and many more injured
when an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale
rocked the state of Gujarat, India, Friday. Although the
disaster hit halfway around the globe, emotional af
tershocks reached as far as Texas A&M’s internation
al students.
“A lot of our members have been affected,” said
Saji Raju, president of the Indian Students Association
(ISA) and a senior management information systems
major. “A lot of people just stayed home waiting for
news and did not go out on Friday.”
Some Indian students who have family residing in
India may have packed up on short notice and gone
home to help their friends and families sort through the
tragedy. Raju said ISA plans to sponsor relief efforts
but “nothing is set in stone.”
“Over 20,000 people have died in Gujarat in what
has been termed as the most devastating earthquake
in 50 years,” said Anuradha Mukheriji, a graduate
student in the Department of Architecture.
See Quake on Page 6A.
Committee
plans study
on cheating
By Sommer Bunce
The Battalion
In a Spring 1997 survey
of Texas A&M students,
more than 88 percent of stu
dents reported having cheat
ed at least once while at
A&M, and another survey is
in progress to determine if
academic dishonesty has in
creased.
The Academic Integrity
Survey, conducted by Dr. Bill
Kibler, associate vice presi
dent for student affairs, put
A&M’s cheating rate of on
par with other large public
universities in the U.S.
But the result also put the
Aggie Code of Honor in
question.
“We like to brag about
A&M being unique, but, in
truth, we are all-too typical,"
Kibler said. “Although A&M
has an honor code, it’s like
we don't have an honor sys
tem. And it turns out, we’re a
pretty typical university —
with lots of cheating.”
The survey stares in the
face of recent student-initiat
ed attempts to promote acad
emic integrity. During Fall
2000 final examinations, the
“Know the Code” campaign
was in full force, with student
volunteers hanging posters
and handing out pencils with
Students reporting engaging in any
type of cheating
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RUBEN DELUNA/The Battalion
the Aggie Code of Honor
written on them.
“Cheating is definitely a
problem here on campus,
and it’s getting bigger,” said
Christine Adamson, a Stu
dent Government Associa
tion member and a leader of
the “Know the Code” initia
tive. “In relation to other
major campuses, we're
about average, but that’s not
something we want to be.
This isn’t what Aggies are.”
Adamson, a junior ac
counting major, said fresh
men are presented with fun
versions of the Code of Hon
or during Fish Camp.
Instead of being taught
that “Aggies do not lie, cheat
or steal,” many new students
are told that Aggies “elabo
rate, collaborate and borrow,”
Adamson said.
“From Fish Camp on, stu
dents are almost taught not to
take [the Code] seriously,”
she said.
This spring, Kibler will
lead a 12-man Academic In
tegrity Assessment Commit
tee in a reassessment of in
stances of academic
dishonesty committed at
A&M. A survey similar to the
See Cheating on Page 6A.
Theft on campus
remains constant
l
UPD encourage safety awareness
By Amanda Smith ■
The Battalion
While there is a sense of security in hearing the Aggie Code
of Honor that states “Aggies do not lie, cheat or steal,” statis
tics show that members of the University community are af
fected by those who do, according to crime prevention spe
cialists at the University Police Department (UPD).
Since the beginning of the 2000-’01 academic years,
theft and alcohol have accounted for the greatest percent
ages of violations, according to an academic year-to-date
report from the UPD.
Other crimes committed, on campus include reports of as
saults, criminal trespassing, weapons violations, disorderly
conduct, harassment violations and sexual offenses.
Bert Kretzschmar, crime prevention specialist for UPD, said
the Texas A&M campus has shown no significant increase in
the number of crimes committed on campus, but advised stu
dents to remain aware that crimes do happen on campus.
“General safety and security around campus is impor
tant,” Kretzschmar said. “More people get into trouble be
cause they let their guard down. A lot of the crimes happen
in broad daylight, not at night.”
During the 2000-’01 academic year, approximately
See Safety on Page 2A.