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Northwest jetliners collide on runway
Two Northwest Airlines planes, a DC-9 series 10 and a Boeing 727-200,
collided on a runway Monday at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport
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Source: Reports from crash scene
The Collision
A 727 with 146 passengers
aboard, collided with a DC-9
with 39 passengers aboard.
The tip of the 727's right wing
hit the right side of the DC-9
behind the cockpit, raked
along its fuselage at about
window height and knocked
off its right taH engine.
ROMULUS, Mich. - A jetliner
clipped another while preparing to
take off from the Detroit airport in
heavy fog Monday, igniting a fire that
left one plane in smoking ruins. At
least eight people were killed and 20
injured, officials said.
It was not immediately clear what
caused the collision between a DC-9
and a Boeing 727-200, both operated
by Northwest Airlines. A spokesman
for air traffic controllers said the DC
9 appeared to have become lost on a
slick, foggy taxiway and strayed into
the 727’s path.
For nearly an hour after the acci
dent, smoke billowed out of the fuse
lage of the DC-9, where passengers
apparently became trapped by the fast
moving fire. By the time the fire was
extinguished, much of the plane’s roof
was open to the overcast sky.
Officials had initially said that 19
people were killed, but Northwest
officials and Wayne County Execu
tive Edward McNamara later said that
was wrong.
McNamara said the medical ex
aminer had “swept through the wreck
age twice and found nine bodies,”
while Northwest spokesman Bob
Gibbons said the coroner “told a
Northwest representative that there
were eight dead.”
Gibbons stressed that authorities
were not ruling out further changes in
the death toll.
“This is probably going to go up or
down all evening,” he said shortly
after 7 p.m.
The DC-9, Flight 1482 to Pitts
burgh, was carrying 39 passengers
and four crewmembers, according to
the airline. The 727, Flight 299 to
Memphis, was carrying 146 passen
gers.
Both flights had originated in
Detroit, said Patrick McCann, a North
west spokesman at its headquarters in
Eagan, Minn.
“Apparently the right wing of the
727 hit the aft section, the engine, of
the DC-9, taking the engine off,” said
Alan Muncaster, another Northwest
spokesman. “That resulted in the fire.
That, at this point, is all we know.”
At the time of the crash, visibility
was poor and the ground was wet
from a morning snow and sleet storm
that delayed flights at Detroit Metro
politan Airport. Muncaster said the
airport had been closed to inbound
traffic but planes were being allowed
to take off.
Tony Dresden, a spokesman for
the National Air Traffic Controllers
Association, said there was about a
quarter-mile visibility in the air, but
only about 800 feet on the ground.
“We’ve had somediscussions with
our people out there,” Dresden said.
“The DC-9 pilot became lost on the
runways. The pilot gave the ground
controller erroneous information about
his position and turned right onto the
runway where the 727 was taxiing.
“The DC-9 pilot discovered at the
very last moment where he was, and
so the ground controller told him to
immediately get off that runway, but
it was too late.”
He stressed that this information
was preliminary. The Federal Avia
tion Administration, which supervises
air traffic controllers, did not imme
diately comment about Dresden’s
statement.
Investigators from the National
Transportation Safety Board were
being dispatched to begin a probe
aimed at determining the cause of the
accident, a safety board spokesman
said.
The 727 did not appear to have
been seriously damaged in the colli
sion.
Wayne County Executive Edward
McNamara said the only injuries on
the Boeing were those that occurred
during the plane’s evacuation. He did
not say how many people were in
jured on the DC-9, but said there were
survivors.
Linda Kalinsky of the Taylor
Ambulance Co. said there were 50 or
60 injuries altogether, including some
bum victims.
At Annapolis Hospital in Wayne,
seven passengers were in stable con
dition and one in critical condition,
spokeswoman Pat O’Dowd said. Two
of the victims at that hospital were
transferred to the University of Michi
gan Medical Center Bum Center at
Ann Arbor.
At least two of the people taken to
Annapolis were Northwest employ
ees, O’Dowd said.
Four people were in stable condi
tion at Heritage Hospital in Taylor,
spokeswoman Barbara Nicholson said.
None of their injuries were bums.
Bush trip to Argentina still on
BRASILIA, Brazil - Vowing not
to skip a visit to Buenos Aires, Presi
dent Bush shrugged off a military
revolt in Argentina and proclaimed
“a new era of hope” in newly demo
cratic South America as he opened a
five-nation tour Monday.
The administration expressed
confidence the uprising would be
quelled quickly, but Deputy Secre
tary of State Lawrence Eagleburger
said: “If the situation became such
that there was a real danger to his
security, I’m sure we’d take another
look at it.”
The Argentine crisis threw a cloud
over Bush’s week-long mission, in
tended to celebrate the sweep of
democracy throughout the hemisphere.
It also obscured Bush’s message that
Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait was driving
up oil prices and forcing poor coun
tries to pay high fuel bills that they
could ill afford.
Francisco Rezek, foreign minister
of Brazil, called the revolt in Argen
tina “a step backward for democracy
in Latin America.”
wnite House press secretary Mar
lin Fitzwater told reporters Monday
evening that the situation in Buenos
Aires “docs appear to be improving”
and that Argentine President Carlos
Menem was in control.
“It is not a large-scale uprising,”
Fitzwater said. “My argument would
be that fundamentally democracy in
Argentina is working and when this is
over it will demonstrate the roots of
democracy in Argentina are fairly
deep.”
Bush said he would not abandon a
planned stop Wednesday in Buenos
Aires, where Menem declared a state
of siege, suspending constitutional
guarantees, after the fourth military
uprising in four years.
“I have great confidence in the
security there,” Bush said.
There also was violence in Chile,
another stop on Bush’s trip, as bombs
exploded in a chapel and in the of
fices of two right-wing political par
ties. There were no injuries. An anony
mous caller said the blasts were a
protest of Bush’s visit.
Bush arrived in Brasilia at dawn
after an overnight flight from Wash
Military rebellion put down I
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -
The last of several hundred rebels
who tried to force a shake-up of the
army high command surrendered
Monday to end a one-day uprising
that left at least eight people dead,
the government news agency re
ported.
The insurrection by right-wing
rebels occurred two days before
President Bush was to visit.
Telem, the government news
agency, said the surrender ended a
series of firefights Monday between
loyalist troops and army rebels in
and near this capital city of nearly
11 million residents. At one point,
air force planes bombed a column
of rebel tanks on public roads.
The rebel tanks were rendered
“useless,” the local news agency
Noticias Argentinas reported.
President Carlos Menem and
army chief Gen. Martin Bonnet
refused to negotiate with rebels
who demanded a shake-up of the
high command and a bigger mili
tary budget.
Menem, in his 16th month of
power, early Monday declared a
nationwide stale of siege that sus
pended constitutional guarantees
and gave him sweeping powers to
ensure public order. He threatened
to declare martial law, under which
rebels could be executed.
Casualties were not disclosed,
but at least three soldiers and Five
civilians died as a result of the
rebellion. Five people died and at
least 20 were injured elsewhere in
this city when a tank collided with
a bus.
ington, accompanied by a mostly junior
staff. He was greeted by a 21-gun
salute and military pageantry at the
pillared Plantalto Palace, the workplace
of President Fernando Collor de Mello.
The day ended with announcement
of approval by Bush to license the
sale of a high-performance computer
sought by Brazil for more than two
years. The step was taken to reward
Brazil for agreeing, along with Ar
gentina, to renounce any intention to
proceed with nuclear programs with a
military dimension.
Secretary of State James A. Baker
III remained in Washington to testify
before Congress on the Persian Gulf.
The White House chief of staff, John
Sununu, and the national security
i
adviser, Brent Scowcroft, also found
reasons to stay home.
While celebrating the rebirth of
democracy in South America, Bush
put a strong emphasis on the Persian
gulf crisis and Iraq’s takeover of
Kuwait.
Bush said Czechoslovakia, where
he visited last month, is paying $1.5
billion in additional fuel costs be
cause of Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein’s refusal to retreat.
Collor, during a picture-taking
session with Bush, said Brazil is paying
$5 billion more for oil.
Bush responded, “That’s why,
(when) people say to me, ‘Well, this
cangoonandonandon,’ I say,‘No,’”
Bush said.
I Cheney provides explanation
for gulf actions to committee
WASHINGTON - The United Slates cannot be sure economic
sanctions will ever force Iraq out of Kuwait, and waiting for such an
uncertain outcome would risk erosion of the international coalition
behind military force, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said Monday.
Cheney, laying out to the Senate Armed Services Committee the
administration’s rationale for building up a military force for possible
attack in the Persian Gulf, gave the most pessimistic view yet on the
potential of sanctions to work.
“Given the nature of the regime, given Saddam Hussein’s brutality
to his own people, his very tight control of that society, his ability to
allocate resources for the military, their ability to produce their own
food ... he can ride them out,” Cheney told the committee.
Several of the panel’s Democrats, including chairman Sam Nunn of
Georgia, contended the administration seemed to be dismissing sanc
tions too easily.
“If we go to war, we never will know whether they would have
worked,” Nunn said.
Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, voiced misgivings about a “Chicken Little
approach to our policy. The sky is falling and the only option is war.”
Cheney spelled out in detail the U.S. position that American and
international interests are in jeopardy in the gulf crisis, contending that
Saddam might gam a stranglehold on oil, that he is destroying Kuwait
and that his continued military buildup that could mean further aggres
sion.
j “It is not so clear that time is altogether on our side,” Cheney said,
a statement that appeared in conflict with earlier administration pro
nouncements. As recently as Oct. 15, Cheney himself had said the
opposite.
Netfraskan
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