“ * '***- News Digest
Tuesday, November 1, 1994 page 2
No survivors discovered
after Indiana plane crash
ROSELAWN, Ind. — An Ameri
can Eagle commuter plane crashed
Monday in a cornfield in northwest
Indiana during a driving rainstorm,
killing all 68 people aboard.
Flight 4184 from Indianapolis to
Chicago went down 30 miles south of
Gary at about 4 p.m., the Federal
Aviation Administration said.
The heavy rain forced authorities
to quickly call off the search of the
area until today.
American Eagle would not specu
late on the possible cause of the crash,
airline spokeswoman Debbie Weath
ers said. State police said there were
no survivors, according to the FA A.
“Debris was so scattered, you re
ally couldn’t tell if there was an air
plane out there,’’ said Michael
Schwanke, a reporter with WLQI ra
dio in Rensselaer who was at the site.
“People around the area were tell
ing me that there was just nothing
left,” he said.
The plane, an ATR-72 — a high
wing, twin-engine propjet — was
descending from an altitude of 10,000
feet to 8,000 feet when it disappeared
from radar screens at Chicago's
O’Hare Airport, said Don Zochert
with the FAA.
The plane had been circling in a
holding pattern before it began its
descent, said Tim Smith, a spokes
man for American Eagle.
People on the scene said there was
driving rain at the time of the crash
and that it was too dark to see much
in the area. Winds were gusting up to
49 mph in Gary, Ind., the closest
reporting station, the National
Weather Service said.
Bob Stone, a hunter, said he heard
the plane’s engines just before the
crash.
“I could hear a motor winding out
and it sounded like thunder and then
there was a crash and I didn’t hear
anything else,” Stone said.
Kathy Philpot, a spokeswoman for
the Lake County coroner’s office,
said workers were told to call off the
search for bodies and return to the
scene Tuesday.
Jasper County Sheriff Steve
AP
Reames said the Newton County
sheriffs department had set up a com
mand post near the crash site.
“We’ve had torrential rains all
day, and right now there’s such a
downpour. They’re almost unable to
go out; we ’ re talking open farm coun
try,” Reames said.
White House security shaken
by man charged with shooting
WASHINGTON — The man ac
cused of firing a semiautomatic rifle
at the White House was charged with
four felonies and ordered to undergo
a psychiatric exam Monday. Pros
ecutors said a letter taken from his
truck “raises questions whether he is
competent.”
U.S. Magistrate Deborah Robinson
refused to release the handwritten
letter, which was taken from Fran
cisco Martin Duran’s pickup. She
ordered him returned to court
Wednesday, after the exam, for a
competency hearing.
U.S. Attorney Eric H. Holder Jr.
said authorities have a second letter
Duran was carrying when he was
seized outside the White House.
Also found in the truck, according
to prosecutors, was a shotgun, an
arsenal of ammunition, a gun maga
zine, a machete, sleeping bags and a
stuffed animal.
Officials have previously indicated
the letter in the truck was an explana
tion ofhow Duran’s possessions were
to be distributed to his wife and son in
event of his death.
In his first court appearance,
Duran, 26, stood and stated his name,
raised his right hand and swore to tell
the truth.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John
Finnegan told the magistrate that
Duran’s letter “brings into question
whether the defendant is competent
to proceed.”
Holder said later the request for
the 24-hour psychiatric evaluation
was “not an indication that we be
lieve he is incompetent.” Nor was it,
he said, an indication that prosecu
tors thought Duran “was at the time
of the offense insane.’’
Competency at this stage means
the defendant can understand the
charges against him and can assist his
attorney, public defender Leigh
Kenny.
Kenny said she had no concerns
White House security
SaSwdofS* grouniisSEdi*'* «t»otn( again pointed out the systems***
bnfcs A look at tn® security now in ptaca:
Getting In
Visitors and staff
must pass through
metal detectors. Stall
members, press,
etc., have special
entrances Visitors
must pass security
checks. Dogs check
every vehicle that
enters the grounds,
sniff mg for Bombs.
The grounds
A 10-fool-high metal
fence separates the
grounds from the
sidewalk. But people
often press ip against
the fence to see the
While House Motion
sensors and cameras
detect intruders, and
guards patrol the
grounds
Surrounding arta
Sharpshooters are
stationed on the
rooftop. Airspace
around downtown
Washington, D.C., is
restricted . Streets are
blocked to traffic when
the president's
motorcade passes. The
president's patfi in and
out ofthe White House
is frequently varied.
What’s next
The Secret Servioe
would like to
expand security
perimeters,
perhaps blocking
all Pennsylvania
Avenue to traffic
Clinton resists the
option, tearing the
White House wi
be cut off from the
American public.
AP/KadGud*
about Duran’s competence at this
time.
If Duran is found competent after
Wednesday’s hearing, there will be a
preliminary hearing in which pros
ecutors would have to present enough
evidence to justify continuing the
case.
He was charged with possession
of a firearm as a convicted felon,
destruction of federal property, as
sault on a federal officer and use of a
firearm during the commission of a
crime of violence. Prosecutors said
he could receive as much as 35 years
in prison if convicted of all four
counts.
Holder said other charges might
be filed later.
Prosecutors would not discuss a
possible motive for Saturday’s shoot
ing, in which a man fired 20 to 30
shots at the White House through the
iron fence on Pennsylvania Avenue
with a Chinese-made semiautomatic
rifle. Eight shots hit the building.
NetJraSkan
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Postmaster fiend sddresachangesto the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St.,Lincoln. NE 68588-0448. Second-class postage paid
at Lincoln, NE. aij, MATERIAL COPYRIGHT '
1964 DAILY NEBRASKAN
Spence scolds GOP
for lack of support
OMAHA—Feeling abandoned
by his own party and betrayed by
the news media, Republican Gene
Spence said Monday that he would
fight on in the face of overwhelm
ingly negative odds.
Spence had surprised his run
ning mate and other GOP officials
by saying over the weekend that
his chances of defeating Demo
cratic Gov. Ben Nelson were 100
to-1.
At a news conference at his
campaign headquarters, Spence
criticized Republicans who, in his
“The pro-life
movement has been
adamant that
someone like Gene
Spence should not be
governor. ”
■
QENE SPENCE
Republican candidate
view, are sitting on the campaign
sidelines because they do not think
he is tough enough on abortion.
“The pro-life movement has
been adamant that someone like
Gene Spence should not be gover
nor," Spence said.
Spence said he opposes abor
tion out does not think it should be
a political issue.
“Quite frankly, we missed this
issue as being an issue that could
dominate so much," Spence said.
Spence said he was angry that
he was being judged in the GOP
based on abortion alone.
“I’m all the Republican Party
has, and they better get used to it,
and quit whining. I’m tired of the
whining in the Republican Party,"
he said.
Spence said the state GOP needs
what he described as a wake-up
call, or it would be embarrassed at
the polls.
An Omaha World-Herald poll
published Sunday showed the
Democratic ticket with a 44 per
centage point lead. A separate poll
conducted for the Lincoln Journal
Star and Omaha television station
KMTV showed Nelson with a 48
percentage point lead.
Spence was angry that his own
bleak assessment of his poll stand
ings were interpreted as a near
concession to Nelson.
“I resent it deeply. I don’t quit.
I’m not a quitter,” said the Repub
lican nominee, biting offhis words,
punctuating them with jabs of his
finger into the podium.
“You play the game out. 1 can’t
tell what’s going to happen in the
next nine days,” he said.
Spence said that what he thought
was an honest judgment about his
dismal showing in recent polls was
misinterpreted in news media re
ports that said he was all but quit
ting.
After learning the results of the
Lincoln Joumal-Star/KMTV poll,
Spence told the Lincoln newspa
per that he had underestimated
Nelson’s popularity.
“My chances of winning now
are about 100 to one,” he said in
Saturday’s editions. “I was a poor
candidate. It’s not the party’s fault.
I think it’s me.”
Spence said the quote was ac
curate but he objected to interpre
tations that it amounted to a con
cession of the race to Nelson.
“I never quit,” Spence said Mon
day.
He told the Sunday Omaha- '
World Herald that he knew he
would be a good governor, “but I
haven’t been able to project that to
the people or the people don’t care.”
Spence was impatient with Re
publicans who said they were dis
appointed in what he said.
“It irritates me that all of the
people that grouse and whine —
and didn’t work for me — never
called me” before complaining.
Spence said all he said was that
based on the poll information, it
appeared that he had little chance
to catch Nelson.
He insisted Monday that he was
still going to go for that chance.
“I’ve been in this situation be
fore,” Spence said. “I’m used to
rejection, but I never give up.”
Psychics having visions
about missing children
UNION, S.C. — Frustrated inves
tigators looking into the disappear
ance of two little boys in an alleged
carjacking were considering offering
a reward Monday after receiving a
growing number of calls from
“psychics.”
Also Monday, the television pro
gram “A Current Affair” reported
that a friend of Susan Smith, the
boys’ mother, failed a lie detector
test question about whether he was
withholding information in the case.
The 24-year-old friend, Mitch
Sinclair, declined to answer ques
tions about the report Monday night.
Mrs. Smith told authorities she
was en route to visit Sinclair, a family
friend, when the children were taken
in a carjacking last week. Union
County Sheriff Howard Wells said
Sinclair was not a suspect.
Three-year-old Michael Smith and
his 14-month-old brother, Alex, have
not been seen since Oct. 25, when
Mrs. Smith reported that a man
jumped in her car, then ordered her
out at gunpoint, taking the boys still
strapped in safety seats.
With no firm leads and no motive
six days into the nationwide manhunt
for the alleged abductor. Wells said a
growing number of calls on the case
were “of a psychic nature.”
“They’re the result of someone
having a vision, or having a dream or
someone saying, T iust have a strong
belief that if you look here this is
what you’re going to find,”’ he said.
He added: “If... money is going to
motivate some types of individuals
to give us solid information, we may
go into a reward” later this week.
He said a company in the area had
donated $10,000 to a reward fund.
In this frightened town, parents
watched closely over children going
out to trick-or-treat.
Jana Rutledge joined other moth
ers in accompanying their children
on foot.
“Last year, I just rode along the
street beside them. Not this time,”
she said.
