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Today - Cloudy with a 35
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Tonight - Partly cloudy, wwwn wb0bw> >>io«wn«J
COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA SINCE 1901 VOL. 95 NO. 147 high in the lower 60’s._
■ , _April 19,1996
Barringer killed in crash
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Matt Miller/DN
We /left/ a lot of enthusiasm,
and he enjoyed every day.
I'm sure he had no regrets.'
COACH TOM OSBORNE
i
Federal investigation to begin today
By J. Christopher Hain
Editor
RAYMOND — Former Nebraska quarter
back Brook Berringer and his girl friend ’ s brother
were killed Thursday afternoon when the plane
they were flyingcrashed into a field seven miles
north of Lincoln.
Intending to take an afternoon pleasure ride,
Berringer, 22, of Goodland, Kan., and Tobey
Lake, 32, of Aurora, Colo., took off from a grass
airstrip three miles east of Raymond.
But their flight turned tragic shortly after
take-off when the single engine, two-seat plane
began to struggle.
“I saw it climbing over the road to the north
west, but then it was just sitting in the air like it
came to a stall,” said Raymond resident Jim
Jeffers, who is a pilot.
Jeffers, who was standing less than a mile
away, said he couldn’t hear the engine. He said
the plane was only about 250 feet above the
ground when it began to turn left.
“When he dropped his left wing, I knew it
was going down.”
Seconds later all he saw was smoke.
The plane hit the ground
and burned, leaving only the
charred, twisted frame of the
aircraft on the south slope of
a hill approximately 1 /8 mile
away from the airstrip. The
bodies of Berringer and Lake
were burned beyond recog
nition.
The cause of the crash was
p inn_r not known early this morn
Ber ® ing. Lancaster County Sher
iff Terry Wagner said officials from the Na
tional Transportation Safety Board and the Fed
eral Aviation Administration would investigate
the cause of the crash today.
Wagner said Berringer was in the rear of the
1946 Piper Cub — the pilot’s scat. Lake, who
was in the front or passenger seat of the plane,
was the brother of Tiffany Lake, Berringer’s
girlfriend.
Berringer and Lake were pronounced dead
on the scene, Wagner said. Their bodies were
taken to Lincoln General Hospital and identi
fied using dental records.
NU football coach Tom Osborne and receiv
ers coach Ron Brown brought Berringer’s den
tal records to the crash scene.
Berringer was the back-up quarterback to
Tommie Frazier during the Comhuskers’ two
national championship seasons. He was 7-0 as
a starter in 1994 while Frazier was sidelined
with blood clots.
Berringer had caught the attention of NFL
scouts in post-season workouts and was ex
pected to be a mid-round pick in this weekend’s
NFL draft.
in light ot Herringer s death, a national cham
pionship celebration for the NU football and
volleyball teams scheduled for tonight has been
canceled.
“I don’t know how much anybody would
want to celebrate under these circumstances,”
said Osborne at a Fellowship of Christian Ath
See BERRINGER on 8
Hagel, Stenberg face off in GOP primary forum
ay unaq Lorenz
Senior Reporter
Don Stenberg and Chuck Hagel
sang similar tunes in a televised fo
rum Thursday night.
The forum omitted rebuttals, un
like a typical debate where candi
dates are allowed to respond to each
other’s answers.
So the two Republican senatorial
candidates spent their time rehash
ing their stands on common issues
such as taxes, social security, educa
tion, gambling and abortion.
And in the process, Stenberg and
Hagel agreed on nearly every issue.
The forum was broadcast from
the KYNE studio at the University of
Nebraska at Omaha. Questions were
submitted by Omaha World-Herald
readers, KPTM Fox 42 viewers and
users of the UNO television’s World
Wide Web site.
The two candidates are vying for
the GOP nod to run against Gov. Ben
Nelson for the U.S. Senate seat being
vacated by retiring Sen. James Exon.
Voters go to the polls May 14 for the
primary election.
Both candidates restated their in
tention to yank the Department of
Education from federal government
and give control to state and local
governments.
“I trust my child’s education with
my neighbors and state bureaucrats
far more than I would with a federal
bureaucrat,” Stenberg said.
Hagel also said education was a
local issue and local school boards
knew their own educational needs
better than the federal government.
“It seems to me we have tipped
the system upside-down,” Hagel said.
“The parents are the key to this. Let’s
help these teachers and give them
what they need to teach our kids
properly.”
_ In an interview after the forum,
Hagel said federal funding for col
lege grants and loans should also stay
in the state. The financial aid pro
gram would be quicker, easier and
offer more money if processed
through the state government, he said.
The two candidates, who are both
pro-life, said they would push for a
federal ban on abortion and for ho
micide convictions of doctors who
See FORUM on7