1
Several theories attempt tn explain crash
Transcripts show
miscommunications
may have contributed
to the collision near
New Delhi.
CHARKHIDADRI, India (AP)—
As a Kazak cargo plane flew head-on
toward a Saudi jetliner, controllers told
its pilot to watch out for the 747 in the
clouds ahead. The pilot asked how
close it was.
“Fourteen miles,” a controller said.
Seconds later: “Thirteen miles.”
The pilot’s acknowledgement of
that message was the last word New
Delhi airport flight controllers had
from either aircraft before they hit and
spun to earth in spectacular twin fire
balls, talcing 349 people to their deaths.
The exchanges, in transcripts re
leased Wednesday, indicate the planes
did not see each other in time and hint
that the pilots were misled by their in
struments or misunderstood the tower’s
directions. They were supposed to pass
with a 1,000-foot difference in altitude
— instructions that the Saudi plane’s
pilots never confirmed, the transcripts
show.
The Saudi Boeing 747 was seven
minutes into its flight and the Kazak
plane was descending for its final ap
proach into Indira Gandhi International
Airport when the collision occurred
Tuesday about 60 miles southwest of
New Delhi.
Whether there was a last-minute
evasive maneuver by either plane was
unclear, but India’s top civil aviation
ministry official said the crash was not
direct.
“It was not a head-on collision,”
Yogesh Chandra said at a news con
ference. “The cockpit and fuselage of
the Kazak airliner was found intact.”
Searchers retrieved hundreds of
bodies from wreckage strewn in a six
mile area around Charkhi Dadri. Griev
ing relatives tried to identify the badly
mangled remains of their loved ones
lying on blocks of ice at makeshift
morgues.
Many of the victims of the Saudi
Airlines flight that carried 312 passen
gers and crew apparently were Indian
workers returning to jobs in the Middle
East or making the Muslim pilgrimage
to Mecca; the Kazak plane carrying 37
people had been chartered by a cloth
ing company in Kazakstan.
A weeping Irene Colaso said she
identified her 20-year-old daughter
Sanim, a flight attendant on the Saudi
plane, by her feet — the rest of her
body was burned beyond recognition.
Searchers found the flight data re
corders of both planes Wednesday but
only the cockpit voice recorder of the
Kazak plane. The recordings were not
made public immediately.
But flight control transcripts
showed that the airport tower instructed
the Kazak plane to fly at 15,000 feet
and the Saudi plane, which was ascend
ing, to level off at 14,000 feet. The
Saudi plane never acknowledged the
order to hold its altitude.
The exact cause of the crash, the
third-deadliest crash in aviation history,
may take months to determine. But
speculation already has focused on
antiquated radar equipment and poor
communications.
Chandra, a civil aviation official,
said the army has restricted air space
over Delhi, reducing the airport to only
one air corridor for civilian aircraft
landing and taking off.
The Indian Express newspaper,
saying the accident was a”disaster
waiting to happen,” on Wednesday
quoted aviation officials as saying there
had been 10 recent near-misses in
India’s skies, most involving airlines
from former Soviet republics.
Clinton still to fight balanced-budget amendment
umciais say remarks
made Hiesday by the
president weren’t made to
help pass the proposal
WASHINGTON (AP) — Con
cemed that remarks by President
Clinton might help the prospects of the
balanced-budget constitutional amend
ment, administration officials told re
porters Wednesday that Clinton meant
to emphasize that he will fight its likely
approval by Congress.
On Tuesday, Clinton told reporters
he believes the amendment is unnec
essary, a position he has taken for years.
But he added a condition, saying for
the first time that he would consider
I----; -
one if it contained an “escape hatch”
for recessions, when decreased busi
ness activity normally drives up fed
eral deficits.
Awakening Wednesday to head
lines and news broadcasts that Ointon
had softened his position, administra
tion officials began telephoning report
f ers, saying the {resident had not meant
to flash a green light to the proposal.
The calls represented an administration
attempt to recast the story to their lik
ing in hopes of retaining an outside
chance of stopping the amendment, or
at least forcing it to be changed. *
Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin
told The Associated Press heand other
economic advisers had asked Clinton
Tuesday whether he had meant to back
track on his previous opposition to the
amendment.
“He said absolutely not, he was still
opposed to the balanced budget
amendment, and we should actively
fight against it,” Rubin said.
Rubin said Qinton told them that
if it appeared the amendment would be
approved, “we should try to get one
that’s the least harmful.” But he also
said Qinton has “grave doubts about
whether you can create an escape hatch
that is sufficiently flexible to take into
account whatever may happen down
the road” with the economy. '
White House economic adviser
Gene Sperling, who was also telephon
ing reporters, said administration offi
cials wanted to make sure that reports
of Clinton’s remarks didn’t encourage
lawmakers to vote for the measure. He
said the White House wanted legisla
tors to know “we do plan to speak out
as to why we think it’s poor economic
policy.”
The balanced-budget amendment
passed the House in 1995, but fell a
single vote short of Senate; approval.
Atjhe time, Clinton helped, lobby
against it. After passing Congress, a
constitutional amendment doesnot re
quire the president’s signature, but does
need approval by 3$ stated.
|| the elections last week result*,
ing irfa batch of addliSqgiaisniendhirat
supporters joiningthe Sedate, the pro
posal seems likely to get the two-thirds
majority Congress needs to pass it.
Republicans plan to take it to the House
and Senate floors early in the new Con
gress, perhaps in January.
Asked whether Clinton would
lobby against the amendment again,
Rubin said that would be “something
you decide when you get there.”
The current version of the proposal
would allow its budget-balancing re
quirements to be waived during war or
recession by three-fifths majorities of
the House and Senate. Rubin said re
quiring a simple majority would be
hotter.
si: “Why would you subject the
economy of the United States to the
risk of a Congress that for whatever
reason is not willing to cast the 50
votes?” he said.
N ftlSitripj
Isrc agreement on troop pullout
HEBRON, West Bank (AP) — Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a
planned trip to the United States Wednesday
in a possible sign that Israel and the Pales
tinians were nearing an agreement on an Is
raeli troop pullout from Hebron.
Netanyahu said in a statement after meet
ing with Yasser Arafat’s deputy Mahmoud
Abbas that he was calling off the trip “to as
sist in advancing the negotiations in the sen
sitive stages.” He was to have left Israel
Wednesday night.
In Hebron, Israeli troops reinforced po
sitions around Jewish settler enclaves with
bulletproof watch towers and dozens of sol
diers patrolled the downtown Arab market
area.
Government spokesman Moshe Fogel
said earlier Wednesday that only one major
issue stood in the way of an agreement on an
Israeli troop withdrawal from the West Bank
town.
Fogel, leading journalists on a tour of
Hebron, said negotiators had made “signifi
cant progress” and talks were now focusing
on what actions Israeli forces could take in
Israel’s demands includethe right of “hot
pursuit” of suspects into Palestinian areas.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat
said that in addition to the “hot pursuit” is
sue, unresolved questions include what type
of weapons Palestinian police would carry
and the opening of a central Hebron street.
“We are trying to make progress,” said
Erekat after meeting with Netanyahu’s advi
sor Yitzhak Malcho Wednesday in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu had raised hopes for agree
ment Tuesday by saying he would make a
written promise to implement remaining el
ements of the Israel-PLO accords.
Army radio reported today that Israel had
rejected the Palestinian’s demand for a spe
cific timetable on further withdrawals in the
West Bank.
Israel radio said Israel also wanted a writ
ten commitment from Arafat promising to
extradite Palestinians wanted for attacking
Israelis, a trial for Palestinian police who
opened fire on Israeli troops in September,
and destruction of the Islamic militant infra
structure.
Drill sergeant receives sentencing
after Army base sex scandals
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (AP)—A
drill sergeant who had sex with three women
recruits got five months in prison and a bad
conduct discharge Wednesday in the first sen
tencing of the burgeoning Army sex scandal.
Sgt. Loren B. Taylor, 29, pleaded guilty a
day earlier of breaking the ban on sex between
commanders and subordinates, having consen
sual sex with three women recruits and trying to
have sex with another.
Two other instructors at Fort Leonard Wood
face similar charges.
Hie charges were disclosed on Tuesday, five
days after a sex scandal broke at the military's
Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, where
four drill instructors and a captain have been
charged with raping ex sexually harassing at least
a dozen female recruits.
In another case, The San Antonio Express
News reported Wednesday that women Army
trainees from Fort Sam Houston kissed their
supervisors during wild drinking binges and that
one trainee performed oral sex on her supervi
sor. Five sergeants were disciplined.
Taylor, who had faced up to 14 years behind
bars, asked the judge to spare him prison so he
could support his 7-year-old son, who lives with
his former wife.
But prosecutors, bolstered by the testimony
of two women who said they felt pressured into
having sex with Thylor, asked the judge to send
him to prison as a deterrent to others.
“I was so confused,” former Pvt. Joy Paulsen,
21, testified. “He was my drill sergeant. I was
supposed to obey. On the other hand, I didn’t
want to do what he was asking me to do.”
PITTSBURGH (AP)—Angering black ac
tiviste^an all-white jury acquitted a white po
lice officer Wednesday in the deadi of a black
motorist wlpinvestigators say suffocated in a
iscuffle with offers during a traffic stop* ■
Blackschanted, “No justice, nopeace!" and -
an angry crowd of abc^U 50 formedoutside the
courthouse after John vojtas, i 40-year-old of
ficer in suburban Brentwood, was cleared of
involuntary manslaughter.
“By any means necessary, justice will be
served,"said HeaiyWhite, who is black, “injury
of peers does not mean all white.”
The verdict came in the case of Jonny
Gammage, a 31-year-old cousin of Pittsburg
Steelers player Ray Seals. The Rev. Jesse Jack
son had branded Gammage’s death a lynching.
Two other suburban officers are charged with
involuntary manslaughter, but their trial ended
in a mistrial after 10 days when a coroner blurted
out inproper testimony last month. A new trial
will be held next year.
Gammage was pulled over in Pittsburgh on
Oct. 12,1995 by officers who had started chas
inghitn outride the city. The officers said he
had been drying erratically, tapping the brakes
of a Jaguar owned by Seals. /.>:
Gammage emerged from the car carrying a
cellular phone that police said they thought was
a guh. A struggle broke out, and police subdued
Gammage by pressing on his backend neck. The
coroner ruled he suffocated; defense lawyers
argued he could have died frail exhaustion or
an adrenaline rush. :
Vojtas, who could have, gotten up to five
years in prison, dropped his head and wept af
ter the verdict. r-:: > '
Prosecutors argued that Vojtas instigated the
fight by striking Gammage, then used too much
force when he kneeled on the maorist’s back.
The defense said Vojtas, his thumb bitten to the
bone, left the fight at least 10 minutes before
Gammage died.
“I hope he dies,” Vojtas said as Gammage
lay motionless On the ground. ITie officer later
explained he made the comment only in anger
over his thumb injury and never expected the
motorist to die.
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