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Jet crashes off coast of California OXNARD, Calif. (AP) - An Alaska Airlines jet carrying 65 passen gers dnd five crew members from Mexico to San Francisco crashed Monday in the Pacific Ocean after reporting mechanical difficulties. Flight 261 from Puerto Vallarta was reported down 20 miles northwest of the Los Angeles airport^bout 5:45 p.m. CDT, the FedenfiAviation Administration said. Pieces of wreck age could be seen in the water, but there was no sign of survivors. Cynthia Emery, FAA flight opera tions officer in Seattle, confirmed the number of passengers and crew on the doomed jetliner. FAA spokesman Mitch Barker said the plane was a Boeing 737. Boeing spokesman Craig Martin said the com pany was told by Alaska Airlines that the plane was an MD-80. A Coast Guard helicopter, a Navy airplane and small boats were search ing a large field of debris rolling in swells off Point Mugu as darkness began to descend on the ocean. Several bodies were recovered from the chilly waters, but there was no' sign of survivors, the Coast Guard said. Although no survivors were found, searchers did find bits of the wreckage. “They see a large debris field, but that’s all we’ve heard from them,” said Coast Guard Lt. Jeanne Reincke. The jet’s crew had reported mechanical difficulties and asked to land at Los Angeles, said Ron Wilson, a spokesman for the San Francisco air port. “Radar indicates it fell from 17,000 feet and then was lost from radar,” Wilson told KRON-TV in San Francisco. The flight was scheduled to contin ue to Seattle after San Francisco. On Sunday, a Kenya Airways flight crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after take off from Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The Airbus 310 carried 10 crew members and 169 passengers. At least 10 people survived. Last Oct. 31, EgyptAir Flight 990 plummeted into the ocean 60 miles south of the Massachusetts island of Terror in the sky With the deadly crashes of an Alaska Airlines jet Monday and a Kenyan Airlines jet Sunday, there have been five major air mishaps in the last 13 months. Below is a list of the recent crashes. Jan. 31,2000: Alaska AirSnes Fight 261 crashed into the Pacific Ocean after reporting mechanical :^ • .» l Jan. 30,2000: Kenya Airways Right 431 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after take off from Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Feb. 24, 1999: A China Southwest Airlines passenger plane crashes 250 miles south of Shanghai, China. Deo. 11, f 998: A Thai AffwaysAirt5usA310“200 crashes dumg a! landing attempt at Surat Than) airport, 330 miles south of Bangkok.] Nantucket. All 217 people aboard the Boeing 767 were killed. The 737 is the most commonly used commercial airplane in the world. Alaska Airlines has an excellent safety record and has built itself into a western power by flying north-south source: Associated Press routes on the West Coast. Its headquar ters are in Seattle. The chief flight inspector at the air port in Puerto Vallarta, a resort on Mexico’s Pacific coast, said Alaska Airlines operates a varying number of flights from there every day. Bodies recovered from Kenyan plane OFF THE IVORY COAST (AP) - As dawn broke Monday across the inky waters of the Atlantic, the men of the Artaban launched their ship into a nightmare. Bodies surrounded them: men, women, children, limbs that had been tom away. The remains floated amid the bag gage, books and clothes of dozens of passengers killed when Kenya Airways Flight 431 slammed into the sea. When the corpse of a baby dressed _ in a purple dress bobbed past, face down, the ship’s commander, Jean Pierre Athalys, turned away in horror. “That’s too much,” he muttered, as the tiny body was fished out and zipped into a billowing, adult-sized body bag. At least 10 people survived the dis aster. By Monday evening, 86 bodies had been brought to shore, rescue workers said, and most searchers had given up for the night. The plane, an Airbus 310, took off at 9:08 p.m. Sunday into overcast skies. Destined for Lagos, Nigeria, it crashed into the ocean after only one minute in the air, according to George Dapre Yao, the head of air traffic at Abidjan’s Felix Houphouet-Boigny Airport. ^ We had no visibility last night, but we could hear the screams of people - that was painful Tanoh Price fire department rescuer Flight 431 carried 10 crew mem bers and 169 passengers, officials said. It originated Sunday in Nairobi, Kenya, and was to have landed in Lagos that afternoon. But because of bad weather, it went on to Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s main commercial city. The hulking Dutch-owned Artaban, which services oil rigs, was one of more than a dozen vessels - from military speed boats to fishing ships - set out into the choppy waters around 11 p.m. in a spontaneous res cue effort. With only the light beamed down by two helicopters to guide them, the ships cut through the wreckage - long streams of twisted metal, broken hunks of plastic, battered suitcases and thin oil slicks carried along by the Atlantic currents - in an overwhelm ing and often terrifying darkness. “We had no visibility last night, but we could’hear the screams of people - that was painful,” fire department res cuer Tanoh Price told an Associated Press reporter who spent much of Monday aboard the Artaban along with the crew, French soldiers and members of other Ivorian rescue ser vices. Three bodies were hauled onto the ship along with several severed limbs. Finally, in the hours before dawn, a man was brought from the ocean alive, only to roll over a few minutes later and die. “Enough to bring tears to my eyes,” said Keith Francklin, a South African diver among the predominant ly French and Ivorian crew, shaking his head in frustration. Two survivors, a man and a woman, were later found clinging frantically to wreckage three or four miles offshore, giving the crew its first surge of hope. The woman, however, had blood pouring from a head wound, and the boat headed back to port. The next time out, a hazy sun shed light on the search, but the bodies and wreckage had been spread by the cur rent across three or four miles of ocean. Crew members scanned the waters with binoculars, pointing excitedly when they spotted anything that looked like a person. This time, though, there were no survivors. They retrieved six bodies, some only partially clad, using a long hook to grab the corpses’ clothing. Two more were collected from French soldiers who moved about in small speed boats. A Nigerian passenger rescued by another ship blamed some of the deaths on the two hours it took res cuers to arrive. “If they had come sooner, a lot of us would have been saved,” Samuel Ogbada Adje, wrapped in a blanket at Abidjan’s port, said bitterly before being pushed into an ambulance. Sunny Mostly sunny high 34, low 16 high 47, low 30 NetJraiskan Manaoino Questions? Comments? Associate^fews Editor: DaneStickney Ask for the appropriate section editor at Associate News Editor: Diane Broderick i' "I", . Opinion Editor: J J. Harder ** e-ma" an@tml.edu. Sports Editor: Sam McKewon A&E Editor: Sarah Baker General Manager: Daniel Shattil Copy Desk Co-Chief: Jen Walker Publications Board Jessica Hofmann, Copy Desk Co-Chief: Josh Krauter Chairwoman: (402) 477-0527 Photo Chief: Mike Warren ' Professional Adviser: Don Walton, Design Co-Chief: Diane Broderick (402) 473-7248 • Design Co-Chief: Tim Karstens Advertising Manager: Nick Partsch, Art Director: Melanie Falk (402) 472-2589 Web Editor: Gregg Steams Asst Ad Manager Jamie Yeager Asst Web Editor: JewelMlnarik Classified Ad Manager: Nichole Lake . Fax number: (402) 472;1761 World Wide Web: www.dailyneb.com The Daily Nebraskan (USPS 144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board, Nebraska Union 20,1400 R St., Lincoln, NE 68588-0448, Monday through Friday during the academic year; weekly during the summer sessions.The public has access to the Publications Board. Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by calling (402) 472-2588. Subscriptions are $60 for one year. Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 20,1400 R St„ Lincoln NE 68588-0448. Periodical postage paid at Lincoln. NE. ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 2000 THE DAILY NEBRASKAN ] Candidates give last 1 pitches before primary | ■ Presidential hopefuls go to great lengths to win votes before today’s primary. NASHUA, N.H. (AP) -The presi dential candidates shoveled snow, flipped pancakes and trudged through the slushy streets of New Hampshire on Monday, waging handshake-to handshake combat to the finish of their hard-fought primary race. With the field puzzling over ways to get supporters to voting booths, Sen. John McCain joked that he had the answer. “Death threats,” the Arizona Republican said. “If they don’t got out, and don’t vote for McCain, then don’t start your car for the next week.” Kidding aside, the stakes were high for McCain, who badly needs a victory in his nomination fight with better-financed George W. Bush. Bush is seeking a come-from-behind victory here to burnish his front-run ning national campaign, while staunch conservatives Steve Forbes, Alan Keyes and Gary Bauer are trying to show they still have a chance. “I’m confident of victory,” McCain said, as polls gave him a slight edge. “I like my chances a lot,” said Bush, whose aides said momentum was on his side, even if time wasn’t. Democrats A1 Gore and Bill Bradley were locked in a race that could determine the staying power of Bradley’s insurgent campaign. “We’re closing fast,” Bradley declared, as polls showed the former New Jersey senator trailing Gore but posing a threat in their bitterly fought race. Bradley has enough money to weather a New Hampshire loss more easily than McCain. The candidates’ schedules were all, made for television, though one photo opportunity didn’t turn out as planned for the struggling Bauer campaign. He tumbled off the stage during a pan cake-flipping demonstration. The griddle pan was bent, but the candi date was unhurt and unbowed: “I’m a survivor,” Bauer said, recognizing the political symbolism. \ I ■ Florida Endeavour liftoff delayed due to computer problems CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Computer trouble and bad weather forced NASA on Monday to delay the launch of space shuttle Endeavour on a quest to create the most accurate map of Earth ever produced. Launch managers said they would try again today, but only if the com puter problem could be solved quick ly. Liftoff time would be 12:44 p.m. The computer trouble cropped up with less than a half-hour remaining in the countdown. Even without the problem, Endeavour could not have lifted off because of rain and thick, dark clouds. NASA went all the way down to the nine-minute mark as engineers scrambled to understand why one of two controllers sent a series of erro neous signals during a pre-launch check. The unit worked well when engi neers repeated the test, but no one could explain the earlier malfunction. ■ New York Writer Vonnegut in critical condition after fire NEW YORK (AP) -“Slaughterhouse-Five” novelist Kurt Vonnegut Jr. lay in critical but stable condition Monday after a fire at his home. Vonnegut, 77, suffered smoke inhalation Sunday night in the small blaze that broke out in the fourth-floor study of Vonnegut’s East 48th Street brownstone. The author was home with his wife and daughter. The writer - known for satirical and darkly humorous novels-already / suffers from emphysema. A Fire Department source who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the fire may have been caused by a cigarette left burning in the room. ■ Russia Albright asks Russia to open dialogue with Chechnya MOSCOW (AP) - Clashing openly with Russia over Chechnya, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Monday the conflict in die rebel lious republic had inflicted “an incred ible amount of misery” on civilians-by targeting them indiscriminately and forcing them from their homes. She appealed to Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to open a dialogue with Chechen political figures. “We believe there is no military solution to the Chechen problem,” she said. But Ivanov responded at a joint j news conference that Russia had to move firmly against terrorism, a view with which he said other governments concurred, and that no one had come up with an effective recipe to deal with the extremist threat. ■ Austria EU threatens Austrian government VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The European Union warned Monday it would take the unprecedented step of severing most political contacts with any Austrian government that includes a far-right party whose leader has praised aspects of Adolph Hitler’s regime. The warning followed a series of verbal attacks by Joerg Haider on the leaders of France and Belgitenh for opposing any role for his party in the Austrian government. . Haider shrugged off the EU’s warning, saying it was his critics - and not himself - who were antidemocrat ic.
