North Adams Transcript (Newspaper) - June 13, 1972, North Adams, Massachusetts tke NORTH ADAMS ADAMS WILLIAMSTOWN MASSACHUSETTS YEAR No 221 TUESDAY JUNE 13 1972 24 PAGES 12 CENTS Nixon urges approval of arms agreements CHECK PLANE work Tuesday on cargo hatch of American Airlines plane that was ripped open apparently duo to a malfunction just after taking off from Detroit's Metropolitan airport Monday night Eleven persons were injured none seriously when plane made emergency landing at Detroit airport AP Wirephoto midair incident Damage to airliner said due to door malfunction DETROIT said today a malfunctioning cargo door opened in flight caused a midair incident in which an American Airlines was damaged but managed to make it safely back Metropolitan Airport Monday night First reports indicated the tail section of the huge Los York plane might have been ripped by an ex- plosive But the airline quoted the FBI as saying here was no evidence of an explosive device being involved The 56 passengers and 11 crew members all escaped serious injury as the jet ran off a runway during an emergency landing After hours of investigation by FBI agents Wayne County sheriffs officers and airline personnel the incident was blamed on a faulty door which opened in flight Capt Bryce E McCormick veteran pilot of the airliner said of his initial reaction My first thought was that there had been a midair collision McCormick told an airport news conference that after the malfunction lie had no rudder control over his craft that one of his three engines was out and that he had no left brakes as he fought o gel the big plane back to Detroit from where it had taken off for Buffalo and New York The I was was when we were on the ground and the plane was thought it was going to roll right into the terminal because I could not get it back on the he said McCormick discussing earlier theories that an explosion had occurred on the plane said To my recollection I do not remember telling the passengers there had been an explosion I old them everything was to remain on the plane so officials could investigate to de- termine the possibility of any ex- plosion George A Warde executive vice president and general manager of the airline said in a statement issued at the company's New York A thorough investigation by a company maintenance and engineering team assembled at Detroit Metropolitan Airport has determined that a cargo door in tile lower part of the fuselage below the passenger cabin opened when the was at about feet altitude after having left Detroit en route to Buffalo although signal lights in the cockpit indicated he cargo door and all other doors were closed and latched normally Because the airplane was pressurized a decompression with a loud sound occurred During the night we have inspected the cargo com- of all our and have found them to be functioning properly American Airlines and McConnell Douglas manufacturers of the are conducting a thorough investigation to determine what caused the malfunction of the door oh Flight 96 The National Transportation Safety Board also is investigating the incident Investigators said that when the door opened some of the a out In New York a spokesman for American Airlines reported that the FBI said its investigation had shown no evidence of criminal activity or an ex- plosive device being involved Power in one of the plane's three engines was knocked out and the hydraulic control and wheel brake systems were damaged Eleven persons aboard the aircraft suffered minor in while sliding down emergency exit chutes after the landing Several passengers hit by debris while airborne were treated at local hospitals and released Passengers quoted senior pilot Bryce E McCormick of Los Angeles as telling them originally that he felt a bomb had gone off There was a puff of smoke an ex- plosion and then the plane started losing said passenger Allen Kaminsky of Buffalo His wife said she thought at that moment I was going to die Officials said Die fact that the malfunction came early in the flight while the light on and passengers were in their seats prevented deaths or serious injuries Wayne County Undersheriff Loren Pittman said the tore a hole in the floor of the coach lounge in the rear of the passenger compartment WASHINGTON AP President Nixon disclosing some of the fine print of arms curb agreements negotiated with the Soviet Union urged Congress today to act without delay in giving its approval to the accords A treaty limiting the deployment of missiles two sites in each country was sent lo the Senate with a request for early cation Both houses of Congress were asked to pass a resolution approving a com- executive agreement that would freeze the total number of based offensive ballistic missiles in the United States and the Soviet Union at present levels While terming the agreements an important first step in checking the arms Nixon told Congress they do not close off all avenues of strategic competition it was essential that we carry forward a sound strategic program to maintain our security and to insure that more manent and comprehensive arms limitation agreements can be reached Nixon revealed that the United Slates feels it would have a basis for drawing from the ABM treaty if tighter curbs on are not negotiated within five years Either side can withdraw on six months notice The fine print Nixon sent Congress disclosed that the United States and the Soviet Union remain far apart in con- the question of modern sub- marines operated by U.S allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization The Soviets take position that should the NATO allies build additional modern subs over and above those now or under construction the Soviet Union will have the right lo a corresponding increase in number of its submarines The United States took the that it does not accept the validity of the considerations raised by Moscow regarding submarines belonging to third countries American negotiators had wanted lo restrict intercontinental ballistic as i part of the agreement on offensive arms but deferred the topic in order to speed an agreement in time for Nixon's summit visit lo Moscow last month the United States has served notice it would regard the deployment of such launchers as inconsistent svith the objectives of lie executive agreement The Soviets expressed no view on the subject The exact liming of congressional hearings on the treaty and the agreement is still uncertain Chairman J William Fulbright D- Ark of the Senate Foreign Relations and Chairman John Stennis of Senate Armed Services Committee have indicated they favor approval of the accords After Republican congressional chiefs met with Nixon morning House GOP chief Gerald Ford of Michigan forecast rapid and favorable treatment The two agreements were signed in Moscow May 26 by Nixon and Soviet Communist party chief Leonid I Brezhnev In another unilateral statement made public by Nixon in sending Congress a packet of documents the United States raised questions about a significant potential inherent in the henhouse radars thai are a key element in the Soviet's early warning safeguards against a surprise ballistic missile attack Because of the ABM potential the United States told the Soviet Union it would regard any increase in the defenses of such radars by air missiles as inconsistent with the ABM treaty In a message to Hie Senate and a virtually identical letter to House Speaker Carl Albert of Oklahoma Nixon The defense capabilities of the United States are second lo none in the world today I am determined that they shall remain so The terms of the ABM treaty and interim agreement will permit the United Slates to take the steps we deem necessary to maintain a strategic posture which protects our vital interests and guarantees continued security Besides arguing that the accords not U.S defenses contended that the two agreements provide for a more stable strategic ance in the next several years than would be possible if strategic arms competition continued unchecked Rapid City begins burying dead flood toll 202 expected to rise RAPID CITY Rapid City began burying its dead in three cemeteries today as survivors continued to search for more flood victims As a cool breeze rippled through the Passengers on crippled plane hung near death DETROIT about 15 minutes Monday night 67 persons aboard a crippled jetliner hung on the edge of death When a cargo door of plane ripped open apparently due to a malfunction shortly after the plane took off on a flight to Buffalo a piece of a hatch flew up and struck Kaminsky of Buffalo in the face The first thought that went through my mind was that I was going to she said later There was stark fear among the passengers but no her husband Allen said The malfunction opened a hole in the floor of the coach lounge at the back of the plane But the light kept passengers fn their places and the lounge There was a big woosh a swooshing and then cabin filled wilh smoke and the parts of The Weather Mostly cloudy tonight mid chance of showers or Lows tonight In M's High Wednesday In Id's down and the floor came Joyce Bigelow 26 of Buffalo said My first feeling was terror There was some noise but there was no confusion The interesting thing was the behavior of the said insurance executive J Kenneth Wylie of Springfield Mass seated in coach section near the malfunction site It was most remarkable Man charges meter maid bit him SACRAMENTO Calif AP Robert Habra has filed a claim against the city of Sacramento saying a meter maid Ml him llabra 31 a supermarket em- ploye said he was putting a penny In a downtown parking meter for a friend on April 3 when Meter Maid Frances Simpson struck bit clawed him on the face and chest Mrs Simpson 36 told a reporter deny It wholeheartedly He definitely attacked me I would never attack someone like that The City Council will the claim poplar and pine trees at Mountain View Cemetery the first of the Anton buried Meanwhile County District Judge Marshall Young announced that the latest official death toll was 202 More bodies were being found and the loll was sure to rise Zieglmeier a store manager was buried before about 75 mourners including his widow and two children Burials also began across the road at Mount Calvary Cemetery and al Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis The service for Zieglmeier was short The burdens of this family and this community are said the Rev Ralph Smith Words can't express what we feel and what we honor so deeply Individual funeral services probably will continue for at least a week said a funeral director A mass memorial service is scheduled Sunday at a Rapid City high school for those who died late Friday and early Saturday when swollen Rapid Creek erupted through this city of persons in the shadow of the Black Hills On Monday there was confusion about the number of dead nnd authorities had at one point revised toll downward to below 200 A spokesman said duplication of reports and confusion caused erroneous reports Officials said some bodies were moved to nearby communities Sunday when three Rapid City mortuaries used as temporary morgues became over- crowded The Omaha Neb reported in today's editions that two cloud-seeding experiments were con- ducted Friday in Die Rapid City area one of about 5 p.m an hour before the devastating rains began The experiments were conducted by Hie Institute of Atmospheric Sciences South Dakota School of Mines for increasing water supply and studying the dynamics of hail the copyright article quotes an unnamed federal official as saying The newspaper quoted Prof Arnett Dennis chief of the meteorological analysis group as saying the experiments had totally and absolutely nothing to do with the storm that hit Rapid City I would stake my life on that As the cleanup and search continued at Rapid City Maj Gen Duane L Corning commander of the South Dakota Guard said men have been finding bodies all day It will continue for days and days Fired U.S air commander would order strikes again NEW TOGS FOR THE Luscia the city's one-man sanitation department received new uniforms yesterday compliments of Uniform of Adams owned by Arthur H Brown Mr Brown donated three jackets and five white uniforms that he will keep clean free of charge Over the right pocket is written Joe the Broom and over the left pocket City of North Adams Transcript WASHINGTON AP The former U.S air commander in Vietnam fired for ordering unauthorized air strikes against North Vietnamese preparing for attack says he would order the strikes again If he had the opportunity If I had it to do over I would do the same Gen John D Lavelle told a House armed services subcommittee However he said he would check into reporting procedures better before issuing the order Lavelle was recalled from Vietnam after reports prepared by officers under his command were forwarded to Washington indicating falsely that North Vietnamese had undertaken some kind of attack to justify the retaliatory strikes Lavelle said he believed his superiors including Gen Creighton Abrams knew of the air strikes he ordered without specific permission between lust January and March 10 Gen John D Ryan Air Force chief of staff said he recalled Lavelle as commander of the U.S 7th Air Force in Indochina last March 23 after learning of 28 strikes involving 147 planes that he said violated terms of the 1968 bombing halt which permitted only retaliatory protective reaction strikes Lavelle said he relayed pilots reports of Hanoi's buildup ol MIGs at three airfields near the demilitarized zone plus 133 millimeter heavy artillery an- guns missiles and supplies and finally asked Abrams in January for permission to attack them said he could understand Ryan's viewpoint that I had exceeded my authority but said he Judged that the U.S Rules of Engagement lated after the 1968 bombing halt gave him authority as commander at the scene to determine what a protective reaction strike was I
