In the worst air disaster in history, a Turkish jumbo jet on its way to London crashed in the area of Ermenonville, 26 miles northeast of Paris, soon after it left Orly Airport, killing all persons aboard. At 12:41 in the afternoon local time, Turkish Airlines Flight 981 crashed in the woods near the Paris suburb of Ermenonville in France, killing all 346 people aboard. The DC-10 departed from Orly Airport in Paris at 12:30 on its flight to London, and experienced an explosive decompression at an altitude of almost 23,000 feet (7,000 m), blowing off the rear cargo door and sending six passengers to their deaths in a field near Saint-Pathus. The cables controlling the aircraft’s elevators and rudder were severed. The aircraft crashed into the forest 77 seconds after the explosion, at a speed of 487 miles per hour (784 km/h).
The crash occurred when an incorrectly secured cargo door at the rear of the plane burst open and broke off, causing an explosive decompression that severed critical cables necessary to control the aircraft. To maximize the working space within the cargo hold, the cargo doors opened outwards, making them vulnerable to being forced open at high altitudes under normal in-flight pressure. To prevent this, a special latching system was used that locked shut under pressure when properly closed. To ensure the latches were properly positioned, a handle on the outside of the door pressed small metal pins into the latches; if the latches were in an improper location the pins would not align and the handle would not close.
The handle on DC-10 cargo doors could close despite the latches being in the wrong position, a discovery made after previous services, most notably during the incident involving American Airlines Flight 96 in 1972. This was because the linkage between the handle and the pins was too weak and allowed the handle to be forced into the closed position. A minor change had been ordered to install a support plate for the handle linkage to make it stronger; manufacturer documents showed this work as completed on the aircraft involved in Flight 981, but the plate had not in fact been installed. It was also noted that the handle on the crash aircraft had been filed down at an earlier date to make it easier to close the door. Finally, the latching had been performed by a baggage handler who did not speak Turkish or English, the only languages provided on a warning notice about the cargo door’s design flaws and the methods of compensating for them. After the disaster, the latches were redesigned and the locking system was significantly upgraded.
In the following investigation, it was found that a similar set of conditions, which had caused the failure of an aircraft floor following explosive decompression of the cargo hold, had occurred in ground testing in 1970 before the DC-10 series entered commercial service. The smoking gun was a memo from the fuselage’s manufacturer, Convair (a division of General Dynamics), to McDonnell Douglas, in which the series of events that occurred on Flight 96, and fatally on Flight 981, was foreseen; it concluded that if these events occurred it would probably result in the loss of the aircraft. In spite of this warning, nothing was done to correct the flaw. The consequences of this were many, including – but not limited to – some of the largest civil lawsuits to that date.
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Egypt has proposed that the oil ministers of Arab oil-producing countries meet in Tripoli, Libya, next Sunday to consider, among other things, the easing of the Arab oil embargo against the United States. A similar conference had been scheduled for Feb. 14, but was canceled at the last minute at the request of Saudi Arabia, acting on behalf of the President of Syria.
Two hijackers, armed with guns and hand grenades, took control of a British Airways flight 90 minutes after the VC-10 departed from Beirut en route to London. Officials at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam allowed the airplane to land, and the hijackers unexpectedly ordered the 92 passengers and 10 crew to leave down emergency slides. After the aircraft was clear, the two men, who claimed they were from the “Palestinian Liberation Army”, set fire to the jet, slid down the slide and were arrested by local police. The VC-10 was completely destroyed. The hijackers said later that before that they had boarded, other accomplices had hidden firearms and explosives on the aircraft and instructed the two men where to sit.
Premier Golda Meir of Israel stunned her party and the country by suddenly announcing that she was giving up her five-week effort to form a new coalition government. She stated her decision in a moment of apparent pique in a closed-door meeting of her Labor party after members of Parliament from the right and left had criticized her leadership and attempts to form a minority government.
North Vietnam agreed to allow the return of the bodies of 12 U.S. servicemen who died in captivity in Hanoi, the U.S. Embassy in Saigon announced. A spokesman said that the Four-Party Joint Military Team — North Vietnam, the United States, South Vietnam and the Viet Cong — had concurred in the action. Two U.S. Air Force C-130 transports will fly to Hanoi’s Gia Lam airport Wednesday on the mission carrying members of all four parties to Hanoi.
Philippine forces have started military operations against two large concentrations of Muslim rebels on the southern Philippine island of Jolo, a military spokesman said. The island, 600 miles south of Manila, was the scene of bitter fighting February 7 between government forces and about 800 Muslim rebels who attacked Jolo city and set fire to its marketplace.
An estimated 149,000 workers and housewives protested inflation throughout Japan where the Tokyo consumer price index in February recorded a 24% increase in a year. The rallies were sponsored by the General Council of Trade Unions and other labor unions. Protesters in Tokyo adopted resolutions calling for joint struggles against inflation, the Tanaka government and “corrupt business practices by big enterprises.”
Secretary of State Kissinger began consultations on the Middle East and on European‐American relations with Foreign Minister Walter Scheel tonight after a five‐and‐a‐half‐hour flight from Amman, Jordan. Mr. Kissinger will talk with Chancellor Willy Brandt here tomorrow morning and then fly to Brussels, presumably to brief representatives of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on his latest Middle East mission, before going on to Washington tomorrow night. Before he left Jordan, Secretary Kissinger announced that King Hussein would visit Washington March 12. And as his flight was in the air to Bonn, Egypt announced that she had suggested a meeting or oil ministers in Tripoli, Libya, next Sunday. The meeting would discuss, among other things, the lifting of the Arab oil embargo against the United States.
Dissident nuclear physicist Andrei D. Sakharov said in a document made available in Moscow to Western newsmen that 1.7 million inmates of Soviet prisons and prison camps are being exposed to malnutrition and repression. He appealed to international organizations, especially the Red Cross, to abandon their policy of nonintervention in Soviet domestic affairs and vigorously protest violations of human rights in Russia. Sakharov’s comments were made in a foreword to a collection of his writings soon to be published in the United States.
Spanish police clashed with more than 1,000 demonstrators protesting a reported order from the government to the pro-Basque Roman Catholic bishop of Bilbao to leave Spain. Witnesses said armed police and demonstrators scuffled outside the home of the bishop, Msgr. Antonío Anoveros, where he has been under virtual house arrest for four days since his office circulated a sermon to local priests calling for wider freedom for Basques.
A British army vehicle on patrol in rural County Tyrone struck a land mine, killing one militiaman and wounding three others. Earlier, police had mounted an intensive manhunt for two teen-age boys in the murder of a policeman in central Belfast. At Castlederg, near the border with the Irish Republic, 800 villagers were evacuated overnight while army experts tried to defuse a 500-pound bomb in a panel truck. The bomb finally exploded, damaging buildings up to 150 yards away. No one was hurt.
Chancellor Willy Brandt’s Social Democratic party suffered a severe setback in elections for the Hamburg State Legislature, losing the absolute majority it has had since 1957. The votes the party lost appear to have gone mostly to the opposition Christian Democrats.
Voting for President was held in Guatemala as well as for the 60-seat Congreso de la República. None of the three candidates for president — Kjell Laugerud, Efraín Ríos Montt or Ernesto Paíz Novales — received 50% of the vote, although Laugerud had 44% and was ultimately selected by 38 of the members of the Congreso, with 2 for Rios Montt and 15 abstaining. Guatemalans, amid confusion and disorder caused by delays in opening of the polls, turned out to elect a new president from among three former army officers. The 1.5 million registered voters in the Central American nation must choose between General Kjell Laugerud Garcia, 44, the former defense minister; General Efrain Rios Montt, 48, former army chief of staff; and Colonel Ernesto Paiz Novales, 53, the former ambassador to Venezuela. The election was called also to renew the 62-member congress and elect 325 mayors.
Chief Judge John Sirica of the Federal District Court in Washington was expected to decide this week how to dispose of the sealed grand jury report given to him Friday by one of the Watergate grand juries, a well-placed source said. The report is said to outline the grand jury’s conclusion that President Nixon was involved in a conspiracy to cover up the Watergate bugging. The judge can order the report resealed, or send all or part of it to the House Judiciary Committee which is considering Mr. Nixon’s impeachment, or he can order that the report be released publicly.
Slow down! Federal legislation requiring a nationwide 55-m.p.h. speed limit takes effect today, although a survey indicates that all the states have already complied with the law. The measure, designed to conserve fuel by forcing motorists to drive more slowly, was signed by President Nixon on January 2. It gave states 60 days to pass a 55-m.p.h. limit or face the possible cutoff of federal highway funds. The deadline actually was 12:01 a.m. Sunday, but the Transportation Department extended it to 12:01 a.m. today to avoid weekend confusion.
A month after the abduction of his 20-year-old daughter, Patricia, and 10 days since the last message from her kidnappers, Randolph Hearst made a new appeal for some word from his daughter. “You might ask the people who are holding you if you could be allowed to send us a letter or get in touch with us by tape.” Mr. Hearst said addressing his daughter. Mr. Hearst, with his wife at his side, made his appeal during a televised news conference in the driveway of his mansion here. Their daughter was taken from her Berkeley apartment February 4 by a group calling itself the Symbionese Liberation Army. Although $2‐million has already been turned over to feed California’s poor and $4‐million more has been promised if Miss Hearst is released, there was still no indication today when she might be freed.
The free food for the poor program that the Symbionese demanded be established with the ransom money was put into full operation last week when some 30,000 bags of groceries were distributed from centers in poor and black communities in the Bay Area. Another distribution of free food was scheduled for yesterday but was postponed, officials of the program explained, because the volunteers who handled the distribution were exhausted. The next distribution is now scheduled for Tuesday. In the meantime, reports continued to circulate that the Federal Bureau of Investigation knows who the members of the Symbionese Army are and where they are holding their prisoner. However, the kidnappers have warned that any attempt to rescue Miss Hearst would result in her immediate execution.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said today it “was handling” reports of letters sent to five New England Governors by the kidnappers of Patricia Hearst, the newspaper heiress. A spokesman for the FBI would not say whether the agency was formally investigating the apparently identical letters but did say, “The FBI does have information of the letters and are handling it.” The five Governors said yesterday they had received mimeographed letters signed by Field Marshal Cinque, the name given by the leader of the kidnappers, who call themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army. At least three of the Governors said they did not take the letters seriously.
Independent truck drivers who recently organized a nationwide strike formed a national organization, the National Independent Truckers Unity Committee. Leaders said that for the first time a unified voice has been given to the nation’s more than 150,000 independent owner-operators. William J. Hill, president of the Fraternal Association of Steel Haulers, was elected in Chicago as temporary chairman.
The Baltimore school board and representatives of the teachers’ union “have tentatively accepted settlement proposals,” said William J. Usery Jr., director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. The Public School Teachers Association will meet today “for the purpose of calling off the strike,” Usery announced. Details of the settlement proposal were not disclosed pending the teachers’ meeting and consultation with the City Council. There were rumors that the city would compromise on its offer of 5% raises. The teachers, who walked out February 4, had originally demanded an 11% increase but later said they would accept 8%.
A joint commission of United States Roman Catholic and Lutheran theologians issued a study declaring that papal primacy — a major issue in the Protestant Reformation of 16th Century — need no longer be a “barrier to reconciliation” of their churches. The joint “Common Statement” envisioned a time when the Lutheran and Catholic churches would be part of a single “larger communion.”
Maryland state and local authorities are conducting an all-out investigation into the circumstances of the weekend death from apparent drug overdoses of two teen-age residents of Boys Village, a detention center in Cheltenham. Dr. Neil Solomon, state health secretary, asked the state police to enter the investigation after Antonio D. Ogle, 15, and Ronnie Conway, 14, both of Baltimore, were found dead in their beds. Fifteen other youths in the 27-bed cottage were treated at a hospital after admitting taking “one or more of the pink pills.”
The recent discovery of fatal liver cancer among vinyl chloride workers has focused renewed attention of government, labor and medicine on the thousands of known, suspected and as‐yet unsuspected health hazards that face 60 million working Americans. Most workers are not yet protected by the Occupational Safety and Health Act, passed three years ago, which grants every American the right to work without job‐induced threats to his life and health.
The United States is planning a mission to Mars in the next 10 years that involves the return of a sample of the planet that might be examined in earth orbit before being brought to earth. The orbital examination is being urged by scientists who fear that Mars might be populated by organisms that could attack plants and animals on earth.
Midwesterners, struck by a premature spring, packed parks, zoos, beaches and ice cream parlors as temperatures, brought by brisk southerly winds, climbed to record highs. The mercury climbed to 80 in Chicago — the warmest it has ever been this early in the year, which was testified to when a large turtle in Brookfield Zoo broke its winter nap to amble onto a rock to bask in the sun. Only the penguins seemed displeased. Warm weather was the rule from the Ohio Valley and the Great Lakes to the middle Mississippi Valley. Pittsburgh reported a record of 75.
Lawrence Hurwit and Lee Goldsmith’s musical “Sextet” starring Dixie Carter, opens at Bijou Theater, NYC; runs for 9 performances.
The first episode of the science show “Nova” was broadcast on television as a production of WGBH-TV in Boston.
Despite Billy Harris’ hat trick Islanders lose 4—3.
Born:
David Faustino, American TV actor (Bud Bundy-“Married… with Children”), in Los Angeles, California.
Jared Rushton, actor (“Big”, “Honey I Shrunk the Kids”), in Provo, Utah.
Kelly Lytle Hernández, American historian and MacArthur Fellowship grantee; in San Diego, California.
Died:
Frank Wilcox, 66, American character actor on film and TV (“Beverly Hillbillies”), from a heart attack.
Barbara Ruick, 41, American TV actress (“Carousel”; “Fearless Fagan”) and singer, of a ruptured cerebral aneurysm.
Jim Conway, 58, British trade unionist, was killed in the crash of Flight 981.
John Cooper, 33, British athlete and silver medalist in the 1964 Olympics in the 400m hurdles competition, was killed in the crash of Flight 981.
Alla Levashova, 55, Soviet fashion designer.
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