520 people died in the crash of a Japan Air Lines 747 jumbo jet, Flight 123, in Ueno in central Japan. The plane crashed into a mountain range after the pilot reported that a cabin door had broken and that he lost control of the plane. Rescue crews found no sign of survivors in the widely scattered wreckage. This was the second-deadliest aviation disaster of all time. The Boeing 747 flying the route from Tokyo to Osaka suffered a severe structural failure and explosive decompression 12 minutes after takeoff. After flying under minimum control for 32 minutes, the plane crashed in the area of Mount Takamagahara, 100 kilometres (62 mi; 54 nmi) from Tokyo.
The aircraft, featuring a high-density seating configuration, was carrying 524 people. The crash killed all 15 crew members and 505 of the 509 passengers on board, leaving only four survivors. An estimated 20 to 50 passengers survived the initial crash but died from their injuries while awaiting rescue. The crash is the deadliest single-aircraft accident in aviation history and remains the deadliest aviation incident in Japan. Japan’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission (AAIC), assisted by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, concluded that the structural failure was caused by a faulty repair by Boeing technicians following a tailstrike seven years earlier. When the faulty repair eventually failed, it resulted in a rapid decompression that ripped off a large portion of the tail and caused the loss of all hydraulic systems and flight controls.
A Catholic priest’s one-year jail sentence for protesting the Polish government’s removal of crucifixes from a parish school was suspended by an appeals court in Kielce, Poland. However, Father Marek Labuda was ordered to pay a $630 fine. Authorities said they removed the crosses because the school was state property. An appeal by a second priest, Father Marek Labuda, was unsuccessful, and he faces a 10-month sentence for a similar offense.
Solidarity activist Marian Jurczyk said Polish authorities have accused him of distributing anti-government pamphlets and ordered him not to leave Szczecin, the port city where he lives, without police permission. Observers said the action against Jurczyk, an early organizer of the Solidarity trade union movement, was aimed at deterring others from commemorating the fifth anniversary of the shipyard strike in Gdansk that forced the government to recognize Solidarity.
Fuel-soaked bedding was found on a West German train used to carry American soldiers and supplies between Frankfurt and West Berlin, but a faulty igniting device. failed to set the material ablaze. Frankfurt police said blankets and pillows “were soaked with a liquid, probably diesel fuel, and stacked in the entranceways” of the four sleeper cars, which travel 110 miles through East Germany to Berlin. Police said the incident had “no apparent connection” to the terrorist car bombing that killed two Americans last week at Rhein-Main Air Base near Frankfurt.
The police shot to death a gunman who had seriously wounded one man and held another hostage for nearly five hours today at the Paris Mosque, the police said. A police spokesman said that the siege ended at about 7 PM and that the hostage, identified as Hadj el Omar, the mosque’s chief of protocol, had been released unhurt. The police said the wounded man was the mosque’s director of personnel, Abah Dramshini. The unidentified gunman had demanded an airplane to fly to Algeria. The elite security unit of the police surrounded the mosque, in the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank. The police said the man, who had a rifle, had demanded to speak with a member of the Algerian Embassy. The spokesman said Mr. Dramshini had suffered a serious wound in the abdomen and had been taken to Paris’ Cochin Hospital.
Militiamen battled across Beirut’s dividing line, with both Christian and Muslim gunners attacking residential areas of the other side with artillery fire. As many as 16 people were reported killed and 75 wounded-among the latter Souha Chahin, 20, this year’s Miss Lebanon, a student at the American University of Beirut. The exchanges represented the fiercest combat in weeks in Beirut-where Syria, as Lebanon’s power broker, has been trying to impose a peace settlement. The battle also came amid intensified Muslim demands for the resignation of President Amin Gemayel, a Christian.
Hundreds of heavily armed police officers in Pakistan dispersed demonstrators with riot sticks and tear gas today after thousands of people protested the killing of nine members of a single family. More than 10,000 people marched Sunday through various parts of Rawalpindi, which adjoins the capital of Islamabad. Vehicles and shops were burned in several slums. Angry residents demanded to know why the nine people were killed and contended that the police were unable to protect the public. The police said one officer was shot and wounded while trying to prevent the destruction of several shops. At least 70 people were reported arrested. The riots began after news spread across the city that nine members of a family, including five children, had been killed by a group of men who broke into their home in the Dhok Khabba area.
At least 20 people were injured when new violence broke out in India’s western state of Gujarat today over a Government policy on minorities, the Press Trust of India reported. The news agency said 15 people were injured in street clashes in Surendranagar, five of them when the police opened fire to break up angry crowds. It said the fighting broke out between supporters and opponents of a policy reserving promotion quotas in Government jobs for underprivileged classes and castes.
Sri Lanka rejected the main demands of Tamil separatists in their second round of peace talks, which began after a weekend of violence in the island nation south of India, in which 26 people were killed. In the talks, which are being held in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan under Indian sponsorship, the Tamil minority is seeking special status within the nation, dominated by the majority Sinhalese.
Japanese and Americans believe Japan’s trade competition is being used by the United States as a scapegoat to cover domestic economic problems, according to a New York Times/CBS News/Tokyo Broadcasting System Poll. Seeing the Japanese as superior in consumer product quality, especially cars, and blaming American business for a poor effort in selling to Japan, the publics of both countries also felt strongly that Japanese blue-collar employees worked harder than Americans. American blue-collar workers and union members agreed solidly. But even though the Americans acknowledged domestic causes for their trade problems, 48 percent of them said trade with Japan was bad for the United States economy and 57 percent said Japan was unfairly restricting imports. Some kind of trade action against Japan was supported by 63 percent of the American public although support for sanctions dropped sharply when the risks of retaliation, higher prices or diminished consumer choice were raised.
A U.S. businessman accused of starting a fatal fire in a hotel in the Manchurian city of Harbin was found guilty of criminal negligence by a Chinese court and sentenced to 18 months in prison, a court official said. Richard S. Ondrik, 34, an Indiana native employed by a Hong Kong firm, also was ordered to pay damages of almost $52,000. Ondrik had faced a maximum seven-year sentence on a charge of negligently starting the April 18 blaze in the new, luxury Swan Hotel by smoking in bed. Ten people died in the fire.
Greenpeace, the environmental organization whose flagship Rainbow Warrior was blown up in New Zealand last month, has obtained another vessel and sent it on a mission to the Antarctic. A spokesman said Greenpeace hopes to focus attention on threats to the continent that could be created by large-scale exploitation of its mineral reserves. The vessel, a former tugboat that was renamed Greenpeace, will stop in New Zealand.
Nicaragua’s rebels have received as much as $25 million from in donations from private individuals in the United States and foreign sources, according to a retired general and Reagan Administration officials who work with them. They said the rebel movement is growing rapidly and now poses a real threat to Nicaragua’s Sandinista Government.
Colombian rebels firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles attacked a mountaintop police and army outpost overlooking this capital city of 6 million people today, the Defense Ministry said. Colonel Eduardo Arevalo, a ministry spokesman, said the attack was one of four by leftist rebels in Colombia in 24 hours. Reports by Colonel Arevalo and another official said the fighting left three policemen and one guerrilla dead and four officers wounded. He said the insurgents tried to storm the outpost where the ministry has its radio antennas on a mountaintop. They killed one policeman before being driven away, the colonel said. Another policeman was killed and two were wounded when a rebel band stormed a police station in Salgar in western Colombia, officials said, and a third policeman was killed in a rebel ambush after a bank robbery there.
At least 10 Maoist rebels were killed in a clash with soldiers in a Peruvian jungle district as security forces stepped up a counterinsurgency offensive, military sources said today. They said the rebels were killed Friday when soldiers overran a rebel camp 180 miles north of the city of Ayacucho. The operation followed the killing by the army of 17 rebels on Wednesday in Putaccassa, also in Ayacucho State.
Uganda’s largest rebel group was reported today to be marching toward the country’s third-largest town. The reports that the National Resistance Army was advancing toward the town of Masaka comes just two weeks after military leaders deposed President Milton Obote on July 27, touching off looting and chaos in many areas. The so-called resistance army led by Yoweri Museveni, who is a Marxist, is believed to have about 4,000 well-trained soldiers. They took to the bush four years ago, saying that the December 1980 elections that returned Mr. Obote to power were rigged.
The Pope, in Cameroon, issued a stinging statement on Africa’s problems that sharply criticized both wealthy nations and African governments. He also urged Africa to resist Western-sponsored birth control efforts while acknowledging “the grave problems posed by population growth in some parts of the world.” But he repeated the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to artificial contraception and all policies he called “anti-life,” in effect urging Africa to resist Western-sponsored birth control efforts. In the course of the day, the Pope, who spoke out Sunday against apartheid, also called for independence for South-West Africa, or Namibia, which is administered by South Africa in defiance of the United Nations.
The South African police shot to death a 12-year-old girl who was watching a burning beer hall near Pretoria, and in Johannesburg they used whips and tear gas to break up a demonstration by black and white university students urging a consumer boycott. Unrest was also reported in Soweto, the black township outside Johannesburg. The police also fought youths throwing stones and gasoline bombs in Duncanville, near East London, but no casualties were reported. Representative Stephen J. Solarz, Democrat of Brooklyn, met with President P. W. Botha and said afterward that prospects were dim for significant changes in apartheid.
A statement on South Africa by the Reagan Administration urged it make “bold decisions” to end racial violence and to give “political rights, justice and equality” to the country’s black majority. The statement came as thousands of people were marching to the State Department, demanding an end to apartheid.
Union Carbide said several problems in a new chemical process caused the toxic gas leak Sunday at its plant in Institute, West Virginia, that injured at least 135 people. Most of them were treated for eye, throat or lung irritation. Fifteen of the 28 people who remained in hospitals have been released. The rest were reported to be in satisfactory condition. The gas, aldicarb oxime, began leaking at 9:24 AM, 20 minutes before the local authorities were notified and 36 minutes before a public warning siren was sounded, company spokesmen said today. They said a computer had predicted the cloud would remain within the plant’s boundaries, thus contributing to the delay.
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed allowing continued use of the pesticide dicofol even though it contains the banned substance DDT. The benefits of the pesticide outweigh the risks, the EPA said. Dicofol is used on cotton, fruits and vegetables as well as lawns. It contains high levels of DDT and other substances that could harm fish and aquatic birds, but manufacturers said that they could reduce levels of those substances to as low as 0.1%.
A Supreme Court decision requiring towns and cities to comply with federal wage-hour laws will cost municipalities more than $1 billion and must be modified, National League of Cities President George Voinovich, mayor of Cleveland, said. On Feb. 19, 1985, the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act apply to state and local governments, affecting about 7 million local and state employees and several million volunteers. Voinovich said that Los Angeles estimates the cost of the overtime provisions to run from $50 million to $100 million.
The engine shutdown that almost aborted the space shuttle Challenger’s launch last month was caused, as suspected, by sensors that broke and falsely reported a fuel pump was overheating, a spokesman for the Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International reported. Rocketdyne is the prime contractor on the shuttle main engines. The spokesman said a new production process has improved sensors and that the firm has recommended the new ones fly on Discovery when it is launched August 24.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said its staff has proposed a $64,000-fine against GPU Nuclear, operator of Three Mile Island, alleging that a contractor discriminated against an employee who raised safety concerns. The NRC staff claims Bechtel Corp., lead contractor in the cleanup of the nuclear power plant’s Unit 2 reactor near Harrisburg, Pa., which was damaged in a 1979 accident, harassed and intimidated employee Richard D. Parks, who accused Bechtel and GPU of not properly testing a crane that was to be used in the cleanup in 1983.
The founder of a white supremacist group pleaded guilty today to charges of conspiracy and illegal possession of an automatic weapon. James Ellison, the founder of a group known as the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord, and five other defendants were charged with conspiring to violate Federal weapon statutes. Their trial was to have begun today in Federal District Court. The others pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges. Mr. Ellison was also charged with one count of illegal possession of explosives. He is also awaiting sentencing on Federal racketeering charges. The group’s 224-acre compound in Arkansas was the site of a four-day standoff in April with Federal and state officers.
The chief of security of a neo-Nazi group, the Aryan Nations Church, was arrested today in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho on charges that he ordered the killing of a government informant, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The suspect, Elden Cutler, 59 years old, was charged with ordering the killing of Thomas Allen Martinez, whose information led to the investigation of the Order, a violent white supremacist splinter group, the F.B.I. said. The F.B.I. refused comment on whether Mr. Martinez was alive.
Huge U.S. corn and soybean crops expected this year are raising fears of further distress for hard-pressed farm communities and of further pressure on Congress for increased farm-price supports.
A 37-year-old Boston man being sought in the killings of two elderly women surrendered to the police late tonight, the day after he was released from custody because he could not find the the victims’ house, the police said. The bodies of the women were found Sunday night, several hours after he was released. The man, identified as Ronald Guest, 37 years old, had been named in a warrant after he showed up at police headquarters Saturday and told of the killings but then could not find the house, according to Police Deputy Superintendent John E. Barry. He said the man appeared intoxicated at the time. The man was released early Sunday and the bodies of the victims, Velma Goodwin, 85, and Harriet Cady, 75, were discovered by a relative Sunday evening, the police said.
A former clerk for the Central Intelligence Agency who is accused of engaging in espionage while she was serving in Ghana pleaded guilty today to two counts of identifying a United States intelligence agent. The defendant, Sharon M. Scranage, who had been charged in an 18-count indictment, also pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of espionage, conspiracy, unauthorized disclosure of classified information, and further charges of identifying covert agents. Justice Department officials said that Miss Scranage’s attorneys had tried to arrange a plea bargain that would have involved dropping the espionage charges, which carry potential life sentences, but that the offer was rejected. Each count of identifying American intelligence agents carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $50,000.
Bohdan Kozly, alleged to have been a policeman working for Nazi occupation forces in the Ukraine during World War II, has left the United States, the Justice Department said. Koziy’s departure fulfills a deportation order that had been entered against the 62-year-old Fort Lauderdale, Fla., resident by a U.S. immigration court in Miami.
The first agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to be charged with espionage “began sobbing” in the squad room when he learned that he was suspended for two weeks without pay for being overweight, according to testimony today in his Federal trial on the spying charges. The suspension and ensuing bitterness, coupled with financial difficulties and unhappiness with his FBI assignment, made Mr. Miller a “classic target” for recruitment by the K.G.B., the Soviet intelligence agency, the Government contends. A bureau agent, John Justice, testified that he had been in the squad room in April 1984 when the former agent, Richard W. Miller, learned of his suspension.
In a clarification of a confusing jury verdict, a judge dismissed all charges against the Boston Globe in a $50-million libel suit filed by John R. Lakian, an unsuccessful 1982 candidate for the Republican nomination for governor, and ruled that the newspaper could recover $200 in court costs from the plaintiff. The jury had found that three out of 55 paragraphs in an article published during the campaign were false and defamatory but it awarded no damages, and it rejected Lakian’s charges of invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress.
A rally to revive a steel plant in Duquesne, Pennsylvania, was attended by by Lane Kirkland and other labor leaders. At a union rally today to press for the reopening of giant blast furnaces here, a laid-off steelworker asked Lane Kirkland what the labor federation he heads could do to help, other than “just lend moral support.” In response Mr. Kirkland, the president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, called on “Congress, political leaders and the Administration” to develop “a sound national trade policy.” That answer brought groans and complaints from many of the unemployed union members gathered across the street from the closed main gate of the Duquesne Works of the United States Steel Corporation. The works employed as many as 8,000 at times in the last decade, and 2,850 when it was shut in 1984 as unprofitable. It now stands forlorn, with rusting scrap metal scattered throughout its vast yards.
The sexual revolution has cooled, according to a sociologist whose 21-year study indicated more college women are virgins today than in the 1970s. Robert Sherwin, professor of sociology at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, studied sexual behavior on that campus over 21 years, interviewing more than 3,000 students. In 1963, 75% of the women interviewed were virgins. By 1978, that had plunged to 38%, nearly equal to that of their male counterparts. But in 1984, the trend began to reverse again, with 43% of the women reporting themselves to be virgins, compared to 28% of the men.
Major League Baseball:
Baltimore’s Wayne Gross and Larry Sheets connect for back-to-back solo pinch homers in the 9th inning, off Cleveland’s Jerry Reed, but it is not enough to overcome the Indians 5-run 1st inning. The Tribe wins, 8–5. It’s the 2nd time that a pair of Orioles have pinch hit back to back homers, and just the 3rd time in American League history. Brook Jacoby hit his 13th homer and Curt Wardle, one of the players that the Indians received in the Blyleven trade, picked up the victory. Jerry Reed pitched four innings to record his first save.
At Chicago, Phil Niekro goes the route to pick up his 295th win as the Yankees beat the White Sox, 10–4. New York sends 12 men to the plate in a 7-run 7th to break the game open with Ron Hassey belting a 2-run homer and RBI single to lead the scoring in the frame. Hassey, who delivered a two-run homer in the fifth, hit Gene Nelson’s first pitch in the seventh over the fence in right-center field to regain the lead, 4–3. Mike Pagliarulo followed with an opposite-field home run to left with a man on off Jerry Don Gleaton, and Ken Griffey later added a three-run double. Their winning streak reached a season-high seven games as they pared their deficit in the American League East to six games behind Toronto, which was dealt a 5–4 defeat by Texas tonight.
Wayne Tolleson drove in Steve Buechele with a one-out single in the bottom of the ninth inning to give Texas a 5–4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. Buechele led off the ninth with a double off Bill Caudill (4–6) and advanced to third on Geno Petralli’s sacrifice bunt before Tolleson delivered his hit. Dwayne Henry picked up the victory in his first major-league appearance, despite giving up the tying run in the top of the ninth. The Blue Jays tied the score with two outs in the ninth inning when Damaso Garcia singled home Manny Lee from second. Lee was running for Al Oliver, who had singled and taken second on Ernie Whitt’s single. Cliff Johnson hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning off Caudill, giving the Rangers a 4–3 lead.
At Boston, Mark Gubicza allowed only one run and five hits in 7 ⅔ innings as the Royals handed the Red Sox their fourth straight loss, 3–2. With runners on first and third and two out in the eighth, reliever Dan Quisenberry replaced Gubicza (9–6) and struck out Jim Rice to earn his 26th save, tops in the American League. The Royals, improved their record to 16–7 since the All-Star break, picked up single runs off loser Al Nipper (7–8) in the second, fifth and eighth innings.
The Brewers edged the Tigers, 4–3. Earnest Riles collected three hits and drove in the decisive run with a single during Milwaukee’s three-run eighth inning at Milwaukee. The Brewers scored the three runs with the help of two Tiger errors. Chet Lemon hit his 10th homer leading off the ninth against Brewer reliever Rollie Fingers to cut the deficit to one run, but Fingers got the final outs for his 14th save. Milwaukee starter Jaime Cocanower (3–1) allowed 7 hits, walked 5 and struck out 4 in eight innings.
Bert Blyleven and Steve Howe each won a game as the Twins swept a doubleheader from the Oakland A’s, 4–3 and 5–4, at Minnesota. “I’d like to have had them three weeks ago,” Miller said. “They were the first two people I talked to (Twin president) Howard Fox about.” Howe, in his first appearance as a Twin, pitched 33 innings of relief, retiring 11 batters in a row at one point, to win his first American League game.
Left-handed slugger Reggie Jackson went to the opposite field against Seattle pitcher Frank Wills for a two-run homer in the first inning of the first game of the Angels’ doubleheader with the Mariners at Seattle. The home run gave the Angels a 3–0 lead but they couldn’t hold it as Phil Bradley’s ninth-inning home run gave Seattle a 6–5 win in the first game. Brian Downing hit a two-run homer to lead California to a 4–3 win in the nightcap.
Sid Fernandez did not achieve everything he wanted to last night. The Mets’ 22-year-old left-hander matched a career high by striking out 13, and he had a dramatic one-hit shutout for eight innings. But he was not around for the finish of the Mets’ eighth straight victory last night at Shea Stadium. The Mets, with three of their four runs driven in by Keith Hernandez, beat the Phillies, 4–3.
John Tudor scattered five hits over eight innings tonight for his 14th victory in his last 15 starts as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8–1. Darrell Porter hit a three-run homer to cap cap a five-run fifth inning as Tudor boosted his season record to 15–8. The Cardinals remained a game behind the first-place Mets in the National League East.
At Wrigley, Thad Bosley drives in 5 runs on two homers as the Cubs beat the Expos, 8–7. The first Bosley homer is pinch hit, the first time a Cub has accomplished the feat. Bosley, who leads the league with 13 pinch-hits, tied the game at 6–6, then remained in the game in left field and got his game-winning homer came off reliever Jeff Reardon (2–5). Tim Wallach has a pair of homers for Montreal.
The Dodgers blanked the Braves, 3–0. Enos Cabell singled home two runs in the fifth inning and Rick Honeycutt combined with Tom Niedenfuer on a three-hitter as Los Angeles won its fourth straight game. Honeycutt broke a personal three-game losing streak. The Dodgers lead the major leagues this season with 18 shutout victories.
The Padres won the battle of the Dodger-chasers at Jack Murphy Stadium as Mark Thurmond and rookie Lance McCullers combined on an eight-hit, 2–0 shutout. The Padres are seven games behind the Dodgers; the Reds are eight back. Steve Garvey doubled in Garry Templeton and Tony Gwynn for the only two runs of the game. Thurmond, making his first start since July 11, left the game in the seventh inning with a pulled muscle in his left hip. McCullers, making his major league debut after being called up from Las Vegas of the Pacific Coast League, got the save. Mario Soto (10–13) took the loss for Cincinnati as the Reds lost their fourth game in a row.
Cleveland Indians 8, Baltimore Orioles 5
Kansas City Royals 3, Boston Red Sox 2
New York Yankees 10, Chicago White Sox 4
Montreal Expos 7, Chicago Cubs 8
Atlanta Braves 0, Los Angeles Dodgers 3
Detroit Tigers 3, Milwaukee Brewers 4
Oakland Athletics 3, Minnesota Twins 4
Oakland Athletics 4, Minnesota Twins 5
Philadelphia Phillies 3, New York Mets 4
Cincinnati Reds 0, San Diego Padres 2
California Angels 5, Seattle Mariners 6
California Angels 4, Seattle Mariners 3
Pittsburgh Pirates 1, St. Louis Cardinals 8
Toronto Blue Jays 4, Texas Rangers 5
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1314.29 (-6.5)
Born:
Zack Cozart, MLB shortstop and third baseman (All-Star, 2017; Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Angels), in Memphis, Tennessee.
Jhonatan Solano, Colombian MLB catcher (Washington Nationals, Miami Marlins), in Barranquilla, Colombia.
Kyle Quincey, Canadian NHL defenseman (Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Kings, Colorado Avalanche, New Jersey Devils, Columbus Blue Jackets, Minnesota Wild), in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
Ryan Garbutt, Canadian NHL centre and left wing (Dallas Stars, Chicago Blackhawks, Anaheim Ducks), in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Died:
Kyu Sakamoto, Japanese singer (“Sukiyaki”), and actor, dies in the JAL 123 crash.
History Diaries 