At least 50 passengers aboard a hijacked Egyptair jetliner were killed here tonight when Egyptian special forces stormed the plane and the hijackers retaliated by tossing three grenades at the passengers, the authorities here said. The grenades set off an inferno, filling the Boeing 737 airliner with flame and thick smoke as Egyptian troops blasted their way into the plane through its baggage hold and poured gunfire down the cramped cabin, where passengers had been held in terror for nearly 24 hours. Three American passengers were reported aboard the plane and one of them, a woman, was reportedly killed by the hijackers before the assault began.
Captain Hani Galal, his head bandaged and dried bloodstains on his pilot’s uniform, early today staunchly defended Egypt’s storming of the Boeing 737 in which at least 50 people died. “Our only hope was storming the airplane,” Captain Galal, a pilot for 15 years, said. “The hijackers were very desperate and bloodthirsty people. I think with such people we need to take no chances.” At a dramatic news conference after midnight, Captain Galal, 39 years old, recounted the 24-hour ordeal in the cockpit of Egyptair Flight 648, describing how at one point he hit a hijacker with an ax.
Passengers told how the hijackers took over the Egyptair plane about 15 minutes after it took off from Athens. One of the passengers freed before the plane was stormed by Egyptian commandos, said she saw three hijackers; other passengers gave differing numbers.
Egypt’s Revolution, the organization that claims to have hijacked the Egyptair Boeing 737, is an obscure terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the killing of an Israeli diplomat in Cairo in August. Passengers aboard the plane and an airport official who was monitoring conversations in Arabic between the hijackers and the control tower at Luqa Airport said the hijackers were not Egyptian. “Based on their use of Arabic, we believe they are Palestinians,” the official said. “They did not look Egyptian,” said Loretana Chafic, a 20-year-old student at Cairo University, who was permitted to leave the plane Saturday night. “They sounded more like Lebanese or Palestinians,” she said.
The United States said today that it was greatly distressed over the loss of innocent lives in the storming of a hijacked jetliner in Malta, but said it nonetheless supported the “difficult decision” to take firm action to end the situation. In a statement on behalf of the Reagan Administration, the State Department said, “We are saddened by the tragic loss of innocent life resulting from this act of terrorism and extend our deepest sympathy to all those who suffered through this ordeal.” The statement also said, “The United States supports the difficult decision of the Governments of Malta and Egypt to end the brutal terrorist hijacking of Egyptair Flight 648.” Earlier the State Department said that while it understood there had been “substantial” loss of life, “nonetheless, we believe the firm action by the Egyptians supported by the Maltese was a proper decision.”
Netherlands decides definitive sites for cruise missiles
At least 34 people were wounded today when a bomb planted in a car was detonated just outside a crowded American military shopping complex in northern Frankfurt, the authorities said. The explosion, which the police said was from a bomb in a BMW with West German license plates, ripped into a laundromat used by American military personnel and their families. The car was parked between the low-slung, white PX complex and the car-wash unit of a gasoline station on Betramstrasse, and the police said it was very lucky that the stored gasoline had not been ignited. The police said they had no clues as to what group placed the bomb, but the incident appeared to be the latest in an episodic West German terrorist campaign against American military installations. In August, terrorists from the self-styled Red Army Faction staged a bomb attack on the nearby Rhein-Main air base, killing 2 Americans and wounding 20. Three bombs went off at an American installation in the Saarland the next month, causing damage but no injuries.
Eleven convicted terrorists tried to blast their way out of Ireland’s top security prison at Portlaoise, south of Dublin, but were foiled when two explosive charges failed to breach a main gate, a government spokesman said. Sources said the inmates were disguised as guards and used duplicate keys to get through seven internal doors undetected. The escape attempt was thwarted when they tried to blow out one of the three main outside gates. The institution holds. 130 prisoners, most of them members of the Irish Republican Army.
An estimated 50,000 people, many flashing the fascist salute and chanting “Viva Franco,” marched down Madrid’s main boulevard to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of General Francisco Franco. The dictator’s daughter, Carmen, led the marchers, who waved Spanish flags. The crowd gathered at a statue of Franco on horseback outside the Transport Ministry. Police said 12 people were arrested. Franco, who died in 1975, ruled Spain for 36 years.
The court investigating a purported conspiracy to kill Pope John Paul II four years ago returned from Turkey this week, but it brought back little evidence to support the prosecution’s central contention that Bulgaria was behind such a plot. Witnesses from Turkey, West Germany and Austria have come to Rome in recent weeks to testify, and the court has taken the unusual step of traveling to Switzerland and Turkey and plans trips to Bulgaria and West Germany. The court plans to leave no stone unturned in the trial of three Turks and three Bulgarians accused of conspiring to kill the Pope at the behest of Bulgaria’s secret service. Close questioning of these witnesses has become particularly pressing ever since the prosecution’s chief witness, Mehmet Ali Ağca, tarnished his credibility with apocalyptic pronouncements before the court, such as that he is Jesus Christ and that the world is coming to an end. Mr. Ağca was convicted of the 1981 shooting of the Pope. It was largely because of Mr. Ağca’s testimony to Italian magistrates after turning state’s witness that charges were brought here against three Bulgarians and four Turks for complicity in the purported plot.
Pope John Paul II opened an extraordinary Synod of Bishops today under the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica by exhorting the bishops to remain open to new “vistas” for the Roman Catholic Church’s mission. The Pope addressed the 165 bishops who will take part in the Synod, the College of Cardinals and hundreds of priests, nuns and pilgrims arrayed in a resplendent assembly. In his homily, John Paul gave strong backing to the Second Vatican Council, which, at his request, the Synod will review over the next two weeks. He encouraged the bishops to “relive the spiritual climate” of Vatican II, which ended 20 years ago, and he urged them to be open to the “seeds of new life sown by the Holy Spirit in that worldwide assembly.” Retrace Vatican II’s Path The procession wound its way through the basilica over the same path traversed by the participants in the first session of Vatican II, which was led by Pope John XXIII. The bishops, robed in soft gold colors and wearing white miters, took their places in rows of elevated staging facing the Pope.
Most American Catholics differ sharply from teachings of the Roman Catholic church on such issues as women’s ordination, divorce, birth control, and marriage for priests, according to results of a New York Times/CBS News Poll that were released as the Synod of Bishops opened in Rome.
The number of Jewish settlers living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank grew in the last year by 21.5 percent, to about 51,600, according to an authoritative Israeli study published today. The study was conducted by the West Bank Data Project, a private Israeli research organization financed by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations and administered by a former Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, Meron Benvenisti.
In the wake of the hijacking of an Egyptian airliner, Egypt declared a state of emergency along the Western border with Libya today and troops there were put on alert and reinforced. The main highway between Cairo and Alexandria was ordered closed to civilian traffic, the state radio announced. Although the circumstances of the hijacking remained cloudy here throughout the day, there was an immediate assumption on the part of many ranking Government officials, official sources said, that Libya might be behind the incident.
In West Beirut today, rival Muslim militiamen shelled each other with tank and mortar fire for a fifth day, ignoring their own leaders’ threats that violators of a cease-fire would be killed. The police said at least 65 people had been killed and 278 wounded since the street battles broke out Wednesday between members of the Shiite Muslim militia Amal and the Druse Progressive Socialist Party. A shaky truce in Beirut between Druze and Shia Muslim militiamen was reinforced by a warning by militia leaders that gunmen on the streets without authority would be shot. Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and Nabih Berri, chief of the Shia Amal militia, issued the ultimatum in a joint appearance on state television after gun battles shook West Beirut for a fifth day. A strike force manned by their two private armies has “strict orders to shoot any militiaman or anyone else attacking public and private property,” Jumblatt said.
Terry Waite, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s envoy, arrived here today on his way to New York to meet with United States officials in his efforts to free Americans held hostage in Lebanon. “I’m optimistic, but it takes time,” Mr. Waite said upon his arrival at the Athens airport from Lebanon. “At least the contacts have been made and the kidnappers identified.” Mr. Waite is scheduled to depart for New York early Monday after an overnight stay in here. He told reporters before flying out of Beirut airport that he expected “to be back soon.”
Iraq’s Defense Minister said today that Iran was preparing a “human wave” offensive in an attempt to gain ground in the Persian Gulf war. The Defense Minister, Gen. Adnan Khairallah, who is also Deputy Commander in Chief of the armed forces, said Iraq was braced for such an offensive. “Iran is preparing to launch a new human wave offensive,” he told the Paris-based magazine Kull El Arab in an interview to be published later this week. “The Iraqi forces are prepared to crush the offensive.” General Khairallah said Iraqi troops were on alert in all sectors of the 735-mile front.
Reagan Administration officials said today that they believed the Soviet Union might be on the verge of offering a timetable for a phased withdrawal of its 100,000 troops as part of a political solution in Afghanistan. The officials said that of all the issues discussed at the Geneva summit meeting, they came away most intrigued by comments by Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, suggesting that he was growing impatient with the drawn-out conflict with Afghan guerrillas. Today, appearing on the NBC News program “Meet the Press,” Secretary of State George P. Shultz was asked if Mr. Gorbachev had indicated any willingness to provide for the first time a schedule for a Soviet troop withdrawal.
Indian rail authorities ordered trains to travel in protected convoys through Punjab state after a bomb traced to Sikh extremists killed two Hindus and injured 18 people on a passenger train. A statement by Northern Railways said other security measures introduced since Friday’s attack include luggage searches and foot patrols of tracks. The blast was the worst attack since Akali Dal, the main moderate Sikh party, took power in September in elections that followed a negotiated agreement with the New Delhi government.
In Sri Lanka, more than 30 people have been arrested in a crackdown on a militant Sinhalese group with links to guerrillas fighting to set up a separate Tamil state, security sources said today. News of the arrests came after 14 people, 6 soldiers and 8 Tamil guerrillas, were killed Saturday in clashes in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. Security sources said they believed a major breakthrough had been made in cracking a link between the Sinhalese group and a guerrilla organization called the People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam. The six soldiers were killed and seven wounded when a military convoy drove over a land mine planted by guerrillas at Mullaitivu in Northern Province. The security sources said the eight guerrillas were killed hours earlier after a police vehicle hit a land mine, wounding two policemen, in the Batticaloa area of Eastern Province.
President Ferdinand E. Marcos launched a citizens’ military training program, saying it will form the Philippines’ “second line of defense” against foreign aggression. Marcos, the 20-year strongman whose government has battled Communist-led and Muslim insurgents, recalled the Japanese invasion of the former U.S. colony during World War II in implementing plans for a militia force.
Disputes over voting procedures in the Honduran presidential contest today delayed balloting in much of Honduras and many voters standing in lines appeared to be unsure what method would be used to determine the victor. But by midmorning most polling places were open and the turnout appeared to be heavy. Preliminary unofficial returns this evening indicated a close race for the presidency between the leading candidates of the National and Liberal Parties.
Colombian troops shot and killed four looters masquerading as Red Cross workers in a town hit by the volcanic avalanche that killed more than 20,000 people, the newspaper El Diario reported. It said that the four men, wearing Red Cross identification, were shot at Armero, below the Nevado del Ruiz volcano that erupted November 13. Meanwhile, activity at the volcano has subsided and is lower than before the eruption, scientists reported. Colombian President Belisario Betancur declared a 35-day state of emergency to speed recovery efforts in the stricken area.
The authorities reported the deaths of three people today, including a 3-year-old girl, in one of the worst weeks of violence since a state of emergency was declared in several areas on July 21. At least 42 people have died in the last seven days, increasing to about 875 the number of people killed in unrest that has convulsed the nation since September 1984. The police said the 3-year-old black girl was burned to death in the township of Mbekweni, 50 miles north of Cape Town, after her mother’s home was set on fire by blacks who accused the woman of being a police informer. The mother was seriously burned. The police also said they had found the body of a black man who had been killed and then set on fire in Langa, the township near Uitenhage, 17 miles northwest of Port Elizabeth, in which 20 blacks were shot dead by the police on March 21. Eight men were arrested in the latest attack.
President Reagan speaks with Assistant for National Security Affairs Robert McFarlane.
A former communications specialist for the National Security Agency was arrested early this morning and charged with spying for the Soviet Union. The arrest of the former specialist, Ronald William Pelton, 44 years old, was part of what officials described as an unprecedented crackdown on foreign spies working in the United States. Three other people were arrested on espionage charges in the last four days. It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Pelton was accused of spying for the Soviet Union while employed at agency, the nation’s largest and most secretive intelligence agency. It intercepts and monitors sensitive communications around the world.
Israel’s leaders did not know of any Israeli espionage activities in the United States, Israeli officials said. The Foreign Ministry said that charges that an American Navy employee had sold secret codes to an Israeli agent in Washington were being investigated.
The U.S. military would face serious problems providing adequate medical care to American combat casualties in the event of war in Europe or the Pacific, the Boston Herald said in quoting Pentagon reports. The reports on the medical preparedness of the U.S. European and Pacific Commands, made last year by Pentagon health authorities, were classified as government secrets last year over the objections of Congress and the Pentagon’s health affairs office. Unclassified versions were made available by Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Massator).
The type of management, training, equipment and response problems that characterized last December’s gas leak disaster in Bhopal, India, exist in many American chemical plants, according to recent inspections and studies of the American chemical industry by a variety of experts. These problems, confirmed in interviews with 130 people over the past six weeks, have prompted growing apprehension about safety compromises at hundreds, perhaps thousands, of places handling toxic chemicals. Such concern is rising even as the Government and chemical industry are taking steps to improve. Last week, for example, it was disclosed that the Environmental Protection Agency had identified 403 highly toxic chemicals that could cause injury or death in a major accident, although not all are so potent as the one at Bhopal. The list was meant to help states and localities find potentially hazardous sites, prepare for emergencies and reduce risks.
Six officers of New York City’s transit police were acquitted of all charges in the death of a man arrested for writing on a subway station wall. The jury deliberated seven days in the case of Michael Stewart, 25, who was hospitalized, bruised and comatose, after his arrest in 1983 and never regained consciousness. Stewart was black; the defendants all are white and there was no black on the jury. The verdict prompted a protest from a group of about 20 persons outside the courtroom, who shouted, “Murderers!” and “South Africans!” The defense had maintained that Stewart was drunk and died while violently resisting arrest.
Subway gunman Bernhard H. Goetz said that he does not care whether his lawyers succeed in having attempted murder charges against him dismissed. Goetz’s lawyers were to argue today in State Supreme Court in Manhattan that a second indictment charging their client with four counts of attempted murder should be dismissed. If they succeed, the case could be submitted to a third grand jury but that rarely occurs. Mark Baker, one of Goetz’s lawyers, said he would ask Justice Stephen Crane to throw out the indictment.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said today that it had begun the countdown for launching the shuttle Atlantis Tuesday night, reversing an earlier announcement of a 24-hour delay because of problems with a hydraulic valve. NASA engineers had found a problem earlier today with a valve in one of the spacecraft’s three hydraulic systems and the agency had issued a statement saying that the launching would be delayed “at least 24 hours,” until 7:30 P.M. Wednesday. But later the engineers, meeting to discuss the repair work, decided to proceed with the countdown for the 23d shuttle mission.
Texans are getting little television lectures from Governor Mark White these weeks. “The other day a mother told me that her son couldn’t play on the local high school football team because he had failed his English course,” he intones as a youth in football gear and his parents appear on the screen. But, Mr. White continues, the mother said: “His father and I didn’t send him to school to play. We sent him to learn. Even if he makes the team, he wouldn’t be a professional ball player, but if he doesn’t pass his classes, he’ll never be a professional anything.” The spots, being aired all over Texas by the Governor’s re-election committee, are a response to the public and legal storm over a law passed at the behest of Mr. White that compels school districts to remove students who fail one course from participating in sports and all other extracurricular activities.
Twenty states and the U.S. Virgin Islands have been awarded a total of $15.8 million to provide compensation and such services as rape counseling to crime victims under a new government grant program. The awards, established by Congress when it passed the Victims of Crime Act of 1984, are the first of their kind, said Assistant Attorney General Lois Haight Herrington, who heads the Office of Justice Programs. The largest of the 20 grants-more than $5.1 million-went to California.
Up in Hazard, Kentucky, where life revolves around coal mines and church, the Perry County School Board has taken a stand on the Ten Commandments. Alone among all the 180 school districts in the state, it refuses to remove them from the classroom walls. “It’s time for Christian people to stand up for more morals in the school system,” Charles D. Campbell, a coal hauler who is on the school board, told The Courier-Journal in Louisville. “The Ten Commandments were good enough for Moses, and I believe they need to be taught.”
An Army court-martial has acquitted a sergeant on charges of larceny and dereliction of duty in the first of four trials stemming from an investigation into the Army’s intelligence and special-operations units. Master Sgt. Ramon Barron was acquitted at the end of a weeklong court-martial on charges of filing false travel vouchers relating to his classified missions. More than $150 million was spent on the missions between 1981 and 1983. Barron was the lowest-ranking of the four men charged. His former boss, Lieutenant Colonel Dale C. Duncan, and two other officers, Colonel Frederick Byard and Colonel James Longhofer, also face charges.
Bargaining in a bitter labor dispute at seven southern California supermarket chains has broken off after unsuccessful talks between two unions and the owners. Negotiators for the United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents the stores’ meat cutters and wrappers, and for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents drivers and warehouse and office workers, rejected a management proposal in talks Saturday night, and no new meetings were scheduled. Workers are striking one chain, while six others have locked employees out of their jobs in the 21-day-old dispute; 22,000 people are out of work.
The Chrysler Corporation and union officials announced a tentative agreement today that could end a three-week-old walkout by 3,200 auto workers at a plant in the suburb of Fenton. Union leaders are recommending that the workers ratify the agreement, which was reached in Detroit, when they vote Monday evening, said Ken Worley, who heads Region 5 of the United Automobile Workers.
Florida Governor Bob Graham donned an orange hard hat, grabbed a chain saw and joined work crews to clear debris strewn by Hurricane Kate, which left Tallahassee looking “like a battlefield.” A state of emergency, meanwhile, remained in effect in 19 Florida counties hit by the storm, the first November hurricane in 50 years to make U.S. landfall.
Diet and health-conscious Americans have taken some of the tradition out of holiday dinners: statistics show they now gobble up less turkey during Thanksgiving and Christmas than they consume year-round. The National Turkey Federation estimates about 45 million turkeys will be eaten on Thursday, about the same number as on the last few Thanksgivings. The figure represents only 25% of the total number of turkeys consumed during the entire year.
Perpetuation of plant seeds handed down by generations of Indians and immigrant farmers is the aim of a growing movement. The native seed movement has developed in part in reaction to the greater reliance of major seed companies on hybrid seeds, which have to be replaced each growing season.
Overloaded military communications systems are nearly choking the flow of messages among the armed forces, senior officers in Washington and officers in the field say. The Pentagon said the problems were caused demands for reports by Congress, the White House, and Government agencies and by outmoded equipment and procedures.
NFL Football:
The Chicago Bears defeated the Atlanta Falcons, 36–0, to become the third team in N.F.L. history to win its first 12 games. They even provided another mix of history and comedy. Walter Payton gained 102 yards, the seventh straight game of 100 or more, to tie a record held by O. J. Simpson and Earl Campbell. Then there was the latest exhibition of the well-rounded talents of the refrigerator William Perry. He got his third touchdown of the season, this time on a 1-yard, 308-pound plunge. His dive was not unlike many Payton has taken, just rounder. “Just something I worked on,” Perry said. “Once I got up and was coming down, I believe everybody was getting out of the way.” Chicago’s achievements have grown to be equally frightening. The Bears have scored 90 consecutive points over the last three Sundays, all without Jim McMahon, the quarterback with the injured shoulder who was again replaced by Steve Fuller. Chicago has gone nine quarters without giving up a point and 13 without allowing a touchdown. They held Dave Archer, the Atlanta quarterback, to two completions in 15 attempts. Until Archer’s final pass, he had thrown two interceptions and gained 1 yard.
The Saints beat the Vikings, 30–23. Bobby Hebert’s first National Football League touchdown pass, a 39-yarder to John Tice with 50 seconds to play, gave New Orleans the victory. Minnesota had tied the game 57 seconds earlier on Tommy Kramer’s 6-yard scoring strike to Mike Jones. Earl Campbell helped New Orleans (4–8) snap a six-game losing streak, rushing for 160 yards in a team-record 35 carries. The Vikings (5–7) rallied from a 23–10 third-quarter deficit on Jan Stenerud field goals of 22 and 37 yards and the Kramer-to-Jones pass.
The Redskins defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers today, 30–23, to remain in strong contention for the playoffs. With four games left in the regular season, the Redskins improved their record to 7–5 to stay within a game of the Giants and the Dallas Cowboys, who lead the Eastern Division of the National Conference with 8–4 records. The Steelers, who had led the Central Division of the American Conference, slipped to 6–6. While it was Ken Jenkins, who set up Washington’s first touchdown with a 95-yard return of the opening kickoff, and Otis Wonsley, who set up another by blocking a punt, it was the poise and play of Jay Schroeder that carried the day for the Redskins. In place of Joe Theismann, the 36-year-old quarterback whose leg was broken last Monday night, Schroeder completed 15 of 28 passes for 163 yards and a touchdown.
It was a game for first place, and the Jets and Patriots went at it clawing and hitting today as if it also were the only game that mattered this season. Finally, after 3 hours 39 minutes, after 10 minutes 5 seconds of sudden-death overtime, and even after the kick was tipped, Pat Leahy’s wobbly 32-yard field goal sailed over the crossbar and propelled the Jets to a 16–13 victory. It snapped the tie for first in the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference and gave the Jets a 9–3 record. It made Ken O’Brien so happy that he hurdled teammates to hug Leahy. And it guaranteed the Jets a winning year for only the sixth time in their 26 seasons. Leahy’s winning score was set up by one of the Jets’ overachievers, Kurt Sohn, who returned Rich Camarillo’s soaring, 51-yard punt 46 yards to the Patriots’ 15.
The Dolphins topped the Bills, 23–14. A muffed punt by Buffalo led to a 22-yard field goal by Fuad Reveiz that helped Miami to the victory. The Dolphins (8–4) scored twice on Dan Marino touchdown passes and also got a fourth-quarter touchdown run by Tony Nathan. The Bills (2–10) came back from a 14–0 deficit to tie the game in the third quarter with two touchdown passes by Bruce Mathison, but Donald Wilson’s drop of a Miami punt gave the Dolphins the ball at the Buffalo 11 and Reveiz snapped the third-quarter tie.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers edged the Detroit Lions, 19–16. Steve Young, ineffective for three quarters of his N.F.L. debut, engineered a 10-point fourth-period rally for Tampa Bay to force overtime. Donald Igwebuike kicked a 24-yard field goal with 2:29 left in the extra period for the victory. The game-winning kick, Igwebuike’s fourth field goal of the game, completed an 11-play, 56-yard drive Young started at the Tampa Bay 38-yard line with 9:38 to go. The kicker for Tampa Bay (2–10) also kicked field goals of 33, 48 and 36 yards, the last with one minute left in regulation. Eddie Murray kicked field goals of 47 and 38 yards in the third quarter for Detroit (7–6) and added a 39-yarder to give the Lions a 16–6 lead with 12:10 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Chris Bahr, getting a second chance, kicked a 32-yard field goal at 2 minutes 42 seconds of overtime today to give the Los Angeles Raiders a 31–28 victory over the Denver Broncos. Bahr had missed a 40-yard attempt that would have given the Raiders the victory on the final play of regulation. The outcome left the teams tied atop the Western Division of the American Conference with 8–4 records. The Raiders needed only five plays to move from their 20-yard line to the Denver 14. Marcus Allen, who gained 173 yards on 24 carries, got the drive started with a 14-yard run. Two plays later, Marc Wilson threw a 42-yard pass to the wide receiver Dokie Williams to put the Raiders in range for Bahr’s kick.
In the early going against the Cardinals today, the Giants were not at their best and the weather, with the wind-chill factor at 14 degrees, certainly was not. But the Giants put together big plays on offense and defense and smothered the Cardinals, 34–3. The 41,248 spectators at Busch Stadium watched George Martin of the Giants have a game linemen dream about. The 32-year-old defensive end made three sacks, he recovered a fumble, leading to a Giants’ field goal and, in the last quarter, he intercepted a pass tipped at the line by Leonard Marshall and ran 56 yards for a touchdown. It was the sixth touchdown of Martin’s 11-year career in the National Football League. The Cardinals drove 57 yards with the opening kickoff and took a 3–0 lead on Novo Bojovic’s 40-yard field goal. Though the Cardinals did little after that, the Giants showed a tendency to self-destruct. In the first half, the Giants fumbled five times — twice by Phil Simms and twice by Joe Morris. They lost two of those fumbles. They also lost Taylor and Carl Banks, their starting outside linebackers, with injuries that seemed likely to keep them out of the rest of the game. Instead, both returned in the second half. The Giants showed all kinds of firepower. Simms passed for touchdowns of 31 yards to Lionel Manuel and 12 to Mark Bavaro. Manuel’s comeback catch on a pass slightly underthrown is sure to show up in highlight films. On the first play of the fourth quarter, George Adams ran 37 yards for a touchdown on a fake reverse. He carried 25 times for 113 yards, his first 100-yard game as a professional. Morris, the team’s leading rusher this season, played little after his first-quarter fumbles. After the Cardinals’ opening drive, the Giants harassed Neil Lomax, the Cardinals’ quarterback, and knocked him out of the game in the third quarter with a bruised nerve in his right arm. Scott Brunner, a former Giant, replaced him and was not treated kindly by his former teammates. The Giants sacked Lomax six times and Brunner twice.
The Rams hammered the Packers, 34–17. Ron Brown scored twice on kickoff returns and caught a touchdown pass to lead Los Angeles. Brown raced 98 yards for a touchdown with the game’s opening kickoff, then ran another kickoff back 86 yards in the second quarter to give Los Angeles (9–3) a 14–7 lead. In the second half, when the Packers (5–7) kicked the ball away from him, Brown broke loose down the middle and caught a 39-yard touchdown pass from Dieter Brock to give the Rams a 28–17 lead early in the fourth quarter. Brown, a second-year pro who was a member of the United States’ gold medal-winning 400-meter relay team in the 1984 Olympics, finished with five receptions. Eric Dickerson gained 150 yards on 31 carries and put the Rams ahead to stay when he scored on a 14-yard run for a 21–17 Los Angeles lead late in the third quarter. Brock completed 15 of 19 throws for 150 yards, including the touchdown toss to Brown, and was not intercepted.
Houston’s Tony Zendejas kicked a 51-yard field goal with 2 seconds to play to lift the Oilers past New Orleans by a score of 37–35. Zendejas’s field goal, his third of the game, capped a last-ditch drive by the Oilers (5–7) that included a 25-yard pass from Oliver Luck to Tim Smith with 7 seconds to play to put the ball at the Charger 33 and set up Zendejas’s kick. Houston’s comeback spoiled an outstanding performance by Dan Fouts, who threw two touchdown passes, a 67-yarder to Lionel James and an 11-yard touchdown pass to Wes Chandler with 39 seconds to play that gave San Diego (5–7) a 35–34 lead.
Danny White threw three touchdown passes today to lead the Dallas Cowboys back from the worst defeat in their history to a 34–17 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. Dallas improved its record to 8–4 to stay tied with the Giants atop the National Conference’s Eastern Division, while the Eagles, who had won five of their last six games, dropped to 6–6. Dallas Coach Tom Landry said with a sigh, “We’re very happy,” said Tom Landry, the Cowboy coach. “It was a big game, a must game if we had a chance to get into the playoffs. White, showing no ill effects from the concussion and jammed neck he suffered in last Sunday’s 44–0 rout by the Chicago Bears, completed 12 of his first 14 passes. He threw two first-half touchdown passes to the tight end Doug Cosbie and connected with the wide receiver Mike Renfro on a 19-yard scoring strike in the fourth period. In the second quarter, White hit Cosbie with a scoring pass on a fourth and inches play from the Eagle 2-yard line. He then threw a 23-yard touchdown over the middle to Cosbie for a 21–10 Dallas lead at halftime. The Cowboys also got touchdown runs of 3 and 10 yards from Tony Dorsett. Despite the fact that the Eagle defense held him to 86 yards on 30 carries, he went over the 1,000-yard mark for the eighth time in his nine professional seasons.
The Chiefs downed the Colts, 20–7. Todd Blackledge completed 16 of 31 passes for 246 yards as Kansas City snapped a seven-game losing streak. The Chiefs (4-8) took a 17–0 halftime lead and were never challenged in the second half by the Colts (3–9). Blackledge had 190 net passing yards to none for the Colts’ Matt Kofler, who was making his first start. He completed only 1 pass of 11 attempts for 11 yards, but lost 11 yards on a sack. He was relieved by Mike Pagel early in the second half, finishing 2 for 12 for 12 yards.
The Browns whipped the Bengals, 24–6. Kevin Mack ran for 117 yards and two touchdowns and Gary Danielson, starting for the first time in seven games, threw a 72-yard touchdown pass to Clarence Weathers to lead Cleveland. The Bengals (5–7) lost their quarterback, Boomer Esiason, to a hip injury midway through the second quarter. The Browns (6–6) led 10–3 at halftime, then got two long touchdowns to take a 24–6 lead after three quarters.
Atlanta Falcons 0, Chicago Bears 36
New Orleans Saints 30, Minnesota Vikings 23
Washington Redskins 30, Pittsburgh Steelers 23
New England Patriots 13, New York Jets 16
Miami Dolphins 23, Buffalo Bills 14
Detroit Lions 16, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 19
Denver Broncos 28, Los Angeles Raiders 31
New York Giants 34, St. Louis Cardinals 3
Green Bay Packers 17, Los Angeles Rams 34
San Diego Chargers 35, Houston Oilers 37
Philadelphia Eagles 17, Dallas Cowboys 34
Indianapolis Colts 7, Kansas City Chiefs 20
Cincinnati Bengals 6, Cleveland Browns 24
Born:
Tony Hunt, NFL running back (Philadelphia Eagles), in San Antonio, Texas.
Died:
Phil Silvers, 73, American comedian and actor (Sgt Bilko-“Phil Silvers Show”), in his sleep.
History Diaries 