Dailu Hansan
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
59th Year, No. 93
Thursday, March 1, 1962
New York Air Crash Kills 95
NEW YORK —(UPI)— An American Airlines luxury jetliner dived suddenly on takeoff for Los Angeles and plunged into an icy tidal swamp at Idlewild airport today, killing all 95 persons aboard in a fiery explosion.
It was the worst single-plane disaster in U.S. commercial aviation history, and it cast a sudden shadow of gloom over a city giving a hero's worship to Astronaut John H. Glenn who landed at another airport an hour after the crash.
One of the dead was W. Alton Jones, millionaire oilman who was flying to see former President Eisenhower at Palm Springs, Calif.
They were intimate friends and had planned to go fishing together in the Gulf of California next week.
Eisenhower was notified at once.
Ann Whitman, his secretary, said
she "just can't bring myself" to ask
the former president for comment.
Jones was a top official of Cities Service Oil Co. and the Richfield Oil Corp., and a director of Chrysler Corp.
The plane, American's "Astrojet Flight One" bound non-stop for Los Angeles, made a routine takeoff in clear weather at 9:07 a.m.
It had climbed about 1,000 feet off the end of Runway 31 when it wavered, dropped to earth, flipped over and exploded into what one policeman said was "a thousand pieces."
THERE WERE 87 passengers and eight crewmen aboard. It took half an hour for 25 pieces of fire equipment to put down the flames. Then a rescue force of hundreds battled to recover the bodies before a rising Atlantic tide poured in over the seaside swamp.
Apparently they all died instantly. Pilot James H. Heist, 58-year-old veteran of 5 million miles with American Airlines since 1940, had no time to signal an emergency.
A quirk of fate brought death to 17 of the passengers. They had booked seats aboard a United Airlines flight to Los Angeles and switched to the American Astrojet when the United Flight was canceled.
Hoping against hope for survivors, city officials immediately detached
squads of police from duty along the route of Astronaut Glenn's ticker-tape parade and rushed them to Idlewild. Helicopters and boats of the Coast Guard and city police arrived within minutes. Three fire alarms were sounded, bringing 25 fire and rescue units to battle the blaze. It took half an hour to put down the flames before crash crews could approach the wreckage.
THEY REPORTED back: "No sur- rivers."
The crash scene was the swampy bank of Jamaica Bay, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean cutting in between Queens and Brooklyn. Wreckage was scattered over nearly half a mile of a game preserve adjoining the runway end.
At this point, planes taking off
from Idlewild swing out over the ocean while gaining altitude. Then they are back on their westward course.
Several residential communities lie near the crash area but there was no report of damage or injury.
This was the first U.S. crash of a 707 in commercial passenger service. Crewmen had been killed in two previous U.S. crashes involving 707's on training flights. Both of these accidents happened on Long Island.
The only previous 707 disaster involving passenger fatalities was a Sabena Airline crash near Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 15, 1961. Seventy-two persons died.
As soon as firemen put out the flames fed by the plane's full fuel tanks, they joined police and Coast Guardsmen recovering bodies.
- * *
Four helicopters screened the swamp. Small boats worked up against the burned-out cabin. Policemen and firemen in wading boots covered the immediate area, part of which was shallow water and part of which was deep.
A policeman said that of the first six bodies brought to a makeshift morgue, four or five were decapitated. The morgue was set up in an American Legion Post's hall.
Control tower sources said the plane took off from Runway 31. Shortly after it was airborne, it made a left turn required by airport noise abatement regulations which takes jet aircraft away from populated areas on the airport fringe.
There was no indication from the crew that the jet was in trouble.
\* \* \*
- * *
Witnesses Report Scene
NEW YORK—(UPI)—Residents of the area on Long Island where the American Airlines jetliner crashed today said the big craft's plunge into Jamaica Bay was preceded by a shattering explosion.
"There was a loud noise like a big cannon," said Peter Wernersbach, 63, operator of a service station.
"I saw large billows of smoke and flames and then realized it was a plane crash," he added.
HERBERT JOHNSON, 51, superintendent of the wildlife sanctuary at the crash scene, was only 200 feet away when the plane went down. He said the explosion Wernersbach heard was apparently muted where he stood by a stiff, blustery wind.
"The flames didn't last long." Johnson said, but the plane was completely disintegrated."
"It shook the whole house," said Mrs. Ivan Church of the explosion. "Oh, it was so loud! Such force! I knew it might be a plane because they fly right over the house when the wind is blowing in a certain way."
ANOTHER WHO HEARD the explosion was Mrs. Mary B. Carroll.
"I thought the boiler in my cellar had blown up," said Mrs. Carroll. "I ran down and saw it was all right. Then I came up and saw flames shooting up from the bay."
Volunteer fireman William Martin, who was on duty at the broad channel volunteer fire department about a half-mile from the scene, said "Heavy black smoke—a thick column of it—went 150 feet in the air" after the explosion.
Roy Cashion, A Brooklyn, N. Y., construction worker, told of seeing the plane explode in the air.
"I WAS WORKING on this housing project in the Rockaways," he said. "It was about 10 o'clock when I glanced into the sky and saw this jet banking while taking off from Idlewild. It's a familiar sight. All of a sudden I saw this white flash. Then dense smoke. You could see a big part of the plane fall toward the bay."
Henry Patterson was driving past about five minutes after the crash and rushed into the swamp.
"I went in to pull out survivors," he said, "but there weren't any."
UPI REPORTER Chet Di Mauro, one of the first newsmen on the scene, described it thus:
"The swamp area was heavy with black smoke, but twisted pieces of silvery wreckage glistened in the sunlight.
"The plane's tail section rose up from the water. Two of its giant wheels lay on the shore about 50 feet from the wreckage.
"The fuselage pointed in the direction of the gleaming Empire State Building some 15 miles in the distance.
tance.
"There was only one fairly large piece of the plane . . . in frigid white-capped water about 100 feet off the shore line. Police said the plane was literally in thousands of pieces."
Hundreds of rescuers hurried to recover the bodies before the rising Atlantic tide, already on the way two hours after the crash, covered up the wreckage.
FOR SUCH A FLIGHT the plane was fully loaded with fuel and its impact was explosive. Wreckage was flung in an arc half a mile wide.
"Fire very intense," fire department units radioed back. A two-alarm call was sounded for emergency equipment. Coast Guard helicopters and small craft joined fireboats, police patrol boats, copters and land units of the fire and police in a dash to the area in hopes a rescue could be carried out.
Friends and relatives of passengers were still in the big new American terminal at Idlewild when news of the crash came back. They were taken to Hangar 10 to await further word.
won
One of the dead was Hollywood producer Irving Rubine, 51. He was a vice president of Highroad productions, which helped bring Oscar-nominee "The Guns of Navarone" to the screen. Rubine had been a partner of Academy-Award screen-writer Carl Foreman.
THE JET CRACKED UP roughly 30 seconds after leaving the ground. It was barely two miles from the runway.
An airline source said that it was carrying 80,000 to 90,000 pounds of fuel.
CRC Says Wescoe Violated Rights
The Civil Rights Council last right said that Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe is violating rights of KU students and suggested that his action in refusing to deal with the CRC indicates an administrative policy of discrimination against students who do not agree with him.
The charges were summed up in a resolution adopted last night. The resolution stated:
"We, the members of the Civil Rights Council, wish to express our regrets that Chancellor Wescoe has refused to deal directly with us on the matter of discriminatory clauses in fraternities and sororites.
"WE FEEL THAT we are a 'recognized' organization—our constitution is filed with the Dean of Students—and that the Chancellor is violating our rights as students of this University when he refuses to discuss matters of University policy with us.
(The resolution is referring to Chancellor Wescoe's statement last week that he would not discuss discrimination in Greek organizations with members of the CRC. He said he would meet with the All Student Council's Human Rights committee, which he said is the delegated student committee to deal with such matters.)
"He told us, prior to the above incident, that his doors were always open to any student. Does this statement mean that there is now a policy of discrimination and that his doors are open only to those students who agree with him on certain issues?
"CHANCELLOR WESCOE joined the committee to discuss matters relating to the progress to date in integrating minority groups into community activities. A discussion of segregation clauses existing in constitutions of some social sororities and fraternities as well as related matters followed."
"Moreover, at a meeting of a committee of the Faculty Senate in December of last year, the minutes state:
"We would like to know what the administration's position is. This was the purpose of our plan to meet with the Chancellor. Due to his refusal, we, and many other interested people, do not know what, if any action is being considered.
"Since the channels of information are closed to us, we hope the University Daily Kansan will faithfully fulfill its role and provide the students and faculty with a report on
(Continued on page 12)
Bert Coan
Faculty Rules Coan Ineligible
By Terry Murphy
Bert Coan was ruled ineligible last night by the Kansas University Senate Committee on Eligibility for Student Activities.
The decision struck a note o finality as to whether or not Coa
See related story on page 9.
would be eligible to play football next fall after having taken a December trip to San Diego for conferences with officials of the San Diego Chargers professional football team.
A National Collegiate Athletic Association rule prohibits college athletes from accepting expense money or entertainment from a professional sports organization.
HIS ELIGIBILITY has hinged on whether or not he had paid his own expenses. Coan said that he had borrowed the money ($613) from his father and paid the bills himself.
Earlier Coan had said that prior to making the trip neither he nor football coach Jack Mitchell were aware of the rule. When Coan returned from San Diego, Mitchell had learned of the rule and informed
Coan that he would be ineligible unless he had paid his own expenses.
IT WAS COAN'S IMPRESSION that the faculty committee ruled against him because "the circumstances of my trip were of such a nature that the school officials could not possibly gather enough information to make a judgment in my favor."
Collegiate athletic ruling bodies take the position that a college athlete should not put himself in a position that would raise doubt as to his activities.
Dean Laurence Woodruff, chairman of the faculty committee, expressed regret that Coan would not be eligible.
"It was the only decision that could have been made. Apparently, Bert Coan compromised his amateur standing by agreeing to travel at the expense of a professional football team.
"I REGRET THAT BERT will not be able to compete for us. He is a fine player. But the decision to turn professional was his."
The vote of the committee was unanimous.
(Continued on page 12)