Jet airliner crashes, killing 108
TORONTO (UPI) — An Air Canada jetliner began to break up while making a landing attempt Sunday, fought for altitude while trailing flames and dropping parts, and smashed into a farm field killing all 108 persons aboard.
The DC8, bound from Montreal to Los Angeles, careened past a terrified farm wife and disintegrated in a cloud of smoke and rubble only 100 yards from another farm house whee a family of 10 looked on in fright.
The plane carried 99 passengers —22 of them Air Canada employees—and a crew of nine. The airline revised the death count upwards from 106 when it was discovered there were two infants aboard who were not included in the passenger list.
There were at least 17 Americans killed in the crash, all from Southern California.
The plane was coming in for a landing at Toronto, its intermediate stop, when it began to break up.
Two enter guilty pleas for curfew violations
Two persons arrested for curfew violation during the April disturbances in Lawrence entered pleas of guilty last week in Douglas County District Court.
William E. Benson, Topeka graduate, and David W. White, New York City senior, were taken to the county jail to begin serving one-year sentences.
Fourth-degree arson charges filed against the two were dismissed by County Attorney Daniel A. Young for lack of evidence
Charges against a third person arrested at the same time, Gerald A. Riley, Kansas City senior, are pending in county court. Federal arson charges against Riley also were dismissed for insufficient evidence.
July 7 KANSAN 7
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District Court Judge Frank Gray took under advisement a request for suspended sentence for Benson and White.
Sytze Burgsma lives with his family—a pregnant wife and eight children ranging in age from an infant to a 19-year-old.
"I could see the left wing but not a right wing," said Peter Burgsma, 19, who watched the crash. "The plane just slid into the ground and flew all apart."
The force of the explosion shattered four windows in the Burgsma house as one of the Burgsma boys yelled at the family "get out of the house-get out of the house."
off. It flew on a moment longer, then another wing dropped off. Then the whole plane itself just dropped all in flames."
"It seemed to explode about three times," said farm worker Don Knipe, 26, who was at work in a nearby field.
Mrs. Eve Murdock, who lives in an apartment near the airport, said the plane seemed to touch the runway "and flames came up from near the wheels . . . a few seconds later one wing dropped
The plane was piloted by Capt. P. C. Hamilton. All the crewmembers—three flying officers, a purser and five stewardesses—were from the Montreal area.
There was no prior indication that the plane, Flight 621, was in trouble.
FROM ALL OVER
One engine, the number four, fell off when the plane was either just about to touch the runway, or had just touched it eyewitnesses said. They said flames spurted from the plane as the pilot hauled it back into the air, and pieces of the plane scattered from it. One witness said the wings dropped off.
Another engine was found about a mile and a quarter from the spot where the fuselage hit. The engine had a hole about a foot across in its side, and appeared to have been punctured by force from the inside. Like the engine dropped at the airport, it was scorched and burned on the outside casing.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (UPI)
Of the 33 men who have held the office of State Treasurer in Missouri, 14 were not native Missourians. Two came from Germany, five were born in Virginia, two came from Kentucky and one each from Indiana, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Vermont.
The fuselage plunged into a field of barley and wheat about three miles northwest of the airport and only about 100 yards from the small farm home where