Texas plane crash kills four
     ALICE, Texas (August 12, 1997 4:58 p.m. EDT) --- A twin-engine,
 private plane crashed in flames shortly after takeoff Tuesday,
 killing all four people on board.
     Three of the victims had been interested in buying the plane
 and were being given a demonstration flight by the fourth when the
 craft went down, said Jim Wells County sheriff's Deputy Juan
 Barrera.
     Mike Cox, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety,
 said he believed all the bodies had been recovered.
     "Everybody on board was burned," said Jim Clabes, a spokesman
 for the Federal Aviation Administration in Fort Worth.
     The plane went down about a half mile from Alice Municipal Air-
 port, Cox said.
     Alice, a town of about 20,000 people, is 42 miles west of Corpus
 Christi.
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               Britain says jumbo jet stowaway must go
     LONDON (August 12, 1997 3:05 p.m. EDT) -- An Indian who miracu-
 lously survived temperatures way below freezing as a stowaway in
 the undercarriage of a jumbo jet flying from Delhi to London is
 unlikely to be given asylum in Britain, a minister said Tuesday.
     Pardeep Saini, 23, endured temperatures as low as -76 degrees
 Fahrenheit during the flight last October, but his younger brother
 Vijay froze to death. Vijay's body fell to the ground as the jet's
 wheels were lowered for landing.
     "The death of Mr. Saini's brother was certainly tragic, but I
 would be reluctant to reward someone for using extreme methods for
 avoiding immigration control," Junior Interior Minister Mike O'Brien
 said in a statement.
     O'Brien said he had received a report from an immigration
 adjudicator saying that Saini did not qualify for political asylum.
     Saini, a Sikh, had claimed he faced persecution in Punjab where
 he was accused of supporting Sikh separatist extremists. He denied
 the charge.
     When Saini was found wandering on the tarmac at London's Heath-
 row airport in October, doctors said it was a miracle he had sur-
 vived the harsh conditions of the flight.  They said he probably
 lost consciousness and went into a state of suspended animation
 which helped prevent brain damage.
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              Sabena aims for record centenarian flight
     BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuter) August 12, 1997 - 12:14 p.m. EDT---
 Belgian airline Sabena will try to set a record this week for
 carrying the most 100-year-old people on one flight.
     "We have 75 people signed up, but you can never tell how many
 will turn up -- for health reasons," a spokesman said on Tuesday.
     The flight will leave Antwerp airport at 0900 GMT on Friday
 and head for London's City Airport.
     The centenarians will then be taken to Buckingham Palace where
 they will be welcomed by a town crier with a message from Britain's
 Queen Mother, 97.
     The spokesman said some 30 of the centenarians were Belgian,
 with the remainder coming from the Netherlands and Britain. The
 oldest is thought to be a 103-year-old Antwerp woman.
     The airline plans to put 48 of them on one plane -- a Fokker 50
 -- with the remainder along with friends, doctors and nurses divided
 between two other aircraft.
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                     Tennessee Aviation
           Downtown Island Airport receives $247,500 grant
     The U.S. Department of Transportation has issued a $247,500
 grant to the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Aufhorify for erosion
 control along the Tennessee River at Downtown Island Airport.
     The grant, announced Tuesday by Vice President Al Gore, is
 part of $8.16 million in federal money for Tennessee airports,
 including $829,000 for Tri-City Regional Airport in Bristol and
 $5.7 million for the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority.
     Other grants are $936,000 for Fayette County's airport and
 $400,500 for McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport in Jackson.
 Knoxville News Sentinel 13 Aug 1997
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