Washington, Sept. 15 - The U.S. Air Force said today that it is
 temporarily grounding its fleet of F-117A "stealth" fighters follow-
 ing the crash of one of the bat-wing plane in suburban Baltimore on
 Sunday.
     "There's a stand down of routine flying operations at least
 through today," said Captain Kerri Humphrey, an Air Force
 spokeswoman.
     Air Force investigators are looking to the flight data recorder
 and debris strewn across a neighborhood to help explain why the $45
 million plane broke apart.
     The crash Sunday afternoon set two houses on fire and slightly
 injured six people on the ground, including an elderly woman at
 home when the jet hit her garage. The pilot ejected safely.
                         Pilot Apologizes
     Andy Kunkowski of Towson said he was watching the show from a
 small boat near the shoreline, and immediately rushed to the scene
 and spoke to the pilot who had parachuted to the ground.
     "He said he was truly sorry about what had happened and said he
 tried to pull it out. He wanted to land this thing in the water,
 but couldn't," Kunkowski said.
    "He said everything was fine until he started to make an incline
 and at that point he realized the rear wasn't doing what it was
 supposed to and that's when he tried to put it in the water."
     The pilot, Maj. Bryan Knight, was treated at Andrews Air Force
 Base in Maryland for minor back and neck injuries. Knight is an
 instructor pilot with more than 2,770 flying hours, including 500
 in the F-117A.
               Piece of Jet's Tail Fell Off
     A videotape of the crash aired by Baltimore television stations
 showed a piece of the aircraft, which appeared to be from the tail
 or wing section, flying off the jet before it went into a slow, flat
 spin and crashed.
     "It looked like the rudder of the plane fell off, then it lost
 control after that," said Anne Watkins, 34, of White Marsh, who was
 attending the air show with her husband, two children and many
 relatives.
     The Air Force said there's no indication that the mechanical
 problems that led to the crash would affect any other F-117s.
     "However, to confirm this, the 49th Fighter Wing has implemented
 a precautionary stand down from routine flying operations at least
 through Monday. This action will allow Air Force and manufacturer
 maintenance specialists to assess presently available information
 and validate that routine flying operations can resume."
     The fighter, built by Lockheed Martin Corp., uses special design
 and materials to avoid enemy radar. During much of the 1980s, it was
 so secret the military didn't acknowledge its existence.
 -------------------------------------------------------
 Seattle,  Sept. 13 - Boeing Co. has sued US Airways Group Inc.
 over the carrier's decision to cancel an order for 48 of the manu-
 facturer's jets and place a huge order with its European rival Air-
 bus Industrie instead.
     A Boeing spokeswoman said Saturday the company had filed suit
 in Washington state court, charging that the troubled Herndon, Va.
 -based airline had refused to make payment on eight Boeing 757s and
 40 Boeing 737s on order, valued at about $2.2 billion. The suit, in
 King County Superior Court, seeks unspecified damages.
     "We will vigorously defend our position," said a US Airways
 spokesman, who declined further comment.
     Boeing said it was only the second time it had gone to court to
 try to force an airline to honor its purchase agreements.
     "It's regrettable," said Boeing spokeswoman Debbie Heathers.
 "We always prefer to work out any agreements with our customers
 in private rather than file a lawsuit."
                       Order Placed in 1981
     Boeing's complaint says that US Airways, then known as USAir,
 signed agreements to buy Boeing's narrow-body jets in 1981.
     In 1990, the airline began experiencing financial problems and
 Boeing agreed to a series of delivery deferrals.  Last November,
 Boeing declared the airline in default when it failed to make a
 $3 million partial payment on eight 757s scheduled for delivery
 in 1998.
     Shortly afterward an order was placed with Airbus for 120
 narrow-body jets valued at more than $5 billion, with an option
 to buy 280 more.
     The lawsuit comes at a difficult time for US Airways, which
 is trying to reach a new labor agreement with pilots that would
 cut the airline's cost structure. US Airways officials have said
 they may have to cancel the Airbus order if they cannot reach
 agreement with the pilots by Sept. 30.
 --------------------------------------
 Fishing vessel finds wreckage near site of apparent U.S./German
 aircraft collision
     CAPE TOWN, South Africa (September 15, 1997 10:45 a.m. EDT) -- A
 Namibian fishing vessel Monday found wreckage but no survivors at
 the site where U.S. and German military planes are believed to have
 collided and plummeted into the ocean.
     The vessel picked up German airplane seats and some papers writ-
 ten in German, said Capt. Joy Rautenbach, spokeswoman for the
 Maritime Research and Rescue Coordination Center in Cape Town.
     But there were no signs of the American C-141 cargo plane, she
 said.
     The two aircraft, carrying a total of 33 people, were reported
 missing around the same time Sunday off the coast of southern Africa.
     A mayday call was picked up at 9:25 p.m. local time (3:25 p.m.
 EDT) Sunday as a French airplane flew over the site, about 60 miles
 west of Cape Fria, off the Namibian coast, said Rautenbach.
     The signal was brief and nothing other than the word 'mayday'
 was overheard, she said.
     Two South African planes, a C-130 and a Boeing 707, with search-
 and-rescue teams on board, were scouring the scene for signs of
 survivors, Rautenbach said.
     The apparent collision was one of several U.S. military aviation
 disasters over the weekend.
     A U.S. Navy jet crashed Sunday in Oman during a routine training
 exercise, killing the pilot, a U.S. Navy official said
     The pilot's identity was being withheld pending notification of
 his family. The F/A 18 Hornet operated from the aircraft carrier
 USS John F. Kennedy.
     Also Sunday, a F-117A stealth fighter broke apart and crashed
 during an air show in Middle River, Md. The pilot ejected safely.
     The U.S. Air Force C-141 Starlifter cargo plane, which was
 carrying nine people, had just flown cargo from Ascension Island,
 a British territory, to Namibia and was returning to the island
 Saturday. It was assigned to the 305th Air Mobility wing at McGuire
 Air Force Base in New Jersey.
     "We are presuming it went down in the Atlantic Ocean," said Sgt. Ellen
 Schirmer, a spokeswoman for Air Mobility Command, headquartered at Scott
 Air Force Base in Illinois.  The names of the crew members were not
 released. They "come from Rhode Island to California so it is difficult
 to notify their families," Schirmer said.
     The German Defense Ministry said Sunday the U.S. cargo plane was
 missing in the same area and presumed crashed.
     "We have no information that they collided," a ministry spokesman
 in Bonn said Sunday. "But we have information that they went missing
 at the same time and in the same area. When you add one and one
 together ... a crash is very probable."
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