Citing national security, military seals off neighborhood
   where jet crashed
       * Air Force investigators combing crash scene
     Middle River, Md. (September 15, 1997 7:39 p.m. EDT) -- Citing
 national security, military police kept nine families from returning
 to their homes Monday, seized photographers' film and cordoned off
 the site of a stealth fighter crash as they searched for pieces of
 an aircraft whose very existence was once a state secret.
     The clamp down in this quiet waterfront neighborhood began al-
 most immediately after the F-117A jet went down during an air show
 performance Sunday, crashing into a house and causing six minor
 injuries on the ground.
     "There was military everywhere. This road was full, the sky was
 loaded. I tell you it was something," said Paul Canatella, standing
 in his driveway less than a 100 yards from the mangled canopy,
 which was watched by two armed military guards.
     "I've never seen anything like it," Canatella said. "You name it
 they were here."
     Three blocks of the Baltimore suburb were quickly evacuated and
 military troops moved in to scour the area for pieces of the $45
 million, black, bat-winged plane.
     "It is a secret aircraft, obviously we want to protect it the
 best way we can," said Capt. Drew Sullins, a Maryland National Guard
 spokesman.
     Film was confiscated from members of the media, including Asso-
 ciated Press photographer Roberto Borea, who had chartered a boat to
 take him to the neighborhood.
     "As soon as we stepped on shore, the military was there and that
 was it," Borea said. "Had I chosen not to surrender my equipment, I
 would have been taken into custody."
     Sullins said pool photographers were later allowed on the scene
 for a few minutes Monday under tight military supervision.
     The boomerang-shaped F-117A Nighthawk 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.
     It was used in the Gulf War against heavily defended Iraqi tar-
 gets because of its strange shape, tight construction and special
 surface paint, to evade radar and radar-guided missiles.
     Amateur video of Sunday's crash showed a piece of the aircraft,
 apparently from the tail or a wing, flying off before the wedge-
 shaped jet went down in a slow spin as the pilot ejected safely.
     Retired bomber pilot Norman Mack said he called the military to
 come retrieve the first two pieces he saw fall off the plane; they
 landed in shallow water behind his house. Mack said several boats
 showed up and officials called his daughter later asking permission
 to retrieve a smaller piece of debris from her boat.
     Emma Wetzelberger, a clerk at Wilson Point Liquors near the
 airport, said dozens of diners at the restaurant she was in Sunday
 night couldn't return in the boats they had used to get there because
 the military had closed down the Middle River.
     "They were angry. Boaters couldn't get back because they had
 cordoned off the river looking for parts," she said. "I hope they
 don't have the air show any more. I'm tired of them buzzing my
 house."
     At Bruno's restaurant near the crash scene, they took the crash
 in stride, quickly inventing a drink called the "Stealth Bomber
 Shooter."
     "It'll knock you out of the sky," said bartender Vicki Thoms.
 09-15-97 1800EDT
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