B-1 crash is the latest in string of military plane mishaps
     ALZADA, Mont. (September 20, 1997 3:45 p.m. EDT) ---- The Air
 Force B-1B bomber that gouged a half-mile of the Montana prairie
 crashed with such violence that the largest piece of wreckage was
 no bigger than a big bale of hay, a rancher said.
     "Looking at the pieces, you couldn't recognize they were parts
 of a plane," said Sandy Thomas, whose ranch borders the crash.
 "There was a lot of black smoke and the pieces of the plane were
 scattered for about half a mile."
     Friday's crash of the $200 million bomber 25 miles north of
 Alzada killed all four crew members.
     "The biggest piece you could probably put in the back of a pick-
 up," Thomas' husband, Thane, told KELO-TV in Sioux Falls, S.D.
     He said the plane "kind of skied along the ground" as it came
 apart.
     The bomber was from the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth Air Force
 Base, about 100 miles to the southeast near Rapid City, S.D. It was
 on a training flight over the Powder River Military Operating Area
 and the Air Force said it was not carrying any bombs.
     It was too early to speculate on the cause of the crash, the
 sixth involving a U.S. military aircraft in a week, Air Force Sec-
 retary Sheila Widnall said Saturday at Wright Patterson Air Force
 Base in Ohio.
     After the crash, the Air Force moved up a one-day suspension of
 training flights from next Friday to Monday.  The suspension is to
 determine "why these incidents happened and how to prevent more mis-
 haps," said Gen. Richard Hawley, head of the Air Combat Command at
 Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Va.
     Another rancher, Renee Macer, said she got close enough to the
 wreckage to see three crew members still strapped in their seats.
 The fourth man was found a short distance away and all were severely
 burned.
     The victims were identified as Col. Anthony Beat, the pilot and
 vice commander of the 28th Bomb Wing; Maj. Clay Culver, assistant
 operations officer; Maj. Kirk Cakerice, the co-pilot; and Capt.
 Garry Everett, weapons systems officer.  Ages and hometowns were
 not released.
     "I knew what Clay was doing," Culver's wife, Cynthia, said in
 Rapid City. "He was doing the right thing, and it was a very honor-
 able way to go."
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                       New Swiss Airline
     GENEVA - September 19, 1997 - 3:53 p.m. EDT (1953 GMT)  - Swiss
 World Airways will start transatlantic flights in December beginning
 with New York and Miami, the company said Friday.
     Swiss World was created to fill in the gap left by national car-
 rier Swissair's controversial decision last year to switch the base
 for most of its loss-making, long-haul flights from Geneva to Zurich,
 Switzerland.
     With a start-up capital of 60 million Swiss francs (US $40
 million), Swiss World will operate out of its home base in Geneva's
 Cointrin Airport serving western Switzerland and Alpine France.
     The airline has signed a technical agreement with British Airways
 for maintenance of its two leased Boeing 767-300 extended range 210-
 seat, wide-body twin jets. American Airlines will handle its U.S.
 marketing, the statement said.
     The airline's shareholders will meet on October 24.
                       Swissair may reconsider
     Swissair's decision to stop long-haul flights from Geneva caused
 anger in the international city, Switzerland's wealthy private bank-
 ing hub and home to the United Nations' European headquarters and
 key agencies, as well as many Western corporations.
     Philippe Bruggisser, chief executive of Swissair parent SAir
 Group -- who has argued that Switzerland cannot afford to have two
 international airports -- said Swiss World would be competition for
 Swissair.
     But speaking to Swiss television Thursday night, he also said
 that Swissair's traffic gains in Zurich had largely made up for its
 loss of 150,000 passengers in Geneva so far this year.
     Bruggisser said Swissair would "re-examine the question of
 Cointrin airport and reintroduction of long-haul flights from there
 in a year or two."
     Swiss World also wants to serve Washington, Boston, Chicago and
 Montreal from Geneva.
     The airline, financed largely by cantonal governments in French-
 speaking Switzerland, says it would be in the black if it captures
 just half of the more than 320 passengers daily lost by Swissair in
 Geneva.
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