F-16 crashes near school in Texas
     SIDNEY, Texas - November 6, 1997 11:29 p.m. EST -- Children and
 residents watched as an Air Force F-16C crashed Thursday near a
 school playground, triggering a fire and scattering ammunition.
     "Lots of kids were on the playground when it happened," said
 Debra Stuteville, a teacher's aide at the Sidney school. "It fright-
 ened several of them."
     The pilot ejected safely and was being questioned.
     "We were standing at the door and heard a boom, whenever the
 pilot blew his canopy off. Then we saw the plane was falling," said
 Lloyd Reed, who works at a maintenance shop. "It was on its back and
 kind of like a Frisbee -- it was floating.  Then the son of a gun
 just fell all the way down and pancaked onto the ground."
     Firefighters from the nearby city of Comanche kept onlookers
 away amid concerns the ammunition might explode.
     The one-seat fighter jet was on a training flight with other
 F-16's from the Fort Worth naval base, said Maj. Clay Church,
 spokesman for the 301st Fighter Wing.
     Sidney is about 100 miles southwest of Fort Worth.
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      U.S. seeks greater effort on international air safety
     WASHINGTON - November 6, 1997 2:23 p.m. EST -- Federal Aviation
 Administrator Jane Garvey will press for expansion of an internat-
 ional air safety monitoring program next week at a conference in
 Montreal.
     She plans to call on the International Civil Aviation Organiza-
 tion to broaden and strengthen its year-old effort to assess air
 safety around the world, according to senior FAA officials.
     Top aviation officials from 135 countries are to attend the
 three-day event beginning Monday called to assess ICAO's Safety
 Oversight Program.
     "Basically, what we want to do is make it a more effective pro-
 gram," said an FAA official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
     The ICAO coordinates international aviation and recommends safe-
 ty standards for individual countries to apply to their airlines.
     Its oversight program seeks to determine how well a country
 applies those standards. The meeting will also discuss whether the
 program should be expanded to include reviews of air traffic con-
 trol, airport operations and data-sharing among countries.
     The FAA has operated a similar assessment program since 1992,
 but reviews safety regulations only in the 104 countries that are
 trading partners with the United States. Of 79 assessments completed,
 52 countries were found to meet ICAO standards, 13 were listed as
 conditional and 14 failed to meet standards.
     The ICAO has 185 member countries, and since traveling Americans
 fly on many foreign airlines not covered by the FAA program, U.S.
 officials want the organization to strengthen its effort.
     The U.S. proposals call for the ICAO to speed up its assessments,
 reporting findings to the country involved within 90 days and calling
 on that country to submit a plan to fix problems within 120 days.
     Currently only brief summaries of ICAO reports are released and
 the U.S. delegation will be pressing for full disclosure of the final
 report on a country so others can consider whether to limit inter-
 national operations with a nation that fails to make the grade.
     The United States also wants the ICAO to carry out assessments
 based on perceived need rather than waiting for a country to ask for
 a review.
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            Orlando incentives land new home for AirTran
     ORLANDO, Fla. - First ValuJet got a new name. Now it has a new
 home. The discount airline, now flying under the name AirTran Air-
 lines, said Thursday it was moving its headquarters from Atlanta to
 Orlando, which beat out Atlanta and suburban Washington by offering
 a $600,000 tax incentive package.
     The deal still requires the approval of shareholders at a Nov.
 17 Meeting.
     Most of the the jobs going to Orlando will be administrative.
 Customer service training and inflight training will remain in
 Atlanta, said Lori LeRoy, a spokeswoman for the airline. Pilot and
 flight attendant bases also will remain at their current locations.
     Airtran has a fleet of 43 aircraft serving 45 cities. The air-
 line will have 3,000 employees when the merger is completed.
     The airline was uncertain whether a heavy maintenance base with
 more than 100 jobs would move to Orlando.  All relocation will take
 place after Jan. 1, and employees will be offered relocation
 packages.
     D.Joseph Corr, president and chief executive officer of Airtran
 Airlines, said the tax package offered by Orlando and the state of
 Florida clinched the deal. Orlando International Airport also is
 giving the airline attractive lease terms for offices and a hangar.
     A stumbling block to the airline's move was Florida's sales tax
 on new aircraft and parts. But that was resolved with a promise from
 Gov. Lawton Chiles to include in his 1998 budget proposal a request
 to exempt aircraft maintenance and purchases from the sales tax,
 saving the airlines as much as $42 million.
 Knoxville News Sentinel 7 Nov 97
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