Colombia clears controllers of 1995 aircrash
     BOGOTA -- Nov. 10, 1997 6:59 p.m. EST - Colombian investigators
 cleared air traffic controllers Monday of any wrongdoing in the De-
 cember 1995 crash of an American Airlines plane in the southwest of
 the country, in which 159 passengers and crew died.
     The Chief Prosecutor's office laid the blame for the disaster
 squarely on the crew of the Boeing 757, which plowed into a tree-
 covered mountain minutes before it was due to land at Cali airport
 en route from Miami. Just four people survived.
     In a civil court ruling in Florida in September, a U.S. federal
 judge said the American Airline pilots, who died in the disaster,
 had been negligent and engaged in "willful misconduct" -- opening
 the way for hefty compensation claims from victims' families.
     "The Chief Prosecutor's office determined that the actions of
 the air traffic controllers at (Cali's) Alfonso Bonilla Aragon air-
 port were within the legal parameters established for these cases
 and therefore no type of legal responsibility can be derived from
 those actions," a statement from the prosecutor's office said.
     American's Flight 965 crashed into the Andes mountains on Dec.
 20, 1995, after veering wildly off course.  The crew apparently
 misinterpreted air traffic controllers' instructions and were un-
 able to turn the plane back once they realized their mistake,
 according to accident reports drawn up at the time.
     Many of the dead were Colombians resident in the United States
 and traveling to visit relatives in Cali over Christmas.
     An investigation issued by Colombia's Civil Aviation Authority
 in September 1996 blamed the crash on the pilots' "inadequate use"
 of automated navigational systems and their failure to abort the
 approach to Cali airport when they realized they were off course.
     The American Airlines pilots' union has consistently said it did
 not believe Flight 965 captain Nick Tafuri or first office Don
 Williams "had committed anything resembling willful misconduct".
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 First lady leaves for Russia after presidential plane has engine
 troubles
     ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md. - November 10, 1997 3:53 p.m. EST -
 - The four presidents who considered the Boeing 707 their flying
 White House probably never thought anyone would cross the former
 Soviet border in it to share American secrets for success.
     But six years after the Cold War thawed, first lady Hillary
 Rodham Clinton left Monday to do just.
     She had left once already -- on Sunday night -- only to return
 quickly after a sensor light indicated a fire in an engine on the
 left side. Members of her entourage dubbed the redo "Groundhog Day"
 after the movie that featured Bill Murray living the same day again
 and again.
     On Monday, the 25-year-old plane took off again with Mrs. Clin-
 ton and about 40 advisers, Secret Service agents and journalists on
 an eight-day tour of Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and
 Russia.
     Sunday night, after the warning light went on, the pilot dumped
 the plane's fuel and landed safely as fire trucks waited on the
 tarmac. There was no fire, and no one was injured.
     Mechanics found that oil had leaked on a wire and that had
 caused the light, said Mike Beeman, deputy chief of public affairs
 at the base.
     Returning to the base "was a precautionary measure, and no one
 was ever in any danger," he said. The plane was taken on a test run
 early Monday morning.
     The Boeing 707, tail number 27000, was first used as Air Force
 One in 1972 and flew presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan.
     Beeman said the plane -- and the first Air Force One, commis-
 sioned 10 years earlier -- will be replaced next year by Boeing
 757s. The older 707 carried the body of President Kennedy back
 from Dallas after Lyndon Johnson took the oath of office.
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
         Freed Russian airmen arrive in Moscow from Congo
     MOSCOW - 10 November 1997, 20:59 SAT, Johannesburg time (18:59
 GMT) - Nine Russian airmen who had been held prisoner in the Repub-
 lic of Congo for three weeks arrived home Monday on a chartered
 flight.
     The men were among 11 Russian air crew taken captive by the
 forces of Gen. Denis Sassou-Nguesso, who ousted ex-president Pascal
 Lissouba during a four-month civil war in the Central African na-
 tion. The Russians were accused of transporting weapons to aid
 Lissouba an allegation they denied.
     The remaining two pilots, who were also freed, decided to stay
 and work in neighboring Congo, Russian officials said.
     The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs negotiated the men's
 release and a special plane was sent to bring them home. They said
 all the airmen were in good health.
     They arrived with 24 Russian, Ukrainian and Polish women and
 children who had asked to be evacuated from the Republic of Congo.
 It was not exactly clear who the women were.
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