House set to pass Duncan bill calling for study of medical kits on
 airlines
      WASHINGTON -- The full House today plans to pass a bill by Rep.
 John J. Duncan Jr., R-Knoxville that would require a one-year fed-
 eral study of whether airlines should upgrade emergency in-flight
 medical kits and add defibrillators to aid heart-attack victims.
      The bill got an OK from the House Transportation and Infra-
 structure Committee. The Senate Transportation Committee is expected
 to approve an identical bill sponsored by Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
     Duncan, chairman of the aviation subcommittee, became interested
 in the subject after hearing reports of passengers who had heart
 attacks or other health problems that required emergency landings.
 Several international flights carry heart defibrillators to shock
 irregularly beating hearts back into normal rhythm, but no domestic
 flights did when Duncan held a hearing last May.
     Since the hearing, American and Delta airlines have announced
 plans to put defibrillators on all domestic flights by the end of
 this year and train flight attendants in their use.
     The Federal Aviation Administration has said it already has been
 surveying airlines to determine the need to upgrade standard medical
 kits designed 12 years ago that have added only latex gloves since
 then.
     Duncan has said he does not want to mandate any changes in medi-
 cal equipment and supplies on aircraft until there is enough data to
 show a need.
     Airlines have little extra space for medical equipment, but are
 able to accommodate the new, small defibrillators, which also have
 heart monitors. The units are priced at $2,500 to $3,500 each.
     Heart experts have said that defibrillators could save lives and
 prevent permanent heart damage if used quickly.
     United Airlines was sued by a family early this year after a
 family member died of cardiac arrest on a flight with no defibril-
 lator. United announced plans to add defibrillators to flights only
 two weeks after being sued regarding the 1995 flight from Boston to
 San FranCisco. Airline officials said their medical experts had been
 studying the value of the equipment before a decision was made to
 buy it.
 News-Sentinel Washington bureau - 24 March 98
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             Pilot Of KAL801 Misjudges Landing Approach
     An official of the Ministry of Construction and Transportation
 who participated in the investigation into the crash of flight KAL801
 in Guam last year announced Monday that the primary cause of the
 crash was pilot error. The official, who had access to the cockpit
 voice recorder (CVR) and the duration of flight data recorder (DFDR),
 said the pilot misjudged the position of an altitude and location
 beacon as he attempted to land. The CVR indicated that the pilot
 completed landing preparations, including wheel lockdown, 3 km ahead
 of where he was supposed to.
     Most airports have these beacons on the runway thresholds, but
 at Guam it is situated 3.3 miles from the runway on the mountain
 slope where the ill-fated aircraft went down. He added that appar-
 ently the control tower crew knew the aircraft was lower than it was
 supposed to be for a standard approach, but neglected to inform the
 pilot.
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        Smoke grounds helicopters fighting Amazon forest fire
     BOA VISTA, Brazil - March 23, 1998 7:43 p.m. EST -- A smoky haze
 grounded helicopters Monday in the northern Amazon, leaving fire-
 fighters and soldiers to battle a 3-month-old forest fire without
 aerial support.
     The lack of visibility forced the Brazilian air force to call
 off dispatching four Argentine firefighting helicopters to the
 hard-hit village of Apiau, 60 miles west of Boa Vista.
     On Sunday, two helicopters dumped 132-gallon tanks full of water
 on the blaze in hard-to-reach jungle areas, achieving "good re-
 sults," the governor's office said.
     Still, hundreds of fires continue to burn in savanna and forest
 turned to tinder by a three-month drought. Scientists blame the un-
 usually dry weather on El Nino, a warming of the waters in the
 Pacific that changes global weather patterns.
     About 290 firefighters and army soldiers battled the blaze Mon-
 day at Apiau, which borders the 25 million acre reservation of the
 Yanomami Indians, the world's largest Stone Age tribe.
     The fire has reached 15 miles inside the reservation, home to
 some 9,000 Yanomamis. The burning has destroyed over 3 percent of
 Roraima state -- more than 1.5 million acres.
     Venezuela has offered Brazil 100 firefighters, and officials
 from the two countries met Monday to discuss ways to control the
 fire in the Pacaraima savanna, near their common border.
     Meanwhile, doctors say the smoke and low humidity have caused a
 sharp increase in respiratory ailments, especially among children.
     At the Pai Hospital in Boa Vista, a city of 175,000, the number
 of children with respiratory illnesses has jumped from 160 a day to
 260 since the burning began.
     On Saturday, 3-month-old Thamires Tome died of whooping cough
 aggravated by the smoke, said Dr. Alberto Volpone, the hospital's
 assistant administrator.
     "The dryness and smoke together increase the number of respi-
 ratory diseases and make simple cases more serious," Volpone said.
     Esmeralda Teixeira de Moraes, 38, raced to the hospital Monday
 with her 1-year-old son, who was gasping "from lack of air."
     "It's the smoke, the awful heat from the burning," she said.
 "It's not anything else."
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