Pilot of U.S. F-16 missing after crash in Yellow Sea
     WASHINGTON -- March 25, 1998  11:34 p.m. EST -- The U.S. Air
 Force said the pilot of an F-16 fighter was missing after his jet
 crashed into the Yellow Sea west of South Korea Wednesday night.
     The single-seat jet crashed during a night training flight about
 60 miles west of Osan Air Base where it was based.  The Air Force
 said in a statement released at the Pentagon that the fighter was
 attached to the U.S. 51st Fighter Wing.
     The pilot's name was not immediately released. A search by U.S.
 and South Korean air force units and naval ships was continuing,
 the statement said.
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
     Korean Air official says crash is changing management style
     HONOLULU (AP) - March 26, 1998 11:30 a.m. EST - A senior Korean
 Air official bowed his head and offered condolences for the 228 pas-
 sengers and crew who died when Flight 801 crashed in Guam last sum-
 mer, acknowledging improvements were needed in airline flight
 safety.
     Capt. Park Pyong-woo, the airline's deputy director of flight
 operations, told federal investigators Wednesday that the August 6
 crash prompted a complete revision of the carrier's management
 policies.
     "Looking back on this accident, we feel most of our management
 up to now has been too short-term, shortsighted and superficial,"
 Park said. "We plan to make long-term plans and spare no resources
 to ascertain this final objective of flight safety."
     Park's comments came during the second day of National Transpor-
 tation Safety Board hearings into what caused the third-worst air
 crash ever on U.S. soil. The jet slammed into a mountain while try-
 ing to land during a nighttime thunderstorm. Only 26 people on board
 the plane survived.
     Korean Air will spend more money on training its personnel and
 has hired a consultant to help make the changes, Park said.
     Park also expressed sympathy to the relatives of those killed
 aboard the Boeing 747. "To the family members of the deceased, we'd
 like to pass on ... our words of condolence," he said.
     Earlier Wednesday, a Korean Air pilot instructor admitted that
 the flight crew did not follow airline procedures regarding communi-
 cation with air traffic controllers in the moments before the crash.
     Capt. Lee Jung-taek told the NTSB that crew members did not
 follow the airline's policy of "calling out" to confirm messages
 from air traffic controllers or when executing other in-flight
 actions as the jet approached the airport.
     "What I felt overall was that the accident crew's standard call-
 out compliance was less than what we are taught," Lee said through
 an interpreter.
     Family members of those killed in the crash, upset over being
 denied a chance to speak at the hearing, berated a Korean Air
 official during a break and had to be pulled away by police.
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
       FAA drops evacuation test policy for three new jets
     WASHINGTON - March 25, 1998 3:01 p.m. EST  - Passenger advocates
 say airline safety may be jeopardized if the Federal Aviation Admin-
 istration carries through with a plan to certify three new jets for
 service without the traditional test of a passenger escape.
     The policy change would eliminate the usual practice of sending
 mock passengers out emergency exits and down evacuation slides.
     "Certifying new jumbo airliners without emergency evacuation
 testing is like launching hundreds of potential Titanics," Paul
 Hudson, executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project,
 said Tuesday.
     Chris Witkowski, safety director for the 42,000-member Associ-
 ation of Flight Attendants, added: "If you don't do the drill when
 you have a new aircraft, you don't really know how the passenger
 flow and passenger management will work until you do have a real
 accident or the need for a real evacuation. At that time, it's too
 late."
     The policy change applies to the Boeing 777-300 series, an elon-
 gated version of the company's newest jumbo jet, and stretch ver-
 sions of the Airbus A330/340. The A330 has two engines; the A340,
 four.
                      FAA: Not new jet types
     The 777 fuselage will be stretched to increase the passenger
 capacity from 440 people to 550. Another pair of emergency exits
 will also be added. The European maker of the Airbus is going to
 lengthen its A330/340 aircraft to increase their capacity from 361
 passengers to 440.
     Airbus, however, will not add any new emergency exits to either
 plane but will increase the size of an existing pair of exits, the
 policy change said.
     The FAA insists that these are not new aircraft types.
     "In both these cases, a wealth of full-scale evacuation data are
 available to support analysis and the FAA is confident that the use
 of analysis is well within the intent of the (old) regulation,"
 Ronald T. Wojnar, the FAA's air certification manager, said in a
 notice issued March 6.
     The previous regulation stated that an aircraft manufacturer
 could not receive certification for a new aircraft or one with a
 "major change" without showing that passengers and the flight crew
 could exit the plane within 90 seconds using only half the available
 exits.
     "As you know, demonstration evacuations can result in injuries,
 and for these particular aircraft, the manufacturers have already
 conducted demonstrations," said FAA spokeswoman Alison Duquette.
     Kirsti Dunn, a spokeswoman for Boeing, said: "Our objective in
 any testing program is to comply with FAA requirements." She could
 not say if Boeing requested the policy change or whether it was
 timed to allow the partial test a day later.
--- DB 1.39/004487
---------------