Navy jet crashes into Pacific; crew safe
      WASHINGTON -- March 31, 1998  11:07 p.m. EST -- A U.S. Navy S-3
 Viking jet crashed Tuesday morning into the Pacific Ocean about 30
 miles off the coast of San Diego, a Navy spokesman told CNN.
     The four crew members suffered only "minor injuries" after para-
 chuting into the ocean, where rescue teams picked them up a short
 time after the crash.
     Three of the crew are spending the night in the Naval Hospital
 on Balboa Island in San Diego. The fourth crew member was released
 after being examined by doctors.
     The S-3 was designed as an aircraft carrier-based anti-submarine
 warfare jet, but has taken on additional roles in recent years such
 as surveillance and in-flight refueling.
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  Helicopter carrying journalists, diplomats hits mines in Cambodia
    SIEM REAP, Cambodia - April 1, 1998 06:55 a.m. EST - A helicopter
 carrying Western journalists, diplomats and Cambodian soldiers set
 off two land mines while trying to touch down at a remote temple
 that until recently was rebel-controlled. Three people were injured.
    A second helicopter flew the injured to the northern city of Siem
 Reap for medical treatment. All were later discharged. They were
 identified as Lawrence Pickup, deputy head of Britain's diplomatic
 mission; Dom Hak, an army general; and the pilot, Koy Tha.
    The overloaded, Soviet-built MI-8 transport helicopter, carrying
 at least 44 people, was supposed to land at a helipad. But the pilot
 apparently lost control in strong winds and came down on a mine
 field instead, Dom Hak said.
    "Two mines exploded right under the helicopter after it touched
 down," Dom Hak said at Siem Reap provincial hospital.
    The 16 journalists included Cambodian and foreign employees of
 The Associated Press, World Television News, the British Broadcast-
 ing Corporation, Reuters news agency, NDN TV of Japan, and German
 television. In addition to the three injured people, some of the
 other passengers were either shaken up or lightly bruised in the
 explosion.
     Thirty years of upheaval have left Cambodia with an estimated 4
 million to 6 million land mines. They form a major part of the de-
 fenses around the clifftop temple of Preah Vihear, located on the
 Thai border and long a stronghold of the Khmer Rouge rebels.
    The garrison of 80 or so guerrillas turned the nearly impregnable
 base over to government soldiers in recent days without firing a
 shot. Since then, troops from both sides have been passing time
 peaceably among the 800-year-old temple ruins, a relic of the Angkor
 empire.
     Hundreds of guerrillas in the region have been defecting to the
 government since last week, when a dissident faction mutinied against
 their leaders in Anlong Veng, a jungle base about 40 miles west of
 Preah Vihear.
     Khmer Rouge radio loyal to the Anlong Veng leadership claimed
 Wednesday that the temple was still in guerrilla hands.
 ===
--- DB 1.39/004487
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