Passengers panic after false cry of fire on plane
     CHICAGO - April 20, 1998 08:37 a.m. EDT -- Passengers panicked
 aboard an American Airlines plane at O'Hare International Airport
 when someone saw sparks bounce off a wing before takeoff and
 shouted, "Fire!"
     Three people were injured, including a 10-year-old boy who broke
 an arm.
     As the engine ignited on Flight 1625 bound for Kansas City, Mo.,
 on Sunday night, passengers saw smoke and sparks bounce off the
 right wing, said Monique Bond, a Chicago Department of Aviation
 spokeswoman.
     The sparks are a routine occurrence, Bond said. But the passen-
 ger's shout prompted a rush for the emergency exits. As many as 30
 people clambered onto the left wing before flight attendants could
 restore order, passengers told WLS-TV.
     All 147 passengers aboard were evacuated using an escape chute.
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          Divers take to skies despite pair's death earlier
     SACRAMENTO, Calif. - April 20, 1998 08:31 a.m. EDT - You wouldn't
 know it Sunday by the sight of multicolored parachutes fluttering
 down from a cloudless sky. And you couldn't tell by the excited war
 whoops of sky divers - seasoned and first-timers - as they landed,
 with jaunty strides, in a thick meadow.
     But one day earlier, Seth Blake, 28, an instructor with SkyDance
 SkyDiving at the Yolo County Airport, and novice jumper Stephanie
 Cotter, 26, both of Sacramento, lost their lives during a two-person
 tandem jump.
     Blake was known by some friends as "the sky god." He was a pas-
 sionate sky diver and a fitness buff who was studying to become a
 paramedic. Daniel O'Brien, Sky Dance's general manager, said Blake's
 parents had died when he was young, and "the community of sky diving
 was his immediate family."
     Cotter, a first-timer, was looking to celebrate the 30th birth-
 day of her boyfriend, Ken Bielejeski of Davis, by sharing a dazzling
 adventure. She was one of 70 to 100 people who show up at the rural
 airport on any given weekend day for the exhilaration of jumping
 from a plane and sailing back to safe ground.
     Cotter was a nurse who had worked at Mercy Hospital. She had
 recently traveled on a vacation to New Zealand and Australia, and
 had just accepted a medical research job in Denver. She volunteered
 to take the first parachute jump because she wanted to race back to
 Sacramento to prepare the birthday party.
     "Every time someone dies, people say they were full of life,"
 said Trevor Alt, a Los Angeles attorney and close friend who accom-
 panied Cotter, Bielejeski and two others on the sky-diving excursion.
 "But I don't know if that ever applied to anyone more than
 Stephanie."
     Once airborne, Cotter and her instructor, Blake, jumped together
 from the plane. But their tandem chute failed to deploy.
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            Marines to begin hearing on cable car disaster
     CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - April 20, 1998 08:02 a.m. EDT -- Two-and-a-
 half months after their military jet severed a gondola cable at an
 Italian ski resort and sent 20 people plunging to their deaths, four
 Marine fliers go before the military equivalent of a grand jury.
    The Article 32 hearing is to determine if there is evidence to
 support criminal charges of negligent homicide and involuntary man-
 slaughter against the four crewmen. They also are charged with
 dereliction of duty, damage to military property and damage to
 private property.
    The hearing officer was to focus on administrative issues Monday
 and no evidence was to be presented yet. If there is not enough
 evidence to support the charges, some or all could be dropped.
    The officer's recommendations will be passed on to Lt. Gen. Peter
 Pace, the commander of the U.S. Marines in the Atlantic. He will
 decide whether the proceedings might move forward to a court-martial,
 should that be recommended.
    The gondola -- packed with skiers at an Italian Alpine resort -
 - crashed into the slopes after the EA-6B Prowler jet based in Aviano,
 Italy, sliced its cable Feb. 3 in a deadly training incident.
    The incident touched off a crisis in U.S.-Italian relations and
 sparked calls from some Italians for the removal of U.S. troops from
 their country.
    A Marine Corps Command Investigation Board blamed aircrew error
 for the disaster, saying the plane was flying too fast and too low.
    Charged in the deaths were Capt. Richard J. Ashby, 30, of Mission
 Viejo, Calif.; Capt. Joseph P. Schweitzer, 30, of Westbury, N.Y.;
 Capt. William L. Raney II, 26, of Englewood, Colo.; and Capt.
 Chandler P. Seagraves, 28, of Ninevah, Ind.
    Each manslaughter charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years
 in prison, while the maximum for each negligent homicide count is
 three years.
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--- DB 1.39/004487
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