A light plane smashed into a granite cliff in the Smokies near
 the town of Newport, Tennessee. Details of the crash are not avail-
 able at present. With cell to 30,000 and movement of them 40 to 80
 knots, I wonder why anyone would be flying in the area. This area
 has been under tornado watch and heavy rains and flooding for the
 past 2 days. More when available. Jim Sanders
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    In Nevada, small plane hits house, narrowly missing two boys
     LAS VEGAS - April 19, 1998 02:25 a.m. EDT -- A small plane slam-
 med into a suburban house Saturday, narrowly missing two young boys
 playing on a computer.
     When firefighters arrived, they found the pilot and passenger -
 - who suffered facial cuts -- lying on the patio while neighbors
 doused the plane with home fire extinguishers.
     The plane broke out windows and a door in the back of the house
 before coming to rest 3 feet from where the boys, 6 and 8, were
 playing. The younger boy suffered cuts on his leg from broken glass.
     "I've seen a bunch of plane crashes in my 30 years, but never
 anything this bad where everyone escaped serious injury," said Tim
 Szymanski, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Fire Department. I couldn't
 believe we didn't come out with four fatalities."
     The Beechcraft Bonanza was on final approach to North Las Vegas
 Airport when it experienced engine problems.
     Dave Omura, 30, and his wife, Geri, 33, fled the house with
 their sons. The plane's landing gear ended up in their kitchen.
     "It's amazing the glass didn't shred the boys," Szymanski said.
 "It was all over the house."
     The plane crashed about two miles short of the airport. The
 Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the crash.
          36 injured in turbulence on Paris-New York flight
 --------------------------------------------------------------------
     NEW YORK - April 18, 1998 7:19 p.m. EDT - One passenger was
 critically injured and 35 others suffered minor injuries Saturday
 aboard a Tower Air plane hit by severe turbulence on its way to
 New York from Paris, officials said.
     A Port Authority spokesman had no further information on the
 critically injured passenger from Tower Air flight 037.
     Seventeen of the injured were treated on the tarmac at John F.
 Kennedy International Airport and 19 others, including the criti-
 cally injured passenger, were taken to Jamaica Hospital in the New
 York borough of Queens.
     A dozen ambulances and other emergency vehicles lined the runway
 as the jet landed at the airport at 3 p.m. EDT . The Boeing 747 jet
 hit the turbulence 45 minutes before it landed, a Federal Aviation
 Authority spokesman reported.
     He said the injured had been seated in the rear section of the
 cabin. He did not know how many people were on the flight.
 --------------------------------------------------------------------
              Two Californians die in skydiving accident
     DAVIS, Calif. - April 19, 1998 01:31 a.m. EDT -- Two tandem sky-
 divers died Saturday after their parachute failed.
     A female student making her first jump and a male instructor with
 2,000 jumps to his record were killed when the main chute didn't open
 correctly and the reserve parachute got tangled in the main chute,
 Yolo County Sheriff's spokeswoman Laura Landeros said.
     Witnesses said they heard the woman yelling for help and felt the
 impact about two football fields away. The pair, both from Sacramen-
 to, had started the jump at about 10,000 feet.
     The identities of the woman, 26, and the man, 28, were not
 available.
     The last time the popular skydiving company, Skydance Skydiving,
 had a death was in 1989.
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