Five Die in N.C. Helicopter Crash
     MONROE, N.C. -- Five bodies have been recovered from a civilian
 helicopter which crashed about 30 miles east of Charlotte, a Union
 County sheriff's department dispatcher said.
     The helicopter crashed onto U.S. 74 West at about 12:40 a.m.,
 closing off the highway, said dispatcher Kyle Hill.
     Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration were
 arriving at the scene from Charlotte.
     Extensive damage to the fuselage made it difficult to determine
 the chopper's identification number, Hill said.
     Investigators were trying to determine whether the helicopter
 was carrying people from the Charlotte Motor Speedway about 30 miles
 away, Hill said. The Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race, attended by 175,000
 spectators, had ended about two hours before the crash.
     "You can see five bodies," Hill said.
     Sheriff's deputies could not immediately determine whether
 others were aboard the aircraft, he said.
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                     Pakistani Hijacking Ends
     ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani army commandos overpowered three
 men Monday who had hijacked a commercial plane with 29 people aboard
 and demanded to go to India, defense ministry officials said.
     All the passengers escaped unhurt, but initial reports said an
 army major received gunshot wounds during an exchange of gunfire.
 His injuries were not life threatening, the reports said.
     All of the hijackers, who were protesting nuclear testing, were
 arrested and one was injured in the scuffle, said defense ministry
 officials, who initially reported there were five hijackers but
 later changed the number to three.
     The men had seized the Pakistan International Airlines plane
 eight hours earlier, but a Pakistan Air Force fighter jet intercepted
 it and forced it to land in Hyderabad, about 90 miles north of
 Karachi, its destination.
     The hijackers released eight of their hostages and were persuaded
 to leave the aircraft and come out on the tarmac, said defense minis-
 try officials, who refused to give their names. Dozens of waiting
 commandos pounced on the hijackers and arrested them, the officials
 said.
     The defense ministry said the hijackers were members of the
 Baluchistan Students' Federation, a group that has been protesting
 Pakistan's reported plans to test a nuclear device in that south-
 western province.
     The crew of the Fokker Friendship propeller aircraft had calmed
 the captors by telling them the plane had crossed into India and was
 preparing to land in the state of Rajasthan, according to a defense
 ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
     Throughout the negotiations the hijackers apparently believed
 they were in India and a government official posed as Pakistan's
 ambassador to India to negotiate with them, the state-run news
 agency said.
     Karachi airport officials had said earlier that 38 people were
 on the plane, but defense ministry officials confirmed 29 aboard,
 including crew members. The passengers included five women and two
 children, Pakistan's state-run news agency said.
     Negotiators boarded the plane as it sat on the tarmac in
 Hyderabad and police cordoned off the airport. Government officials
 said two of the hijackers were carrying guns and the others had
 grenades.
     Pakistan Television said the hijackers had been demanding fuel
 and safe passage to New Delhi. Defense ministry officials said they
 also accused the government of ignoring Baluchistan and spending
 money on nuclear tests.
     Tensions between Pakistan and India have soared over India's
 testing of five nuclear devices this month. The two countries have
 gone to war three times.
     There have been several anti-government demonstrations in
 Baluchistan since reports surfaced last week that Pakistan was
 preparing a site in the province, near the border with Iran, for
 nuclear testing.
     Defense ministry and intelligence officials said the hijackers
 also were angry that Baluchistan had not received money promised by
 the government to rebuild their flood-devastated region.
     In 1986, a U.S.-based Pan Am plane was hijacked in Karachi. Dur-
 ing a commando raid to recapture control of the plane, twenty people
 died and more than 100 were injured.
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            U.S. aircraft carrier leaves Persian Gulf
     DUBAI - May 24, 1998 12:14 p.m. EDT - The aircraft carrier USS
 Independence sailed from the Persian Gulf on Sunday leaving one U.S.
 carrier in the strategic waterway, a U.S. Navy spokesman said.
     "The USS Independence has passed through the Strait of Hormuz
 and is now operating in the Arabian Sea," Cmdr. Gordon Hume, U.S.
 Navy spokesman at the Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, told
 Reuters by telephone.
     The U.S. carrier USS John. C. Stennis remains in the Gulf.
     The 80,000-ton Independence, with 75 aircraft on board, joined
 a U.S. military buildup in the Gulf during a showdown with Iraq over
 U.N. weapons inspections. The crisis was defused in February.
     In addition to the aircraft carrier and other warships, the
 United States has warplanes based in Saudi Arabia and smaller air
 units in Kuwait and Bahrain. It also rotates troops through Kuwait.
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