Couple accused of causing mayhem on flight plead innocent
     LOS ANGELES (August 5, 1997 12:51 p.m. EDT) -- A couple pleaded
 innocent to federal charges alleging they threatened to open an air-
 liner's exit doors during a flight and tried to force their way into
 the cockpit.
     Thomas Kasper and Susan Callihan could be sentenced to life in
 prison if convicted of causing the alleged mayhem on a July 14
 Continental Airlines flight from Houston to Los Angeles, prosecutors
 said Monday.
     Authorities say the couple became unruly after they were refused
 an upgrade to first class about an hour after takeoff.
     According to an FBI affidavit, Callihan and Kasper threatened to
 open exit doors. Kasper also is accused of pouring two pots of hot
 coffee on two flight attendants, giving one of them second-degree
 burns.
     And at Kasper's direction, Callihan tried to kick in the cockpit
 door but an off-duty pilot held the door to keep her out, the affi-
 davit alleged.
     Authorities also said Callihan told flight attendants "there
 were people with guns and other things on board seated at the rear
 of the aircraft."
     The plane, Flight 1837, carried 130 passengers and five crew
 members.
     Kasper, 36, of Santa Barbara, and Callihan, 28, of nearby
 Goleta, were both free on $50,000 bail each.
     They are charged with interfering with the performance or
 duties of a flight crew member or flight attendant by assault or
 intimidation; and aiding and abetting, Assistant U.S. Attorney
 Robert Borthwick said. Kasper also was charged with assault with
 a deadly weapon -- the coffee.
     U.S. Magistrate Judge Rosalyn Chapman set a Sept. 23 trial
 date.
 --------------------------------------------------------------
 (Added from earlier. Jim)
     HONOLULU (August 5, 1997 3:27 p.m. EDT) -- A Korean Air jumbo
 jet with at least 231 people aboard crashed while trying to land
 on Guam in the middle of the night, authorities said Wednesday.
 Police said 29 people survived.
     Flight 801 from Seoul, South Korea, to Guam was cleared to land
 when contact was lost as the jetliner was three miles from Agana
 International Airport, said Tom Rea, the Federal Aviation Adminis-
 tration's Pacific representative in Honolulu. It was early Wednes-
 day, Guam time.
     Frank Matane of Guam Police told MSNBC that 29 people apparently
 survived. He said the plane went down "in rough terrain, up in the
 hills." Radio station KOKU in Guam said the plane crashed on Nimitz
 Hill, a rugged, forested hill on the approach to the airport.
     Rea said 331 people were on board; but airport spokesman Jay
 Sprague said later that 231 were aboard, and Korean Air said there
 were 234 passengers plus about 10 crew members. The airline said
 the plane was an Airbus, while the FAA said it was a Boeing 747.
     "It rained off and on all day, but it's too early to say if
 weather was a factor," Sprague told MSNBC.
     Andrew Murphy of the Guam Airport Authority told CNN there was
 an unconfirmed report that the airliner reported engine trouble
 before going down.
     There was a widespread fire area on the ground, Sprague said.
     Dr. Michael Cruz of the Guam Memorial Hospital told CNN the
 plane crashed in a sparsely populated area near the airport and that
 emergency teams had been put on alert.
     "We are in an emergency mode preparing to accept casualties. We
 are getting out every ounce of plasma we have and my understanding
 is the U.S. Navy Hospital is doing the same," Harry Fornas, a hos-
 pital spokesman, told Reuters by telephone.
     FAA spokesman Eliot Brenner said the U.S. National Transporta-
 tion Safety Board would investigate the crash with FAA participa-
 tion. He said the FAA had no firm number for the number on board
 Korean Air Lines flight 801 from Seoul.
     On Sept. 1, 1983, a Korean Air Lines jetliner carrying 269
 people was shot down by a Soviet fighter plane after it strayed
 into Soviet air space. All aboard Flight 007 died. The company
 dropped "Lines" from its official name after the crash.
     The tiny island of Guam is the United States' westernmost
 possession. Its population is 150,000. Roughly one-third of Guam's
 212 square miles is taken up by military bases.
     The United States won Guam as part of the spoils of the Spanish-
 American War in 1898, then lost it briefly to Japan during World War
 II. Guam was made an unincorporated territory in 1950 and its people
 were given U.S. citizenship.
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