Miami runway closed as flipped tanker burns
     MIAMI (August 8, 1997 2:16 p.m. EDT) ---- An oil tanker flipped
 over on a road near the Miami International Airport Friday, about a
 mile from the site of a fatal air crash the previous day, igniting
 a blaze and forcing airport authorities to close a runway.
     The driver was pulled from the cab, witnesses said, but his
 condition was not known.
     The tanker erupted into a fireball as soon as it overturned, one
 witness said. Flames spread for a few hundred yards, setting ablaze
 trees and bushes on the airport perimeter.
     A thick cloud of black smoke billowed into the sky.  Airport
 spokesman Mark Henderson said one runway had been closed because the
 smoke was affecting visibility.  He could not say how many flights
 were disturbed.
     Fire rescue teams poured a blizzard of foam onto the inferno and
 extinguished the blaze around the tanker in about fifteen minutes,
 but roadside fires continued to burn.
     The only building in the vicinity is a restaurant and firefigh-
 ters immediately evacuated it.  "We protected the restaurant and
 attacked the fire from there," Metro-Dade Fire Rescue spokesman
 Keith Bowermaster said.
     The accident occurred on the south side of the airport about a
 mile from where a cargo plane crashed on take-off on Thursday,
 killing four people.
     A news conference by police and National Transportation Safety
 Board officials was taking place at the plane crash site when the
 tanker accident occurred.
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               12 injured after jetliner aborts takeoff
     HONOLULU (August 8, 1997 12:22 p.m. EDT) - The pilot of a Delta
 Air Lines jetliner carrying 316 people aborted a takeoff Thursday
 after seeing flames, apparently because one of the three engines of
 the L-1011 caught fire.
     Twelve people sustained minor injuries. Federal Aviation Admin-
 istration officials said the cause of the fire was under
 investigation.
     Passenger Alan Maud, 47, of Palm Beach, Fla., said he saw fire
 coming from the left engine. And Percy Adams, 38, of Alabama, who
 was aboard with his wife and 6-year-old daughter, said the plane
 came to a stop near the end of the runway just in time.
     "There were no blue lights on the runway left," he said, adding
 that he could see the ocean at the end of the runway.
     Geraldine Babino, 63, of San Antonio, said passengers ran once
 they slid down the emergency chutes.
     "We thought the plane was gonna explode," she said.
     Some of the injuries may have happened after the passengers slid
 down the chutes to escape, said Marilyn Kali, spokeswoman for the
 state Department of Transportation.
     One passenger aboard Delta Flight 54 suffered a broken ankle,
 one suffered a sprained back and 10 suffered smoke inhalation,
 Kali said.
     The Atlanta-bound plane had been scheduled to depart Honolulu
 International Airport about 4 p.m. Thursday and had gone toward the
 runway when the pilot decided to return to the terminal. The pilot
 reported possible hydraulic problems, passengers said.
     They were trying to leave again at 7:30 p.m. when the takeoff
 was aborted, according to passengers.
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     Long Beach, Calif.--- The Boeing Co. will let the market decide
 whether the line of commercial airplanes built by merger partner
 McDonnell  Douglas should survive, Boeing chief Phil Condit said.
     Condit, during a meeting with reporters Thursday, also down-
 played the significance of concessions Boeing made to win the
 European Union's approval of the merger.
     Condit and former McDonnell Douglas boss Harry Stonecipher
 discussed the merger during a short question and answer session as
 they toured the new Boeing's Southern California operations.
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