Conflicting Reports on survivor
                      Taiwan Plane Crashes
     One survivor was found in today's crash of a Taiwanese domestic
 airliner with 16 people on board. A Formosa Airlines spokesman said
 the survivor was a passenger and that she had been rushed to a
 hospital. The plane was carrying 14 passengers, a pilot and a
 co-pilot. So far 12 bodies have been recovered. The plane was on
 its way to Matsu, some six miles from China's southeastern coast,
 from Taipei, Taiwan's capital.
     Domestic Taiwanese flight crashes, killing all 16 aboard
     TAIPEI, Taiwan (August 10, 1997 00:46 a.m. EDT) -- A small plane
 crashed into a mountain on the Taiwanese island of Matsu on Sunday,
 killing all 16 people aboard, airline officials said.
     The Kuohua Airlines plane crashed at 8:15 a.m. after a 50-minute
 flight from Taipei to the military outpost, officials said.
     Military rescuers located several badly burned bodies near the
 wreckage and said the rest were presumed dead. The plane was carrying
 a pilot, co-pilot and 14 passengers.
     It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.
 -------------------------------------------------------
     No conclusion yet on whether human error caused Guam crash
     AGANA, Guam (August 9, 1997 8:22 p.m. EDT) ----- Investigators
 trying to figure out why a Korean Air jet crashed in Guam do not
 have enough evidence to conclude human error was to blame for the
 accident, federal agents said Saturday.
     Experts still are trying to determine, for example, whether
 driving rain the night of the crash blinded the pilot to the unlit
 hillside that Flight 801 slammed into, killing 225 people........
     A Japan Airlines jet arriving from Osaka, Japan, at the same
 airport Saturday aborted a landing after apparently misjudging the
 location of the runway, and had to pull up and come in for another
 attempt..................
     The jet landed safely on the second attempt.
 ------------------------------------------------
      Rwandans attempt to hijack plane deporting them from Gabon
     GENEVA (August 9, 1997 7:05 p.m. EDT) -- More than 100 Rwandans
 being deported from Gabon to their homeland tried Saturday to hijack
 their plane to a third country, according to the U.N. refugee
 agency.
     The pilot managed to return safely to Gabon and escape through
 a cockpit window. Troops then apparently surrounded the plane and
 there were reports of refugees being beaten on the tarmac, said Pam
 O'Toole, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
 in Geneva...............................
     UNHCR was screening the men to determine whether any of them
 could qualify for refugee status. Eight had qualified as refugees
 and were in U.N. protection, when Gabonese authorities -- over UNHCR
 protests -- loaded the 115 men on a Boeing 727 headed for the
 Rwandan capital, Kigali, O'Toole said.
     "Twenty minutes after takeoff the refugees apparently turned
 violent and tried to force the pilot to another country," she said.
     Refugee agency personnel were expelled from the airport in
 Franceville and could get no information about the Rwandans' fate,
 she said. It was not clear where the Rwandans demanded to go.
 ------------------------------------------------------------
            Delta jet blows tires during landing
     ATLANTA (August 10, 1997 00:22 a.m. EDT) -- A Delta Air Lines
 plane carrying 145 passengers blew two tires Saturday night when
 it landed at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport.
     Delta Flight 559 from Cincinnati blew out the tires just as it
 landed and was unable to taxi to its gate, said airline spokesman
 Todd Clay.
    "It was a routine landing," Clay said. "We'll jack up the plane
 and change two tires -- just like you would with a car or bus."
    There were no injuries. The passengers were taken off the L-1011
 plane and bused to the airport terminal.
 ----------------------------------------
     Doomed jet not overloaded, but latches had 'inconsistencies'
     MIAMI (August 9, 1997 9:58 p.m. EDT) -- The cargo plane that
 crashed with 45 tons of textiles on board was not overloaded but
 had "some inconsistencies" in its latching systems that secured the
 fabric, an investigator said Saturday.
     Robert Benzon, leading the probe into the Fine Air DC-8 crash
 that killed at least five, would not say if problems with the latch-
 ing system caused the jet to plummet shortly after takeoff Thursday.
     "There were some inconsistencies of the latching systems that
 hold down cargo in the aircraft," Benzon, of the National Trans-
 portation Safety Board, said at an evening briefing.  "There are
 probably 100 latches that hold these things down."
     The board and the Federal Aviation Administration had said they
 were looking into whether the 29-year-old plane may have been over-
 loaded with cargo and extra fuel, and whether the cargo shifted
 during takeoff.
     But Benzon said the plane was about 27,000 pounds below its top
 allowable weight.
     "Our calculations reveal it was well under take off capacity ...
 and balanced."
     Investigators are also looking into whether pilot error or
 mechanical failure brought the plane down.
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 05:00 EDT 10 Aug 97
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