THE
Summer Daily
Vol. LXXXIII, No. 12-S
Ann.Arbor, Michigan--Thursday, May 24, 1973
Ten Cents
Twelve Page;
Three persons kill ed
in local airplane crash
Nose-dive narrowly misses house
Daily Photo by ROLFE TESSEM
RESCUE WORKERS sift through the wreckage of a twin-engine plane which crashed yesterday. They are attempting to piece
together the bodies of the three people who were killed.
McCORD ACCUSED OF LYING:
RkChardson aed
By LAURA BERMAN
and DAN BIDDLE
A twin-engine p r i v a t e plane
crashed into a south Ann Arbor resi-
dential area yesterday, killing all
three persons aboard.
The plane, apparently having en-
gine trouble, nose-dived into a va-
cant lot and burst into flames on
impact, flinging wreckage against
the wall of a house and across sev-
eral lawns,
THE CRASH victims have been iden-
tified as Dr. William Pollard, 30, of San
Gabriel, Cal.; Dr. Thomas Nicholudis, 41,
of Los Angeles; the plane's pilot, and
Carolyn Howke, 33, of Inglewood, Cal.
Pollard was the son of Dr. Marvin Pol-
lard, a University physician.
While the wreckage caused minor dam-
age to the roof and walls of an adjacent
home, no area residents were injured.
THE PLANE took off from Ann Arbor
Municipal Airport yesterday afternoon on
a flight to Kansas City, Mo., and was un-
der instrument guidance from air traffic
controllers at Detroit Metropolitan Air-
port due to poor visibility.
Officials at Metro say the plane, a Cess-
na 310, appeared to be in trouble almost
immediately after takeoff, and Nicholu-
dius attempted to circle back into a land-
ing pattern.
Attempts to contact the plane by radio
failed. Officials refused to speculate yes-
terday on the possibility that Nicholudis'
instruments or radio malfunctioned sec-
onds before the crash.
EYEWITNESSES say one of the plane's
engines failed, and that, the pilot success-
fully managed to gun the remaining en-
gine and nose the plane up in time to
avoid hitting ,a large house behind the
impact site.
"The plane sounded like it stalled
twice," said Mike Muller, a 13-year-old
local resident who watched the crash.
EYEWITNESSES say the plane slam-
med into the ground at a 75. degree angle,
hurtling wreckage and bodies across a
huge area.
Mary Ann- Decker was asleep in the
narrowly-missed house when the crash
awakened her and she saw "a wall of
flame outside."
MRS. RAY CROSS was talking on the
phone when the plane's impact showered
her house with debris. She dropped the
phone and looked from her front window
at "pieces of wreckage and the bodies in
a big mess all around the house."
While no information was available on
the cloud ceiling at Ann Arbor, Willow
Run Airport reported an unusually low
ceiling of 600 feet.
A pilot at Ann Arbor's airport yester-
day said Nicholudis had "four or five
seconds at the most" to avoid Decker's
house after breaking through the clouds.
A TEAM of officials from the National
Air Safety Board flew in from Chicago
late last night to begin a thorough inves-
tigation under flood lights to uncover the
reason for the crash.
WASt
vote of
nomina
torney;
after tt
the non
This
cabinet
of healt
rently
served
THE
the ma
special
to begit
Befor
nomina
said he
Senate
Nixon's
Byrd,
he had
Atto rney Ge
HINGTON .()-The Senate, by a personal integrity and regards him as "a
82 to 3, yesterday confirmed the man of high intellect, a very competent
lion of Elliot Richardson as at- lawyer and a very dedicated public ser-
general. The vote followed quickly vant."
he Judiciary Committee approved BUT, BYRD SAID, the.appointment from
mination unanimously. within the administration of the nation's
will be Richardson's third top chief law enforcement officer "has the
post. He has served as secretary appearance of the administration investi-
h, education and welfpre and cur- gating itself." -
is secretary of defense. He also , The committee eventually was satisfied,
as undersecretary of state. however, because pf the selection of Cox
as special prosecutor, and Cox's assur-
APPROVAL freed Archibald Cox, ances that he will be independent and go
n tabbed -by Richardson to be the wherever the facts lead him.
prosecutor in the Watergate case, At the Senate Watergate hearings yes-
n work officially. terday, John Caulfield testified he knew
e the Senate vote on Richardson's he was breaking the law by relaying
tion, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) executive clemency offers to James Mc-
and some other members of the Cord Jr. in the midst of the Watergate
Judiciary Committee supported trial. But he said he was spurred on in the
nomination reluctantly. . belief President Nixon made the offer.
the assistant majority leader, said
no question about Richardson's "I KNOW WHEN wrongdoing is occur-'
nera
ing, "the former White House aide told
the Senate Watergate investigating com-
mittee.
"My loyalties, especially to the Presi-
dent of the United States, overrided those
considerations."
But Caulfield emphasized again he had
no personal knowledge that the offer had
come from Nixon.
CAULFIELD SAID he did not ask for
and was not offered immunity from prose-
cution for his testimony.
Caulfield repeated earlier testimony that
he was acting as a reluctant messenger
in the clemency offers for John Dean III,
who was White House counsel at the time.
Dean was fired-by the President April 30.
Caulfield said he asked Anthony Ulase-
wicz, a friend from the New York City
police force also once employed at the
White House, to contact McCord and let
See RICHARDSON, Page 10