Page 2-Thursday, May 28, 1981-The Michigan Daily
Jet crash on
aircraft carrier
Nimitz kills _14
4
From AP and UPI
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A plane
used to jam enemy communications
landed "right of the center line" on the
flight deck of the nuclear carrier
Nimitz late Tuesday night, plowed into
parked aircraft and ignited a fireball
that killed 14 servicemen and injured 45
others, the Navy said.
Damage was estimated at con-
siderably more thais $100 million. Four
aircraft were destroyed, five more suf-
fered serious damage and 11 others
light damage in a raging fire that
followed the crash.
The 92,000-ton Nimitz, carrying a
crew of nearly 6,000 and with a
capability of carrying 90 planes, was on
a training mission 60 miles off the
Florida coast east of Jacksonville when
the crash occurred while pilots were
practicing nighttime takeoffs and lan-
dings.
THIRTEEN OTHER aircraft in the
air when the crash occurred at 11:51
p.m. EDT were unable to land and
diverted to Charleston, S.C.
Navy firemen fought the huge blaze
for 70 minutes before extinguishing it
with a chemical foam.
Helicopters ferried 19 Navy doctors
and medical aides from the Jackson-
ville Naval Hospital to the carrier and
21 of the most seriously injured were
taken to Jacksonville hospitals for
treatment.
THE NAVY withheld identification of
the dead and injured pending
notification of relatives.
The dead included all three crewmen
aboard the crashed plane, a Marine
Corps EA-6B Prowler jet, which is used
to jam enemy radar and radio signals.
THE PROWLER is one of the A-6
family of bombers, electronic warfare
planes and tanker aircraft. All A-6 air-
craft were temporarily grounded
briefly early in 1980 after seven crashes
in three months killed 14 fliers in dif-
ferent parts of the world.
The Navy said it had not detected any
"patterns, trends or discernible
similarities" in the accidents. Naval of-
ficials are investigating the latest crash
and were not prepared to state a
possible cause yesterday.
The aircraft carrier Nimitz had
returned to Norfolk a year ago Tuesday
after a six-month deployment in the
Mediterranean that stretched to nine
months because of the seizure of
hostages in Iran and the Soviet inter-
vention in Afghanistan. It was from the
deck of the Nimitz that eight helicop-
ters took off in the abortive effort to
rescue the 52 Americans held captive in
Tehran.
The Nimitz and its sister carrier, the
Eisenhower, are the largest fighting
ships in the world.
Today
Til death do we part
B RITISH COLUMBIA'S government has an ombudsman to help its
citizens cope with bureaucracy, but he wasn't able to help one couple
who wanted an unusual wedding. They wanted to get married dressed as the
Muppet characters Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. When a marriage
commissioner refused to perform the ceremony for the strangely attired
pair last year, Kermit and his betrothed complained to ombudsman Karl
Friedmann. Friedmann, however, backed the commissioner. In his second
report to the Legislature, Friedmann said that the marriage commissioner
had refused because he felt he could not solemnize the occasion. "I con-
cluded the marriage commissioner had not acted improperly in refusing to
solemnize the marriage and I advised the betrothed to seek out another
marriage commissioner in the vicinity who might be able to solemnize the
union with good conscience," he said. Friedmann said the couple had been
unable to find an authorized person willing to marry them in their muppet
costumes. "They decided to get married i jeans," he said.
Inflation on the rails
If you're planning on -taking the Amtrak when you go home for the
weekend, make sure you buy your ticket in the station, not in the train. Am-
trak announced yesterday that, effective June 1, passengers who buy their
tickets from the conducter will pay $3 more than those who buy their tickets
at the station. In the past, passengers have paid only 50 cents more if they
waited to pay the fare on the train. But, before you start organizing a boycott
to protest the fare hike, you may as well wail until the Reagan ad-
ministration and Congress decide on next year's Amtrak funding. If the
President gets his way, federal funding will be cut so much that Amtrak ser-
vice in Michigan will be axed entirely, solving the whole fee hike problem. t
Todavs weather
Partly cloudy skies today with an expected high in the low 70s. Q
Happenings .. .
FILMS
CFT - Taxi Driver, 4,7 & 9p.m., Michigan Theater.
CG - The Big Red One, 7:30-: 9:30 p.m., Lorch Hall.
MISCELLANEOUS
Chemistry - lecture, R. Rife Chambers, "Love Takes Time and So Does
Amide Hydrolysis," 4 p.m., Chem Bldg., Rm. 1300.
Ark - Mac Benford, banjo, 9 p.m., 1421 Hill.
Campus Weight Watchers - Mtg., 5:30 p.m., League Project Rm.
MHRI - Sem., Nancy Andreeasen, "Diagnosis and Classification of
Depression," 3:45 p.m., 1057 MHRI.
Sailing Club - Mtg., 7:45 p.m., 311 W. Engin.
Med Center Bible Study - Mtg, 12:30 p.m., F2230 Mott Library.
Robotics Reseach Circle - Eugene Bartel, "An Overview of Robotics
Research at Carnegie-Mellon," 7p.m., Chrysler Ctr.
Siddha - Intro. to Siddha Meditation, free class, 8 p.m., 902 Baldwin.
The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCI, No.16-S
Thursday, May 28, 1981,
The Michigan Daily is edited and managed by students at the University
of Michigan. Published daily Tuesday through Sunday mornings during the
University year at 420 Maynard Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109.
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Oil glut may stabilize
summer gas prices
NEW YORK (AP) - Summer's flood
of motorists usually means price in-
creases at the gasoline pumps. But am-
ple gas supplies and Saudi Arabia'
refusal to cut oil production should
mean stable prices - and perhaps
some price wars - this year, analysts
say.
The Organizatin of Petroleum Expor-
ting Countries agreed this week in
Geneva to freeze prices, and most of the
OPEC members agreed to cut produc-_
tion by at least 10 percent because of
high supplies of crude oil. However,
Saudi Arabia refused to go along with
the cuts and OPEC oil ministers said
the cuts would not be enough to end the
glut.
TRADITIONALLY, increased
demand for gasoline in the summer
pushed up prices a penny or two a
gallon. But that pattern was broken last
year, and the oil industry is watching to
see whether drivers will again take
shorter trips or choose to leave their
cars home.
The situation varies by region.
Isolated gasoline price wars have
broken out in some Midwestern areas
this year and more are possible,
although gasoline station operators say
their profit margins are at the lowest
level in years and they have little room
for price-cutting.-
THE TIGHTEST supplies are on the
WestCoast, partly becaise ofa firethat
cut production at a Standard Oil Co. of"
California refinery. Socal raised prices
by a penny a gallon in the West yester-
day, five days after it cut prices by two
cents a gallon along the East Coast.
While the gasoline market is weak,
prices are still a lot higher than last
year, thanks to previous OPEC price
increases and to President Reagan's
decision to lift domestic price controls
ahead of schedule.
The average national retail price of
gasoline this month is $1.36 a gallon, up
10 percent from just over $1.23 last
year.
BUT THIS month's price is more than
1 cents below the March price, and
Kenneth Haley, an economist for Socal,
said there is little likelihood for an in-
crease over the next several months.
"I think prices will be pretty much
where they are, if not a little lower,"
Haley said.
"It could be the 1981 peak for gasoline
prices has passed," agreed Robert
LeVine, an analyst with the E.F. Hutton
& Co. securities firm.
CONSERVATION IS a major cause
of the weakness in oil markets.
Americans used six percent less
gasoline in 1980 than in 1979. Through
April, gasoline use was down one per-
cent from the 1980 rate.yTie1981 figure
was 11percent below thbe1978 peak.
Editor-in-Chief ...........DAVID MEYER
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