The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCI, No. 2-S Ann Arbor, Michigan-Thursday, May 7, 1981 FREE ISSUE Twenty Pages


USAF plane explodes


From AP and UPI
WALKERSVILLE, Md. - An Air
Force missile-satellite tracking plane
blew up yesterday over Western
Maryland and plummeted into a rye
field, killing all 21 people aboard, state
police said.
Residents who witnessed the crash
just north of Walkersville described the
$50 million EC-135-A plane as a "ball of
fire" before it struck the ground.
"THERE ARE NO survivors," said
Cpl. Robert Hiltner, a spokesman for
the state police in nearby Frederick.
"That's all I can tell you now."
"It apparently blew up in the air,"
said A.E. Appleby, police com-
munications officer at the Frederick

Airborne acciden
leaves 21 fatalitice
The Pentagon said the aircraft was mission from Wright-Patte
based at Wright Patterson Air Force down.
Base in Dayton, Ohio, where it was There were apparently no
assigned to the 4950 Test Wing. persons on the ground,
MILITARY AND civilian officials residents up to five miles
said radio and radar contact was lost crash scene said small met
with the plane at 10:45 a.m. EDT when fell around their homes.
it was at an altitude of about 28,000 feet. FRANK HARRIS, AN
The Air Force said it had no idea why salesman from nearby Em
the aircraft, on a routine training said he was driving down a
b ~ i &

he heard about three loud "booms"
overhead.
- "It shook the car and I pulled off the
road," he said. "I looked up and saw a
fireball come down in the field."
After he and passersby saw pieces of
bodies with no arms or legs, authorities
converged on the scene and organized a
rson, went search party, Harris said.
"WE GOT TO the main part of the
injuries to wreckage and inside it was a mass of
although human flesh that looked like it was
from the melted together," he said. "It was very
al particles gruesome and it shocked me."
Harris said he found what looked like
insurance a flight log near the smoking fuselage
mettsburg, and turned it over to authorities. He
road when said it contained a list of 21 names, 19 of
them Air Force sergeants.
State police arrived and quickly
began gathering papers and other
documents that spilled from the air-
craft.
LOCAL RADIO stations were asked
to broadcast state police requests that
residents who found documents from
the aircraft turn them in to local
authorities, according to Jane English
of WZYQ-FM in Frederick.
"It was just terrible. If anyone sur-
vived it would be a miracle," said
Helen Green, on whose farm the plane
crashed.
"I heard a roar and then when it
crashed the windows shook," added
Arabelle Boone, who lives across the
road from the site.
AUTHORITIES MADE A shoulder-
to-shoulder sweep of the field where the
wreckage fell, marking the site where
they found bodies or parts of bodies
with stakes.
k Larry West, a spokesman for the
Walkersville Community Ambulance
Service, said 13 bodies had -been
AP Photo recovered, along with pieces of other
bodies.
Newspaper photographers at the
er tape scene reported having their film con-
de was fiscated by authorities.
School.
The University asked TAs to voluntarily fill out the
forms basically to "get more federal funds,"
Feingold said. Sixty thousand dollars in federal work-
study funds were awarded to the University last year
and $175,000 this year, he said. "Hopefully we can get
more next year," he added.
When the University publicly sought the change
over spring break, GEO sent several requests to the
administration and University President Harold
Shapiro for clarification of several points, according
to Kadlecek.
In those requests, GEO expressed its concerns
regarding the confidentiality of the information
requested on work-study applications, the voluntary
nature of the program, and the impact the change
might have on pending litigation between GEO and
the University, Kadlecek said.
No statement from the University was given "one
See CHANGE, Page 13

Ticker-tape heroes
Space shuttle astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen (left to right) are showered by shredded paper and ticke
as they take part in a parade held in their honor in Chicago's financial district yesterday. The ticker tape paras
the seventh that Chicago has held for astronauts after completing a mission.

Change in
TA status
challenged
by GEO

By MARK GINDIN
An attempt by the University to attract more
federal money by changing the status of graduate
teaching assistants-from University employees to
work-study students-has met with several objec-
tions from the Graduate Employees Organization,
the legal bargaining agent for University TAs.
Dave Kadlecek, a member of the GEO steering
committee, said while GEO is not entirely opposed to
the change, since it would bring more money to the
University, his organization does have some reser-
vations. The organization will not recommend that its:
members endorse the proposal, Kadlecek said,
unless the University clarifies several points GEO
feels are unclear.
Many TAs have been asked to fill out applications
for the work-study program under the jurisdiction of
the Office of Financial Aid. If they qualify, part of
their salary could be paid by federal funds, according
to Eugene Feingold, Associate Dean of the Graduate

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