European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 14, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 2 the stars and stripes saturday september 14, 1985 737 s escape door jammed report says London a an official report on the Boeing 737 fire at Manchester Airport aug. 22 confirmed Friday that an escape exit jammed and that passengers were ordered to stay in their scats in the initial moments of the disaster. The interim report by the Accident investigation Branch of Britain s department of transport said the fire which killed 55 people was caused by an explosion in an engine combustion chamber. The report came As the civil aviation authority or dered further checks on engines of the Type that caused the disaster. The Caa said the Pratt and Whitney engines would have to be checked not Only on the Basil of hours flown but also on the basis of the number of takeoffs and land Ings in which the engines Are stressed More than in flight. The report said that 32 seconds after the British air Tours plane started moving on the runway the Crew heard a loud bang. The Pilot immediately ordered a Stop closed the throttles and put both engines into reverse thrust to slow the aircraft while the Copilot applied the brakes the report said. But an explosive rupture of the outer casing of the combustion chamber on the icel engine threw debris Ohio a fuel Access panel on the Wing punching an eight Inch Hole hat allowed fuel to pour out it said. Passengers some of whom had heard the bang or seen flames through their windows began getting up. But they were told to stay strapped in heir scats because the plane was still moving the report said. The Captain ordered his six member Crew to evacuate the 131 passengers from the right Side of the plane away from the fire. But the Purser told the investigators he could not fully open the right front door because it had jammed against the inflatable emergency slide. As the aircraft filled with choking smoke the Purser decided it was Safe to open the left door allowing Passen Gers to escape while he cleared the jammed right exit. Eighty two people survived by escaping in time. The us. Federal aviation authority has ordered . Airlines to modify Timeir slides to overcome the problem. Ronald Ashford director general of the British civil aviation authority told a news conference it was not known How much time was lost by the door jamming. But he said More people actually got out of this door than out of the other two exits which were  the Accident investigation Branch ordered an in depth study of five areas before issuing its final report. The study is to focus on the engine s failure How the fire started and spread the effectiveness of emergency services the Crew s performance and the design of the aircraft. John Chaplin Caa safety director said the Caa and the Faa Are considering whether the fuel Access panel punctured by the debris needed strengthening. Five Days after the disaster the Caa took the unusual step of ordering All engines in Britain of the Type that caught fire to be stripped Down or a Rayed. This forced several plane to be grounded. The latest directive was an insurance until the engine is Given a clean Bill of health said Caa spokesman Jerry sculls. He said it was not expected to cause any planet to be grounded. Ashford said 22 Pratt and Whitney engines were Talicen out of service for repairs after cracks More than three inches Long were found in combustion Chambers. This we about one Quarter of the engines of this Type in use in Britain he said. Faulty ariane rocket with 2 satellites destroyed after launch in s. America Kourou French Guiana a an ariane rocket from the european space Agency s launch site in South America veered downward toward a populated area minutes after take off forcing technicians to act quickly to destroy it officials said. The ariane-3 rocket was carrying one american and one european communications satellite insured for a total of $145 million officials said. Both satellites were destroyed along with the launcher late thursday. The explosion marked the arise s third failure in 15 launches and we a serious setback for european efforts to Challenge the . Space shuttle As a Means of placing commercial satellites into orbit above Earth. Ariane had been successful in its pre Vious nine launches and had placed 14 satellites in orbit since june 1983. It s obviously a great disappoint ment said Frederic d Wiiest president of aria space the commercial Arm of the 11-nation european space Agency. D Wiiest said a combustion problem had apparently developed in the third stage engine. He said technicians would sift through computer data to determine Why the rocket failed. We have had nine successive successes. The 10th launch was a failure and we Are going to quickly set about deter mining the causes d Wiiest told a news conference. The ruined satellites were the ecs-3, belonging to the european communications satellites series and insured for $65 million and the american spacenet-3, built by Ria for get spa cent and insured for $80 million. European space Agency officials did not provide details of How the rocket had deviated from its prescribed course or How far it had dropped before it was or dered destroyed. French Guiana on the Northeast shoulder of South America is wedged Between Suriname and Brazil. After failures on May 23,1980, during its second launch and sept. 9,1982, Dur ing its fifth trip the ariane was revised dramatically resulting in the More pow Erful ariane-3. By the beginning of 1985, aria space had j900 million Worth of orders for launches. Arian space officials have said they Hope to win on Laird of the Tele communications satellite business by 1995, and Challenge the space shuttle developed in the United states by Nasa. Aria space promotes its rocket s ability to thrust satellites directly into a High orbit without the boosters needed for satellites sent into Low orbit by the space shuttle. President Francois Mitterrand of France who stopped off on his Way to a nuclear test site in French polynesia witnessed the ariane s failure. It will work the next time he shrugged. Of course i m disappointed. But i m mostly disappointed for the technicians and All those who worked on this  Drummond doing red Well with new heart Tucson Ariz. A heart trans Plant patient Michael Drummond s Condi Tion was upgraded from critical to fair thursday and Hospital officials said he we bowing no sign of rejecting his new heart. Drummond who was kept alive temporarily with an artificial heart we moved to a different Section of University medical Center s intensive care unit one reserved for patients in less serious condition Hospi Tal spokeswoman Nina Trasoff said. He s doing real Well and has been walking around and visiting with his family he said. Drummond who is being treated with the anti rejection drug cyclosporine has shown no sign of rejecting his second human heart which we implanted sept. 7 As doctors removed the artificial heart that had kept him alive for 10 Days. Officials have said Drummond was entering the phase during which the first signs of rejection would appear. Drummond a 25-year-old former super Market assistant manager eventually we expected to be transferred to a regular hos Pital room and if he continued to improve he could be released from the Hospital with in three weeks Trasoff said. Drummond the youngest of the six Jar Yik-7 heart patients and the first for whom it was intended As a temporary measure became a heart transplant candidate aug. 27 because of a viral condition that weak ened his heart. He received the Jarvik-7 heart two Days later because his condition had deteriorated and no suitable human Organ we available doctors said. The heart of 19-year-old Tarro k. Grif Fth of Almdale text who died of motorcycle Accident injuries was transplanted sept. 7, nearly two Days after Drummond suffered a series of tiny mild strokes believed to have been caused by blood clots formed by the plastic heart. Doctors believe a speech impairment caused by the strokes is Clearing up Trasoff said. Station master blamed in train wreck Lisbon Portugal a government officials Friday blamed a station master for the head on collision of two passenger trains in Central Portugal that killed at least 49 people wednesday. Up to 64 people were reported still miss ing including 11 foreigners As firemen continued to comb through the twisted and wreckage for Bones in piles of ashes. It has been established that the blame lie on a station master who allowed the train to move on in the opposite direction on the single track social equipment minister Carlos Melancia said. Molancia said investigators have ruled out equipment trouble and cleared the two train engineers of possible error. Both driven were lulled in the crash. But he refused to identify the station master allegedly responsible for giving the Green Light to one of the trains a France bound express and a local passenger train. It will come out eventually he said adding that it is one of the masters of two local stations in Nelu and Alca Fache. The collision of the two diesel powered trains each speeding at 60 Mph occurred Between the two stations in the Mountain Ous Serra de Estrela Region. Firemen supported by construction workers with cranes Friday removed the wreckage from the track and rail traffic was resumed after two Days. The regional Rescue Center said up to 64 people were still unaccounted for on 1.8 of to dead have been identified and officials said Many of the missing were Likely to be among those unidentified. The Railroad officials said they now be Lieve there were about 320 passengers on the express train and about 100 on the local Tram at the time of collision news update aviation fuel tested peking a nearly two months after contaminated chinese air plane fuel forced a pan am Airliner to make an emergency Landing the civil aviation administration has announced improvements in its refuelling system. The official news Agency Xinhua quoted an unidentified aviation administration official As saying All aviation fuel is now tested daily. The report said rusted storage tanks and pipes caused slight pollution of fuel that was loaded onto planes and that foreign carriers complained. It did not identify the earners or mention the july 26 pan am flight from peking. The australian airline Qantas diverted its weekly peking flight to Manila for refuelling after the pollution scare. Pipes in the refuelling tenders have been washed and filters changed Xinhua said and painters will Redcoat the inside of the tanks. Highway holdups drop Miami a increased petrol have virtually eliminated robberies along interstate 95 in Dado county gov. Bob Graham said. Graham said the extra of Lioen will remain in place indefinitely. He said 139 incidents had been reported on 1-95 this year but Only three since aug. 10, when be announced the formation of a task Fane to combat the problem. We believe this was an organized criminal activity of a relatively few people and it s our objective to take those people out of circulation he said. We said we would do some thing about it and we have  Beer misfortune Vienna Austria a tra Ces of a poisonous chemical found during Laboratory tests in an Austri an Beer variety were caused by nut Fortune during production last april and the substance was not deliberately added the health ministry said. The ministry Saih hat 10 Mill Grams per liter of Lom acetic acid were found ii Beer produced by a brewery at pie sting lower Austria. It said longtime consumption of Beer thus tainted can cause damage to Muscles the liver and kidney. But Georg Lindner a senior offi Cial at the ministry in charge of food control said 1,599 Gallons of the brewery s Beer impounded sept 6 were found to be in order