European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 19, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 28 the stars and stripes wednesday february 19, 1986 experts reportedly advised against launch Cape canaveral Fla. Up a physicist on the challenger disaster panel met with spaceport officials tuesday amid reports that rocket engineers advised against launching the doomed shuttle because of record Low temperatures. Offshore the growing search for challenger s broken remains went into High gear with the expected arrival of a nuclear submarine three weeks to the Day after the shuttle exploded in a deadly Ball of fire. A smaller four Man submersible scoured the Ocean floor monday about 40 Miles East of the launch pad in 1,200 feet of water where it earlier photographed debris the National aeronautics and space administration believes is from the spaceship s right Side solid fuel rocket Booster. A rupture in the right hand rocket at or near a crucial joint Between two fuel segments is suspected of triggering the explosion of challenger s external fuel tank on Jan. 28, 73 seconds after Blastoff challenger was launched in 38-degree f weather after a night of Suberc Ching temperatures. The cold weather May have interfered with the operation of crucial of ring seals in the suspect joint. Nasa documents show a Long history of concern about the seals but they were judged Safe to Fly even though challenger s launching came with temperatures 11 de Grees below the previous shuttle record. Richard Feynman a Nobel prize Winner in physics and a member of the presidential commission studying the disaster Dew to Cape canaveral to investigate reports of absurdly Low temperatures on the suspect Booster rocket according to the Washington Post. Experts believe freezing temperatures the night before launch could have caused the rubber of ring seals in the Booster s fuel casing joints to lose their resiliency which May have prevented them from seating properly. That in turn could have allowed a deadly Jet of flame to spew through the Side of the rocket. The apparent Burn through is clearly visible in tracking camera photo graphs. Other reports say engineers with Morton Thi Okol the builder of the Booster rockets strongly advised against the launch because of the cold weather. The Orlando Sentinel quoting unidentified sources re ported that new tests Are confirming a study performed by Morton Thi Okol last april that the of rings would not be properly resilient at temperatures lower than 40 degrees f. The report said several Morton Thi Okol experts said the april tests were conducted quietly and the results were not disseminated As widely As usual. Photographs of the wreckage taken by the Crew of the Small submersible called the Johnson sea link 2, were flown to rocket engineers at the Marshall space bight Center in Alabama Tor positive identification. The Navy s nr-1 submarine a research vessel Nick named the inner space shuttle was scheduled to arrive at the search scene tuesday to assist with deep water recovery efforts. The seven Man Crew expected to include a solid fuel rocket Engineer could play a key role in locating and identifying debris from the submerged wreckage of the suspect rocket. The Craft is equipped with a robot Arm and sophisticated electronic gear including external television meanwhile in Palm desert calif., a former medical director at Rockwell International says serious drug and alcohol abuse May have led to shoddy workmanship by employees who helped build four space shuttles inc Udin the doomed challenger. Up to 25 percent of the workers at Rockwell s Downey Plant and 15 percent of the workers at its Palmdale facility were impaired by alcohol or drugs while manufacturing or assembling the shuttles or. Howard Frankel said in t copyright interview. T i can go on and on and on with stories of psychotic Haluck inning on the Job of alcoholics so St porous that they could t even stand up straight of people so drugged out from pc heroin cocaine marijuana and yet were allowed to remain on the Job working on the so mild constructing the shuttle because of pressure brought on by the Union and the bowing under of management to this pressure Frankel said. \ a Rockwell spokesman confirming that Frankel Hail served As medical director of the company s space transportation system division called the physician s statements inaccurate and  a Rockwell manufactures the actual shuttle but plays no part in building the Booster rockets. A malfunction in one of the rockets is suspected of causing last month s sex pkg Sion that destroyed the challenger and killed its seven Crew members. Frankel cited cases of workers being brought to hire from Job Sites in alcoholic stupor or drug induced com before his resignation in 1983, which he attributed to Rockwell s refusal to fire the employees. France sends 500-Froop dissuasion force7 of Chad Paris a the French air Force flew troops and planes to Chad on tuesday in a new operation called Sparrow Hawk and libyan backed rebels claimed they controlled a wide stretch of thinly populated desert that France has vowed to defend. The French operation described As a Dis suasion Force was much smaller than the August 1983 intervention when.3,000 soldiers and foreign legionnaires were dispatched to halt a rebel Advance from their Northern stronghold backed by libyan aircraft. Official French sources in the chadian capital of n Ndjamena said the operation would be largely completed by tuesday night. It was ordered after a week of fight ing South of the French designated red line along the 16th parallel and after French and libyan forces traded air raids. The French sources said about 500 sol Diers were being sent to n Ndjamena to de fend operate and maintain 12 Jaguar and Al Mirage jets now based there. The troops were under the command of air Force col. Hector Pis Sochel. The sources added that a 1,500-Man Force of infantry and paratroopers stationed in the neighbouring Central african Republic since the French pulled out of Chad in november 1984, could be flown to Chad swiftly if needed. The French Force withdrew in november 1984 after president Francois Mitterrand and libyan Leader col. Moa mar khad Afy signed an agreement for a Mutual troop withdrawal. French and is. Intelligence sources said the libyan forces never with Drew and that 4,500 remain in the Northern third of Chad. Both France and the government of Chadi an president his Sene Habre which it sup ports claimed rebel assaults last week on towns South of the 16th parallel were repulsed. After the 1984 French withdraw Mitterrand said France would intervene again if the libyan backed rebels crossed the red line 240 Miles North of n Ndjamena. Abderrahman Moussa Paris spokesman for former president Gouk Auni of Eddei s re Bels said tuesday that the rebels still held several towns South of the line stretching across a 400-Miie-wide front from Zuguey in the West to Oum Chaloupa in the East. They also said two government garrisons even far ther South had gone Over to the rebels. There was no Independent confirmation of either the government or rebel claims. The French sources said More supplies Tal s Airstrip had been repaired enough for Large jets to land. A single libyan bomber dropped a 4,400-Pound bomb on the runway Early monday in retaliation for a French air attack on a libyan Airfield being used to sup port the rebels in Northern Chad. The French the libyans the government and the rebels All have said they said they want a negotiated settlement in the 20 year old civil War in the former French col floods from Page 1 ice said winds up to 100 Mph tipped Over Large trucks in Western Nevada. We be got flooding in a lot of the Homes problems with a lot of the roads certain areas of different valleys such As Washoe Valley Are isolated Otis Turner commander of the Washoe county flood control Center in Reno said tuesday. Cer Tain areas such As hidden Valley Are totally isolated because of the water now at this particular time Between 400 and 500 people had been evacuated in Nevada most in the Dayton area Southeast of Reno where water from the Al Dorado Reservoir threatened to Iso late residents and More had been warned to get ready to leave said Don Dehne assist ant director of the state emergency management division. In California s Sierra Nevada where the storms dropped up to 8 feet of Snow. Inter state 80 was expected to remain blocked for up to a week because of a massive Roc slide said Nevada county sheriffs capt. Jack Bayer. Another slide covered Railroad tracks forcing an Amtrak passenger train with about 600 people aboard to backtrack to Reno Amtrak officials  Avalanche monday Cut off about 500 people at june Lake calif., a ski resort near Yosemite National Park Lynn my Courtney of the Mono county sheriffs department reported. Another Avalanche truck the nearby town of twin lakes but no injuries were reported. About 600 people were Given shelter around Sonoma county calif., where flooding isolated the towns of Sebastopol Guerneville and Monterio said Kevin con Nolly of the county s office of emergency services. In Marin county a House Slid Down a Hill and injured four people including a woman who was literally blown out of the House said Dennis Brown of the county s emergency operations Center. In Napa county Northeast of san fran Cisco a spokeswoman for the county red Cross said we have evacuated everybody so far that needs to be evacuated. We have evacuated about 1,000 people. Napa s really isolated. We have slides or torrents on Alt highways in and out. I Don t think anybody can get into Napa right  Twenty four hour rainfall in parts of the coast ranges in Napa and Sonoma coun ties exceeded 8 inches the weather service said. The National guard was called out to help in sandbagging and to join Rescue efforts in Napa county. Another unit was on standby in Tehama county where the Ris ing Sacramento River threatened communities around red Bluff. The Napa River at St. Helena was More than a foot above the 1955 record level of 18.2 feet while the russian River near Guerneville was at 45 feet 13 feet above flood stage and 4.7 inches Short of its 1955 record but still rising Bob Diaz of the weather service at Redwood City said late monday. In Guerneville where hundreds were forced to flee their Homes during the week end officials used helicopters and boats monday to carry blankets food and medi Cal supplies to 350 residents stranded in a shelter surrounded by floodwaters said the assistant Sonoma county administrator Mike Crystal. Sections of . 101, a major North South route were closed by flooding and mudslides in Northern California and Ore gon along with other highways near the coast in Boulder Creek the ground was too unstable to search for a woman who was missing after a mudslide destroyed her Home said Jim Bonar sheriffs lieutenant. Twenty five Homes near the slide were evacuated. About 30,000 people in the san Francis co Bay area were without electricity Mon Day said Pacific Gas and electric co. Spokeswoman Faith Kramer. Lei sync  tuesday Kentfield. Calif., got 18,63 inches of ram Santa Rosa 11755 inches and Pacifica 8.84, the weather serv ice said. Ony. On monday French defense Minnir Paul Quiles said France would Intervale when necessary but did not plan a Ripon pc for  i to Paris the rebel forces said they remained interested in a peaceful solution and were always prepared for negotiations Habre s government called on the unite nations Arab and african organizations to denounce khad Afy s interference in Chad. A communique reported the zone along toe 16th parallel quiet and said the rebels Wen fleeing in disorder. Chad one of the world s poorest com. Tries has suffered from recurrent drough Tsas Well As the armed conflict in which Matt participants have changed sides at Kitt once including Habre and our dded. Conv placating the impasse is Libya s claim of ownership of a Mineral Rich North strip of. Land along its Border with Chad called to e Sozou strip i a temperatures l he 31 Albany 52 70 Atlanta 40 56 Atlantic Cloyis 42 Boilon u 49 Chicago 40 44 cleveland53 m Wallai 45 m denver14 42 Detroit 64 so Honolulu 4 Houston 34 51 Houston " 71 Laid eat i Mph l h51 79 los Angeles u 12 miami20 44 Stone Apoc u m new meant63 n Orlando 55 to phoenix19 45 Annad Hohler 43 53 Pihi Burk 12 41 portland40 56. Sail Lake Oto 54 a san francisco69 m san Juan 46 52 Washington. T t my european weather forecast for wednesday mostly Cloudy sties log Haze and scattered snows Howera. He Lens r lures from the mid is to old Jos. Lows from fee m Leens to Mld-20s. Sunset wednesday i Sun thursday 739. Outlook for thursday continued mostly Cloudy skies with occasional Snow. Ulna Creme temper lures. Temper Alwes recorded tuesday  is Amsterdam m 21 20 Athens m so Taviano r a Benin m 19 25 Bremerhaven s 25 2sbrussels, m 21 m Copenhagen m Frankfurt London m Madrid Munich m Paris prime a a i no Home of r pro Loed by Del a 7th weather so to nor a other worldwide Lemper Elurer he glow Cairo m m Mon real saw is setit rum tem d 52 45 to Nio. R 3lisbon, r is a act Coulst d h j summed la the associated  Cloudy in a. .�., a Lri a Rains Snow