European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 14, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 28 stars and stripes Friday March 14, 1986 army can t say How Long grounding will last Washington a the army says it will not predict when it will allow hundreds of its most crucial helicopters grounded because of safety problems to Fly again. The service wednesday pulled its two newest helicopters out of service the uh-60 Blackhawk and the a 64 Apache following incidents involving each of them this week. The grounding affected about 700 Blackhawk and about 70 apaches said army spokesman maj. Phil Soucy. And it was the second time in less than a year that the Blackhawk had been grounded and the second time in a month that the Apache Fleet was ordered out of the air. Both directives Are temporary precautionary Mea sures Soucy said. Usa eur has about 125 Blackhawk assigned but no apaches a command spokesman said. Early thursday morning the air Force decided to Fol Low the army s Lead and grounded its 11 uh-60 night Hawk copters. Safe has no uh-60s assigned in Europe a command spokesman said. An air Force spokesman said the chop pers would remain grounded pending the results of the army  the Blackhawk is a twin engine single Rotor helicopter that is replacing the aging uh-1 Huey copters of the Vietnam Era As the army s primary air assault and air cavalry Craft. First introduced to the army in april 1981, the Blackhawk is described by the army As the most capable most easily maintained troop carrying helicopter in the world. The ah-64 Apache is replacing the cobra helicopter gunship As the army s primary attack helicopter. De signed to defeat enemy tanks the Apache is also a twin engine copter and is loaded with hellfire and Hydra 7 missiles and a 30mm Cannon. The Blackhawk were grounded after a crash of one of the helicopters tuesday at fort Rucker Ala., during a routine training flight. Three soldiers died in the crash two Miles Southwest of Elba Ala. The grounding of the apaches followed an incident tuesday in which an army test Pilot experienced flight control problems after Takeoff. The Pilot set the Craft Down without further problems. Soucy declined to predict How Long the Blackhawk grounding might last saying the air safety directive ordering an end to flights would remain in place until army investigators had time to determine the Likely cause of the fort Rucker Accident. It. Col David Burpee another army spokesman said the Apache grounding would be lifted gradually As each of the choppers was inspected. He said the problem experienced by the test Pilot appeared to be mechanical and involved the flight control Assembly. Burpee said the problem surfaced during a routine test flight of a new Apache at fort Rucker. Wednesday s grounding of the Blackhawk follows a similar order last Spring that remained in effect for two months. That grounding began on april 19, 1985, following two fatal crashes one at fort Bragg n.c., and the other at fort Rucker in which 15 people died. Investigators deter mined one of those crashes on april 18, 1985, at fort Rucker was caused by the failure of a main Rotor Blade spindle. The incident prompted repairs to the entire Fleet. The Blackhawk returned to service last june. The fort Bragg crash which occurred on March 13, 1985, was blamed on a problem Peculiar to that single chopper involving a missing Bolt in the flight control Assembly. The Apache was grounded from Jan. 30 until feb. 20 after cracks were discovered in some Rotor Blades. That order was lifted after investigators determined the cracks had been caused by an improperly designed maintenance tool. Sgt. Charlie Arons a fort Rucker spokesman said it was too Early to Tell if tuesday s crash was similar in any Way to the Blackhawk crash on april 18,1985. That crash was six Miles South of Elba. The Blackhawk is made by the Sikorsky aircraft Divi Sion of the United technologies corp. In Stratford conn., and costs about $4.9 million apiece. The army Hopes to acquire More than 1,100 of them. Apaches Are built by Mcdonnell Douglas helicopters formerly Hughes helicopters and costs roughly $11.5 Mil lion. The army Hopes to acquire 675 apaches. Marty Moore a spokesman for Sikorsky said he could not discuss any details of tuesday s Blackhawk crash or the army s decision to ground the copter. He said the company was participating in the service s crash investigation. Hal Klopper a spokesman for Mcdonnell Douglas helicopters declined comment on the Apache grounding. Remains from Page 1 to the Nasa life science facility at Cape canaveral air Force station. Nasa spokesman Hugh Harris said thursday the Agency and the armed forces Institute of pathology had decided to con duct the examination of the challenger Crew remains at the life science facility be cause it Best met the  some work May be done at the Brevard temperatures March 12 l h l h 22 40 Albany 52 66 Little Rock 37 56 Albuquerque 53 67 los Angeles 26 33 Anchorage 43 72 Louisville 59 77 Atlanta 54 63 Memphis 35 41 Atlantic City 72 78 Miami Beach 34 45 Baltimore 27 39 Minn St. Paul 31 51 Billings 53 75 Nashville 66 82 Birmingham 70 77 new Orleans 38 52 Boise 35 48 new York City 30 43 Boston 40 48 Norfolk 24 39 Buffalo 7 62 Oklahoma City 23 35 Burlington 33 37 Omaha 58 62 Charleston s. C. 64 88 Orlando 38 66 Charleston w. A. 34 50 Philadelphia 32 38 Chicago 31 40 Pittsburgh 39 61 Cincinnati 22 39 Portland Maine 30 37 Cleveland 43 55 Portland Ore. 47 73 Dallas it. Worth 27 47 Providence 33 47 Denver 44 58 Raleigh 34 37 Des Molnes 33 50 Reno 29 35 Detroit 36 57 St. Louis -7 28 Fairbanks 65 84 St. Petersburg 31 40 Fargo 34 48 Salt Lake City 25 46 Hartford 52 63 san Diego 66 86 Honolulu 0 62 san Francisco 60 78 Houston 43 53 Seattle 39 48 Indianapolis 20 41 Syracuse 57 86 Jacksonville 39 67 Tucson 45 48 Kansas City 36 48 Washington 48 63 Las vegas 47 57 Wichita county medical lab the medical examiner had complained that Nasa was violating state Law by taking the remains to the air Force base. A Compromise was reached wednesday after Nasa had agreed to let the medical examiner s staff observe the autopsies. Autopsies could help determine if the astronauts were burned to death poisoned by fumes died from sudden loss of Cabin pres sure were killed by flying debris or Impact with the water or drowned. The cause of death if known could Aid the investigation. Out of deference to the families the National aeronautics and space administration has refused to discuss the recovery of the bodies. The news has come from sources who speak on condition of anonymity. The remains and other Cabin debris were recovered by the preserver s divers from a depth of 100 feet 18 Miles Northeast of the launch pad from which the shuttle lifted off Jan. 28, the sources said. About 14 Miles North of that site the four Man submarine Johnson sea link 2 located a 4-by-5-foot chunk of what s believed to be the wreckage of the right solid rocket Booster said Navy it. Cmdr. Debo Rah Burnette. The piece weighs up to 500 pounds and is believed to contain propellant and part of the external tank attachment ring she said. Still and television photos were taken of the Booster part and brought ashore wednesday night. Recovery of the segment could take several Days because of its 600 foot depth and Strong underwater currents officials said. Soviets willing to extend ban on nuclear testing Moscow a the soviet Union will continue its unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing until the United states con ducts a test of its own Kremlin Leader Mik Hail s. Gorbachev said in a statement re leased thursday. The moratorium imposed in August was due to expire March 31. In a message to the leaders of six nations Gorbachev repeated his willingness to allow in site inspections by . Observers if Washington suspects the soviets have violated their Promise not to conduct nuclear tests. The official soviet news Agency Tass said the test ban Extension and Gorbachev s comments on verification were contained in his reply to a joint message from the leaders of Argentina India Mexico Tanzania Sweden and Greece. In Washington White House spokesman Larry Speakes said the six nations wrote to both Reagan and Gorbachev and we Are looking at this message from these non aligned countries and will study  our position on nuclear testing has not changed Speakes said. Nuclear weapons remain for the foreseeable future an important element of our deterrent  Tass previously reported that Gorba Chev s reply was Given wednesday to Argentine ambassador Federico saturnine Bravo. The full text of the reply was not made Public until thursday. Gorbachev announced the soviet test moratorium aug. 6, 1985, to continue through december and urged Washington to join it. On Jan. 15, he extended the moratorium to March 31. The United states however has said Gorbachev s proposals for verifying any test ban agreement were inadequate. The Tass text of Gorbachev s reply quoted the soviet Leader As saying the soviet Union shall not conduct nuclear explosions after March 31 either until the .a. Carries out its first nuclear  Gorbachev said the soviets believe verification is an important part of any test ban agreement according to Tass. As regards a nuclear test ban verification can be ensured by National technical Means and also with the help of International procedures including on site inspections if need be the text said. Tass quoted Gorbachev As offering to Dis cuss possibilities for observers from both sides to visit Sites where unclear Phenomena occur. To remove possible doubts As to whether such Phenomena Are related to nuclear  he also was quoted As reiterating soviet acceptance of the offer by the six leaders to help Monitor compliance with any test ban agreement including on site inspection. European weather Giotto forecast for Friday Cloudy with fog locally dense in the morning. Isolated dense Clouds in Southern Germany until mid morning. High tempera lures from mid 30s to Low 40s lows from upper 20s to upper 30s. Sunset Friday 6 27 Sunrise saturday 6 41. Outlook for saturday Little change in weather conditions. Temperatures slightly warmer. Temperatures recorded thursday 4am 4pm 4am 4pm Adana f Amsterdam cd Athens cd Aviano r Berlin cd 52 64 Copenhagen Fig 34 34 36 43 Frankfurt cd 38 41 52 55 London cd 36 43 43 48 Madrid p 43 48 38 45 Munich Fig 34 36 Bremerhaven Fig 34 38 Paris p Brussels cd 34 41 Rome p 36 46 50 57 provided by det. 13, 7th weather so Graben Trarbach. Other worldwide temperatures Cairo a Dublin r Helsinki cd Jerusalem cd Lisbon r High Low 75 57 Montreal f 50 43 Moscow cl30 28 Oslo cd 66 48 Toronto r59 43 Vancouver cd High Low 32 18 32 28 34 28 34 32 52 36 supplied by the associated press far cd Cloudy a partly Cloudy a mostly Cloudy a rain Fig fog. From Page 1 surrounded by a cocoon of rapidly moving dust particles. How Long Giotto survives the dust bombardment where particles move at speeds 50 times faster than a Bullet will determine the amount and Quality of Giotto s data. The probe is equipped with a double bumper system designed to vaporize dust and protect the experiments and the exposed array of solar panels supplying the Craft s Power. The soviet Vega 1 space Craft which last week passed within 5,500 Miles of Halley s Core suffered extensive damage to nearly half of its Silicon Crystal solar cells. The solar array is our most sensitive part Bonnet said but we Are still predicting an 80 percent or better Chance that Giotto will survive the  a second concern is that the hammering dust particles could cause the Craft to swing violently changing the direction of Giotto s High gain radio Antenna. A wobble of one degree or More would be enough to sever the Contact Between Giotto and Esa s com plex network of tracking stations spread Over five continents. At that Point the Craft would be simply lost a Mission specialist said. If the Craft does survive Esa would slowly return Giotto to Earth orbit with the plan of later sending the probe on a Mission to Comet Schwassmann Wachmann 3, Bon net said. Giotto s encounter will be the closest of a Man made Craft and the Comet which has fascinated and frightened Earth s inhabit ants since at least 240 b.c., the first time chinese astronomers recorded its visit. The Comet is named for Edmund Halley the 17th-Century British astronomer who predicted its periodic return. The $185 million Mission to Halley s Comet is Esa s first into deep space. The encounter Marks the end of a 400 million mile space ride that began last july when Giotto was launched aboard a French built ariane rocket from the Agency s facility in French Guiana. The National aeronautics and space administration s deep space network is being used As part of the International Effort in tracking the Comet Mission. The space Agency had planned observations of the Comet from a space Telescope carried on Board the space shuttle challenger which exploded after launch on Jan. 28. Nasa representative Burton Edelson on hand for the encounter told reporters that the . Space Agency feels some disappointment that we Don t share in the Glam our and Romance of having our own mis Sion. But the american scientific Community made the decision at the time that there were other projects More import