European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 12, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 8 the stars and stripes saturday. November 12,1988 report sets blame for subway fire London not an official report on the sub Way fire that killed 31 people last year at the King s Cross station on thursday blamed inadequate lire safely precautions for the scale of inc disaster and the two top officials of the system resigned. London underground did not guard against the unpredictability of fire the report said Eric citing management for being fundamentally in error in believing hat fires were inevitable in the oldest and most extensive underground system in the world. The report by Desmond Ocnnell a prominent Law yer said that the tire was caused by a lighted match falling through a Gap beside the wooden treads of a escalator carrying passengers up from the trains. The Blaze Ted on grease and debris under the Escala Tor before exploding in ,1 fireball tip the crowded Stair Way and into the crowded turnstile area. The report said that last nov. 18, the night of the fire the staff at King s Cross did not apply a drop of water or use tire extinguishers. No one knew who was in charge there were no established fire Drill or evacuation procedures and there was no requirement to cull the fire department. I am glad to report that London underground have now agreed to Slop using the word smoldering1 and have agreed that the London fire brigade should be summoned immediately there is any suggestion of fire tic said. The resignation or sir pc ill Bright chairman of London regional transport became known on wednesday night just before the report was issued thursday afternoon. Or. Tony m. Ridley chairman and chief executive of London underground announced thai he was leaving. Bright who look responsibility and tried to resign a year ago said he had stayed on at the request of the minister of transport Paul Channon. To ensure that the lessons of King s Cross have been Well and truly icat i cd and that actions necessary to avoid any recur rence of the tragedy should be vigorously pressed More than 1,000 Puller officers gather in Amsterdam s Bam Square thursday during the City s Rush hour dutch police stage 3-City rally Amsterdam. Netherlands a thousands of dutch policemen took to the streets thursday to pro test a government proposed restructuring of pay scale Sand what they claim amounts to a nationwide Man Power Amsterdam alone an estimated 1,500 members of inc municipal police Force took part in a Rush hour demonstration that caused chaos in the City Center a police spokesman leaders also announced a 12-hour slowdown in Law enforcement meaning that Only the most serious cases will be acted upon according to spokes Man Berry Wolven. Similar involving another 1,000 policemen were reported in Rotterdam the world s larg est port and inc Southern dutch City of Issue is a government report proposing to restructure police pay Scales which police unions claim would entail sinous cuts in overtime pay. The report also recommended a huge reorganization of the Netherlands police Force involving the Transfer of about 2,600 officers from Rural forces to the big cities. " ". " we re fearing that such a reorganization will also Lead to Force reductions Wolven said. The report s recommendations have not yet been adopted by Premier Ruud Lubbers Center right government which came to Power in 1986 on a Strong anti crime platform promising to increase inc size of the police found in Jet s Landing a dwell Palma de Majorca Balearic islands a the Crew of an air Europa charter Jet found human blood and remains inside a Landing gear Well after overcoming Landing gear trouble to safely land at an Airport on this Spanish Mediterranean Island the com Pany Boeing 737 carrying 111 passengers landed without incident at 2 48 a.m., the company said. Upon making a. Ground inspection the flight Crew found the blood and the remains a ring and a piece of Candy in the gear Well which led them to believe writhe existence of a stowaway the Palma based company said. The flight originated in Hannover West Germany and experienced problems with the Landing gear during its approach to son san Joan Airport forcing it into holding pattern for two hours Over the Mediterranean sea coast Onee the right leg of the Landing gear lowered prop erty inc Jet landed without incident the statement said. --.-. The flight Crew informed local authorities of it findings but no body was found in the area despite an intensive search of the area by paramilitary civil guards and police police said.,. The company s statement praised the professional ism of the Crew in overcoming the emergency and called for increased Security at airports to prevent such incidents from occurring. It also suggested greater dissemination of inform lion to the Public to deter people from trying to be come director general Tomas Cano was quoted by the Spanish National news Agency efe Friday assaying inc person who hid himself in inc Jet s Landing gear Well sentenced himself to death due to the inevitably Fata Lack of oxygen in the Well and the extremely Low temperatures which reach so degrees below Zero during flights. Ridley said the report was an emotive document he Mill inc underground was one of the safest forms of the report found no reason Why Casl cutting an cutbacks in subsidies imposed in the authority by prime minister Margaret Thatcher s government should have led to a lowering of safely standards As her critics have often asserted in the year since the ire. Channon who discussed inc report in parliament on thursday said the government was putting new safety management and fire prevention procedures into effect and would spend inc equivalent of $455million on underground safety Over the next three years. Workers have been installing new Metal escalators. Ocnnell recommended a special investigation by the chief inspector of railways and Channon said it would be completed by next March. The report did not make any finding of personal negligence. World today 6 koreans seeking Asylum in ., newspaper says Seoul South Korea at1 six korean from the communist North and pro Western South have sought political Asylum in the uni cd Stales in the past two years a leading South korean newspaper said Friday. The Joo Ngang daily news quoting govern ment sources it did not identify said the Government still is reviewing the cases and non of them has been granted Asylum yet. It said four of inc defectors were from the South and two from the North. The. Sources obtained their information through the Embassy in Seoul the paper said. No Independent confirmation of the report was possible because the embassy was closed to observe veterans Day. Sex czechoslovak Leader leaves country for Italy Vienna. Austria a former czechoslovak communist party Leader Alexander Dubcek left his native land for the Fin Lime in 18 Yea Friday crossing to Austria in route to Italy his Anna Dib cock said her husband left safely Fri Day morning. Dubcek who was ousted As communist part chief in 1969 after Warsaw pact tanks had crushed his Liberal Prague Spring reforms has not been abroad since being recalled from a rive month spell As czechoslovak ambassador to Turkey in june 1970. He was then expelled from the communist party and Given a lowly Job in inc forestry department near Bratislava capita of Slovakia. He is now a pensioner and turns 67 this month Dubcek told the italian news Agency Ansa he tears there May be problems when he tries to return Home from the trip to Bologna Italy. Where he is to receive an honorary degree on failure delays flights at Heathrow London a a Power failure delayed flights for up to two hours Friday at Heathrow Airport Britain s busiest Airport the civil aviation authority said. The electricity breakdown Cut off the air traffic control switching system which distributes flight plans in Heathrow and to other British airports the authority said. Delays also were reported at Manchester air port in Northern England and Scotland s Prest Wick Airport near Glasgow the authority said. Air traffic controllers arc having to Liaise manually which Means reverting to in tax and Telephone which is obviously much Tower spokesman said our engineers arc working on the problem and trying to overcome it he said
