European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 10, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 4 the stars and stripes saturday september 10,1994 it was a nose dive by the jew York times Richard Trenary was visiting his next door neighbor in Hopewell township pa., on thursday night when he heard an Odd sound looked up and saw us air flight 427 plunge toward the ground. His account of the crash is Likely to be among the Many collected by investigators. Safety experts caution however against drawing conclusions about what went Frong based on such accounts noting that witnesses without aviation experience can mistake Normal operations for unusual ones. The expert reconstruction of events leading to a crash normally takes months. Trenary a 61-year-old retired truck Driver lives minutes from Pittsburgh International Airport and was among the closest of the witnesses to the crash. Here is his description of it As seen from the Home of his neighbor Gerald Taylor a my neighbor and i were sitting in his Yard when we heard this noise and it did no to really sound like a Jet. I thought it was a Small plane because the engines were making a popping sound like a muffled backfire Over and Over. It was like a Small puffing backfire like he was trying to restart his engine. There were Little puffs of smoke coming out of the left engine it Wasny to like it was on fire. A we ran out on his porch and it was right there losing Altitude. It went maybe 1,000 Yards past us. It was t a diving crash it was a nose dive straight Down a we were probably 1,000 Yards from it watching he the Pilot started to make a Little turn then immediately it nose dived straight into the ground. It looked like somebody was holding it by the Tail and dropping it straight Downa Richard Trenary crash witness from my neighbors Yard. It sailed right Over the top of our Homes. There was no doubt in my mind it was coming Down. It was a matter of seconds from then until it hit the ground. It looked to me like he was trying to turn the plane like maybe he was going to try to land on route 60. I heard people say he was trying to get toward the Airport. A the started to make a Little turn then immediately it nose dived straight into the ground. It looked like somebody was holding it by the Tail and dropping it straight Down. A it Shook All our Homes violently. No windows shattered though. We had just had an Accident on 60 a few minutes before so police were already in the area. Within five minutes the emergency equipment was on the scene. We re 10 minutes from the Airport by car. A a in be been out All evening and As far As i know there a no survivors. A a it a just devastating when you know that Many people were  Trenary who sounded tired and bewildered when interviewed a couple of hours after the crash said he had lived in the area All his life. He and his wife Margaret live along a quiet wooded part of Green Garden Road which sits about 1,000 feet above the wooded area of the crash site. Their House and a Cluster of others sit close together on a Small Hill in Hopewell township which is next to Aliquippa a town with a. Population of 13,000. Trenary said planes Fly Over Green Garden Road All the time before they land at the Airport. A Aliquippa is Small but Hopewell is smaller a a tre nary said.4 Pittsburgh folks Call it the Countryside. All our neighbors have been calling us All night. We re All really Shook  keeps repeating itself for us air new York a thursdays crash of a us air Jet that killed 132 people was the airlines second fatal Accident since july and fifth since 1989. Dave Shipley a us air spokesman said that the crash near Pittsburgh was an isolated incident and that the crashes had no common thread. A it Wasny to immediately known what caused the plane to go Down As it approached Pittsburgh International Airport. The Boeing 737-300 was heading Rorn Chicago so Hare Airport to Pittsburgh and was to continue to West Palm Beach Fla. The flight was carrying five Crew members and 126 passengers. The Lane has a maximum capacity of 128. Here were no survivors. The plane was delivered to us air in october 1987, said Jerry Johnson a spokesman for Boeing commercial air plane group in Renton  737-300 Type length wingspan engines Range passengers built by introduced Boeing 737-300 109 feet 7 inches 94 feet 9 inches two Turbo fans mounted Forward of wings. About 3,275 Miles 128, plus Crew Boeing commercial air plane group Seattle 1984 a Ltd source Jane s All the world s aircraft aps amps us air based in Arlington va., has lost Money every year since 1989. It lost $393 million in 1993 and $182.8 million for the first half of 1994. 7 Shipley said a Rumor that us air is under investigation for improper maintenance of its Fleet of 737s Wasny to True. The Boeing 737 is the Best Selling commercial Jet in aviation history. A the 737 is a very reliable family of aircraft. We have no reason to believe there is any problem with the aircraft a Shipley said. Not All the recent us air crashes have involved the 737. On july 2, a us air dc-9 crashed near the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina during a thunderstorm. Thirty Seyen of the 57 people on Board were killed. On March 22, 1992, a us air plane crashed while trying to take off in a snowstorm at it la Guardia Airport in new York. Twenty seven people were killed. The plane was a Fokker f-28-4000. The crash was blamed on an icy buildup on the planets wings. Investigators blamed Federal authorities for failing to properly advise flight Crews How to Deal with such ice a judge later ruled that us air a negligence contributed to the crash. On feb. 1,1991, a us air 737 and a commuter plane collided on a los Angeles Airport runway killing 34 people. The crash was blamed on an air traffic controller. On sept. 20, 1989, a us air 737-400 carrying 62 people skidded off a runway at la Guardia Airport and into the East River. Two people were killed. Thursdays crash the deadliest in the United states since 1987 when 156 people were killed when a Northwest airlines plane crashed on Takeoff from Detroit metropolitan Airport is Likely to further hobble the already troubled airline. S scr food dreams Are made of . Army Brig. Gen. James l. Wilson Deputy commander of . Army South at fort Clayton Panama joins other soldiers and cuban refugees for lunch at a Camp near Panama City on thursday. The refugees told Wilson that the meal a Chicken Rice Beans a banana and juice a was a feast Only the wealthy could afford in Cuba. Up to 10,000 cuban refugees from the . Naval base at Guantanamo Bay Cuba will be brought to Panama by month s end. Cairo Egypt apr with a hard bargained Compromise position on abortion finally in the making delegates at in. Population talks Friday moved on to other contentious issues including contraception and teen age sex. A Small committee on thursday laboriously worked out a single paragraph dealing with abortion in the conferences 113-Page draft program of action. Although the document is nonbinding the language on abortion was bitterly fought by the Vatican and a handful of roman Catholic countries. . Officials said the full committee that began considering the abortion text Friday would extend its deliberations to today. The text would go to the whole conference monday. The proposed Compromise uses the world health organization definition of unsafe abortion As a a procedure for terminating an unwanted pregnancy either by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking the minimum medical standards or  it changes a reference to a a legals abortion a objected to by the Vatican a to abortion that a is not against the  it also says that abortion should not be encouraged As a method of family planning that its legality should be left to individual countries and that women with unwanted pregnancies must be treated with compassion not punishment. Countries participating in the conference Are trying to come up with an Overall blueprint to control population growth. Currently the world population 1$ growing by a record 90 million people a year. The draft sets a target of spending $17 billion a year worldwide by 2000 for Basic health care for women and children family planning and aids prevention. On Friday morning delegates debated a chapter on education which Calls for the eradication of illiteracy and demands equal education for girls and boys. The conference will also discuss contraception adolescent sex and a Fertility regulations a a phrase the Vatican views As a code word for abortion. A Small working group began discussions Friday on reproductive rights