Feds Check Whether File Led to Crash

r '’'’’’- •‘T ^ «V ■af' i-t -t j - '■•'.r Back to school; Manchester bus routes / page 4 Eliminated: Moriarty’s out of 4tt^ District; Campaign draws to a close / page 7 Twi playoffs / page 11 llIaudlFBtrr) ManchRsler A Cily o( VillatjR Charm HrralJt 30 Cents Feds check Second leak whether file at ice house led to crash not too bad By Bruce AAatzkIn Herald Reporter By Geoffrey Haynes Angeles. It crashed in clear Sunday’s early-morning ammonia leak at Manches The Assoclafed Press weather at 8:46 p.m., moments ter Ice Fuel Inc. at 51 Bissell St., the second leak in after taking off from Detroit k three months, was not as serious as the one that took ROMULUS, Mich. — Investiga Metropolitan Airport. tors were checking reports today Aboard the plane were 147 place on Memorial Day Weekend, officials say. that a Jetliner was on fire before it passengers, including two infants Deputy Fire Chief Robert Bycholski said that the gas plunged into the ground and being held on laps, and six crew was not a danger to residents, but only to the “ crumbled like a piece of paper" as members, said Bob Gibbons, a firefighters who went inside the ice factory. it smashed through freeway Northwest spokesman in Minnea About a dozen homes were evacuated. Firefighters bridges, killing IM people in the polis. At least 152 people died on the knocked on doors of homes on Bissell Street between nation’s second-worst crash. plane and two more died on the Foster Street and the Elks Lodge and homes on There were conflicting reports on ground, and at least six people on Johnson Terrace. whether a 4-year-old girl hospital the ground were injured, authori Bycholski said the evacuation was simply a ized Sunday night after the crash of ties said. precaution. Northwest Airlines Flight 25S,might It was the first major commer “ We told people It was a nuisance-type problem. If have been a passenger. The girl cial plane crash in the United States we knocked on a door and there was no answer, we Just was found in the wreckage unM r in almost a year, and the first went to the next door,” he said. the body of a woman, which had involving a domestic carrier in According to Bycholski, the fire department got a apparently cushioned her. almost two years. call at 1:52 a.m. from a neighbor who smelled The McDonnell Douglas MD-80, Authorities said there was some ammonia, and when firefighters arrived one minute an updated version of the DC-9, had looting at the site shortly after the arrived from Saginaw and was en later, they could see a haze in the building and hear a plane crashed, with some people leak. A company representative was called to open the route to Phoenix and suburban Los carrying away debris. Six people building, and an official from the Department of were arrested. Environmental Protection was summoned, Bycholski The area was cordoned off today said. and National Transportation Safety Board investigators were on the Because the gas didn’t pose a threat to residents, scene. Interstate 94. the main firefighters did not insist that people leave their homes. artery between Detroit and Chi “ We didn’t make people in their yards leave the cago, was still closed late this neighborhood,” Bycholski said. The American Red morning because of the debris. Cross opened the Nathan Hale School on Spruce Street. Michael Moore, 14, who was When the company representative arrived at 2:27 standing near an Avis car rental a.m., he and firefighters entered the building in building off the end of the airport’s protective suits and located the leak, Bycholski said. runway, said today he saw an He said the leak was caused by equipment failure in a "orange glow, like on fire behind high-pressure line that maintains low temperatures in the building. And the glare is what a cooler. made me look.” Bycholski said the gas was turned off at 3; 20 a.m. by Moore told ABC's "Good Morning Kenneth Boland, one of the company’s owners. The America” that the orange glow was building was then ventilated for more than an hour by "around the engines, in the back, blowing the gas to the rear of Ihe building with fans, and covering the engines.” sucking it through a 30-foot chute to the outside, where F B I agents were sent to the scene it was diluted by water spray. based on a report that there might Bycholski said that the Memorial Day Weekend leak have been an explosion before the H«rald photo by Tuckor crash, said John Anthony, an F B I was much larger than Sunday’s. About 60 people were spokesman in Detroit. The agents Fruits of their labor evacuated during the first leak. The tank in the would check for any sign of a bomb, basement that caused that larger leak is no longer in but there was “ no indication” there Bill Hansen, left, and Cyrus L. Cajar harvest their bountiful crop at the use, Bycholski said. In an interview this morning, Edward Boland, one of was a bomb on the plane, he said. Manchester Senior Citizens’ Center on East Middle Turnpike. This is In January, the F B I said it was the owners of Manchester Ice & Fuel, said that investigating alleged tampering the first time the men have had a garden at the center. Sunday’s leak had nothing to do with the one on with Northwest planes at the Memorial Day Weekend. He said the leaks are caused Minneapolis airport. Last month, by the old equipment used by the company. the Detroit Free Press said the “ The equipment in here is 60 years old, and it’s going airline had brought in security W KHT moving to Hartford piece by piece,” said Boland. “ We’re replacing it as guards to combat minor acts of much as we can and as often as we can. We’re almost vandalism on ground equipment. finished replacing it.” Gibbons said F B I investigation of Boland said that the machine responsible for a possible bomb is routine. “ I though its heart stays here Sunday’s leak is shut down, and will be repaired over wouldn’t Jump to any conclusions the next few days. about the FB I involvement.” By Andrew Yurkovsky Neighbors have asked that the company install some He said there’s no evidence of broadcast a nationally syndicated country Herald Reporter music and news program transmitted by kind of alarm to warn them In case of another leak. possible sabotage in the crash, and Boland said to his knowledge, there is no type of alarm would not comment on Northwest’s satellite from Nashville, Tenn. W K H T-A M radio plans to move Its offices on the market. recent union problems in Detroit. Because of cutbacks by the former owner. from East Center Street to Hartford next “ We’re as concerned as the neighbors are about Eyewitnesses to Sunday night’s Broadcast Management of Stamford, W K H T Monday, but the station’s heart will remain crash said the Jet rocked from side had signed off at midnight for the past year these things,” he said. “ We’re on the same side of the in Manchester. ' and a half, Borden said. to side and plunged to the ground fence as they are, trying to rectify a problem.” The relocation is part of an effort to merge trailing fire before skidding be Borden said the move to Hartford will not 'An investigation into Sunday’s leak by the the fire the operations of the country music station neath an Interstate 94 overpass and mean any changes in format or personnel at marshal showed no fire-code violations on the part of breaking into dozens of burning and a Spanish-language station, W LV H -FM . WKHT. If anything, it will bring about an Manchester Ice k Fuel, said Bycholski. already headquartered in the capital city. pieces on Middlebelt Road, border improvement in service because more “ It has not been a chronic problem,” Bycholski said. Despite the move, the station will continue ing the airport, witnesses said. money can be devoted to programming “ I think that the two leaks in three months is Just a to broadcast from its transmitter in " It looks like a large bomb fell on rather than to station upkeep, he said. coincidence, like if you replace a part In your car and Manchester, Ken Borden, W K H T ’s program “ We’ll be able to do more for Manchester Middlebelt Road,” said Wayne another part goes tomorrow.” director, said today. County Executive Ed McNamara. because we have more money and a more “ We’re not going to forget Manchester efficient operation,” he said. “When it hit the ground it Just exists. The only reason we’re moving is not to crumbled like a piece of paper,” W K H T ’s relocation is made possible by a leave Manchester, but to consolidate for Joel Taylor, a motorist, told Cable recent F C C ruling which permits stations to ces,” Borden said. News Network. operate in one community while serving W K H T was bought earlier this year by another. Previously, a station’s headquar The plane, he said, exploded as Neighbors cite W LV H ’s owner. Sage Broadcasting Corp. of soon as it hit the ground. ters had to be in the city in which it was Stamford.

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