Gainesville Daily Register (Gainesville, Tex.), Vol. 99, No. 98, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 22, 1988 Page: 1 of 12
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THURSDAY, DEC. 22,1988
12 PAGES—25 CENTS
NUMBER 98
Officials suspect sabotage in jet crash
: Atlantic Ocean
North Sea
learned it had crashed en route
Ricciardi.
I
from
Authorities believed there were no
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NEA BASE MAP
75
Murder
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Quake baby
(AP Laserphoto)
state’s public school system and
(Continued on page 11)
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Report says U.S. got
threat against plane
Hobby pushing for
better Texas schools
Families grieve at
loss of crash victims
Thirty-eight Syracuse students were
returning from studies in Europe
probes
continue
CHR15TMAS SHOPPIN6
15 FOR THE BIRDS
Anna Dvsepyan, rescued in Leninakan 10 days her baby at a Yerevan hospital. The baby was
ago from the rubble of a building destroyed in born three days after she was rescued. Nurse at
the Dec. 7 earthquake in Soviet Armenia, holds left is Paura Bagdasaryan.
The path of Pan Am Flight 103 is shown in this map after it took off
from London at 6:25 p.m. local time Wednesday. It crashed about
7:20 p.m. local time in Lockerbie.
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By MAUREEN JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer
LOCKERBIE, Scotland — A Pan Am jumbo jet ap-
parently exploded in the air before crashing and killing
all 259 people aboard, and investigators focused today
on terrorist threats to place a bomb on a Pan Am
airliner.
The wreckage of the Boeing 747 bound for New York
with Christmas travelers scattered bodies and wreck-
age over the countryside and ravaged the village of
Lockerbie. News reports said at least 10 people were
killed on the ground.
The plane smashed into the ground, destroying 40
houses, triggering an explosion at a gas station and
engulfing cars in flames.
The death toll rose to 259 today when it was dis-
covered that another flight attendant had been on
-
3 shopping
days to Christmas
8
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come home and share all of his
great experience with his family
and friends.
“And, you know, there was a big
party planned for tonight at home
with a big sandwich and a cake and
all the presents and now who’s go-
ing to be opening the presents,” ad-
ded Ms. Abell, whose eyes glistened
with emotion.
Some of the; friends and relatives
of the passengers had to be treated
for shock or high blood pressure as
By KAREN TREAT
"Register Staff Writer
As 1989 approaches, the grisly
• murder of a Cooke County woman in
early 1988 is still under inves-
tigation, Sheriff John Aston said
Wednesday.
According to Aston, the March 7
murder of Deana Woodard, 23, is
being investigated by the sheriff’s
department, the Texas Rangers
and the FBI. Jimmy Woodard found
his wife’s body when he returned
home from work that afternoon,
and a bloody hatchet was found
near her fully-clothed body. The
couple’s infant son was in the home
at the time of the murder and was
unharmed.
During the initial investigation,
Aston said there had been no sign of
forcible entry into the couple’s mo-
bile home, located near County
Road 131. He said, however, that it
was apparent there had been some
kind of struggle in the residence.
A combination .22-caliber rifle
and 20-gauge shotgun taken from
the residence linked Woodard's-
(Continued on page 2)
Transport Secretary Paul Channon told the House of
Commons that searchers had recovered both the air-
plane’s flight recorders, the vital electronic devices
which monitor all flight data and conversation by the
pilots.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Prince An-
drew, the Duke of York, visited Lockerbie and talked to
rescuers.
Rifkind, the British Cabinet minister responsible for
Scotland, said the widespread wreckage of the New
York-bound plane indicated “the aircraft clearly expe-
rienced some form of explosion. ”
“It’s clear that the accident happened in the air
because parts of the wreckage are strewn over such a
wide area,” said Rifkind, who toured the crash site
with Price.
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By LAWRENCE NEUMEISTER
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK — A mother eager to
welcome'her child home for the
holidays wailed “my baby, my
baby” upon learning the worst at
Kennedy Airport, where Flight
103’s fate was reduced to a flicker-
ing message oh a gray screen: See
Agent.
Over and over, happy an-
ticipation changed to shock and
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(Continued on page 11)
London to
grief Wednesday night, as relatives. , ..
of those aboard the Pan Am jet they learned of the crash, according
to Red Cross spokeswoman Debra
Scotland^
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By The Associated Press
MOSCOW — The U.S. Embassy
last week warned American diplo-
mats that a bomb threat had been
made against Pan Am flights from
Frankfurt to the United States
sometime in December.
On Wednesday, a New York-
bound Pan Am Boeing 747 crashed
in Scotland with 258 people on
board. Flight 103 had originated in
Frankfurt with a Boeing 727.
The embassy’s warning was con-
tained in a Dec. 13 circular from
William C. Kelly, its administrative
counselor, that was posted on em-
bassy bulletin boards.
It read: “Post (the embassy) has
been notified by the Federal
Aviation Administration that on
Dec. 5, 1988, an unidentified indi-
vidual telephoned a U.S. diplomatic,
facility in Europe and stated that
sometime within the next two weeks
there would be a bombing attempt
against a Pan American aircraft
flying from Frankfurt to the United
States.”
In Washington, a State Depart-
ment spokeswoman at the depart-
ment’s working group on the crash
said there was no immediate com-
ment. An FAA spokeswoman in
Washington, Kathleen Harrington,
also said there would be no immedi-
ate comment.
Frankfurt airport officials,
meanwhile, said today that security
had been stepped up at Pan Am af-
ter tips were received earlier this
month that a bomb might be
smuggled aboard a jet.
The official, Horst Harnstein, told
The Associated Press by telephone
that the tips were about “the trans-
portation of a bomb from Frankfurt
heading in the direction of the
United States.”
ABC News quoted FBI sources
who said the threat apparently
(Continued on page 2)
Gainesville Daily Register
Nowinour 991 Year / | •
Daily Register, all rights reserved THURSDAY, DEC. 22.1988 GAINESVILLE, COOKE COUNTY, TEXAS 76240
* ■ —
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ago. by early today, saying the list still
“It’s so sad,” said Ms. Abell. “He had to be compiled and relatives
just turned 21 and was so excited to notified.
board, said Pamela Hanlon, a Pan Am spokeswoman. Am plane and that it would be carried by a woman, said
The victims included U.S. servicemen, 38 students the government source, who spoke on condition of
from Syracuse University and an Associated Press anonymity. The caller didn’t say whether the woman
executive and five family members. would be a willing accomplice.
Neither Scottish Secretary Malcom Rifkind, the The government source said that threat was the basis
chief British official at the site, nor U.S. Ambassador for posting notices at U.S. embassies.
Charles Price would speculate on the possibility of In Moscow, the U.S. Embassy last week warned
sabotage, but both the International Air Transport American diplomats that a bomb threat had been made
Association and the British Airline Pilots Association against a Pan Am flight flying from Frankfurt, West
said that was the most likely explanation. Germany to the United States sometime in December.
In Washington, a U.S. government source said the The warning left it to the diplomats’discretion whether
U.S. Embassy in Helsinki, Finland, received a tele- to change travel plans.
phone threat about two weeks ago from a person claim- The doomed Pan Am Flight 103 originated in Frank
ing to belong to the Abu Nidal group, a radical furt aboard a different aircraft.
Palestinian faction that has been implicated in ter- in Frankfurt, the airport security chief said officials
rorist attacks. stepped up security at Pan Am after receiving threats
The caller said a bomb would be placed aboard a Pan against the carrier earlier this month.
04′9 de"
By ERIC WILLIAMS state-supported colleges and uni-
Editor versifies.
Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby advocated “We have to do a lot better job
continued efforts to improve Texas’ than we are now doing with public
educational system in a visit to the education in Texas,” Hobby said.
Gainesville Rotary Club Wed- He contended that the major school
nesday. reforms implemented by House Bill
Hobby was introduced to 72, passed in 1984, were valuable,
Rotarians by County Democratic but are just a starting point. The
Party Chairman Bill Sullivant as public should demand an even bet-
the most powerful man in state ter educational system, Hobby said,
government. Sullivant, who first “As you will recall, great con-
met the lieutenant governor while troversy surrounded (HB 72)
serving as a freshman represen- Hobby said. “We made some major
tative in the Texas House in 1973, changes in public policy, putting
remembers him as a man of con- into state law that the ideas and
siderable knowledge of state purposes of schools is education, not
government and someone who to have football teams, 4-H Clubs,
would tell you where he stood and choirs, bands or anything like that,
remain steadfast in the face of ex- That was an earth-shaking decision
treme pressure. He described — that students should pass their
Hobby as “one of the best-liked and courses before they did anything
most-respected politicians in my else.”
lifetime.” Tongue in cheek, Hobby added “It
Sullivant said Hobby is a fiscal included other just earth-shattering
conservative, but also is a man with changes in public policy — that
compassion for the unfortunate and students should have to attend
one of the driving forces behind classes before they could pass their
Texas’ improving educational sys- courses and that teachers ought to
tern. be tested as well as students — ab-
Hobby devoted much of his talk to solutely earthshaking.
the need for better performance “That policy statements like that
and greater accountability in the aroused the opposition that they did
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Northern^
Irelandees
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“It was a horrible surprise,” she
1 survivors among the 258 aboard. said. Some were completely overA
| Many-of these people were come. A eouple just collapsed.
• i eoming home just for the holidays,, Others went intoshock. It s heart-
i for Christmas,” said Carla Abell, breaking. -
I > 'the volunteer disaster nursing At Syracuse University, more
I chairwoman for greater New York, than 25,000 people attending a bas-
who helped counsel about 25 fam- ketball game paused for a minute of
| ilies at an airport lounge. , silence after it was learned that 38
" "Some of the families are going students in the school's European
through the terrible part of, ‘Oh, I study program had been on the jet.
shouldn’t have insisted that they At the campus chapel, weeping
come home,’ or, ‘Oh, why did I ever students gathered in disbelief as
allow them to go over,” Ms. Abell they heard thenews. . . \
said Rabbi Milton Elefant, chaplain of
the Jewish students at Syracuse,
As she spoke, just hours after the arrived at Kennedy and said he
flight was to have landed Wed- spoke with the families of three vic-
nesday, a sobbing woman passed by tims from Syracuse.
Only to find herself facing dozens of “Some are just feeling that the
bright lights and cameras. end has come. One woman had to
“Look, my son is dead. What else talk her heart out. Another couple
do you want? ” she screamed, her felt they would meet their son again
words hanging in silence long after in another life and were strong. A
she had left the spot. third couple was somewhere in the
She was anguished over the loss of middle ’ ’ he recalled
her son, a Syracuse student who Neither Pan Am nor the univer-
celebrated his birthday three days sity had released passenger names
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Williams, Eric. Gainesville Daily Register (Gainesville, Tex.), Vol. 99, No. 98, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 22, 1988, newspaper, December 22, 1988; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1569913/m1/1/?rotate=0: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Cooke County Library.