22 NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS _
VOL. LVHI No. 146 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1956 Per Copy— 1-V
62 Feared Dead
In Disappearance
Of Canada Plane
VANCOUVER, Of)—A Trans
Canada Air Lines plane with 62
persons aboard disappeared last
night in a violent windstorm over
the forbidding Chilliwack area of
southwestern British Columbia.
Search leaders feared the worst
commercial aviation disaster in
Canadian history.
Twelve Royal Canadian Air
Force craft and six other planes
took off at daybreak to search the
area extending in all directions
from H6r?, 125 miles east of Van
couver.
Squadron Leader G. L. Shea
han, RCAF searchmaster, said two
radar stations had reported “fix
es" on an aircraft at 7:10 p.m., a
minute after the last message
from the airliner said it had
passed Hope on its return toward
Vancouver with one of its four
engines gone.
The searchmaster said the radar
“fixes" showed the plane could be
anywhere within 30 miles of
Hope. Hope is at the western end
of the Fraser Canyon in an area
carded by canyons and gorges
and with numerous lakes.
A ground party set out from
Chilliwack, 65 miles east of Van
couver.
The worst commercial air dis
aster in Canada occurred on
April 8, 1954, when an RCAF
training plane crashed into, an
airliner in flight over Moose Jaw,
Sasketchewan, killing 37 persons.
HUGE FLEET OF
RUSSIAN SUBS SEEN
AS THREAT TO WEST
LONDON, (if)—The American
commander of Allied naval forces
in the Atlantic said today Russia’s
huge submarine fleet poses “a
very sizeable thr eat to the secur
ity of our lives.”
But Adm. Jerauld S. Wright
also expressed the opinion that, if
necessary, NATO ships and planes
could give the undersea raiders “a
pretty rough time.”
“The Soviets have concentrated
their principal naval effort into
the production of submarines,”
Wright told a news co 'erence.
“They perhaps have more subma
rines than all the other nations of
the world combined.
“I think the latest figure is that
she has something over 400 and is
producing submarines at the rate
of, I think, about 80 per year.
"It is a very sizable threat to
the security of our lives, and the
principal task of the Allied navies
of NATO is to be able to cope
with this threat and keep open
the sea lines between North
America and Europe.”
COLD IS GOOD OMEN
SEOUL, South Korea, [ft—A
cold wave dropped the mercury
to 5 degrees F. today and the Han
River froze solid.
Farmers rejoiced, because the
native superstition has it that
good crops are assured for the
coming year if the Han freezes
over before Dec. 22.
SKETCH OF PROPOSED ARMORY FOR NOME
This is the first publication of
the architect’s preliminary con
ception of the National Guard ar
mories proposed for Nome and
Bethel which serve as the head
quarters sites of the 1st and 2nd
Scout Battalions, respectively, of
the Alaska National Guard.
The armories would provide ad
ministrative, training, supply and
some housing space for the two
special organizations and would
also be available for community
events. The preliminary design
work was done by the Juneau firm
of Foss, Olsen and Sands, Arcni
tects.
The Nome and Bethel armories
are part of an eight-armory con
struction program which the Ter
ritorial Military Department will
present to the 1957 Legislature to
take advantage of the National
Guard Bureau’s armory construe
tion program before it expires in
1958.
Under that program, although
armories are a state or territorial
responsibility, the federal govern
ment will pay 75 percent of the
construction costs for a basic ar
mory. The territory, in turn, is
expected to assume the 25 percent
balance plus the cost of such in
terior and exterior improvements
(Continued on Page Four)
Family of Six
Drowns When Car
Skids off Highway
MOOSE, Wyo., —The wheels
of their auto, protruding from the
icy waters of the Snake River,
marked the grave of a family of
six.
State Patrolman Wood Wor
mald said the victims all were
drowned when their car plunged
off an icy highway, probably Sat
urday night.
The tragedy wasn’t discovered
until noon yesterday when chil
dren playing along the river saw
the wheels of the overturned ve
hicle.
The victims were Albert Oak
ley, 40, of Casper, Wyo.; his wife
Marguerite, 37, and their children,
James, 12, William, 9, Judy, 5,
and Harry, 11 months.
Their bodies were surrounded
by packages and sacks of grocer
ies they had bought while on a
Christmas shopping trip at Jack
son.
Six Student Nurses
Killed When Car Skids
PATTERSON, N. Y„ I*—S i x
young student nurses were killed
last night when thei" car skidded
out of control near here and
smashed into a milk tank truck.
The truck driver escaped in
jury.
The force of the crash, police
said, reduced the nurses’ vehicle
to a mass of tangled wreckage.
Witnesses said the weather was
clear altho it had snowed earlier.
"DE-STALINIZATION" USED
IN SOVIET PRESS
MOSCOW, ifl—The word “de
stalinization” made its first ap
pearance in the Soviet’press today.
Pravda published it in quotes
in a report on a speech by Soviet
Communist leader Ekarterina
Furtseva to a Communist Party
congress in Rome.
The word de-stalinization was
coined by Western reporters to
describe the process of tearing
down the late Joseph Stalin’s
reputation. The Soviet press usu
ally calls this “elimination of the
cult of personality.”
Rigid Controls
Imposed on
Rebels in Hungary
VIENNA, Iff*—Police and troops
imposed rigid new controls on re
bellious Hungary today to enforce
martial law proclaimed by Pre
mier Janos Kadar'^ desperate gov
BULLETIN
BUDAPEST, lift—Workers in
several big Budapest factories
declared tonight they would
defy the Soviet-sponsored gov
ernment and would undertake
a nationwide general strike
tomorrow.
eminent. It seemed apparent the
regime had embarked on a cam
paign to wipe out the last vestiges
of resistance.
The unhappy nation, torn by
revolt, strikes and Communist re
pression for nearly seven weeks,
has been cut off from contact
with the Western world for more
than 24 hours, except for broad
casts by Budapest radio.
(Continued on Page Two'
Plane Lands With One Wing on Top of Moving Car
NORFOLK, Va„ UPI —After it
was over, weekend pilot Manning
Rooks could "hardly believe it
happened.” And no wonder.
Caught aloft in a light plane
with a damaged landing gear,
Rooks had just brought his craft
safely to earth by landing it with
one wing atop a moving auto
mobile.
It wasn’t a lucky accident. It
was planned that way, not by
Rooks but by veteran flier Ed
Hombaker, from whose company
Rooks had rented the plane.
Rooks, who has 160 hours of
flying time, had taken off from
municipal airport for a routine
spin yesterday morning when the
airport control tower radioed that
his right landing gear was “dan
gling useless under the plane.”
The crash crew at the airport
was alerted and Rooks, 150 feet
above, figured things “looked
bad.” He’d never made a crash
landing.
On the ground, Hombaker had
an idea. Climbing into a hard top
sedan with two other men ,he
drove out on the field.
The CAA told Rooks that Hom
baker would try to make the car
act as • wheels for the plane if
Rooks would land with one wing
on top of the auto.
Rooks made several passes at
the runway to gauge speed and
distance. On the fourth pass, he
set the plane’s left wheel on the
runway and the right wing on top
of the car. While Hornbaker
drove, the car’s other two occu
pants held the struts of the plane
so it wouldn’t slip off. Gently,
Hornbaker applied the brakes and
stopped.
“He’s some guy,” said Rooks of
Hornbaker . . . “I’m just glad he
thought of it.”
Egan and Rivers
Get Warm Sendoff
To Washington
FAIRBANKS UP—Alaskans yes
terday gave a warm sendoff to
William Egan and Ralph Rivers
as they departed by auto for
Washington D.C. and an attempt
to seek seats in the U.S. Congress.
Egan and Rivers will be joined
in Seattle by Dr. Ernest Gruening,
who preceded them to Washing
ton and will return to Seattle to
join the party of Alaskans.
In ceremonies held at the Uni
versity of Alaska, Rivers and
Egan were presented with their
credentials as the elected repre
sentatives of the American citi
zens of Alaska.
The three men will go to Wash
ington to demand seats in Con
gress and statehood for Alaska.
In this manner, seven states of
the Union, starting with Tennes
see, won their status. In each case
these seven states had been denied
statehood by Congress but they
won statehood by “taking the bull
by the horns.”
Gifts presented to Rivers and
Egan at the university ceremonies
from residents from all sections
of Alaska will be presented to
President Eisenhowen when they
reach the nation’s capital.
Included in the presents is an
ivory carving of a seal with his
nose pointing skyward, on which
is balanced a golf ball. The carv
ing came from Nome.
Prominent in the cermenoy was
the display of an American flag
carry 49 stars, one each for the
present 48 states and one for Alas
ka, hopeful of being the 49th.
•
Catholic Priest Dies
In Trailer Fire at Sitka
SITKA, —A 40-year-old Catho
lic priest visiting this small town
to say weekend masses died early
yesterday in a fire which broke
out in the house trailer in which
he was sleeping.
He was the Rev. George A.
Zelenak, a member of the Society
of Jesus and former pastor of the
Catholic parish at Sitka.
The blaze apparently started
near the living room section at
the opposite end of the trailer. A
small oil stove had been burning
to heat the trailer against the zero
temperature outside.
Father Zelenak, a native of Ta
coma, apparently was overcome
by smoke and suffocated before
he could escape thru a door in
I the bedroom of the 35-foot trailer.
HOLE IN RUBBER GLOVE
COSTS MAN HIS LIFE
ALTON, 111., UP—A tiny hole in
a rubber glove spelled death for
Frank Bennett, 54.
Bennett drove into a filling sta
tion Saturday and noticed an ice
storm had knocked down an elec
tric wire across the street. He put
on a pair of rubber gloves he kept
in the car and went across to
move the wire. He was electro
cuted.
Later examination of the gloves
revealed a small hole in the right
forefinger.