m NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_
VOL. LVIII No. 78NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, JULY 2, 1956 Per Copy—15#
Donald McDonald
Killed In Plane
Crash Near Bethel
Donald “Mac’1 McD(^nald, for
merly a bush pilot for Alaska
Airlines, and well known here,
was killed Saturday when the
plane he was flying crashed and
burned near Bethel. With him
was' George Pete, who lives in
that area. Bad weather and poor
visibility were reported as the
cause of the tragedy.
Mac had been flying for In
terior Airways on a Dew Line
project.
He is survived by his widow,
Myra, who left last week to be
with her sister who is critically
ill in Seattle.
Mrs. McDonald works for the
Northern Commercial Co. store
in Nome and it was through the
N.C. in Seattle that she was con
tacted Saturday night with the
news of her husband’s death.
The remains were flown to
Kotzebue where burial was to be
made today.
Chief Webb, Teen-Agers
Bound for Home After
Trip to New York
NEW YORK, uf)—'The police
chief of Nome and three Eskimo
teen-agers left for home yester
day after making a plea for funds
to build a youth center in their
home town.
Chief Carl C. Webb said there
are more than 500 young people
in Nome who have “nothing to
do in their spare time aside from
hanging around the streets.”
In an attempt to ward off ju
venile delinquency, Webb is try
ing to raise funds to build a
$50,000 youth center.
Appearing on television here,
he said the townspeople of Nome
will provide the labor if the
building materials are donated.
Webb was accompanied by
John Kimisock, 18, Allan Atta
tayuk, 18, and Jeannie Mogg, 15.
They are returning home by
plane.
JACK WHALEY THREE j
HOURS OVERDUE FROM
GRANITE MOUNTAIN
Jack Whaley of Munz Airways
was reported three hours overdue
at 3:30 this afternoon on a flight
from Granite Mountain.
It was not known if Whaley
had any passengers in the twin
engine Dehaviland Dove plane
which he recently brought to
Nome.
Several search planes, Nome
bush pilots and CAP search flyers
flew out to search for the missing
plane.
Eisenhower Signs
Big Defense Bill
And 20 Others
i
GETTYSBURG, Pa., —Presi
dent Eisenhower, reported feel
ing “stronger and stronger,” to
day signed 21 bills today, includ
ing the $34,656,727,000 defense
bill on which he suffered a defeat
in Congress.
Eisenhower also signed, in an
hour-long work session with aides
who flew here from Washington,
an $863,100,000 public works bill
for the Tennessee Valley Author
ity and other agencies.
News Secretary James Hagerty
told a news conference the Presi
dent’s doctors informed him this
morning Eisenhower is “coming
along fine” in recovery from his
June 9 operation.
In a change of plans, however,
the Army doctor who performed
the operation did not return to
Washington as originally an
nounced but decided to stay at
the farm a few more days.
Hagerty said this decision did
not reflect any change in the
President’s condition. He said the
only reason for it was that the
surgeon interrupted a vacation to
take care of the President and
now wants to get in some golf
and other recreation before re
turning to his duties as com
manding general of Walter Reed
Hospital in Washington.
Giant Fireball Streaks Through
Sky, and Explodes Near Tacoma
TACOMA, 0P>—A giant ball of
fire believed to have been a me
teor sped through the skies of
northern Oregon and western
Washington Friday night, coming
to an explosive end in the area of
Tacoma and Seattle.
An airline pilot, Ted Miholo
vich, reported sighting the object
in front of his plane as he flew
over the Dalles Dam on the Col
umbte River at about 7,000 feet.
This is about 200 miles southeast
of here. ,
Miholovich said the meteor was
of monstrous size and ‘‘was the
closest I have ever been or want
to be to a falling piece of another
planet—or whatever it was.”
From there to here, and as tar
as Bellingham, 90 miles north of
Seattle, residents flooded police
and newspaper* with reports of
having aeen the “light in the sky.”
. . ; r.: ...... .
Numerous reports were received
from startled persons that they
had heard chunks of rock or
something rattling off their roofs.
None was confirmed, however.
Residents of the Tacoma area
said a loud explosion occurred at
the time it passed here about
10:03 p.m. Some said they were
sure it fell to the earth just south
of Tacoma, between here and the
Ft. Lewis military reservation.
In Seattle, however, Joe Tar
rant, who was on duty at the Boe
ing Airfield control tower, said it
appeared to disintegrate within
400 feet of him.
Astronomers said they call the
super-meteor a fireball. It was
described as a very white, very
bright light. Persons north of Se
attle said it was south of them,
supporting the belief it exploded
or burned out in this area.
Planes Collide, 128 Die
Bull Chases Mayor and
Other Dignitaries Up
Trees During Ceremony
LEVICO, Italy, —The mayor,
the councilmen, the priest and
other dignitaries of this northern
Italian village were treed by a
bull yesterday.
They had gathered for a cere
mony handing over a government
built farmhouse to a private
owner.
The red, white and'green Ital
ian flags profusely decorating the
house attracted the bull. Then he
charged the official group, send
ing most of them up the trees. A
few made their escape on a trac
tor.
The siege lasted an hour before
rescuers shot the animal.
Gov. Harriman
Criticizes Ike’s
Reading Habits
By the Associated Press
Three Democratic presidential
hopefuls flung weekend criticism
at President _ Eisenhower—whose
supporters continued to hold
firmly today to the unconfirmed
assumption he will again be the
Republican candidate.
Gov. Averell Harriman of New
York issued the sharpest blast
during a farm-belt tour of Iowa,
Minnesota and North Dakota.
Harriman said in Des Moines
Eisenhower was “a great soldier
but he is not qualified for the
presidency.” He said the Presi
dent understands neither the
farm problem nor critical factors
in the cold war.
Not a Book Reader
“He hasn’t read a book,” Har
riman said, “he doesn’t read the
papers. He doesn’t read anything
except what they put before him.
So, he just doesn't know what’s
going on.
In New York, the Republican
state chairman, L. Judson Mor
house, retorted:
“Any candidate has the right
to make a jackass of himself, but
no candidate ever availed him
self so completely of the dubious
privilege as Mr. Harriman did in';
Iowa.”
Morhouse predicted New Work
would give Eisenhower a million
vote re-election margin, “espe
cially if Mr. Harriman is the
Democratic candidate.”
Book on Eisenhower
Adlai Stevenson, the unsuc
cessful 1952 Democratic nominee
and generally conceded front
runner for this year’s Democratic
nod, joined other Democrats in
rapping the administration for
giving a reporter access to min
utes of top-level Cabinet meet
ings.
The material was furnished to
Robert J. Donovan of the New
York Herald Tribune for his re
cent book, “Eisenhower: the In
side Story.”
Stevenson called it “further
evidence of the administration’s
reliance on advertising and pub
lic relations techniques.”
► By FRANK WETZEL and LAWRENCE MALKIN
GRAND CANYON, Ariz., (/P)—Helicopter crews
flew into the treacherous eastern neck of Arizona’s
Grand Canyon today to remove 128 dead from the
wreckage of two giant airliners which crashed in
commercial aviation’s worst disaster.
There were no survivors.
A Trans Work! Airlines Super
Constellation and a United Air
Lines DC-7 apparenly collided in
flight high above the northern
Arizona wastelands Saturday,
then plunged in flames almost
straight down into the canyon.
The first helicopter left Grand
Canyon Airport shortly after
dawn for the remote section of
the gorge where the seared
wreckage lies on two adjacent
spires of rock.
A team of investigators also
went into the canyon by helicop
ter this morning, seeking to de
termine the cause of the tragedy.
“We are just going in to get
what’s left of the planes,” said
R. P. Marshall of Washington,
heading a team of investigators
from the Civil Aeronautics
Board’s Bureau of Safety Investi
gation.
Representatives of the CAA,
both airlines and the Pilots and
Flight Engineers Assn., were in
the party..
Plans were to begin the opera
tion at he site of the TWA crash,
which is the easiest of the two to
reach. A spokesman said' the
wind and unpredictable air cur
rents would hamper the opera
tion and might limit grim work
to about three hours a day. There
was no estimate of how long it
would take.
Both planes were enroute east
from Los Angeles at the time of
the tragedy. The Constellation
carried 64 passengers and a crew
of six; the DC-7, 53 passengers
and five crew members.
The wreckage was found on
two jagged buttes at the south
eastern tip of the canyon, one of
America’s most beautiful but
rugged and inaccessible areas.
The buttes are a two-day hike
over perilous terrain from the
nearest road. The only way to
reach the masses of metal frag
ments and torn bodies sooner is
by helicopter.
Cbpt. James Womack, a heli
copter pilot who flew to the crash
scene yesterday with two other
men, had this comment on the
plan to remove bodies from the
area:
“There’s not a hell of a lot
down there that anyone’s going
to get out.”
Events leading up to the twin ,
crash were a fantastic series of
coincidences.
The tragic flights began on a
sunny morning in Los Angeles.
The planes took off three min
utes apart, the Super-Constella
tion first, then the DC-7.
At Daggett, Calif., on the Mo
have Desert, the CAA reported,
the TWA pilot asked to change
his altitude from 19,000 to 21,000
feet. Before the CAA could tell
him United was flying at that
altitude, the pilot said he would
change his flight plan to visual
flying 1,000 feet on top of the
cloud level.
The CAA approved and in
formed the TWA pilot that the
United craft was at 21,000 feet.
An official said he did not know
if the DC-7 knew of the slight
change but that notification was
not necessary because the TWA
craft was supposed to be flying
in the clear.
The two liners were next heard
from over the Arizona-California
border about 200 miles east of
Los Angeles.
The Constellation, bound for
Kansas City, checked in at 10:55
a.m. iMST>. To the -fouth, the
DC-7, enroute to New York, re
ported it was over Lake Mohave
on the Colorado River at 10:58.
The next and last message
heard from either plane came
from the DC-7 at 11:32 a.m. It
said: “We are going . . .”
According to flight plans, both
pilots were supposed to check in
over a spot on the Painted Des
ert, some 20 miles west of Grand
Canyon Village, at precisely the
same time, 11:31 a.m.
The head of the search and res
cue mission said that at the time
of the crash the thunderheads
rolled as high as 20,000 feet.
One of the senior search offi
cers, discussing the crash later,
called it a “one-in-a-million—
one-in-a-billion crash.”
Sen. Magnuson Chosen
Favorite Son Candidate
Of Washington State
TACOMA, Ub—Democrats . of
Washington State have chosen
Sen. Warren G. Magnuson as
their “favorite son” presidential
candidate, but a poll indicates
most of the delegates to the na
tional convention will swing to
Adlai Stevenson after the early
balloting.
Magnuson, who will go after
his third term in the U.S. Senate
in November, was named "favor
ite son” at the state Democratic
convention here Saturday.
ARMY AIRBORNE DIVISION
COMING TO ALASKA IN '57
WASHINGTON WV—The Army
said today one combat team from
the 82nd Airborne Division will
be airlifted to Alaska next Jan
uary. The announcement was
made in connection with a list of
seven major field maneuvers
scheduled by the Army in the
next 12 months to test new tacti
cal concepts. One is set for Fort
Lewis, Wash.
The 4th of July edition of
the Nugget will be published
on Tuesday evening and will
contain the full Fourth of July
program