Fourth Major Air
Disaster Kills 37 In
Jamaica Landing
KINGSTON, Jamaica, UR — A
Colombian airliner bound from
New York to Colombia buckled
its landing gear and.exploded in
setting down at the Montego Bay
Airport early yesterday, killing
37 of the 46 persons aboard.
Seventeen of the dead were
Americans, among them a son and
daughter-in-law of Senator Ho
mer Capehart (R-Ind). They were
Thomas Capehart and his wife,
Nancy, both 36, of Indianapolis,
on a business trip to Bogota,
Colombia. ,
Two Dutch and two Australian
passengers and five members of
the seven-member Colombian
crew lived through the crash and
the resultant fire that ravaged
the two-million-dollar Super
Constellation for two hours.
The plane, operated by the
Avianca Colombian National Air
line, had made an unscheduled
stop at Miami for repairs to a
faltering engine. It was 10 hours
overdue when it reached Montego
Bay, a popular Caribbean resort
on Jamaica’s north coast 500 miles
south of Miami.
A rainstorm was over Jamaica
but the moon was shining as the
plane headed in for a landing.
Witnesses said the left landing
gear collapsed as the plane hit
the runway and there was a ter
rific explosion, followed by two
other blasts. The plane skidded
into a sheet of swamp water,
“perhaps eight inches deep.” Two
of the four engines were ripped
loose and landed 100 yards from
the fuselage.
It was the fourth fatal crash
of a commercial airliner in 1960
and raised the airliner death toll
for the first three weeks of the
new year to 163. At least 16 others
have died in the United States
in private plane crashes since
January 1.
MRS. BEHR OF DILLINGHAM
DIES IN TACOMA '
, TACOMA, UP)—Mrs. Mary Alice
Behr, 69, of Dillingham, died in
a hospital here Tuesday. Funeral
services will be held at Seattle
Saturday.
Mrs. Behr was born in Belling
ham. She lived here and in Alas
ka most of her life. She was the
widow of Frank W. Behr, a Dil
linghaip contractor.
Surviving are a son, Robert
Wood, Anchorage, and a sister,
Mrs. I. A. Grosscup, Longview,
Wash.
VALDEZ AREA HAVING
BOROUGH PROBLEMS
VALDEZ — Borough problems
are developing in the Valdez area
where overlapping boundaries of
proposed boroughs are carding
concern among the residents in
the areas which are wanted by
more than one borough.
Until the people more thor
oughly understand the cost of
supporting an organized borough
it is believed that an unorganized
borough might be the most prac
tical for the present.
The undersigned will no longer
be responsible for any bills con
tracted by Bill Harris.
— Vera Harris
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Dr. Spears, Listed
Gulf Crash Victim,
Located by FBI
PHOENIX, Ariz., 141 — A grey
haired, heavily insured ex-convict
presiumed dead in a mysterious
airliner crash has turned up alive
here.
Dr. Vernon Spears of Dallas
was the focus of investigation
into bizarre circumstances sur
rounding the November 16 crash
of a commercial airliner into the
Gulf of Mexico.
Spears was seized by two FBI
agents Wednesday as he hurriedly
checked out of a Phoenix resort
motel. He was jailed on a charge
of interstate transportation of a
stolen car, but the FBI was more
interested in his answers to these
questions:
What was the 65-year-old na
turopath up to when he took out
$100,000 in travel insurance? Why
was he listed as a passenger on
the ill-fated flight?
Did he prevail upon William
Allen Taylor of Tampa, Fla., a
former prison acquaintance, to
take his place on the plane? If
so, why and how?
Was there any connection be
tween Spears and Julian Frank,
New York lawyer insured for
$900,000 and named as a possible
suicide bomber on another air
liner which crashed in North Car
olina January 6?
If Spears has given any an
swers, the FBI won’t say. News
men have not been permitted to
talk with. him.
The extent of the FBI’s interest
is indicated by the $35,000 bond
it asked for Spears at his arraign
ment on the theft charge.
Investigation into the two
crashes — both of National Air
lines planes — is continuing by
the Civil Aeronautics Board and
the Senate Aviation Subcommittee
in Washington. So far, their probes
have not established that a bomb
was responsible for either crash.
The crashes claimed 76 lives,
42 in the Gulf and 34 near\Boli
via, N. C.
Speari is accused of driving
Taylor’s car from Dallas to Ari
zona, while he had permission to
drive it only from Tampa to
Dallas.
Testimony at a C.A.B. hearing
showed Taylor. 60, a Tampa tire
salesman, served time with Spears
in il936. The two were said to
have talked in Tampa before the
Gulf of Mexico crash. Only 10
bodies — none of them Taylor’s,
were recovered.
Spears is no stranger to trouble
with the law. He calmly admitted
as much at his arraignment.
The record shows that since
1927, he has been convicted of
mail fraud, forgery, larceny, false
pretenses, violation of immigra
tion laws, false personation and
robbery. He has served several
prison terms.
He was free under a $2,500 bond
on a California indictment for
abortion when he disappeared.
! Arctic Circle Chamber
‘Re-Affirms Confidence’ In
Plowshare Planners
The Arctic Circle Chamber of
Commerce at Kotzebue has sent
the following letter to Dr. H. B.
Keller, Test Group Director Law
rence Radiation Laboratory, at
Livermore, Calif.:
“We were surprised to see a re
cent newspaper report, with a
Juneau dateline, that the Point
Hope Council members are now
protesting te Cape Thompson
blast. This is a change in atti
tude expressed by individual
members of the council to mem
bers of our group when we made
a study of your proposal during
the year just past.
“By unanimous vote of the
members at our meeting in Kot
zebue January 18, after discus
sion of this protest we are re
affirming our confidence in the
responsibility of your represen
tatives in preparing and conclud
ing this project. We believe this
to be a matter of vital interest in
the progress of peacetime atomic
knowledge and developments.
Close association with members
.of the Cape Thompson program
throughout the 1959 season fur
ther confirmed our original posi
tion of endorsement of the pro
ject which was made oply after
we had investigated and ques
tioned the purpose and probable
result.
“By copy of this letter to the
Point Hope Council we request a
copy of the report sent to Juneau
which we assume states their
specific objections, offering to
them our services in investigating
and reporting back on the prob
lems that have been brought to
their attention.”
RESEARCH
ASTRONOMY NOTES
/By OLAF HALVERSON
It has -been thought that since
one side of the planet Venus is
very warm and the dark side
very cold that there are high air
currents that flow rapidly from
the light torrid side to the dark
cold side.
The cold air near the surface
of the dark cold side would flow
with equal rapidity to the torrid
side. This state of affairs may
tend to equalize the intensity of
the two extremes of climate.
Being 30 million miles closer to
the sun than the earth, Venus
may have a higher temperature
than the earth, although the heat
may be somewhat modified by
the clouds which are always in
the sky.
Sometimes a faint, grayish light
has been observed on the dark
side of the planet when it is near
est the earth. This was at one
time thought to .be a reflection
from a cold and frozen hemis
phere, but a more likely sugges
tion hints that it may be an elec
trical manifestation in the plan
et’s atmosphere, similar to our
Aurora.
Numbered Duplicate Stub Tickets
For Sale at The Nugget
Air Force Sergeant Will
Get Discharged to Operate
Alaska Mercury Mine
MERCED, Calif., UR — Staff
Sergeant Thomas L. Howlett, the
28-year-old Castle Air Force Base
B-52 tail gunner who says he has
cinnebar claims in Alaska which
he estimates are worth in excess
of 40 million dollars, has won an
Air Force discharge.
Howlett will be discharged
soon, the Air Force announced.
Howlett initially had hoped he
could remain in the Air Force —
He is a veteran of 11 years and
his latest reenlistment would be
up in 1965 — but demands on
his mercury ore claim forced him
to seek a discharge, he says.
He ahd nis wife, Nova, were
given the claim from Mrs. Cora
Dinsmore, a widow whom the
Howletts befriended. She had re
ceived a map of the cinnebar de
'posit area from her late prospec
tor husband years ago.
____\
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