Charter Jet Not De-Iced, Official Says

Doctors in a makeshift morgue began autopsies today in a search for clues to the cause of a U.S. military charter jet crash that killed 256 people, and an airline servicing official said the ill-fated DC-8 was not de-iced before takeoff.

Dozens of bodies, covered with white tarpaulins, were lined up in rows five deep in the temporary morgue, set up inside a hangar at Gander International Airport in eastern Newfoundland.

Two Canadian doctors began autopsies in a search for clues to the cause of Thursday’s crash--the worst single charter plane crash in history and the worst such disaster involving U.S. military personnel.

Christiane Beaulieu, spokeswoman for the Canadian Aviation Safety Board, said about 70% of the bodies of the 248 U.S. servicemen and eight crew members were recovered by this morning. The rest were to be moved to the morgue by mid-afternoon.

Three From California

The jetliner was chartered by the Pentagon from Arrow Air of Miami to ferry U.S. military personnel from the Middle East to Fort Campbell, Ky., home of the elite 101st Airborne Division. It crashed on takeoff after a refueling stop at Gander, about 900 miles northeast of Montreal.

Three servicemen from California were among the passengers on the plane, according to a list supplied by the Pentagon. They were Spec. 4 Mark Carter of Covina, Pvt. Adrian Jackson of Los Angeles and Spec. 4 Terry R. Pevey of Port Heuneme.

The Pentagon today revised its estimate of how many soldiers were killed in the crash, saying 248 rather than 250 soldiers were aboard.

Plane Not De-Iced

Officials today were investigating reports by airport maintenance personnel that the pilot of the DC-8 did not ask work crews to de-ice the aircraft prior to takeoff.

Weather forecasters at Gander said freezing rain mixed with snow began about 75 minutes before the crash, and the drizzle changed to light snow a half hour before the plane took off.

Lloyd Grantner, acting general manager for Allied Aviation Service Co. of Newfoundland Ltd., said the plane was not de-iced.

“We would have been the ones to do it,” he said. “It wasn’t done.”

Airport officials said the pilot must generally request that his plane be sprayed with a solvent to dissolve ice buildup.

Ice and snow on the wings, plus pilot error, was blamed for the Jan. 13, 1982, crash of an Air Florida Boeing 737 in a snowstorm shortly after takeoff from Washington, D.C.’s National Airport. Seventyeight people were killed in that crash.