The Region - News from Sept. 8, 1986

The loss of a NASA research plane on a March Air Force Base runway in July, 1985, has been blamed in a report by the space agency on the blowout during takeoff of two tires--both 12 years old and recapped several times. A National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokesman said the plane was an old four-engine Convair 990. Fire destroyed the so-called flying laboratory Galileo II when fuel gushed from the tank and was ignited. Four crew members and 15 scientists escaped uninjured.