Aircraft Trouble Forces Bentsen to Cancel Stop

Democratic vice presidential nominee Lloyd Bentsen, ending a week marred by airplane trouble for White House candidates, canceled a campaign stop here Friday because his plane was grounded and had Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) step in for him at a rally.

Nunn appeared with Bentsen’s wife, Beryl Ann, Georgia Gov. Joe Frank Harris and other state Democratic leaders on the steps of the state Capitol while Bentsen sat in a grounded airplane in Jackson, Miss.

Randy Lewis, a Bentsen spokesman, said one of the airplane doors would not seal, and Bentsen was forced to skip the rally and a $5,000-a-plate luncheon and later fly on to his next scheduled stop in Arkansas.

Reporters traveling with Republican presidential nominee George Bush have been plagued by aircraft problems. A United Airlines charter jet that was to take the press corps from Houston to San Antonio had to abort a takeoff on Thursday when it appeared an engine was too hot. On Monday, a charter jet operated by Key Air was forced to return to Chicago after takeoff when its flaps stuck. And last Saturday, smoke came into the cabin of the same plane, apparently because a vent slipped out of place.