OTHER NEWS - Sept. 24, 1991

AT&T; Chairman Apologizes for Breakdown: Robert E. Allen, chairman of American Telephone & Telegraph Co., apologized for the glitch that disrupted phone service and closed New York’s airports last week. “As I said publicly in an ad this morning, I am very sorry--all AT&T; people are very sorry--it happened,” Allen said at a news conference called to mark AT&T;’s $7.4-billion acquisition of NCR Corp. AT&T;’s problems started Sept. 17 when power failed at one of the company’s buildings in Manhattan. The snafu, caused by human error, cut air controller links in New York, snarling air traffic across the nation. He added that the company had considered giving refunds to customers affected by the service failure but would instead devote its resources to ensuring that there will be no further service disruptions.