Daily News from New York, New York • 99

jjrr CHINA SEA Evans said the aircraft, at 30,000 feet, had plummeted 8,000 feet before he was able to restart a second engine and land at the Halim airport. Air traffic controllers said they could not warn the jet because a monitoring station had not informed them of the eruption two hours before the Boeing 747 passed over. "We heard a series of long bangs which shook the aircraft considerably," a passenger told the Australian Broadcasting Commission. "The flames out of the engine were considerable at least 12 to 15 feet long, very frightening." In Australia, officialscriticized Indonesian controllers for not warning international aircraft about the volcanic debris, the commission reported. Jakarta authorities said they could neither predict a volcanic eruption nor say how the winds would blow the dust.

Jakarta, Indonesia (UPI) A Singapore Airlines jumbo jet flew into a plume of burning ash shot out by a volcano yesterday and plunged a mile and a half with engines aflame before making a safe emergency landing, officials said. None of the 230 passengers and crew was injured in the landing forced by eruption of the Gallunggung volcano on Java, 110 miles southeast of here. It was the second such incident in three weeks. A British Airways 747 had its engines clogged by a dust cloud from the volcano June 24 and was forced to make an emergency landing at Halim International Airport here. No one was hurt.

THE SINGAPORE JET WAS en route to Melbourne, Australia, when the seven-mile-high plume stalled three of its four engines, according to the pilot, Capt. Nicholas Evans. INDIAN OCtAN OALLUMQOUNQ- Plane went into dive in volcanic townm By LARRY SUTTON mil im mlnOT cikstefh Kyi- Frank Long put a price tag on a small part of New York's history yesterday. The history wasn't too old only 53 years and the price wasn't too expensive, all things considered. But the occasion was a sad one for the thousands of tourists, businessmen and newcomers who had found a temporary home at the Hotel Picadilly at 227 W.

45th St The Picadilly will meet the wreckers' ball on or about Aug. 1. It will make way for the Portman Hotel, a glitzy, $200 million, 50-story structure that city officials hope will renovate the Times Square area. Long, who works for the National Content Liquidators company, plans to sell what's left of the old hotel before it is demolished. "It's like walking into a Sears catalogue," the tall, smooth-talking Long said as he toured the 26-story hotel yesterday.

"We'll be selling beds, air conditioners, linens, office furniture you name it," he said. THE PRICES RANGE from about $20 for a plastic chair to $36,520 for the Georgian Ball Room, four walls of lovely stained pine complete with oil paintings and a built-in balcony. Although the Picadilly never achieved the regal status of, say, the Plaza or the Waldorf-Astoria, it remained a pleasant, modestly priced hotel since it opened in 1929. Portions of It still retain the wood and brass beauty that most new hotels have dropped in favor of plastic and plaster board. The Picadilly sale will be open to the public starting today at 9 a.m.

and will continue until the contents are sold. Children under 13 years old will not be admitted to the sale. As for Long, he said he has no strong feelings about helping a little bit of Manhattan fade from the scene. "We've sold churches, movie theaters and a lot of other hotels," he said. "I've got no regrets." A Ill 1 Ml 1 JACK SMITH DAILY NEWS San Francisco (AP) A new weapon against the bulging waistline "may be locked up inside the brain, according to doctors who have found that lack of a certain brain hormone may cause obesity.

The research suggests that by giving that hormone to humans- a prospect still far in the future-some cases of obesity could be controlled. Two doctors, Ira D. Goldfine and Samuel H. Waxier, of Mount Zion's Harold Brunn Institute in San Francisco, published research results this week in the Journal of Neurochemistry. The research suggested a link between the hormone cholecysto-kinin, or CCK, and obesity in animals.

Some states of human obesity could be because of similar abnormalities of the hormone in the brain, the doctors said. THE RESEARCHERS found that obese mice showed marked differences in the level of the hormone when compared with mice of normal weight. The hormone "plays a major role in digestion," Goldfine said. "It is secreted into the bloodstream after eating, causing the gall bladder and pancreas to work. "As other experiments have shown that administering CCK to both humans and animals suppresses the desire to eat," he added, "it has been suggested that CCK may play a role in the natural regulation of food intake." When the hormone is not secreted into the brain, brain cells compensate for the deficiency by increasing their number of CCK receptors and hunger results, he said.

When the hormone is present, the receptors decrease and hunger subsides. The next step for researchers, Goldfine will be "to determine if obese humans have the same abnormalities of CCK receptors in the brain and then to develop strategies for delivering 'the hormone to them." Mary Nutsch checks out upright piano. Hotel was asking $525 for it. as is home feline fine Tohii CM 3 presented a bill for $275. Overton went to pick up Tobias on June 12, but when she could not pay and Ludwig declined to extend credit, he kept the cat at a friend's veterinary clinic in Houston, 45 miles away.

Overton filed suit in Small Claims Court against Ludwig, demanding he return the cat or pay $450 in damages. She and four friends also picketed his clinic, carrying signs reading and "Ransom Never." Fourteen cabdrivers in Topeka, who read about the controversy sent a $275 check to Ludwig's attorney. Rusty Verkin, hoping to free the But Verkin said after Tuesday's hearing he would send the check back. "We fully intend to seek the matter of litigating the fees and all the other issues attendant to the situation," Ver- Dickinson, Tex. (AP) Tobias the cat purred in the arms of his teenage owner, but an attorney, for the veterinarian accused of holding Tobias, hostage for a month says, the dispute isn't settled.

"I've got my cat back. That's all that matters," said Sharelle Overton, 19, cuddling the orange-and-white feline. "Whatever happens next, that's fine." The 3-year-old cat had been held by Dr. Ron Ludwig since June 12 because of a disagreement over a surgical fee. Justice of the Peace William Fuhr-hop ruled Tuesday "that Tobias the cat be returned to its owner at this time." Last month, Ludwig agreed to remove five feet of fishing line the cat had swallowed.

Overton said the vet agreed to do the operation for about irr 4-3 UPI told judge. He said Ludwig tel) tys story incourt," j.CtJ ($100 Ludwig denied saiq jaiau tie Sharelle Overton: "I've got my carA. rVack, That's attnat matters. 41 i'Ua tti.