The Bellingham Herald from Bellingham, Washington • 1

Student escapes hawk heist charges A2 Gulf forces on highest alert ai Herald wwwbellinghamheraldcom SERVING WHATCOM COUNTY 5 0 cents WEDNESDAY NOVEM At least 79 die in fiery crash NEWi You now can find news of Whatcom County every day at wwwbellinghamheraldcom INSIDE that had not yet reached Taipei on Tuesday night Clements said 47 US citi-zens and 55 Taiwanese were among the passengers felt like we bumped into something said Doug Villermin 33 of New Iberia iLa who was standing outside the Chang Gung Memor ial Hospital wrapped in a hospital gown looked like the front end just fell off From there it just started to fall apart I ran to the escape hatch with' the stewardess but we coul get it open Two feet away from me I saw flames Everyone was just panicking I tried to open the escape hat on the top just a slit and saw a lot of smoke The fum es were just footage showed the Boeing 747-400 spewing flames and thick black smoke despite the heavy rain Afterward parts of the blue-and-tan fuselage were badly charred with a gaping hole in the roof of the forward section There were 20 crew members and 159 passengers on board Before bursting into flames the plane apparently swerved off its runway and onto a spare runway that was being repaired said Chou Kuang-tsan of the Aviation Safety Council which investigates Taiwanese air accidents Chou would not speculate why the plane left the runway and what it might have hit but local TV reports showed the wreckage of a construction crane and other battered equipment near the crash site Taiwanese civil aviation official Billy KC Chang said he did not believe the plane plowed into the equipment and caught fire Still Singapore Airlines insisted that some type of object caused the crash Spokesman Rick Clements told reporters in Singapore that the pilot an object on the runway and he tried to take off to avoid the object and he hit the Clements said the airline had not identified the object Chang Yu-hem director general of Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration said that it was safe for the plane to take off despite heavy rains brought by a typhoon TRAGEDY: Singapore jet bound for Los Angeles hit object on runway airline says THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TAIPEI Taiwan A Singapore Airlines jumbo jet speeding down a runway in darkness and rain slammed into an object before takeoff for Los Angeles and burst into flames Tuesday scattering fiery wreckage across the tarmac witnesses said Seventy-nine people were killed and dozens more were irjured a Taiwanese official said It immediately clear what Flight SQ006 hit but the collision wreaked havoc on the plane Video AP PHOTO CHARRED WRECKAGE: Firefighters search the wreckage of a Singapore Airlines jetliner sitting on the ground after it crashed Tuesday night while taking off in a storm at airport The plane bound for Los Angeles with 179 people on board hit an object on the runway the airline said Gorton hopefuls US House faces tough fight Mountain films offer adventure Pre-season movie tour is aimed at skiers and snowboarders Lifestyle Cl Piniella agree to deal Manager will stay in Seattle for at least three more Comic Allen dies at age 78 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LOS ANGELES Steve Allen the bespectacled pioneer of late-night television and a comedian-actor-author who wrote years Sports B1 Politics kills budget deal Clinton charges playing role in blown agreement Nation and World A10 more than 4000 songs including May Be the Start of Something has died apparently of a heart attack He was 78 He died Monday night at the Encino home of his son Bill Allen relatives said Tuesday His wife of 46 years Jayne Meadows rushed from their nearby home said he was a little tired after Bill Allen said went to relax peacefully and never See ALLEN Page A2 Col 1 JAY DROWNS HERALD PHOTO THIRD-GENERATION FARMER: Republican state Rep John Koster a candidate to represent the 2nd Congressional District in the US House of Representatives speaks during a recent candidates forum Behind him are rivals Libertarian Stuart Andrews (left) and Natural Law Party candidate Glen Johnson Democrat Rick Larsen also is vying for the seat Koster averse to compromise Students tell stories with flair Instructor spent two-week residency teaching kids traditional art Neighborhoods A6 Times leads P-l in circulation Seattle circulation drops 8 percent goes up Business B8 POLITICS: Lawmaker is among most conservative BY AUBREY COHEN THE BELLINGHAM HERALD State House co-Speaker Clyde Ballard criticize fellow Republican Rep John Koster for voting againsf compromise budg Congressional District race that also features Democrat Rick Larsen a Snohomish County Council member Libertarian Stuart Andrews a Bellingham doctor and Natural Law Party candidate Glen Johnson a Mount Vernon farmer Koster is one of the most uncompromising and conservative members of the Legislature During his five ets worked out by party leaders over the years be very honest with you if I had my way there are very few of the budgets that I would have voted said Ballard of East Wenatchee obligation is I have to get budgets Koster is the Republican nominee to succeed US Rep Jack Metcalf in a 2nd years in the state House he has voted against every general fund budget but one Only one other Republican rejected a compromise budget that the House passed 86-12 earlier this year In 1999 Koster was one of just two members to vote against a $23 million construction budget that included money for schools See KOSTER Page A7 Col 1 POLITICS: Democratic challenger Cantwell trails only slightly in polls BY MIKE MADDEN THE BELLINGHAM HERALD SEATTLE Once again Slade Gorton is locked in a bruising battle for his political career just before Election Day The senior Republican senator from Washington state has never won re-election easily he lost his seat in 1986 but regained it two years later in a special election Now polls show that Democratic challenger Maria Cantwell a former House member turned dot-com millionaire who is financing her own campaign trails Gorton by only a few points Both sides are planning massive get-out-the-vote efforts they say can put them over the top Cantwell 42 says she stands for campaign finance reform and investment in education and health care paired with fiscal responsibility Gorton 72 boasts of his record bringing home projects for the state using the slogan Gorton Works for in his literature and says ideas are too leftist for the mainstream He proudly calls himself senator from and promises to keep fighting a Justice Department lawsuit against the firm During the past week or so the race has turned nastier with third-party groups such as the League of Conservation Voters airing harsh TV ads accusing Gorton of voting against clean water for kids and groups such as the US Chamber of Commerce charging Cantwell with backing attempts to cut pay for soldiers and benefits for the elderly The candidates themselves also are running slightly tamer negative ads But in the final week the issues from the environment to Social Security from Medicare to education seem somehow secondary Observers say the election basically hinges on two questions: Is Gorton still the right fit for Washington state after more than 40 years in politics? And how would Cantwell perform if she replaces him? case could be made that the public is not undecided about Slade said Stuart Elway an independent pollster in Seattle who released a recent sur-See SENATE Page A2 Col 1 Astronauts blast off on historic journey THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BAIKONUR Kazakstan American astronaut Bill Shepherd and two Russian cosmonauts rocketed into orbit Tuesday on a quest to become the first residents of the international space station and begin fulfilling the once-fantastic dream of permanent occupancy in space go do Shepherd the space inaugural commander shouted before climbing into the Soyuz rocket and blasting off from the same pad where the Space Age began in 1957 with Sputnik history again repeating itself in a different said Joe Rothenberg head of the US National Aeronautics and Space human space-flight program be the same The $60 billion-plus station a joint project among the United States Russia Canada Japan and 10 member countries of the European Space Agency has been called the largest technological enterprise ever undertaken on a global scale wall be a laboratory like every professor wishes he had here on Earth and open 24 hours a said Joerg Feustel-Buechl director of manned space flight for the European Space Agency district POLITICS: Critics label Democrat as an inexperienced big spender BY AUBREY COHEN THE BELLINGHAM HERALD Democratic congressional candidate Rick Larsen has made a mantra of saying a fiscal conservative who represents the values and priorities of 2nd Congressional District Yet people who think voters choose Larsen to replace outgoing US Rep Jack Metcalf R-Langley try to paint the Snohomish County Council member as a tax-and-spend liberal who lacks DAVID WILLOUGHBY PHOTO FULL PLATE: Democratic congressional candidate Rick Larsen gets some breakfast Saturday from supporter Sylvia Jensen Jensen joined Larsen and other supporters at the Local No 276 1700 State St to prepare for campaigning across the county that day A Gannett Newspaper ki who Larsen beat to win his County Council seat three years ago In that race Kraski said Larsen did not have enough experience for the County Council He has the same view of qualifications for Congress See LARSEN Page A7 Col 1 enough experience ever a guy who votes yes yes yes yes yes on taxes said Arlington Mayor Bob Kras- 0 05 0 1 4 0901 NHHMHHBaMMKgl.