News Briefs
May 29, 1996
Web posted at: 1 a.m. EDTFirst African-American to head Blue Angels steps down
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The first African-American to head the Navy's Blue Angels precision flying team stepped down Tuesday, saying his flying was not up to the team's high standards, according to a statement from the Navy.
Cmdr. Donnie Cochran, who became commanding officer of the U.S. Navy's flight demonstration squadron in 1994, cited personal training problems as his reason for leaving the team, the Navy said.
Cochran flew with the Blue Angels at Friday's graduation services for midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. The next three scheduled performances of the Blue Angels will have to be canceled because of Cochran's departure.
Big bucks settlement in KAL shootdown case
LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- A $10 million settlement was reached Tuesday in Los Angeles between Korean Air Lines and family members of a victim of a KAL jet that was shot down by the Soviet Union in 1983.
According to Melvin Belli, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers, the six Koreans will receive their money from Lloyd's of London.
Six other plaintiffs still have a lawsuit pending against KAL. That case is expected to go forward in a few weeks.
ValuJet dredging operation delayed
MIAMI (CNN) -- Heavy rains Tuesday in the Florida Everglades delayed the dredging of the ValuJet Flight 592 crash site.
Metro-Dade Police officials said the operation would probably be delayed until Thursday because salvage crews are having trouble moving heavy equipment through the marshy Everglades to the so-called crater where the DC-9 went down May 11.
An official for the salvage company says the equipment necessary to pull the wreckage out of the marsh may be in place by Tuesday evening, including a 49-ton backhoe that is moving across the muck on leap-frogging barges.
Meanwhile, NTSB experts were studying tapes from the plane's cockpit voice recorder in Washington to learn more about what caused the DC-9 to go down.
Teen disappears in Yosemite National Park
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, California (CNN) -- Rescuers were to resume their search Tuesday for a Fresno, California, teenager missing in Yosemite National Park.
Fourteen-year-old Ashley Wiggins was last seen on Sunday near the Ostrander Lake area in the south part of the park. She has red hair, is 5-foot-10 and weighs 190 pounds.
She was on a backpacking trip with her mother, sister and cousin and became lost in a heavily wooded area while walking ahead of the group, authorities said. Park rangers are asking anyone who may have seen Wiggins to call 209-375-9520.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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