Because of high winds, a ground crew could not be sent in to examine the wreckage stuck in the snow. The search could begin today.
"It is our collective judgment that what we have seen is likely to be A-10 airplane pieces," Maj. Gen. Nels Running said, adding that he is 99.9 percent sure it was Capt. Craig Button's A-10 Thunderbolt.
The plane has been missing since April 2, when Button, 32, took off from a Tucson, Ariz., base on a routine training mission and veered north, heading to Colorado with four bombs aboard.
An Army National Guard helicopter crew spotted the wreckage while hovering within 30 feet of the steep cliff.
A close-up look revealed pieces of gray painted metal that could have been from the plane's interior and several smaller pieces of metal, Running said. Yellow-green paint used as an anti-corrosion coating inside the airplane was also visible, he said.
"We are the superpower. We are the leader. This is a leadership question," Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said, her explanation of why the Senate must ratify the convention that imposes a global ban on the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of chemical weapons.
The treaty, signed by 170 countries and already ratified by 72, takes effect on April 29, regardless of how the Senate votes five days earlier.
Albright said the treaty, initiated by President Reagan and negotiated by President Bush, "has made-in-America written all over it."
Still, the administration has had to struggle to overcome opposition from Foreign Relations Committee Chair Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and the reluctance of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) just to get a ratification vote before the April 29 deadline.
With that accomplished, administration officials are lobbying hard for the two-thirds vote needed to ratify. Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that all 45 Senate Democrats will vote for the treaty, but with Republican opposition the chances of passages are "no better than 50-50 today."
With nearly 1 million noncitizens on notice that they may lose disability checks and food stamps in about 100 days, Republicans are beginning to break ranks with congressional leaders on the issue.
The welfare law passed last August would bar federal disability and food-stamp benefits to immigrants who have not become citizens. Immigrant-rights groups are encouraging lawmakers to alter the cutoff, which was responsible for much of the savings the measure provided.
04-21-97
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