Hall says warning system might have prevented crash

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COUNTY BENEFITS
Hamilton County plans to
create a separate health
care benefits program for
newly hired employees. If
approved, there would be
some differences between
what new hires pay for
health care versus what
existing employees pay:
Individual coverage
monthly fee
■ New hires: $12
■ Existing: $4
Family coverage
monthly fee
■ New: $46
■ Existing: $10
College libraries
try to cater to needs
of students, faculty
By Beverly A. Carroll
Staff Writer
Source: Hamilton County human
resources department
County eyes
slight hike
in health
premiums
EDITOR’S NOTE: To
hear a recording of Thursday’s
Hamilton County Commission
sessions, go to www.tfponline
.com.
By Ian Berry
Staff Writer
Hamilton County’s employee health costs will increase
by almost 10 percent next year,
and new county employees
would have a “less rich” plan
requiring more out-of-pocket
expenses under a proposal
county commissioners will
vote on next week.
The county plans to renew
its agreement with BlueCross
BlueShield of Tennessee with
a 9.9 percent increase, said
Rebecca Hunter, the county’s
director of human resources.
That increase is less than the
company’s initially proposed
13.14 increase and less than the
average increase of about 12
percent across the industry,
she said.
John Anderson, an attorney
with Grant, Konvalinka and
Harrison representing Cigna,
said that the increase will cost
As college libraries rush to
offer wireless Internet access
and online journals and databases, some educators are worried about too much reliance on
technology.
“Some libraries are going
overboard, getting rid of books,”
said Neal Coulter, a retired University of Tennessee at Chattanooga librarian. “Depending
on electronics (replacing books
with online access), in the long
run is dangerous.”
Libraries are not turning
away from books, but they are
evolving to meet the changing
needs of students and faculty,
said Dr. Pamela Snelson, president of the Association for College and Research Libraries.
“The way you get information
today is different from the way
you did 10 years ago,” Dr. Snelson said. “Libraries cater to the
needs of students and faculty and
should keep up, or hopefully be
one step ahead, as those needs
change.”
Area college libraries are phasing out some books and embracing the World Wide Web, creating
an “information commons” with
Staff Photo by D. Patrick Harding
computers, Internet access, comfy
Students
at
the
University
of
Tennessee
at
Chattanooga
sit
at
computers
in the library as they
chairs and even coffee shops.
See LIBRARIES, Page A9
prepare to start this semester. College students coming into school now are more likely to use
computers for research and study as opposed to opening a book.
Research then
Research now
■ Ask reference librarian advice
■ Go to card catalog in filing cabinets filled with
■
■
■
■
Ask reference librarian for advice
Log onto computer
Locate article
Copy and paste, e-mail, save to disk or print out
information
thousands of index cards
■ Locate book on shelves
■ Check out if available or make photo copies of
information
Source: University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Lupton Library
See COUNTY, Page A8
Lawmakers to return
with eyes on election
By Edward Lee Pitts
Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — With
Congress set to return Tuesday
after a monthlong recess, area
legislators agree that Capitol
Hill activity in September will
be key in shaping voters’ decisions come November.
However, with only 14 days
scheduled on the legislative
calendar for the month, some
lawmakers said they are worried
time might not be on their side.
U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, RSee CONGRESS, Page A8
The Associated Press
LEXINGTON, Ky. — A cockpit
warning system used by only a few
commercial airlines might have prevented the deadly Comair jet crash
last weekend if the plane had been
equipped with the $18,000 piece of
technology, a former top federal safe-
Cox News Service
WASHINGTON — Government scientists revealed
Thursday that they had successfully used genetic engineering to “train” the white
blood cells of two melanoma
patients to attack and destroy
the cancer.
The experiment failed
to help 15 other melanoma
patients.
However, it represents a
“proof of principle” that gene
therapy can be used to successfully treat cancer, other
scientists said.
Plans are under way to
expand the experiment with
efforts to treat breast and lung
cancer, said Dr. Steven Rosenberg, the National Cancer Institute researcher who directed
the melanoma experiment.
By inserting a gene that
enabled the white cells to
recognize melanoma, the NCI
scientists caused the cells,
known as lymphocytes, to
swarm through the bodies of
two men, finding cancer cells
and destroying them.
The two patients have been
cancer-free for nearly two
years, even though the cancer
had metastasized throughout
their bodies when the treatments were begun.
The experiment represents
a personal victory for Rosenberg, a surgeon and biophysi-
Staff Writer
The Associated Press
Glenn Orr from Ohio braves the wind and rain as he walks
down a pier in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Thursday as Tropical
Storm Ernesto approaches. Meanwhile, Hurricane John battered Mexico’s Pacific coast. A story is on Page C6.
ty official says.
“To have 49 people burned up in a
crash that is totally preventable is one
of the worst things I have ever seen,
and I’ve seen almost everything in
aviation,” Jim Hall, former chairman
of the National Transportation Safety
Board, told The Associated Press in
a telephone interview from his home
in Signal Mountain.
In Sunday’s accident, a commuter
jet at Lexington’s airport struggled
to get airborne and crashed after it
made a wrong turn and took off from
a runway that was too short. The sole
survivor, the plane’s first officer, was
See CRASH, Page A9
“LEANING ON THE EVERLASTING ARMS”
A favorite American hymn got its start in
Ringgold, Ga. Read about it Saturday in the
Life section.
Allegiant Air’s plan for
nonstop flights between Chattanooga and Orlando starting
Oct. 31 should attract some leisure travelers who now drive to
Atlanta to fly, officials said.
Also, Chattanooga officials
hope the new service on the
150-seat jets, the largest aircraft
flying out of the city, will reach
into the North Georgia suburbs
of Atlanta and woo traffic.
“We’re looking forward to
introducing the north part of
Atlanta to the airport,” Mayor
Ron Littlefield said Thursday.
The low-cost airline that
focuses on flying to Orlando
and Las Vegas will make one
round trip a day on Sunday,
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
The airline will fly between
Chattanooga Metropolitan
Airport and Orlando Sanford
International Airport, which
is on the northeast side of the
Florida city. Orlando International Airport, the larger of
INDEX
LOOKING AHEAD
© 2006, Chattanooga Publishing Inc.
By Jeff Nesmith
By Mike Pare
Items that could be on the
agenda of Congress when it
reconvenes Tuesday include:
By Duncan Mansfield
■ Although only two of 17
patients responded
positively to treatment,
researchers say gene
therapy shows promise.
New nonstop flight
to central Florida
Combating Ernesto
CONGRESSIONAL
AGENDA
■ Immigration reform
■ Defense and homeland
security spending
■ Health care costs
■ Ports security
■ Votes on presidential
appointments
■ Minimum wage
■ Estate taxes
Scientists
turn cells
into tumor
fighters
See CANCER, Page A8
Hall says warning system might have prevented crash
Jim Hall
Chance
of showers
High: 84
Low: 65
DETAILS, C6
Business
Classified
Comics
Editorials
.
NEW FLIGHTS: Beginning Oct.
31, Allegiant Air will offer roundtrip flights between Chattanooga
and Orlando, Fla., on Sundays,
Tuesdays, Thursdays and
Saturdays.
the city’s two airports, is in the
southeastern part of the city.
Tyri Squyres, the Las Vegasbased airline’s corporate communications director, said it is
the discount carrier’s strategy
to fly into smaller airports. She
said Orlando Sanford is convenient not just to Orlando but to
Daytona Beach.
Flights will leave Chattanooga at 10:15 a.m. and arrive
in Orlando at 11:50 a.m. Leaving
Orlando, flights will depart at 8
a.m. and arrive in Chattanooga
See ALLEGIANT, Page A8
Life
E1
Puzzles
Metro
B1
Sports
D1
H26-30
Television
E7
A5
Weekend
H1
B4
Weather
C6
C1 Movies
F1 National
E2-3 Obituaries
B8-9 Politics
A3 World
E2, F2, F5
A4, A10
...
.
• • • Friday, September 1, 2006 • A9
Libraries
• Continued from Page A1
“Who’s not walking around
with a bottle of water these
days,” Dr. Snelson said. “So
libraries are going along with
that.”
But libraries are not closing
the book on print so they can
log on to the information highway, some librarians said.
“Our collection has not gone
down, but what we are seeing is
a gradual shift from the requests
for books to requests for online
databases,” said Vicki Sells,
interim associate provost for
information technology services
and librarian for the University
of the South at Sewanee, Tenn.
The Internet enhances a
library’s offerings, according to
Theresa Liedtka, dean of UTC’s
Lupton Library.
“The Internet is good for
locating out-of-print books,”
Ms. Liedtka said. “A lot of books
that are hard to find are scanned
into the Web.”
Ms. Liedtka said the Lupton
Library’s book inventory has
been stable for the past several years. One place where the
Internet has replaced hard copies is in journals and periodi-
Crash
• Continued from Page A1
critically injured.
A Runway Awareness and
Advisory System made by Phoenix-based Honeywell Aerospace
uses a mechanical voice to
identify the runway by number
before takeoff and warns pilots if
the runway is too short for their
plane.
The system, which can pinpoint a plane’s location using
global-positioning systems, also
alerts pilots if they are trying to
take off from a taxiway instead
of a runway.
The software program — an
enhancement to Honeywell’s
widely used ground proximity warning system that alerts
pilots to mountain peaks ahead
— costs about $18,000 a plane.
It was developed in response to
Federal Aviation Administration
concerns over runway accidents
and close calls.
Staff Photo by D. Patrick Harding
Psychology major Chris Vasser, 17, uses a computer at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga library.
cals, she said.
“In the last couple of years
a lot of journals have created online access,” she said.
“And some departments have so they can access data 24/7 at
embraced it quicker than others. their desktops.”
Engineering, science and nursStudies show that what
ing are asking for more online patrons value is convenience,
While other vendors may offer
similar systems, Honeywell’s is
the only one certified by the FAA,
company spokesman Bill Reavis
said.
The FAA certified Honeywell’s system in 2003 but did not
require its use.
About 600 commercial and
business-class aircraft worldwide have the device, and the
company has orders for 700
more. The FAA says there are
about 8,000 planes in the U.S.
fleet — about half of them large
commercial airliners.
Only Alaska Airlines, Air
France, FedEx, Lufthansa and
Malaysia Airlines have ordered
the system for their planes, Reavis said. No commuter airlines
have the warning device.
“This is a piece of equipment
that could have saved 49 people
from being burned to death,”
Hall said. “But because of the
economic interest of the aviation
industry,” is it is used in only a
few planes.
Hall was NTSB chairman
from 1994 to 2001 and is now an
aviation consultant. He said he
has no business relationship with
Honeywell.
NTSB spokesman Paul
Schlamm said the agency has
recommended on-board warning
systems that would give “immediate warnings of probable collisions or incursions directly to the
flight crews,” but hasn’t specified
the technology. “This is something we haven’t done yet,” he
said.
Comair spokeswoman Kate
Marx said that 118 of the carrier’s 168 airplanes have globalpositioning-system navigational
aids in their cockpits already —
including doomed Comair Flight
5191 — that would let pilots know
their location both in the air and
on the ground. But they do not
have the mechanical-voice warning system.
The rest of Comair’s fleet will
be outfitted with GPS by 2007,
and the airline will look at other
safety measures as well, she
said.
Dave Castelveter, spokesman
for the Air Transport Association,
an industry trade group, refused
to discuss the merits of the system while the Comair crash is
under investigation.
Jerry Skinner, a Cincinnati
lawyer who has represented families of victims in several airline
crashes and has used Hall as a
consultant, said the airlines made
a cost-benefit decision: “The
technology would cost money,
and most airlines are not ready
to put in that stuff.”
Comair 5191 was cleared by
the control tower to take off from
a 7,000-foot runway, but instead
turned onto a 3,500-foot strip of
cracked pavement used by small
planes.
Hall said he could only speculate why a veteran flight crew
familiar with the airport didn’t
see from their compass or airport reference map that they
were on the wrong runway.
Among other things, investigators are looking at the runway
lights, markings and a repaving
project a week before the crash
that changed the taxiway patterns at the Lexington airport.
Ms. Liedtka said.
“People are multitasking, and
sometimes they are doing their
homework at 3 a.m. We are not
open at 3 a.m. We want to help
them get the resources they need
when they need them,” she said.
Keith Leckenby, a UTC
adjunct English professor, said
students and faculty expect
access to the Internet.
“Kids today, it would be weird
to them to do without it,” he said.
“And research is so much easier
on the computer. You can do it
from home in your pajamas, if
you want.”
UTC freshman Ashley Murman, 19, said books still have a
place in student life.
“We still read books,” she said.
“But books are time consuming;
you have to go from page to
page. Or you might check out a
book, and it won’t have what you
need, and you spent that time
looking.”
Dr. Snelson said that, with
access to information decentralized, libraries can provide services that a computer cannot, such
as ways to differentiate between
good and bad information.
The Internet makes information easier to find but not easier
to evaluate, she said. Librarians
can direct students to a database having journals related to
the information they are seeking,
she said.
Mr. Coulter said a downside
of Internet research is that it can
limit learning.
“With books you browse
through and learn things that
you weren’t looking for,” he
said. “There are multiple ways
of doing things, and the Internet
is only one way.”
Ms. Liedtka said the Lupton
Library has “smart classrooms”
where students can gather in
groups and use the wireless
access to the Internet, and laptops are available for use on the
premises.
Next month an instant message service will be released,
and patrons will be able to communicate with librarians in real
time, she said.
Meanwhile, there is a corner
on the first floor where patrons
are allowed to eat, Ms. Liedtka
said.
Like any business, libraries
must be customer-oriented, Dr.
Snelson said.
“Libraries have group study
areas and quiet floors for those
who like it quiet,” she said. “Our
mission is to make sure they get
the information they need to get
their work done.”
E-mail Beverly A. Carroll at
bcarroll@timesfreepress.com
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