Maturity Journal - May 2021 Issue

Page 10 May 2021
(NTSB) opened a public hearing into the Aces basketball
team airplane crash. The hearings were held in the Executive
Inn; witnesses told of the strange takeoff, the brief
flight, and the crash. (The lack of a “black box” limited
the crash probe.) The winter of 1978 was the coldest winter
in local history.
March 1978: The “near-death” Arkla plant made a
significant recovery. 30 Arab terrorists invaded Tel Aviv
to kill 30 people and injure 80; all were tourists, and it
was the worst disaster in Israel’s history. 25 Vanderburgh
policemen were taking EMT training. Israeli soldiers invaded
Lebanon by air and by sea. Central High School
gave a ground school class for pilots at the Evansville airport.
Whirlpool hired 1,000 workers for a new production
line. Judith Clabes was the first female editor of the
Evansville Sunday Courier & Press. The Three-Mile Island
nuclear plant incident had a grave effect on the Babcock
& Wilcock plant in Mount Vernon.
April 1978: Cable TV for Evansville was about three
months away. Mesker Zoo was denied national accreditation.
A 60-foot hole that was 22 feet deep opened on
Southlane Drive from a storm sewer break. The crashed
Aces DC-3 airplane had an aileron control lock still in
Maturity Journal
place on the right wing during its brief lethal flight; the
control lock should have been removed before the flight
began. North High School had a declining enrolment but
the school would remain open.
May 1978: President Carter pledged eternal support to
Israel by the United States. In NYC David Berkowitz pled
guilty for the “Son of Sam” murders. A safer Highway 41
thru Evansville was urged. U of E conferred degrees on
the three seniors who were killed in the Ace’s airplane
crash. The Old National Lincoln branch drive-thru
window was held-up for $8,432. (The drive-thru robbery
claim was a hoax, as the teller, Marcie Houchens, did not
return to work; a warrant was issued for her arrest one
week after the crime.) Three men died and four were sick
from Legionnaires Disease after an Indiana University
Memorial Union building meeting. Evansville was told
that it must pay for the elevated Highway 41 thru the city
if it wants it.
June 1978: Evansville studied the consolidation of the
four public city high schools. An evicted widow, Alline
Carnes, age 59, died on her sofa that had been placed
next to the street in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The $116
million Tellico Dam in Tennessee was halted after Snail
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