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On behalf of posters on Free Republic, I post this with deepest sympathy for the crew and their families.
Mission - sts107
Posted on 02/01/2003 8:41:00 AM PST by Admin Moderator
Edited on 02/01/2003 9:11:45 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
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On behalf of posters on Free Republic, I post this with deepest sympathy for the crew and their families.
Mission - sts107
This is a continuation of the original thread.
Shuttle Contact LOST-No Tracking Data During RE-Entry!
ANY DU LINKS OR POSTS WILL BE REMOVED IMMEDIATELY. Keep them on the original thread.
By PAM EASTON
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NACOGDOCHES, Texas (AP) - Bits of machinery and pieces of metal were found strewn across a wide area of east Texas after the space shuttle Columbia broke apart. One metal piece crashed through the roof of a dentist's office and some human remains were found on a rural road.
Police and NASA officials warned residents the shuttle debris could be toxic and should not be touched. The Environmental Protection Agency prepared to coordinate a cleanup, and the Army's 1st Cavalry Division deployed a task force - including helicopters and military police - to help search for wreckage.
"It's all over Nacogdoches," said James Milford, owner of a barber shop in downtown. "There are several little pieces, some parts of machinery ... there's been a lot of pieces about 3 feet wide."
On the edge of downtown Nacogdoches, 135 miles northeast of Houston, a National Guardsman stood watch over a steel rod with silver bolts that landed in the grass outside a yard. People streamed up to take photos of the debris.
NASA lost communication with Columbia as it soared above Texas. Debris was reported in several east Texas counties and along the Texas-Louisiana line.
In Hemphill near the Louisiana line, hospital employee Mike Gibbs reported finding what appeared to be a charred torso, thigh bone and skull on a rural road near what was believed to be other debris. Billy Smith, a Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman, confirmed the find. He said authorities had roped off the area and were collecting evidence.
A fisherman from DeRidder, La., Elbie Bradley, reported hearing a falling object splash into the Toledo Bend reservoir, which straddles the border.
"I thought it was an airplane that hit the lake," he said. "Before the piece came down, it sounded like the start of a big motor without an exhaust on it."
In Nacogdoches, Jeff Hancock, a 29-year-old dentist, said he found a chunk of debris in his office.
"There's actually a piece in my office. It came through the roof of my office. It's about a footlong metal bracket," he said.
Ed Rohner, Nacogdoches airport manager, said some type of tank ended up on a runway.
"We have one large, several foot in diameter, some type of tank that was in the middle of a runway," Rohner said. "We've got pieces of debris all along the entrance road to the airport," Rohner said.
R.T. Gregory, a waiter at Aubrey's Cafe in Nacogdoches said he and about 50 other people gathered around a taped-off piece of metal debris in the parking lot of the Commercial Bank of Texas. He said the debris was about 4 feet long and 4 feet wide.
Nacogdoches Fire Chief Thomas Lambert told Dallas-Fort Worth television WFAA he found a half-moon shaped piece, 5 to 5 1/2 feet long.
"This piece I'm looking at does have severe burn marks on it, like you take a blow torch and put it on metal until it turns a kind of a bluish-greenish color," he said.
Authorities were investigating what they thought could be a piece of the shuttle next to the driveway to Rice High School along busy Interstate 45.
"It looks like a piece of tile, said Rice Police Chief James McDuffie. Rice is located just north of Corsicana.
Authorities ordered people to stay 100 yards away from the debris because of contamination fears. However, a number of Nacogdoches residents were picking up pieces and turning them in to law enforcement officers, authorities said.
The Cherokee County Sheriff's Office had received more than 30 confirmed reports of fallen debris, Campbell said. The items ranged in size from small pieces of tile to 2-by-2 foot pieces of metal.
"We've had people bring pieces of it up here to the office," said Sheriff James Campbell. "We certainly want to discourage that.
Cherokee County is in East Texas, about halfway between Tyler and Lufkin.
Residents in southern Arkansas also were warned to stay away from any debris, although there were no confirmed reports of any falling there.
dep
WELCOME HOME
it's been a sad day....
I would've been hard-put not to slap that history teacher silly.
The issues are the anomalies were the left side on takeoff and left side on re-entry.
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