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Groton Daily Independent
Monday, Feb. 12, 2018 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 214 ~ 16 of 39
are supposed to become slightly more manageable.
The forecast calls for more high winds Tuesday and Wednesday.
“I am pretty sure that soon,” men’s race director Markus Waldner said with a wry smile, “we will have
a race.”
Until then, he and other of cials are left trying to come up with contingency plans and ways to get the
full 11-race Alpine program completed before the Olympics are scheduled to close on Feb. 25.
As it is, logistical complications are real concerns.
Waldner pointed out that he needs to gure out a way to get three men’s races — the combined,
downhill and super-G — completed by Friday, because there is only one hotel right by the speed course at the Jeongseon Alpine Center. The male skiers need to vacate their rooms to make way for their female counterparts, whose speed events are supposed to begin Saturday.
“Now, it’s getting tight,” he said.
Even those attending indoor events have been tested. Long, cold waits for buses have left workers, media and fans complaining.
Those involved in winter sports are used to this sort of thing, of course.
At the 2007 Alpine world championships in Sweden, for example, strong winds wiped out rst three days of competition. At the 1993 world championships in Japan, the men’s super-G was never contested. Can happen the other way, too. At the 2010 Vancouver Games, the rst two Alpine races were postponed because of rain and — get this — too-warm temperatures in the 40s (below 10 Celsius). The entire Alpine world championships slated for Spain in 1995 were rescheduled for a whole year later because of a lack
of snow.
“That’s a piece of the puzzle that, I guess, fortunately or unfortunately is part of our world,” U.S. Alpine
men’s speed coach Johno McBride said. “You’re dealing with Mother Nature.” ___
AP Sports Writers Jim Armstrong, Pat Graham, Eddie Pells and Jake Seiner contributed to this report. ___
More AP Olympic coverage: https://wintergames.ap.org/
Emergency teams search for victims of Russian plane crash By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press
MOSCOW (AP) — Emergency teams combed the snowy elds outside Moscow on Monday, searching for debris from a crashed Russian airliner and the remains of the 71 people aboard it who died.
The An-148 twin-engine regional jet bound for Orsk in the southern Urals went down minutes after tak- ing off from Moscow’s Domodedovo airport Sunday afternoon. All 65 passengers and 6 crew on board were killed.
Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said the search for victims’ remains will take a week. He noted that emergency teams already have found the plane’s ight data recorder, which is crucial for determining the crash’s cause.
Russian investigators quickly ruled out a terror attack but will not speculate on possible reasons for the crash.
Still the crash Sunday re-ignited questions about the An-148, since the model’s safety record is spotty, with one previous crash and a series of major incidents in which pilots struggled to land safely.
The Investigative Committee, Russia’s premier state investigative agency, said the plane was intact and there had been no re on board before it hit the ground.
The plane’s fuel tanks exploded on impact, scattering debris across 30 hectares (74 acres) in deep snow, according to the Emergency Ministry, which used drones to direct the search.
The 65 passengers ranged in age from 5 to 79, according to a list posted by the Russian Emergencies Ministry. Most victims were from Orsk, where the authorities declared an of cial day of mourning on Monday. The plane was operated by Saratov Airlines, which said the plane had received proper maintenance and