The seven Americans aboard the French DC-10 jetliner that crashed in northern Africa included U.S. Peace Corps volunteer Margaret Schutzius returning home after two years as an English teacher in Chad
7 Americans Killed In Crash
By The Associated Press
The seven Americans aboard the French DC-10 jetliner that crashed in northern Africa included a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer returning home after two years as an English teacher in Chad.
Also on board was Bonnie Barnes Pugh, wife of the U.S. ambassador to Chad and four Americans who had been working at an oilfield in southern Chad.
A radical Shiite group Wednesday claimed responsibility for the downing of a jetliner, the airline UTA said. All 171 people aboard died. The airline said a bomb most likely caused the crash of the jetliner, which exploded Tuesday shortly after taking off from Chad for Paris.
Jim Flanigan, a Peace Corps spokesman in Washington, said Margaret Schutzius, 23, of Dallas, had completed her work in Chad and was headed home.
Miss Schutzius joined the Peace Corps in June 1987 as a secondary education teacher, he said. She had attended the University of Chicago before joining the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps has about 30 volunteers in Chad.
Exxon Corp. spokeswoman Sara Johnson in New York said two Americans working in southern Chad for the company's Esso Exploration & amp Production Chad Inc. subsidiary were also on the UTA flight.
They were petroleum geologist Mark Corder, 35, of Houston, and senior operation supervisor James Turlington, Sr., 48, of Bellville.
Miss Johnson said an Esso Resources Canada employee on loan to Exxon was also on the flight. Russell O. Jordan Jr, 29, a senior projects engineer, is Canadian, but listed his hometown as Houston, she said.
The Tulsa, Okla.-based Parker Drilling Co. said four of its employees were aboard the French airliner, including two Americans. They were returning home from a 28-day work rotation.
Parker Drilling spokesman Tim Colwell said the four men worked at a rig in southern Chad that Parker owns and operates under a contract with Exxon.
He identified the Parker employees as Pat Huff, 38, of Franklin, Texas; Donald Warner, 25, of Terry, Mont.; David Middleton, 38, of Rowland Gill, England, and a Bolivian truck driver, whose name was not released pending notification of relatives.
A camp medic, Warner had been with the company for a month.
Huff, a rig manager, liked working in oilfields overseas and never expressed any concerns about traveling, his mother said Wednesday.
"He had no fears,'' said Janice Huff, of Franklin. ``I said something to him a few months ago after so many planes had been going down and he said, `No, not really.' You always think it's going to happen to someone else.''
The State Department identified the seventh American as Mihai Ali Manestianu, but no further information was immediately available.
AP-NY-09-20-89 2118EDT
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