(BERLIN, April 6—AP)The U.S. Air Force commander of the squadron responsible for the plane that crashed with Commerce Secretary Ron Brown aboard was relieved of his command a week ago because he raised safety concerns about flights for VIPs in former Yugoslavia, a military newspaper reported Saturday. But the general who took the action and the squadron commander himself, Lt. Col. James Albright, both denied that Albright’s statements of concern were the reason for the action.
Albright was relieved of his command of the 76th Airlift Squadron, based at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, just five days before Wednesday’s crash of the T-43 jet outside Dubrovnik, Croatia, in which 35 people were killed. The Stars and Stripes, an unofficial military newspaper published for U.S. forces in Germany, quoted an unidentified Air Force pilot as saying Albright was fired because he told his superiors he refused to allow T-43s to fly in conditions he considered unsafe.
Objected to 'Pressure from Above'
The pilot, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Albright objected to "pressure from above" to allow flights in areas where ground-based, computerized navigation devices had been destroyed or removed during the recent fighting. He was especially opposed to such flights during foul weather, the pilot said. Brown’s T-43 crashed during a strong storm. Brig. Gen. William E. Stevens confirmed early Saturday that he relieved Albright of his command but denied it had anything to do with safety issues.Stevens, 86th Airlift Wing commander at Ramstein, said in a telephone interview that the safety issue in which Albright was involved concerned flights over hostile areas by planes that were not protected with bullet-proof materials. Albright told The Associated Press early Saturday the concerns he raised pertained to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, a regular stop for American dignitaries visiting the region, and not rarely visited Dubrovnik. "It’s a war zone, so it’s completely different," he said of Sarajevo, which had been besieged for more than three years.
Reassigned to Staff Position
Albright, who has been reassigned to a staff job, was relieved of his command, Stevens said, because he had repeatedly taken actions not cleared by his superiors, including a memo calling for planes to land at Ramstein in the early morning hours to test whether nearby residents would complain.Brown’s plane crashed in a storm Wednesday in the hills outside Dubrovnik, killing him and all others on board. The T-43, a military version of the Boeing 737, was the same plane used early this week to shuttle Defense Secretary William Perry and, last week, Hillary Clinton through Bosnia. U.S. and local officials have said the Dubrovnik airport was missing one piece of computerized precision landing equipment, taken by the Yugoslav army in Croatia’s 1991 war, that allows planes to land in any weather. Nevertheless, Air Force Lt. Gen. Howell Estes III said in Washington that the landing system used by Dubrovnik airport is considered safe.
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