Across The Nation

FIVE KILLED WHEN SMALL PLANES COLLIDE NEAR NEBRASKA AIRPORT

NORFOLK, Neb. - Two small planes collided as one was taking off and the other was landing. Five people were killed.

The fiery crash occurred late Friday afternoon about two miles southeast of Karl Stefan Memorial Airport in Norfolk, a city 65 miles southwest of Sioux City, Iowa, in Nebraska's northeast corner.

Renato Balestra, operator of Mid-Plains Aviation, was landing an Aero Commander twin-engine plane with three passengers aboard when the crash occurred, said Joseph Smith, Madison County attorney.

Bradley Swanson of Fort Dodge, Iowa, was alone in the other plane, a single-engine Piper Arrow, Smith said.

The FAA was investigating the cause of the crash.

OFFICIALS SUSPECT RODENT VIRUS IN DEATH OF CALIFORNIA WOMAN

CARSON CITY, Nev. - A woman whose home was infested with mice has died, possibly from the same rodent virus that has killed at least 14 people around the huge Navajo Indian reservation, health officials say.

The 32-year-old victim, who died Friday of lung failure, was from Mammoth Lakes, Calif., near the Nevada border and about 600 miles away from the Four Corners region, where most of the confirmed cases of hantavirus have occurred.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is running tests to determine if hantavirus is to blame for her death.

The CDC has confirmed that a strain of hantavirus has given 18 people severe respiratory illness since late May, and 14 have died. Twenty-eight other possible cases, including 10 deaths, are under investigation.

Authorities say the disease is passed to humans through contact with rodent droppings, probably from deer mice.

FIVE TEENAGERS, ONE MAN DIE IN TENNESSEE HIGHWAY CRASH

SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. - A pickup crossed a highway center line and collided head-on with a car, killing the truck driver and all five teenagers in the car.

None of the victims was wearing a seat belt, the Tennessee Highway Patrol said.

Troopers said they found beer cans in the truck and ordered drug and alcohol tests on all six victims of Friday night's crash.

"There are two things we can't stress enough: Don't drink and drive, and wear your seat belts," said Sue Allison, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol in Nashville.

She said half of all Tennessee traffic fatalities are alcohol-related and 80 percent of the victims are not wearing seat belts.

- Times news services