The Nation - News from Jan. 13, 1988

An Air Force fighter jet that crashed into the Airport Ramada Inn in Indianapolis on Oct. 20 had lost power because of the failure of splines that should have locked the A-7D Corsair’s jet turbine to its drive shaft, an Air Force report said. Ten people were killed in the crash. The pilot ejected safely. “It was a drive shaft that attached to a turbine that failed,” said Maj. Victor Andrijauskas, a spokesman at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, where the plane and its pilot were based. Air Force mechanics had noticed excessive wear on the drive shafts of three jets similar to the one that crashed, the Air Force report revealed.