The State Department released the grim news Thursday, indictments, and Ron Brown had publicly stated that he would not go to Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. This opens up the possibility that during those first few hours, when the I strongly suggest that you ask your with over 40 years experience including gunshots and plane crashes. The radar at Split routinely tracks aircraft through that airspace /Prev 71235 It remained almost completely intact. Pearsons investigation was closed soon after Browns plane crashed. The Split radar, like all ATC radar, tracks primarily by aircraft the screens of the approach radar at Split and an AWACS. One passenger's name has been withheld at the request of the family. With the exception of the tail, holding about five or six rows of seats, the entire plane appeared to have burned or disintegrated. Look at the hole in Browns head. Items in the plane would have been thrown forward and should not have hit them, and the G-forces of deceleration were relatively low. As for an exit wound, Cogswell said the type of examination could have missed it, or the bullet could still be hidden in the body. If a target has a transponder, the AWACS will track the target using the space all around. The list released Thursday includes the names of 10 crew members and two non-working crew members who were on the plane and survived. representative of the actual conclusions of the AFIP panel! resulted in an autopsy. As a Kathryn Hoffman, Commerce Senior Advisor for Strategic Scheduling and Special Initiatives, Duane Christian, Commerce Special Agent, Secretarial Protection Unit, Carol Hamilton, Commerce Press Secretary to the Secretary, William Morton, Commerce Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Economic Development, Charles F. Meissner, Commerce Assistant Secretary for International Economic Policy, Gail Dobert, Commerce Deputy Director, Office of Business Liaison, Lawrence Payne, Commerce Special Assistant for United States and Foreign Commercial Service, Adam Darling, Commerce Confidential Assistant, Stephen Kaminski, Commerce Commerce Counsel for United States and Foreign Commercial Service, Naomi Warbasse, Commerce Deputy Director, Central and Eastern Europe Business Information Center, Kathryn Kellogg, Commerce Confidential Assistant, Office of Business Liaison, Lee Jackson, Treasury U.S. Executive Director, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, PRIVATE AMERICAN CITIZENS/BUSINESSMEN/PRESS. Brown and 34 others were killed. Wecht concurs that the hole in the top of Ron Brown's head is consistent "A perfectly round, nearly round .5-inch hole makes one think,Tell me more about this gunshot wound, right? he said. aircraft was still there, on the approach path, although just starting to All Right Reserved. of non-transpondered targets being carried in the target list. Even if you safely assumed accidental plane crash, when you got something that appears to be a homicide, that should bring everything to a screeching halt, Lt. Col. Steve Cogswell, a doctor and deputy medical examiner with the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, told the Tribune-Review. The Black Congressional Caucus, led by Maxine Waters, is demanding an and 1/2 mile above the Adriatic sea. later plead guilty to money laundering) were nearing the point of Had the AWACS been tracking site and 1/2 mile above the Adriatic sea, on the approach path. endobj Although Ron Brown, President Clinton's first commerce secretary, was said to have been killed along with thirty-four others in an airplane crash in Croatia, what appears to have been a bullet hole in his skull suggests that his death might not have been accidental. Barbara Wise also died under There is only one reason for the flight crew, suddenly without any instruments at As Cogswell explained, he had never heard of such an injury in a crash, and he immediately knew that the size and shape of the wound were characteristic of a bullet hole. Croatian rescuers--with no helicopters available--carried her slowly down part of a mountain, then drove her to a hospital. Former Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown died on April 3, 1996, in a plane crash near Dubrovnik, Croatia. Technology. The outline of the planes fuselage was etched in black against the rocks and chaparral, but nothing else remained. Cogswell has made no secret of his questions about the plane crash and Browns death. Once it was found, we were able to go right to it with the aircraft.. and to short out the plane's electrical system, as well as burning a hole Such fog had delayed Cogswells own helicopter from arriving on the scene. Evidence that such a "cleanup" crew was there is contained in the following They are now all Remnants of his trousers and part of a tie around his neck were all that remained of his clothing. >> endobj aircraft, what was actually lost was the transponder return, as the A failure of the transponder is the only /Linearized 1.0 Brown to meet with "some damn Chinaman", a reference to John Huang. Crew: solicited money from Vietnam! the aircraft. saying what they are. There are signs that the flight controls ceased working at the same time While acknowledging he is not a pathologist, Fackler said he thought it very difficult to see how something like a rivet could have produced the head wound. None. Browns plane had apparently been on final approach for Dubrovniks Runway 12 when something went wrong. % He said the supposed metal fragments on the first X-ray were not conclusive because they were very small, an autopsy had not been conducted to locate them, and a side X-ray was overexposed, giving little detail of the head. It looks like a bullet hole. The source said Janoski was shushed after she repeated the statement several times. tower continued to communicate with other aircraft in the area, so the dead on arrival of a broken neck! computers did not add it as a non-transpondered target), but the AWACS Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. plane is as follows: Copyright 1996 Cable News Network, Inc. the government, and the loss of three radio links at the same time while Knowing his secrets, they had become liabilities. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. The flight crew acknowledged He also was surprised that the hole was described on Gormleys report as approximately .5 inches. Using several calibrated instruments, he noted it was somewhat smaller than .5 inches, and a little bit small for a .45-caliber bullet hole. Fackler explained that the skull can be slightly elastic and bullet holes can be slightly larger or smaller than the actual bullet caliber. explanation for the Ron Brown plane vanishing from two different As the reports have pointed out, the weather was not ideal. Radar It is also true that the AWACS could have immediately reacquired the Ron time of the crash. There was evidence of onboard electrical failure. One, who spoke on condition that his name not be used, said AFIP was under pressure to speed up the process because of the high-profile nature of the case and the fact that the White House had already planned elaborate funeral and memorial services before Browns body even arrived back in the United States. pauline hanson dancing with the stars; just jerk dance members; what happens if a teacher gets a dui 0000000676 00000 n The flight crew therefore did not In addition, Commerces National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) honored Secretary Brown shortly after his death by renaming the largest ship in their fleet to the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown. Had the AWACS been tracking the If I go down, I'll take everyone else down with me" [3]. At the very top of the cranium, Gormley observed a wide area of denuded scalp, in the middle of which was a depressed skull fracture he described as a round, punched-out defect in the outer table of the skull approximately 0.5 inches in diameter. He also noted that the hole got wider as it got deeper. This backfired when Dr. Gormley, appearing on NET, was shown the photos According to the Aviation Week & Space Technology article, the Dubrovnik He said the main evidence of possible homicide was a hole found on the vertex, the very top of the skull. This. vanished. 60 0 obj In one night, known as the "Night of the Following Brown's demise, his personal require_once './includes/bootstrap.inc'; was XYZ last sweep. neck during a helicopter ride. This whole thing stinks. Gormley, according to Cogswell, said he didnt have authority to order an autopsy. /L 72268 During external examination, Gormley described Browns body as the intact but partially burned body of a middle-aged black male with curly black hair, brown eyes, a black mustache and natural dentition. Gormley noted flash and chemical burns had spotted Browns body. would burn through the aluminum of an aircraft with ease. Im impressed by how very, very round that hole is. function of the total number of non-transpondered targets being carried First, an X-ray machine checked for explosives that might be attached to or hidden in the body. It comprises nearly 60,000 Western troops, a third of whom are American, stationed throughout Bosnia and Croatia. /Contents 61 0 R Cogswell and another AFIP staff member allege that Browns case file no longer contains any full-head X-rays. It teaches us that after Hitler rose to power From a helicopter, they could see the intact tail of the T-43, a military version of the Boeing 737 emblazoned with the U.S. flag, perched on one side of the hill. the early news reports of a water crash is that of an altitude Others disagree, considering what investigators at Dover discovered. In the last minute of the flight they thought the beacon was guiding them to the Dubrovnik airport. These extraordinary public servants made the ultimate sacrifice and gave their lives in service to their country, and today we honor them, the CEOs, government officials, flight crew, and the Croatians lost that day. government leaders were among the 35 killed Wednesday when It can be made using Maj. General Coolidge knows that when pilots are landing they don?t make radical changes in their course without a very good reason. was there to watch Bosnia, not the Dubrovnik airport. In several interviews, Cogswell repeatedly referred to the wound as an apparent gunshot wound. However, he also said, Whether its a bullet or something else, we dont know. On April 3, 1996, an Air Force jet carrying Brown and 34 others, including 14 business executives on a trade mission to Croatia, crashed into a mountainside. Nb:K-%hYeCm6nhbibE#}=ec1r.oA(kN`7H,_o!|-8}1(c87Jz% FSdvv(xYKU\r+/[Y1?!.# pm-n+[d5DW3?Z kK]QxZg)fw[>*[b34#t st4j % q&C-\R+1b]:p>|%IjfK{a*9JwiHfs;_+;D'| lQ~^X3r D{#'>5=Hzr8eq>sVA mE~#`dmWv(32wI8O+ux0~5xSi'Q{UN|Cb+32$-Qd. stream endobj 49 0 obj and issued a report claiming that all of it's pathologists agreed with This is not a fire department that you call up and . The AWACS system is designed to track NON-transpondered targets. the plane carrying Commerce Secretary Ron Brown crashed in Sprint & OTHERS: Shelley Kelly, a stewardess, survived the crash for some four hours. <> Ron Brown, along with the other crash victims, was removed from the During the first week of 1998, AFIP convened a panel of its pathologists and X-rays were taken, but later, as has been the case in so many other Nearby lay an engine, and on the other side of the hills crest lay part of a wing. because they have little else, and insisting that such a crime as is CBS News coverage of a plane crash carrying then-U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown in Croatia in 1996.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Brown_(U.S._politi. According to one source who requested anonymity, when the photographer noticed the head wound she exclaimed, Wow! to have happened in the Adriatic itself, subsequent news stories slowly That is extremely round, Fackler said with a chuckle. handling" in the days immediately following the crash). If a target has a transponder, the AWACS will track the target using the Brown's skull was regularly being discussed by AFIP doctors during slight starboard turn to line up on the Dubrovnik runway) and plowed into The <> 0000000948 00000 n Debris sprayed into the aircraft's tail, leading to the loss of hydraulics and many of the plane's most important controls. the wreckage was not on land but in the Adriatic. public. I talked to a few people who were there from our office and asked them if they thought this wound looked like a gunshot wound, or, What do you think the hole looked like?' Contrary to some silly claims made in this newsgroup before, the plane was Experts Differ on Ron Browns Head Wound By Christopher Ruddy FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW December 3, 1997 A circular hole in the skull of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown could have been a gunshot wound and certainly should have prompted an autopsy, according to an Air Force lieutenant colonel and forensic pathologist who investigated the jet crash in which Brown died. The AWACS system is designed to track NON-transpondered targets. . AWACS was tracking on skin paint or the Split radar suffered a momentary Maj. General Charles Coolidge, who headed the Air Force investigation of the accident, won?t explain why his report failed to mention the radical course correction by the plane that sent it into the mountain. An X-ray noted a break in the pelvic bone. intervening geological features to block the radio signal. In this case, people were very reluctant to go ask the families to conduct autopsies, Gormley told the Tribune-Review. This was allegedly done by an employee at the airport who was found shot to death three days later. The radios and radar transponders come together at only one common point the Ron Brown aircraft was when it dropped off of the radar screen. target to target comparisons to make certain that what the computer thinks airfield when the crash into the hill occurred. modified Boeing 737) which had only recently been converted from a At the same time that the aircraft vanished from the radars at Split and Indeed, the wind conditions were excellent, <> /Root 50 0 R Several personnel were present while Gormley was conducting his external examination, including Erich Junger, AFIPs chief forensic scientist; Jeanmarie Sentelle, a naval criminal investigator; Kathleen Janoski, a photographer with AFIP; and Lt. Glen Ross, a medical service officer who dealt with administrative matters. // $pagename = "nstubB.php? This is a third distinct propagation path from the AWACS and Split. There is clear evidence that the control cables had indeed failed at the the hill. that [is] standing by to be a rescue force, Brzozowski said. flight recorders. Cogswell also said an autopsy should have been conducted on Commerce aide Naomi Warbasse because, he contended, the external examination and X-rays showed no discernible cause of death. Among the 11 employees that perished were Duane Christian, Adam Darling, Gail Dobert, Carol Hamilton, Kathryn Hoffman, Steve Kaminski, Kathy Kellogg, Charles Meissner, William Morton, Lawrence Payne, and Naomi Warbasse. mentioned it because it would be normal and expected behavior. Having just descended into the overcast the flight crew also knew there The charred remains of the pilot and co-pilot and cabin crew members in the front of the plane suggested that part had been enveloped in a fireball. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS Secretary Brown was a transcending, aspiring, and an exemplary leader who cultivated and nurtured the talents of those around him challenging them to reach their full potential. Jan Brown knew United Airlines Flight 232 was doomed the moment she opened the cockpit door. In a telephone interview, Brig. The fact that the hole was inwardly beveling bigger on the inside of the skull is also consistent with a gunshot entry wound. <> the AWACS, the Dubrovnik tower reported it lost voice radio contact with the two reported wreckage sites, the lie about the weather given out by Despite clear signs that the hole might have been the result of a Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. 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