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worse no matter who wins Tuesday's election. It was created in part by a lack of urgency in the post-Cold War era, and by design glitches and cost overruns that have delayed attempts to build next-generation aircraft.
• Looming budget cuts limit the force's ability to correct itself, they argue, as China's rise as a world power heightens its need to improve. And though the world's most formidable air force never had much use for bayonets, it's got more than its share of warhorses.
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Atlanta police helicopter crash kills 2 officers
NORMAN GOMLAK,Associated Press Writer
• ATLANTA (AP) -- A police helicopter flying low over Atlanta on a nighttime search for a missing 9-year-old boy plunged to the ground in a neighborhood of shops and apartments, killing the two officers aboard, authorities said Sunday.
• Both officers died on impact in the crash about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, but no one was hurt on the ground, police spokesman Carlos Campos said. The crash occurred in a district near heavily traveled Interstate 20 filled with fast food restaurants, shopping plazas and apartments where utility lines bristle overhead.
• A photograph aired on a local TV newscast showed what appeared to be flaming debris in a roadway. The helicopter fell in an area roughly 4 miles west of downtown Atlanta. Power was blacked out to a pharmacy and other nearby businesses, and a utility crew was seen apparently working to restore electricity.
• "It appeared to hit the utility wire on the way down," Campos told The Associated Press, citing preliminary information. But he emphasized: "We don't know what caused it" and referred all queries to the Federal Aviation Administration, which was just opening its investigation.
• Bystander Darryl James, 42, told the AP that he had gone with a companion to a check-cashing store Saturday night when he heard the helicopter flying overhead and thought it was rather low.
• "The tail end went down and then there was an explosion," James said. He said he tried to get close to the wreckage. "As soon as I got close enough to it, poom! It exploded." He added of the helicopter's occupants: "They could not survive it."
• James said people are often waiting at a normally busy bus stop near the crash site, adding, "Thank God nobody was out there."
• After the crash, fire trucks and police cars with lights flashing converged on the area, blocking surrounding roads. Police put up yellow crime scene tape and kept bystanders so far back they were unable to see the crash site behind a small rise. The names of the dead were withheld early Sunday while relatives were notified, po (Continued on page 28)
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