Niger Death over the Desert

The disaster had the haunting familiarity of a recurring nightmare. On Tuesday afternoon Flight 772, a DC-10 of the French airline UTA bound from Brazzaville to Paris, left the runway after its scheduled stopover in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad. Twenty minutes into the flight, Captain Georges Ravenaud radioed the airport to report that all was normal. Flight 772 was never heard from again. High above the desolate Tenere desert in neighboring Niger, the plane exploded, killing all 157 passengers and its 14- member crew. Among those aboard were seven Americans, including Bonnie Pugh, wife of the U.S. Ambassador to Chad, Robert Pugh.

The fate of Flight 772 raised troubling questions. What or who was responsible for the disaster? French soldiers who arrived at the crash site the day after the accident found wreckage and bodies strewn over miles of empty sand, suggesting that the aircraft had broken up at high altitude. U.S. ^ air-safety experts flown in to investigate agreed that the fragmented evidence suggested a "Lockerbie-type explosion," a reference to the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland last Dec. 21, killing all 259 aboard. On Saturday investigators said data from flight recorders confirmed that a midair explosion had caused the crash, touching off an intensive search for those responsible.

In Paris, UTA chairman Rene Lapautre said a terrorist bomb "was the most probable" explanation for the crash. Hours later the Muslim terrorist group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. Two weeks ago, the Lebanese and French press reported that pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon have threatened action against France for reneging on an alleged 1988 deal to trade a jailed Arab terrorist for the release of three French hostages held in Lebanon. The French government denies making any deal to free the hostages beyond agreeing to restore diplomatic relations with Iran. At week's end an unknown group calling itself the Secret Chadian Resistance claimed responsibility, as part of a campaign to rid Africa of "all military colonial forces."