'S 
'X 
FLIGHT OF BIHDS 
CHASUES PLANEi 
31 ARE KILLED 
U. S. Ballerina Dead in 
French Disaster 
NICE, March 3 (Reuters)— 
French airliner ran into a flight 
6f birds and crashed near here 
today killing 37 of the 38 persons 
aboard, including U. S. ballet star 
Harriet Toby. 
The sole survivor, a French 
woman, was reported in serious 
condition in hospital late today. 
> The birds were believed to have 
fouled the engines as the plane 
circled the airport just after take¬ 
off. 
Miss Toby was flying to Paris 
to keep an appointment — the 
other members of the touripg U. S. 
Marquis de Cuevas Ballet com¬ 
pany made the trip by train. 
Prime Ballerina 
The balleriria—she was born 
Joan Katzmann in Brooklyn 22 
years a^o—had earned herself an 
international reputation as a 
prime ballerina and was ranked 
with the best. She had a contract 
to appear at the Edinburgh festi¬ 
val this summer; 
Also among the victims were 
two PT'ench stage and screen stars 
Michele Verly, 41, and Lise To- 
part, 25. 
' 'The four-engined machine made 
one circuit of the airfield, lowered 
its wheels as if to land again, 
then plunged into an olive grove. 
Thiry-two passengers, most of 
them French, and the five crew 
died instantly. 
The plane, a French Languedoc 
operated by Air France, the Fi’ench 
state-run airways, was heading 
for Paris from Nice. 
The airport staff were put on 
the alert when the plane immedi¬ 
ately turned back towards Nice. 
The plane was a blazing skele¬ 
ton as rescue teams reached it. 
Most of the bodies were badly 
burned and identification might 
be difficult, airport authorities 
said. 
The Languedoc normally car¬ 
ries only 33 passengers. But an ex¬ 
tra place had been made on this 
flight for the pilot’s wife. 
Rescue* Effort Futile 
Workers from a near-by movie 
studio rushed medical equipment 
and stretchers to the scene a few 
minutes after the crash. 
By the time they got there the 
plane was blazing. 
Rescuers had to wait until the 
flames died down before they 
could pull out the burned and 
mangled bodies. 
They searched for passports and | 
other documents among the de¬ 
bris strewn over a wide area. j 
Maurice Bellonte, chief of the 
government air accident inquir 
service, took off immediately fo; 
Nice to hold an on-the-spot in- 
