Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Local news briefs for July 18, 2000

Charges brought in C-130 crash

The Air Force has brought charges against an officer who commanded a C-130E cargo plane during an aborted landing in Kuwait last year in which three U.S. servicemen, including a Nellis Air Force Base officer, were killed.

Charges of dereliction of duty and negligent homicide were brought Monday against Capt. Darron A. Haughn by Brig. Gen. Richard J. Casey, commander of the 43rd Airlift Wing at Pope Air Force Base, N.C., the Air Force said.

The action follows a March 31 finding by the Air Force of pilot and crew error in the deaths of Nellis Capt. Michael D. Geragosian, 31, and two other men who were seated in a section of the fuselage where the landing gear attaches to the plane's frame.

Haughn is assigned to the 463rd Airlift Group at Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark.

The C-130 made an aborted landing on Dec. 10 in Kuwait. The three men who were killed were hit by landing gear that punctured the inside of the fuselage, the Air Force determined. The others killed were Airman First Class Benjamin Hall and Airman First Class Warren T. Willis.

Geragosian, who was married and had two sons, ages 1 and 2 at the time of his death, had been stationed at Nellis for three years as a member of the 66th Rescue Squadron.

Mule found with swamp fever

Nearly 300 horses were quarantined at the Boulder City Arena Stables by Nevada State Veterinarian David Thain last week after a mule was found infected with swamp fever, also known as equine infectious anemia.

The viral disease of horses results in illness and death.

Because infections are lifelong and spread by biting insects, the infected mule will be destroyed or confined to an insect-free enclosure for life, as required by Nevada law.

The quarantine will be in effect until all horses are retested and found healthy 45 days after the removal of the infected animals.

Ricci to succeed Turnipseed

Hugh Ricci, a longtime state employee, has been named state engineer to succeed Michael Turnipseed, who is being promoted to director of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Ricci, 56, has been with the division since January 1981 and has been deputy to Turnipseed since 1990. He will earn $80,000 a year in his new job and supervise a staff of about 70 employees.

The division receives about 100 applications a month for water rights.

"Hugh is fully capable of making the day-to-day decisions the state engineer is required to make based on the comprehensive water law," Turnipseed said in announcing the appointment Monday.

Ricci is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno, with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering.

The appointment becomes effective Aug. 2.

archive