9 die in Wyoming crash of Clinton's cargo plane

JACKSON, Wyo. Recovery teams had to hike and ride on horsebackup a mountain Sunday to reach the wreckage of a military cargo planethat accompanied President Clinton on his vacation.

One Secret Service employee and eight crew members from DyessAir Force Base in Abilene, Texas, aboard the plane were identifiedSunday as killed in the crash.

The only parts of the plane left intact were a piece of the tailsection and several wheels, said Keith Benefiel of the Teton CountySearch and Rescue Team.

The aircraft crashed and exploded on a steep mountainside in theBridger-Teton National Forest.

The C-130 cargo plane was headed to New York City, where Clintonattended a fund-raiser Sunday night.

The cause of the crash was unknown. It occurred just beforemidnight Saturday, Chicago time, about 15 miles southeast of JacksonHole airport in rugged, remote terrain near the top of SheepMountain, in the Grand Teton range. It took rescuers more than threehours on foot and horseback to reach the site early Sunday.

Airport officials in Jackson Hole said Sunday they did not knowwhether the plane was off course because its departure had not beentracked on radar. There is no control tower at the small airport,which is surrounded by mountains.

Pilots arriving at or departing from Jackson Hole use a commonradio frequency to report their positions to each other.

Clinton had left by helicopter from Jackson, where he vacationedlast week, several hours before the crash.

He flew back to Washington from a larger airport in IdahoFalls, Idaho.

Sunday, as he left the White House for his birthday party inNew York, the president said: "There are always significant dangersassociated with our armed forces and people in our Secret Service andothers who do this work. But this is especially painful to usbecause they worked for me, they did an invaluable service, and I'mvery, very sad about it."