The World - News from Feb. 19, 1989

Six U.S. warplanes on a low-level training flight in West Germany changed course without warning and flew dangerously close to six passenger jets, the newsmagazine Der Spiegel reported. The Hamburg-based publication said the F-16 fighter planes based at the U.S. Air Force headquarters at Ramstein flew into heavy fog last Tuesday, then pulled into a steep climb, coming within yards of six airliners in a holding pattern over Frankfurt airport. U.S. officials are under growing pressure to reduce military training flights in West Germany after a series of plane crashes that killed more than 100 people last year.