posted 10-21-2001 08:45 PM            

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/ap/20011021/us/crop_duster_towboat_1.html

quote:

---

Sunday October 21 6:46 PM ET

Sprayed Towboat Crew Seems Healthy
By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Crew members who were aboard a Mississippi River towboat when a crop duster sprayed it with an unknown substance have reported no health problems but were given an antibiotic as a precaution, health officials said Sunday.

The towboat's skipper reported that the low-flying plane sprayed the towboat and barges Friday near Rosedale, Miss., then circled around and sprayed a pleasure craft. Officials were still searching for the pleasure boat.

``This was a deliberate act by a crop duster - this was no accident,'' said Kent Buckley of the Bolivar County Emergency Management Agency.

Buckley said officials suspect the sprayed substance was sodium chlorate, used to defoliate cotton crops. Buckley said that sodium chlorate is similar to salt water and is not dangerous.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has asked the Mississippi Department of Health to test the unknown substance, said NancyKay Wessman, spokeswoman for the state health department.

Officials do not know who owns the plane and are looking for witnesses who may have seen an identifying number, Buckley said.

It was unclear how many crew members were on the towboat or if any were on deck when the plane passed over; owners of the towboat at Metropolis, Ill.-based Mid South Towing could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Lt. Dale R. Dean of the U.S. Coast Guard said no crew members reported any symptoms. As a precaution, the crew was given the drug Cipro, the primary antibiotic used to treat anthrax, Buckley said.

The FBI is investigating; Mississippi FBI spokesman Jeffery Artis declined to comment. The Environmental Protection Agency, the Coast Guard and the CDC were also involved in the investigation.

The towboat and its 17 barges have been grounded and quarantined near Rosedale. Their contents were unknown.

---

posted 10-23-2001 10:43 AM            

http://www.usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/10/23/crop-duster.htm

quote:

---

10/23/2001 - Updated 11:25 AM ET

Coast Guard post sprayed by crop duster

NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) — A crop duster sprayed a white substance on the U.S. Coast Guard post just north of the Natchez-Adams County Port in the lower Mississippi River, a coast guard spokesman said. Lt. Dale Folsom of the Memphis office told the Natchez Democrat three people were inside the facility and one was outdoors when the spraying occurred Monday. "They're all being treated locally as a precaution, but they did not exhibit any signs of harm," said Folsom, deputy group commander for Group Lower Mississippi River.

The FBI, state and local officials are trying to find the plane and pilot.

The spraying incident is the second in three days to occur on the lower Mississippi. On Friday a crop-dusting plane sprayed a towboat and a pleasure boat with an unknown substance near Rosedale.

Initial tests for chemical or biological agents were negative.

White powder sent through the mail has been blamed for exposing at least 30 people to anthrax in Washington, New York and New Jersey.

Jack Houghton, Natchez Regional Medical Center administrator, confirmed that several patients were brought to the emergency room Monday.

One patient has been hospitalized as a precaution and the others have been discharged, he said.

Samples of the powder dropped on the Coast Guard facility were taken to the Mississippi Department of Health laboratory in Jackson, Adams County Civil Defense Director George Souderes said.

---

posted 10-23-2001 01:49 PM            

http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/NF/omf/nddaily/news_story.html?[rkey=0011238+ssiuname=WebOSTTN+ssipwd=TTN82E1E6AD

quote:

---

Airplane sprays Coast Guard station

By Joan Gandy
The Natchez Democrat

Published Tuesday, October 23, 2001 12:38 AM CDT

NATCHEZ - Federal, state and local officials are investigating an incident being treated as a threat against the U.S. Coast Guard station south of Natchez.
A single-engine airplane at approximately 2:15 p.m. Monday sprayed a white substance on the U.S. Coast Guard just north of the Natchez-Adams County Port, a Coast Guard spokesman said.

Lt. Dale Folsom of the Memphis office said three people were inside the facility and one was outdoors when the incident occurred.

"They're all being treated locally as a precaution, but they did not exhibit any signs of harm," said Folsom, deputy group commander for Group Lower Mississippi River.

Because of widespread fear of terrorists' use of anthrax in the weeks following the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, authorities throughout the United States are reacting quickly to any incident that could involve the virus, recently surfacing as a white substance of different grades.

Jack Houghton, Natchez Regional Medical Center administrator, confirmed that several patients were brought to the emergency room Monday afternoon.

"One patient has been hospitalized as a precaution and the others have been discharged," he said. "We took all the necessary precautions to protect the patients and our medical staff." Houghton would not comment further on treatment or say whether the patients received Cipro, the primary antibiotic used to treat anthrax.

However, George Souderes, Adams County civil defense director, speaking from the emergency room at about 7:15 p.m., said he was waiting to be treated with Cipro "as standard medical procedure."

Souderes was at the Coast Guard site following the incident and collected samples of the substance. "I turned those over to the DEQ. It is white and a fine small granule."

The samples were taken immediately to the Mississippi Department of Health laboratory in Jackson, Souderes said. "It will be 10 to 12 hours before they know anything."

The spraying incident is the second in three days to occur on the lower Mississippi.

On Friday a crop-dusting plane sprayed a towboat and a pleasure boat with an unknown substance near Rosedale. The towboat crew has been treated with Cipro, a Bolivar County Emergency Management Agency spokesman said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been called to lead the Natchez investigation, Folsom said. Other federal and state agencies will be involved, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Environmental Quality.

"We're calling in federal authorities to investigate one, what the powder was, and two, whether there is a danger," he said. "They will be looking for the airplane that dropped the powder."

Calls to the FBI spokesman in Jackson and to the DEQ in Jackson were not returned Monday night. Airports in Natchez and in Concordia Parish acknowledged that the FBI had contacted them to ask questions about the airplane.

"The FBI called and asked whether a plane took off or landed that had 'N 90' as part of its number," said Jennifer Essary of Natchez-Adams County Airport operations. "We don't have anyone on the field with that number."

Raymond Cowan, manager of the Concordia Airport in Vidalia, La., said he had received a call from the FBI, also, but did not want to comment on it. He did confirm that the plane in question had not been at his airport.

Pat Murphy, director of the Natchez-Adams County Port, said he knew of no one at the port who saw the incident when it happened.

"This is not the time to play games. We hope it's a hoax," Murphy said. "Apparently a plane flew over and dropped something, we just don't know what it was yet."

Reggie Chandler, crane operator at Natchez-Adams County Port, said crop-dusting planes are not an unusual sight in the port area.

"I see crop dusters all the time out here, but I haven't seen one spraying anything today." Folsom said.

Coast Guard members who were at the Natchez facility were not able to say for sure that the plane was a crop duster.

"Our hope is that it will turn out to be a benign substance and we can go on about our daily routine," Folsom said.

"I would say to the public that they should continue to be aware of any suspicious act and report it immediately to local law officials," he said.

---

posted 10-25-2001 02:25 PM            

quote:

---

Spraying labeled 'accidental'

Crop-duster hit Coast Guard post; 1st case still mystery

From staff and wire reports

The white powder released by a crop-dusting plane over a Coast Guard post on the Mississippi River was fertilizer, authorities said.

The Monday flyover at Natchez is being called "accidental" by authorities.

None of the four Guardsmen present at the station has shown any adverse health effects, said Amy Bissell, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

The one who was outside during the flyover checked himself into the hospital overnight as a precaution and was released Tuesday, she said.

The same type of powdered fertilizer is commonly applied to timberland from planes around this time of year, said Wes Allen, executive director of the Mississippi Agricultural Aviation Association.

Accidental drift of the powder is not unusual and generally is not a cause for concern because the fertilizer doesn't pose any health risks, Allen said.

The flyover followed a Friday incident about 170 miles upriver. In that case, a crop duster sprayed a mist over a towboat and its 17 barges of coal. No one was apparently harmed in that incident, either.

Allen said the owners and pilots of crop-dusting planes he has spoken with are horrified by the tugboat incident, and hope the public will not jump to conclusions about the industry.

"We are responsible people, and it is totally out of character for somebody to do something like this," he said.

Investigators ruled out anthrax in final tests in the towboat case, said Chris Sparkman, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Agriculture and Commerce.

But officials also ruled out the common farm applicators sodium chlorate and paraquat, which investigators had suspected, Sparkman said. A series of "elimination" tests will continue.

Crop dusters often use smoke to lay out field parameters and help with wind speed and directions, and Sparkman said it's possible the crop duster passed over the towboat near Rosedale with his smoker on.

The tugboat and crew of 11 had been quarantined for 60 hours as a precaution. They were released Sunday night after no health threat was detected.

Edwin Dyess, head of the state's Board of Plant Industry, said it was unlikely that crop dusters would be grounded again like they were in September unless there was "a rash of incidents."

But with state and federal officials already pushing to reform the way crop dusters are regulated and the bioterrorism scare sweeping the nation, the two incidents "couldn't have happened to us at a worse time," Allen said.

State officials said they consider the towboat an unlikely terrorism target and point out that accidental flyovers are common with crop dusters — 147 were reported last year. But the response to the Coast Guard report warranted attention, officials said.

"With the Coast Guard situation you have to take things a little more seriously," Bissell said. "The Coast Guard could be considered a threat area because it's military."

The FBI is continuing to investigate both incidents but would not release information about the cases.

---

Staff Writer James V. Walker contributed to this report.

---