A daily pick of news events that happened on this day in history from the pages of Gulf News dated November 18, 1978.
Disaster plane 'was flying too low'
A DC-8 carrying Muslim pilgrims was flying too low what it crashed approaching Colombo airport, killing more than 180 people. The plane was carrying 249 Indonesian Muslim pilgrims home from Makkah, came down in a coconut plantation 22 miles north of Colombo.
Click here to view a Gulf News page on November 18, 1978(pdf)
Sri Lanka Defence Ministry official said that air traffic controllers had asked the Icelandic Airways chartered plane to fly at 650 feet when it came within two miles of the airport. When they noticed the plane was flying too low, they gave a warning, but soon afterwards they heard an explosion and they knew it had crashed.
Raft race carnival all the way
It was carnival all the way as defending champions Costain in a hotly disputed decision, retained their title as Raft Race Champions at Mina Seyahi.
There was fun, there were thrills and there were some spills as 120 rafts battled their way round the pleasure harbour course under blue skies and a blazing sun. A protest that the Costain raft did not comply with the rules was upheld in principle by the race organisers but because it was lodged after the racing was over, Costain were allowed to keep their title.
Striking dockers 'cripple' major Indian ports
Striking Indian dockers claimed to have crippled operations at half a dozen major ports around the country, but this was disputed by port officials.
Union leaders said the nationwide strike, to press for wage increases and other demands, was a total success. Work at Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Kandla, Mormugoa and Visakhapatnam was paralysed. But port officials said the strike was only partial in most of the affected ports. Cargo handling operations were not affected, they said.
Brezhnev says Russia can destroy America
Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev appealed to a visiting group of US Senators to support a new strategic arms limitation agreement and warned that the Soviet Union could destroy the United States in a nuclear conflict.
Democratic Senator Thomas Eagleton told reporters Brezhnev stressed his desire for a summit meeting "anywhere" with President Carter for the signing of a new strategic arms accord (SALT-2). Eagleton quoted the 71year-old Soviet leader as saying: "Carter and I have just a couple of minutes to let the missiles fly. The Soviet Union will never let them fly first, but if the US does we can still destroy the United States."
