BROOKLYN

FEDERAL INVESTIGATORS EXAMINING CONEY ISLAND PLANE CRASH

Federal investigators said yesterday they were examining the wreckage of the single-engine plane that crashed on the beach in Coney Island on Saturday, killing all four people on board.

The Cessna 172S was being used for a sightseeing tour that had taken off from the Linden Airport in New Jersey. The cause of the crash was unknown, and National Transportation Safety Board lead investigator Todd Gunther told reporters his agency was examining everything, including the plane’s systems and the pilot’s performance. Police identified the passengers as Courtney Block, 38, and his daughter, Danielle Block, 18, both of Benwood, W. Va., and family friend Joel-Beth Marie Gross, 18, of McMechen, W.Va. The pilot was Endrew Allen, 32, of Queens, police said. The teenagers, both honor students, were scheduled to graduate tomorrow.

– Associated Press

SCHUMER JOINS COMMUNITY GROUPS AT RADIAC PROTEST RALLY

Senator Schumer joined Chasidic, Hispanic, and other community leaders yesterday at a rally to oppose the renewal of a radioactive and hazardous-waste storage facility’s permit to operate in a densely populated Brooklyn neighborhood.

The Radiac Research Corporation, which has a facility on Kent Avenue along the Williamsburg waterfront, stores radioactive waste, including uranium and plutonium, and other hazardous materials for short periods before shipping them off to recycling, treatment, and disposal facilities. Radiac, operating on the site since 1977, is only one block away from an elementary school, P.S. 84, and 130,000 people live within a 1-mile radius, according to officials.

A terrorist attack or fire at the facility could be catastrophic for the neighborhood, Mr. Schumer, a Democrat of Brooklyn, said.

“The bottom line is that Radiac is a ready-made dirty bomb that has yet to be detonated,” he said in a statement.

Today at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., the Department of Environmental Conservation holds public hearings on the status of the facility’s nuclear-storage permit. The department will make its final decision on Radiac’s permit in June.

– Special to the Sun

CITYWIDE

UFT COULD GET ITS OWN CHARTER SCHOOL

Tomorrow, the New York City teachers union could receive permission to run its own charter school.

The charter-school committee of the board of the State University of New York is scheduled to discuss the charter school proposed by the United Federation of Teachers today. The full SUNY board could vote on the charter school as soon as tomorrow, and the school could open this fall. The president of the teachers union, Randi Weingarten, said she is “cautiously optimistic” that the school will win approval.

Ms. Weingarten mused for years about starting up a charter school to show what teachers could do if left to their own devices. Last year, the union hired away one of the Department of Education’s top charter-school experts to formulate a proposal. The union would like to start two charter schools, both located in East New York.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MANHATTAN

MUSICIANS UNION AUTHORIZES STRIKE AGAINST BALLET THEATER

A musicians’ union voted to authorize a strike after unsuccessful contract negotiations with the American Ballet Theater, whose eight-week season begins today.

The union, Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, called a vote to authorize the power to strike after the theater offered lower salary increases to musicians than the increases given to dancers, as well as the inclusion in their contract of the right to use an orchestra machine to replace musicians, according to a statement from the union. Musicians have pledged to play at a gala fund-raising event tonight at the Metropolitan Opera, but with the union authorized to call a strike, the rest of this week’s events – and ultimately, the rest of the season – could be in jeopardy. Tomorrow, the company is slated to perform “Don Quixote” at the Metropolitan Opera.

– Special to the Sun