News In Brief

Mondale staff spoofs Hart with 'takeoff' on Czech jet

Walter Mondale's campaign staff, poking fun at Sen. Gary Hart, distributed signs aboard the campaign plane Monday saying, ''Nestrilejte, My Jsme Civilisti'' - Czech for ''Don't shoot. We are civilians.''

Answering a question in Sunday's debate among the Democratic candidates, Mr. Hart said he would shoot down a Czech airliner straying into US airspace if the occupants were in uniform. ''If not, I'd let it go,'' Hart said.

Dayton Duncan, Mr. Mondale's assistant press secretary, made the mock ''emergency test'' announcement, saying that fighters had been sighted off the wing of ''Air Mondale.'' All occupants in uniform should lie face down in the aisle, Mr. Duncan said. Those in starboard window seats should display the ''emergency sign,'' he said.

''This was only a test,'' Duncan concluded. ''If this had been a real emergency, this instruction would have been given in the Czech language.''