Bomb found on US-bound cargo planes

A suspected bomb was found on Friday in Britain on board a cargo plane headed to the United States, where authorities were investigating other cargo flights for potentially suspicious items in New York, Philadelphia and other cities.
The plane, a United Parcel Service (UPS.N) flight that stopped in Britain while traveling to Chicago from Yemen, was carrying an ink toner cartridge converted into a bomb. An FBI official told that initial tests in Britain revealed no explosives.
British police said the plane carrying the suspicious package was being checked at a distribution center at East Midlands Airport, some 160 miles (260 km) north of London.
The United States has stepped up its training, intelligence and military aid to Yemen after a failed plot to blow up a U.S. passenger plane on Christmas Day 2009, for which the Yemeni wing of al-Qaeda claimed responsibility.
UPS said two of its other planes were being checked in Philadelphia, as well as another that landed in Newark, New Jersey. Local media reported cargo planes also had been stopped for investigation in Portland, Maine, and at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Eight dead as cargo plane crashes near Kabul

A cargo plane operating on behalf of a US-based company crashed into mountains and burst into flames near the Afghan capital on Tuesday, killing all eight crew on board, officials said.
The plane had taken off from Bagram, one of the largest US-run military bases in Afghanistan, 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of Kabul.
Local aviation officials said the plane was carrying goods on behalf of the US-led NATO force in Afghanistan, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), but an ISAF spokesman said only that he was checking those reports.
Officials gave no immediate word on the cause of the crash, which happened after dark. Five months ago an Afghan passenger jet crashed into treacherous mountains near Kabul during bad weather.
A C-130 cargo plane operated by National Air Cargo was on its way from Bagram to Kabul, Mohammad Yaqoob Rasouli, the director of Kabul International Airport, told. It disappeared from radar screens at 19:25 (1455 GMT) six miles on the radar screen northeast of Kabul airport, Rasouli told.
The tower saw a fire in the same location and we also got telephone confirmation from the area of a crash, he said, adding The plane had eight crew members: six Filipinos, one Indian and one Kenyan. Search operations have already begun.
A spokesman for Afghanistan’s ministry of transport and civil aviation told that all crew on board perished. They are all dead, said the spokesman, Nangyalai Qalatwal.

Small Plane Crashes in Bahamas, 8 killed

NASSAU: A small plane crashed in a lake in the Bahamas on Tuesday, killing at least eight people shortly after takeoff from the international airport in the capital Nassau, local authorities said.

An official at the Bahamas civil aviation authority said the plane, a twin-prop Cessna 402, which can carry up to 10 people, came down in Nassau’s Lake Killarney just east of the airport on New Providence Island after setting off on a flight to another island in the southern Bahamas.

The eight confirmed victims of the crash included one man who died of his injuries after being taken to a local hospital, police said.

They said an investigation was under way to determine the cause of the accident.

Bomb hoax: PIA plane made emergency landing in Stockholm

A PIA flight PK-782 with 273 passengers on board destined for Karachi from Toronto, Canada has made an emergency landing in Stockholm due to bomb hoax. A suspected person has been arrested from the plane.
An Arlanda airport spokesman said the plane was on its way from Toronto to Karachi when the pilot requested permission to land in Stockholm.
He decided to land the plane after Canadian police had received a tipoff that a passenger carrying explosives was on board.
The Boeing 777 remains on the runway as police officials search it for evidence of explosives. A police spokeswoman clarified that the plane was not being evacuated, but that the suspicious passenger would be apprehended.

20 injured as Indonesian airplane skids off runway

JAKARTA: A passenger plane with about 100 people on board skidded off the end of an airport runway while landing in heavy rain Tuesday on Indonesia”s remote Papua province, injuring some 20 people, officials said.

The Boeing 737, operated by Merpati Nusantara Airline, was landing at Manokwari airport when it slid into a small canal at the end of the runway, police official Didi Zaenal said. He said the plane flew in from the nearby city of Sorong.

About 20 passengers, most with bruises and some with broken bones, were taken to a local hospital for treatment, paramedics and hospital officials said. There were no reports of fatalities.

Plane Crash lands in Iran, 46 Injured

TEHRAN: An Iranian passenger plane caught fire on Sunday as it was landing in the northeastern city of Mashhad, injuring at least 46 people on board, state television reported.

Iranian officials told local news networks that the rear end of the Russian-built Tupolev 154 plane belonging to Taban Airline caught fire as the aircraft was landing at Mashhad airport.

“The plane went off the runaway upon landing and part of its rear end broke away,” state television quoted as saying Javad Erfanian, head of disaster management of Khorasan Razavi province of which Mashhad is the capital.

“Forty-six people have been injured, but most of them are not serious.”

The English language state-owned television said the plane, traveling from Abadan located in southwest Iran to Mashhad, had 157 passengers on board. Erfanian said the plane also had 13 crew members on board.

Reza Jafarzadeh, spokesman of Iranian civil aviation, said the plane had left Abadan on Saturday, but bad weather in Mashhad led to the aircraft landing in the central city of Isfahan for the night before it took off again for Mashhad early Sunday.

“The captain had a critical patient on board and so had do an emergency landing (in Mashhad) which is why the aircraft met with an accident,” he was quoted as saying on the website of state television.

---

Plane Crash lands in Iran, 46 Injured was first posted on January 24, 2010 at 11:39 am.

Brittany Murphy Investigation Leak

Brittany Murphy Investigation Leak latest breaking news :- County Coroner Office are looking into how details of how an investigator’s report on the actress’ death was leaked to TMZ.com, Brittany Murphy’s sudden death at age 32.

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter says he doesn’t know how the AOL-owned celebrity-centered website obtained a confidential report that included a trove of info on the final day of the 32-year-old star’s life; including the desperate attempt by her mother and husband to save her life. TMZ’s report stated the investigator, who is only identified by last name, noted numerous bottles of prescription medications were found in Murphy’s name at the Hollywood Hills home where she collapsed Sunday.

Less than 36 hours after Brittany Murphy’s death County Coroners have completed the autopsy on her body, however the determination of cause of death will be deferred, pending the rest of the other tests and it could take eight weeks. A famous website claimed that excessive use of medicines caused the death of Murphy, whereas police reject the claim of website. Different type medicines were found in the Murphy’s room which was taken in the name of her Husband and Mother- in- law, according to website. Murphy’s neighbors says that she died before taken to hospital. According to Murphy’s mother, her daughter was diabetic and was sick for last few days. Murphy’s death was natural, says Police.

---

Brittany Murphy Investigation Leak was first posted on December 23, 2009 at 12:52 am.

American Airlines Flight 331

American Airlines Flight 331, An American Airlines plane skidded off the runway and broke in two Tuesday night after landing in Kingston, Jamaica, injuring at least 40 people.
Airline spokesman Charley Wilson said in a short statement there were no immediate reports of fatalities in the crash that occured shortly after 10 p.m. local time Tuesday.

Wilson said the plane was almost a full flight. He said the Boeing 737 normally carries 140 passengers plus crew.

Additional details were not available, but passengers at Norman Manley International Airport told local media that Flight 331 had just arrived from Miami in heavy rain when the crash occurred.

The flight apparently originated in Washington, D.C.

An airport official said the plane overshot the runway and persons were being evacuated, with some sent to hospital.

“The plane crashed and broke almost in front of me,” said passenger Naomi Palmer to the Jamaica Observer. Palmer said she was in some pain.

---

American Airlines Flight 331 was first posted on December 23, 2009 at 12:36 pm.

Gen Sarath Fonseka Warns Military Against Dabbling in Politics

Colombo: Gen Sarath Fonseka Warns Military Against Dabbling in Politics, Amid speculation that the president of Sri Lanka Defense Gen Sarath Fonseka can fight the presidential election, the country’s army chief has warned of military personnel against meddling in politics, saying that soldiers in uniform does not are entitled to participate in political work.

Army Chief Gen Jagath Jayasuriya also made clear that action will be taken against any staff involved in political work.

“We should be partial to the government in power. All governments, at the end of his tenure to hold elections. Journal of the army or a soldier with a uniform has no right to participate in the political work with the candidates running,” Army website Jayasuriya quoted as saying.

“Any soldier or officer if it is (in violation of the consultation) will be subject to disciplinary action and faces a discharge of the Army,” he said when talking to senior military officers here last week.

“The support by the president (Mahinda Rajapaksa) and the Secretary of Defense (Gotabhaya Rajapaksa) to the victory of the war directly attributed to his victory over terrorism,” he said.

The opposition parties are courting Gen Fonseka, the war hero and man of the army, in the race in mid-presidential term polls, speculated to be held in the coming months.

“Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said there was nothing wrong with military personnel entering politics, but definitely not in uniform,” the island.

Defense Secretary Rajapaksa said the opposition seemed to be making a desperate attempt to challenge the president’s popularity, which was at the zenith of its’ “the newspaper reported.

“This is nothing but a despicable plot being hatched at the expense of the whole country,” he said.

“A Secretary of Defense angrily rejected the allegation of the opposition to the former commander of the Army (Fonseka) had been mistreated by the government,” the newspaper said.

“Let me tell you that General Fonseka was appointed as Chief of Defense (CDS), with their consent. Although I have not discussed this issue publicly before, I have no choice but to reveal what really happened,” said Rajapaksa.

The Secretary of Defense said that after taking into consideration general opinion Fonseka, the President had appointed former army chief as the CDS.

Russian Interior Ministry’s jet crash

Russian interior ministry plane with 11 crewmembers on board crashed several minutes after taking off in Moscow, Dunya News Sunday reported. “All 11 people died in the air crash,” a spokesman for the ministry’s regional centre said.

The spokesman said the plane, an Il-76 Candid strategic airlifter, bound for the city of Irkutsk, fell and caught fire about three kilometers from Mirny airport. Seven crew as well as four members from a replacement crew were on board.

Next Page »