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Tag: accident investigations

  • Two pilots were killed in a collision at a Reno air show | CNN

    Two pilots were killed in a collision at a Reno air show | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Two pilots were killed when their planes collided Sunday during the National Championship Air Races and Air Show in Reno, Nevada, organizers of the event said.

    “Around 2:15 p.m. this afternoon, at the conclusion of the T-6 Gold race, upon landing, two planes collided and it has been confirmed that both pilots are deceased,” the Reno Air Racing Association said in a statement posted on Facebook.

    In a later statement, organizers identified the two pilots as Nick Macy and Chris Rushing.

    “Both expertly skilled pilots and Gold winners in the T-6 Class, Macy piloted Six-Cat and Rushing flew Baron’s Revenge,” the updated statement said. “Families of both pilots have been notified and support services are onsite as they deal with this tragedy.”

    No other injuries were reported, it added.

    The remainder of the races were canceled, organizers said.

    The National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement sent to CNN it is investigating the cause of the crash. The agency, which is leading the probe, identified the two aircraft as a North American T-6G and North American AT-6B, and said they had just completed the race.

    “The wreckage of each plane came to rest one-half mile from each other,” NTSB said, adding the wreckage will be taken to an off-site facility for analysis.

    Event organizers said they are cooperating with the NTSB, the Federal Aviation Administration and “all local authorities to identify the cause of the accident and ensure that all of our pilots, spectators and volunteers have the necessary support during this time.”

    The event, which has been running for more than five decades, prides itself in being an “institution for northern Nevada and aviation enthusiasts from around the world,” according to its website. Over the past decade, the event has brought more than a million spectators and “generated more than $750 million” for the regional economy, according to the site.

    This is not the event’s first fatal crash. A pilot was killed last year in a plane crash during a race and In 2011, 11 people were killed and more than 60 others injured when a plane veered out of control and slammed into spectators.

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  • US fighter jets responded to an aircraft with an unresponsive pilot near DC. The aircraft ultimately crashed in Virginia | CNN

    US fighter jets responded to an aircraft with an unresponsive pilot near DC. The aircraft ultimately crashed in Virginia | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    US F-16 fighter jets caused a sonic boom across the Washington, DC, region Sunday as they scrambled to reach an unresponsive aircraft that ultimately crashed in Virginia, officials said.

    A US official said the F-16s did not shoot down the aircraft and that it is typical for the Federal Aviation Administration to call in jets if someone is flying unsafely.

    The pilot of the civilian aircraft was unresponsive as the F-16 fighter jets attempted to make contact, according to a news release from the Continental US North American Aerospace Defense Command Region.

    The F-16 jets were “authorized to travel at supersonic speeds,” which resulted in the sonic boom heard in the Washington, DC, area.

    The F-16s used flares “in an attempt to draw attention from the pilot,” the release added.

    The civilian aircraft, a Cessna 560 Citation V, was intercepted by the NORAD jets around 3:20 p.m. and ultimately crashed near the George Washington National Forest in Virginia.

    “The pilot was unresponsive and the Cessna subsequently crashed near the George Washington National Forest, Virginia,” the release said. “NORAD attempted to establish contact with the pilot until the aircraft crashed.”

    Four people were on board the aircraft, which overshot its planned destination by 315 miles before crashing, sources familiar with the investigation said.

    Search efforts were still underway by state and local authorities Sunday evening, Virginia State Police told CNN.

    State police were notified around 3:50 p.m. of a possible aircraft crash in the Staunton/Blue Ridge Parkway region, the agency said.

    Nothing has been located at this time, it added.

    The National Transportation Safety Board said on Twitter it was investigating the crash.

    The military aircraft caused a sonic boom heard across the Washington, DC, metropolitan region.

    “We are aware of reports from communities throughout the National Capital Region of a loud ‘boom’ this afternoon,” DC Homeland Security & Emergency Management said on Twitter.

    There is no threat at this time, the agency added.

    Earlier, the FAA said in a statement that a Cessna Citation crashed in southwest Virginia Sunday.

    The aircraft took off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and was bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York.

    The aircraft crashed into a mountainous terrain in a “sparsely populated area”, according to FAA.

    The US Capitol Complex was placed on “an elevated alert” when the small aircraft flew near the area on Sunday afternoon, according to a statement from US Capitol Police.

    “This afternoon, our officials were working closely with our federal partners to monitor an unresponsive pilot who was flying an airplane near the National Capital Region. The U.S. Capitol Complex was briefly placed on an elevated alert until the airplane left the area,” the statement said.

    The US Secret Service said they did not alter their posture for keeping President Joe Biden secure after the incident. Biden was golfing at the Andrews Air Force Base golf course near Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

    The incident “had no impact on Secret Service,” spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a Sunday statement.

    The President has been briefed on the incident, according to a White House official.

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  • How could four children survive a plane crash in the Amazon? A new report offers clues | CNN

    How could four children survive a plane crash in the Amazon? A new report offers clues | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    One month after four children vanished into the Colombian Amazon, a preliminary report by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority offers clues to how they could have survived the devastating airplane crash that killed every adult onboard.

    The extraordinary story of the missing children has drawn intense interest across Colombia and internationally, as a massive military-led search operation continues in the forest.

    The ill-fated flight on May 1 carried pilot Hernando Murcia Morales, Yarupari indigenous leader Herman Mendoza Hernández, an indigenous woman named Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia, and her four children, the eldest 13 years old and youngest just 11 months.

    Soon after the early morning take-off from the remote community of Araracuara, the pilot radioed to air traffic control that he would look for an emergency landing spot, according to the report.

    “…Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, 2803, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, I have the engine at minimum, I’m going to look for a field,” he said.

    The pilot later updated that the engine had regained power, and continued on his way – only to hit trouble again less than an hour later: “…Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, 2803, 2803, The engine failed me again… I am going to look for a river… I have a river on the right…”

    This time the problem did not improve.

    Air traffic control later tracked the plane veering right, the report said. Then it went off the radar.

    Despite air and water searches that immediately followed the incident, per the report, the plane would not be found until more than two weeks later – time that may yet prove significant in the fates of the plane’s passengers, as investigators continue to probe the crash and its aftermath.

    Five days after the plane’s disappearance, the Colombian military deployed special forces units to search the ground on May 6. Ten days later, on the night of May 16, they finally spotted the wreckage.

    The three adults were found dead at the scene. But all four children were missing entirely – leading rescuers to presume that they had survived, evacuated the plane and were trekking the jungle on their own, and spurring a renewed search effort.

    Investigators’ photos of the crash scene show the raised tail of a small plane painted in still-crisp blue and white, its nose and front smashed into the jungle terrain. The report says the plane likely first hit the trees of the dense forest, tearing the engine and propeller off, followed by a vertical drop to the forest floor.

    “Detailed inspection of the wreckage indicated that, during tree landing, there was a first impact against the trees; this blow caused the separation of the engine with its cover and propeller from the aircraft structure,” the report says. “Due to the strong deceleration and loss of control in the first impact, the aircraft fell vertically and collided with the ground.”

    The impact against the trees caused the separation of the engine and propeller from the aircraft structure, according to the report.

    Though it notes that forensic examinations are ongoing, the report suggests that the adults seated in the front of the plane cabin suffered fatal injuries from the crash. “The diagram of injuries caused by the accident registered fatal injuries in the occupants located in positions 1 (Pilot), 2 (male adult occupant) and 3 (female adult occupant).

    But the rear seats, where the older children were located, were less affected by the impact, according to the report, offering a potential explanation for their survival and signs of life – including a baby bottle, a used diaper, and footprints – later found in the jungle by search and rescue teams.

    Two of three seats occupied by the children remained in place and upright despite the crash, according to the report, while one child’s seat came loose from the plane structure.

    The infant may have been held in the mother’s arms, according to the report.

    The children “were not located in the area of the accident, and there were no signs that they had been injured, at least not seriously. For this reason, an intense search began in order to find them,” it says.

    A total of 119 Colombian special forces troops and 73 indigenous scouts have so far been deployed to comb the area, according to the report.

    Relatives have previously said that the children knew the jungle well – but worried whether they would understand that the outside world had not given up on them.

    “Maybe they are hiding,” said Fidencio Valencia, the children’s grandfather, speaking to Colombia’s Caracol TV earlier this month.

    “Maybe they don’t realize that they are looking for them; they are children.”

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  • 3 soldiers dead, 1 injured after Army Apache helicopters collide midair while returning from a training flight in Alaska | CNN

    3 soldiers dead, 1 injured after Army Apache helicopters collide midair while returning from a training flight in Alaska | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Three soldiers were killed and another was injured when two AH-64 Apache helicopters collided Thursday as they were flying back from a military training flight near Healy, Alaska, US Army officials said.

    Two of the soldiers died at the scene and the third died while being transported to a hospital, according to a release from the US Army’s 11th Airborne Division.

    The names of the deceased are being withheld until 24 hours after their families have been notified, the release said.

    The crash occurred about 100 miles south of Fort Wainwright, where the helicopters are based as part of the 1st Attack Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment.

    “This is an incredible loss for these soldiers’ families, their fellow soldiers, and for the division,” Maj. Gen. Brian Eifler, commanding general of the 11th Airborne Division, said in the release. “Our hearts and prayers go out to their families, friends and loved ones, and we are making the full resources of the Army available to support them.”

    US Army officials said Friday that the surviving soldier is in stable condition at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.

    The deadly collision comes less than a month after nine soldiers were killed when two HH-60 Black Hawk helicopters crashed during a nighttime training mission near Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the Army said. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

    “The Fort Wainwright community is one of the tightest military communities I’ve seen in my 32 years of service. I have no doubt they will pull together during this exceptional time of need and provide comfort to our families of our fallen,” Eifler added.

    Fort Wainwright’s Emergency Assistance Center is available to “provide support for families, friends and fellow soldiers of those involved in the crash,” the release said.

    The crash will be investigated by an Army Combat Readiness Center team, the release said.

    Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy took to Twitter on Friday to send “thoughts and prayers” to the soldiers involved in the incident.

    “My heart breaks for the family of the 3 soldiers who were killed. We pray for the injured soldier to be treated and return home safely,” he wrote.

    Correction: A previous version of this story misstated where the crash happened. It was near Healy, Alaska.

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  • These are the deaths and investigations connected to the Murdaugh family | CNN

    These are the deaths and investigations connected to the Murdaugh family | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced former South Carolina attorney, was sentenced to life in prison earlier this month after he was found guilty of murdering his wife and son – the most serious and grisliest of the allegations faced by the scion of what was once one of the state’s most influential dynasties.

    The murder convictions, which Murdaugh has appealed, came almost two years after he called police to report he had found his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, and his grown son, Paul Murdaugh, shot dead at their rural estate. Murdaugh said he found the bodies after returning from a visit to his mother.

    But the deaths weren’t the only ones to which the Murdaugh family name was tied. And as yearslong mysteries surrounding the family are garnering fresh attention, so are several other deaths.

    Alex Murdaugh called 911 on June 7, 2021, to report he found his wife Margaret, 52, and son Paul, 22, shot dead outside their Islandton home about an hour from Hilton Head Island, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, or SLED, said.

    Murdaugh denied involvement in their killings, even as he was buried under an avalanche of charges related to alleged financial crimes. But he was eventually indicted in July 2022 with two counts of murder and two weapons charges – to which he pleaded not guilty.

    Prosecutors argued during the trial that Murdaugh killed his wife and son to distract from and delay investigations into his alleged misdeeds, which included stealing millions of dollars from his clients and his law firm – crimes Murdaugh generally admitted to when he took the stand to testify in his own defense.

    The defense team, in the meantime, argued Murdaugh was a loving father and husband and painted a picture of a sloppy investigation.

    In the end, it did not convince the jury, which was shown a video in which Murdaugh’s voice could be heard at the scene of the killings minutes before they happened – an indication, the state said, that he had lied about his whereabouts when they were shot.

    He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Murdaugh has since appealed the convictions.

    Weeks after Murdaugh’s conviction, the family of Stephen Smith – whose body was found in the middle of a Hampton County road on July 8, 2015 – announced it would petition a court to have his body exhumed for a private autopsy as part of an effort to reexamine his death.

    “We think that he did not die on that road that fateful night,” Eric Bland, an attorney for Smith’s family, told reporters in a news conference. “We think that there was other reasons and other causes that caused his death.”

    “Our job is not to find out who did it,” he added. “That’s not what we do, we’re not law enforcement, we’re not doing a criminal case. … What we’re really trying to do is give a mother answers.”

    Authorities have not detailed any connection between Smith’s death and the Murdaugh family.

    On June 22, 2021, SLED announced it was reopening an investigation into the 19-year-old’s death based on information gathered while investigating the double homicide of Margaret and Paul Murdaugh.

    SLED has not specified what that information was but confirmed in a statement to CNN it had “made progress” in the investigation into Smith’s death. The inquiry remained “active and ongoing,” the agency said.

    According to an incident report from the South Carolina Highway Patrol’s Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team, or MAIT, Smith’s body was found in the road with blunt force trauma to the head.

    While a pathologist cited in a SLED report states that Smith appeared to have been hit by a vehicle, the responding officer referenced in MAIT’s report cited “no vehicle debris, skid marks, or injuries consistent with someone being struck by a vehicle.”

    Smith’s shoes were also both on and loosely tied, the report added, and investigators saw no evidence suggesting he was struck by a vehicle.

    Notes from investigators in the case file say that “according to family, Stephen would never have been walking in the middle of the roadway” and that he was “very skittish.”

    According to notes taken by a SLED investigator at the scene, Smith had injuries to his left arm, hand and head.

    His vehicle was found about three miles away, that report said, and added the gas tank door was open and the gas cap was hanging out on the side of the car. The vehicle’s battery was functional but the car wouldn’t start, it added.

    Smith’s death remains unsolved, but his family hopes a private autopsy will provide them a “new, unbiased look at his body and an accurate determination of his cause of death based on facts,” according to a GoFundMe page that raised more than $60,000.

    Mallory Beach was one of six people in the boat when it crashed.

    Mallory Beach was a 19-year-old woman killed in a February 24, 2019, boat crash.

    Beach was ejected from the boat – along with a male – when the boat struck a bridge, according to an affidavit from an officer who was supervising the scene.

    According to a report from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, a doctor who treated Paul Murdaugh after the boat crash reported that Murdaugh was “clearly intoxicated” and slurring his speech.

    Beach’s body was found about a week after the crash by volunteer searchers, according to a Department of Natural Resources accident report.

    Three people who were on the boat told investigators that Paul Murdaugh was driving, but another passenger named a different person who was also aboard that night as the driver, according to the affidavit.

    At the time of his death, Paul Murdaugh was facing charges including boating under the influence, causing great bodily harm, and causing death in connection to the boat crash.

    Gloria Satterfield died in February 2018.

    SLED has also announced it was opening a criminal investigation into the February 26, 2018, death of the Murdaughs’ longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, 57, and the handling of her estate.

    Satterfield was the Murdaugh family housekeeper for more than two decades before dying after what was described as a “trip and fall accident” at the Murdaugh home, according to Bland, the attorney, who is also representing her estate.

    Investigators open criminal investigation into 2018 death of Murdaugh family’s housekeeper

    SLED opened its investigation based on a request from the Hampton County coroner that highlighted inconsistencies in the ruling of Satterfield’s manner of death, the agency said in September 2021, as well as information gathered during SLED’s other ongoing investigations involving Alex Murdaugh.

    Satterfield’s death was “not reported to the coroner at the time, nor was an autopsy performed,” the coroner’s request to SLED said. Additionally, her manner of death was ruled “natural,” which was “inconsistent with injuries sustained in a trip and fall accident,” the coroner said.

    SLED announced in December 2022 it would seek to exhume Satterfield’s remains, saying it had sought and received the permission of the housekeeper’s family.

    In December 2021, Murdaugh agreed to a $4.3 million settlement with Satterfield’s family, stemming from the alleged misappropriation of funds they should have received after, according to affidavits released by SLED, Murdaugh coordinated with the family to sue himself and seek an insurance settlement.

    In the aftermath of Satterfield’s death, a $500,000 wrongful death claim was filed against Alex Murdaugh on behalf of her estate, Bland said. But the estate did not receive any of the $500,000 owed as the result of a wrongful death settlement in 2018, Bland added.

    Bland has told CNN he does not believe Satterfield was murdered, but he does not want to rule anything out.

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  • Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg cites ‘uptick’ in aviation incidents at FAA safety summit reviewing ‘serious close calls’ | CNN

    Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg cites ‘uptick’ in aviation incidents at FAA safety summit reviewing ‘serious close calls’ | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday there has been an “uptick” in recent aviation incidents and called on participants at a Federal Aviation Administration safety summit to help find the “root causes” of the issues.

    “We are particularly concerned because we have seen an uptick in serious close calls,” Buttigieg said in his opening remarks, referring to a series of near collisions on runways across the US.

    The summit comes after the FAA said it was investigating another close call between commercial airliners. The most recent close call was at Reagan National Airport near Washington, DC – the seventh since the start of this year.

    On March 7, Republic Airways Flight 4736 crossed a runway, without clearance, that United Airlines Flight 2003 was using for takeoff, according to a preliminary review, the FAA said. The United pilot had just been cleared for takeoff, the agency said.

    “An air traffic controller noticed the situation and immediately canceled the takeoff clearance for the United flight,” the FAA said.

    The FAA safety summit in McLean, Virginia, is the first of its kind since 2009 and kicks off a sweeping safety review the agency is conducting in the wake of the incursions.

    “Today is about the entire system, which means it’s about all of us,” Buttigieg said at the summit’s opening on Wednesday. The summit includes safety investigators, industry representatives, union leaders, and others.

    Buttigieg said Wednesday’s summit is the first in a series of coordinated events the FAA will conduct to find out what’s working well and what “new steps” need to be taken to ensure safety.

    Air travel has had a strong safety record and is the safest form of travel, Buttigieg said, but “we dare not” take that record for granted.

    The chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board told participants in the summit that the safety agency has made seven recommendations on runway collisions that have not been enacted.

    “One is 23 years old and still appropriate today on technology warning pilots of an impending collision,” chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said.

    “How many times are we going to have to issue the same recommendations over and over and over again?” she asked.

    Homendy said she’s already found one common issue with the six runway incursions they are investigating. In each case, the cockpit voice recorder, known as one of the black boxes, was overwritten, preventing investigators from hearing what took place on the flight deck.

    “All federal agencies here today need to ask: Are we doing everything possible to make our skies safer? We’ve been asking ourselves that very question at the NTSB,” she said.

    Nick Calio, president and CEO of Airlines for America, the trade association representing the major airlines, told the summit, “There’s constant self-evaluation always going on.”

    Calio said the airlines are looking at their data to try to find ways to make aviation safer so that close calls on runways, like those under investigation by the NTSB, don’t happen.

    “I don’t want to speculate a lot on what’s happened there, because they’re all under investigation. And we’re all trying to determine what is going on. Is this a trend? Is this a pattern?” he said.

    Rich Santa, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association union, cited a lack of staffing in air traffic control towers as a potential culprit.

    “Unfortunately, we have a staffing issue right now, as air traffic controllers. We are 1,200 certified professional controllers less now than we were 10 years ago,” he said at the summit. “It’s time for us to accurately and adequately staff the facilities.”

    Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen told the summit the agency is “continuing to hire” and is on pace to hire 1,500 controllers this year and another 1,800 next year.

    The NTSB is investigating the string of runway incursions involving commercial airliners. The near-collisions on US runways also have prompted federal safety investigators to open a sweeping review.

    Last month, a Southwest passenger jet and a FedEx cargo plane came as close as 100 feet from colliding at an Austin, Texas, airport, and it was a pilot – not air traffic controllers – who averted disaster, according to Homendy.

    In January, there was an alarming close call similar to this latest one. A Delta Air Lines flight was taking off from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport when air traffic controllers “noticed another aircraft crossing the runway in front of the departing jetliner,” the FAA said in a statement.

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  • On eve of safety summit, FAA investigates another runway close call | CNN

    On eve of safety summit, FAA investigates another runway close call | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating yet another close call between commercial airliners, this time at Reagan National Airport near Washington, DC – the seventh since the start of this year.

    On March 7, Republic Airways Flight 4736 crossed a runway, without clearance, that United Airlines Flight 2003 was using for takeoff, according to a preliminary review, the FAA said. The United pilot had just been cleared for takeoff from the runway, the agency said.

    “An air traffic controller noticed the situation and immediately canceled the takeoff clearance for the United flight,” the FAA said.

    Recordings accessed from LiveATC.net show air traffic controllers in the tower exclaiming, “United 2003 cancel takeoff clearance!” The crew of the United flight responded, “Aborting takeoff, United 2003.”

    The pilot of the Republic flight had been cleared to cross a different runway, “but turned on the wrong taxiway,” the FAA said.

    The news of yet another close call comes ahead of Wednesday’s FAA safety summit, the first of its kind since 2009. The summit kicks off a sweeping safety review that the agency is conducting in the wake of these incursions.

    Last month, a Southwest passenger jet and a FedEx cargo plane came as close as 100 feet from colliding at an Austin, Texas, airport, and it was a pilot – not air traffic controllers – who averted disaster, according to Jennifer Homendy, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

    And in January, there was an alarming close call similar to this latest one. A Delta Air Lines flight was taking off from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport when air traffic controllers “noticed another aircraft crossing the runway in front of the departing jetliner,” the FAA said in a statement.

    “S–t!” exclaimed the controller from the tower of John F. Kennedy International Airport on Friday night. “Delta 1943 cancel takeoff clearance!”

    The Delta plane “stopped its takeoff roll approximately 1,000 feet before reaching the point where American Airlines Flight 106, a Boeing 777, had crossed from an adjacent taxiway,” the FAA said.

    The NTSB – which is investigating the six other runway incursions involving commercial airliners – told CNN it is aware of the latest incident but has not yet launched an investigation.

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  • What’s going on with all the runway close calls | CNN Politics

    What’s going on with all the runway close calls | CNN Politics

    A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.



    CNN
     — 

    There have been six close calls on US runways this year, which has led to a fair amount of news coverage, some alarm among the flying public and a lot of calls for answers – including from the acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration Billy Nolen, who testified on Capitol Hill this week.

    Unable to explain the spike, Nolen told lawmakers the agency wants to get to the bottom of things at a safety summit planned for next week. There are also specific investigations into each incident in Boston; Burbank, California; Austin, Texas; Honolulu; New York; and Sarasota, Florida.

    I talked to CNN’s Pete Muntean, who not only covers aviation but is also a pilot and flight instructor, for his perspective on what the heck is going on.

    Our conversation, conducted by phone, is below. Stick with it for an interesting bonus story on how low-flying planes are used to find poachers in Africa.

    WOLF: Six close calls in recent weeks. Are these all distinct events? Or should we view them as one larger issue?

    MUNTEAN: There’s definitely a constant theme because they’re the same type of event, which is officially known as a runway incursion. It is where two airplanes essentially get in the way of one another on or near the runway.

    These types of events can range from really minor to more egregious. What we saw at JFK in New York in January, that had to be one of the more egregious ones. The air traffic controller had to swoop in and stop a flight that was barreling down the runway toward a crossing, taxiing (Boeing) triple seven from taking off.

    That is a more extreme, severe example. There have been some examples where the airplanes get within a few hundred feet of one another, maybe as close as 100 feet. One of the cases like in Austin.

    But they’re not really caused, necessarily, by the same thing. That’s, of course, something that investigators will look at.

    (On Wednesday) the acting head of the FAA on Capitol Hill said that if there are dots to connect, they’ll connect them in this safety summit next week, although it doesn’t seem like there was any real common trigger. No common cause.

    RELATED: FAA to conduct sweeping safety review after multiple incidents

    WOLF: Who is supposed to keep these from happening? Is it the air traffic controllers? Is it the pilots? How is it supposed to work?

    MUNTEAN: There are multiple different layers of safeguards in place in the air traffic system, especially at these busy airports where there are a lot of airliners coming in and out in a lot of varying conditions, a lot of different times of day.

    Some of the responsibility falls on air traffic control. Of course, it’s their job to keep airplanes from running into one another. Some of the responsibility falls on the flight crew to keep it so that they follow the instructions of air traffic control, that they remain vigilant all the time, if they’re taxiing across runways or taking off from a runway that’s crisscrossing with another one as they’re about to land.

    The good news is that in commercial aviation in the US – which has a stellar track record, by the way – there are two trained pilots at all times. And there are a lot of eyeballs essentially making it so that these things don’t happen.

    The pilots can intercede at any point, and in some cases they have. They’ve just essentially called their own go-arounds to make it so that they don’t come in contact with an airplane. In some cases, the air traffic controllers will call it. The onus is on a few different layers here.

    I’m a pilot, but I just did a demonstration with a former NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) investigator at a busy airport, Dulles (in Virginia), and it begs pointing out that some of the safeguards are as simple as paint on the runway and taxiways to remind pilots not to taxi too close to the runway. Some of it is in the phraseology that’s used on the radio. Some of it is in the procedures and training the pilots get.

    I think every pilot that’s out there now – and if you talk to professional pilots this is something that weighs on them – this has been a chronic problem for aviation for a while. But now, because of these headlines, it’s especially top of mind for pilots and air traffic controllers and regulators and safety advocates.

    WOLF: You said it’s a chronic problem. Is there any indication or any data to suggest this is happening more often? Or are we in the media just paying attention to it?

    MUNTEAN: I think these events are getting more attention. No doubt that these six that we have seen so far this year are extreme. Usually they don’t happen with such severity, with such frequency.

    But the FAA, at every layer of aviation from commercial aviation on down to small airplanes and private airports, they’re always trying to remind pilots to remain vigilant. Something that pilots really train for in their first flying lesson is how to behave in and respect the environment around an airport.

    In some ways, it’s like flying with a loaded gun. You have to be really, really careful.

    The reason why these are happening, one pilot told me – who’s the representative for a large union of airline pilots and a major airline – he said the system is just under so much pressure right now. There’s a lot of corporate pressure for airlines to get back on their feet after the pandemic.

    There’s a lot of new pilots flying right now, who may have matriculated from regional airlines to larger airlines. A lot of the old guard have retired. Pilots have left just because they were given voluntary leave packages as a result of the downturn of the pandemic.

    There are a ton of different factors at play.

    The fact that we’re sort of paying attention to these more just sort of highlights that nobody can ever let their guard down.

    WOLF: Is the current air traffic system that we’re using technologically up to snuff?

    MUNTEAN: I think it is. And I think the FAA would say that it is, because they have added in so many layers of technology to make it so that these incidents are avoided.

    They have technology that can sense, at some larger airports, whether or not a pilot is lined up with the wrong thing, if they were aiming for a runway but instead aimed for a taxiway to land on – which has happened before.

    They have more lighting on the pavement that warns pilots, essentially like a stoplight, to make it so they don’t go rolling across a runway as they are taxiing across one.

    There are even systems that make it so that they can sense, using radar and other technologies, where airplanes are on the ground and not just in the air. Some of these runway incursions are caused simply by airplanes being in the wrong place as they are taxiing and not necessarily in the air.

    I think the system is up to snuff. I think the FAA would say the system is up to snuff. But they’re also using this as a moment to sort of reinspect and have some introspection on the matter and whether or not they could be doing more to make it so that these problems can be avoided.

    WOLF: You already pointed out that commercial aviation in the US is incredibly safe.

    MUNTEAN: The last time there was a fatality was 2018, which was kind of a freak accident, where a person got hit on a Southwest flight by a fan blade that broke up in a jet engine.

    We’re reporting on crashes that don’t happen. These are close calls, sure, but nobody’s been hurt. Nobody’s been killed. So it kind of shows, in a way, how safe the system is.

    WOLF: Is there a spot in the system that is particularly weak? Is it takeoff or landing? What is the thing that makes pilots most nervous?

    MUNTEAN: The common theme is having so many airplanes close together. That’s sort of the inherent flaw of an airport, right? You bring in airplanes and take off and land. You may be using multiple different runways at the same time. There’s a lot of demand in the air traffic right now.

    Every airport is different, right?

    Some airports may have a lot of runways that are parallel and a lot of taxiways that are parallel to one another, like at Dulles the other day, where we went. There are three runways lined up: one left, one center and one right. They’re all headed the same direction to the north. You have to be really careful that you’re lined up with the right one.

    There are a few different things that you can do in the airplane to mitigate that and make sure that you have a safeguard of your own. But I think it really varies by the airport. In some places, there are intersecting runways. There are taxiways that have confusing turns.

    The FAA does granular looks at things like this, where they say something like this taxiway design isn’t all that great, there may be a blind spot here, as you’re taxiing you may approach this at a 45-degree angle or it could be a 90-degree angle where somebody in the cockpit can see more.

    Also when conditions are changing – we saw in the Austin incident the weather was abysmal at that time. It was very low cloud ceilings and very low visibility where the pilots were able to get an indication that there was somebody on the runway, an approaching FedEx flight and a Southwest flight that was still on the runway that hadn’t taken off yet.

    They weren’t necessarily able to see that (Southwest flight), so far as we know, by their eyeball.

    There are a lot of things at play. You can’t just say it’s any one different thing. And remember, these pilots are often going in and out of different places multiple times a day. The responsibility is on everybody.

    WOLF: Do pilots face the same sort of difficult lifestyle we’ve been hearing about for train operators?

    MUNTEAN: There’s a ton of regulation that protects pilots. We see that occasionally getting better. Even flight attendants have gotten longer rest rules recently, where they’re able to rest between trips for a longer period of time.

    There’s always friction between organized labor, work groups and the companies that they work for. A lot of times it comes down to regulators and what they are able to do for workers. Pretty much every major airline right now – their pilot groups, as well as a lot of major flight attendant groups – are going through contract negotiations with their companies.

    Some of the safety and protection, unions would say, comes from a good deal that protects not only their ability to work but also keeps pilots and passengers safe. Organized labor and unions have a lot to say about this, and they want to make sure that they are treated fairly to make it so that these incidents don’t happen.

    I just talked to Dennis Tajer, who’s the representative of the Allied Pilots Association, which represents all the American Airlines pilots, and he said this is something that we’ve kind of been pounding our fists on the podium about, we’ve said for about a year that the air traffic system and the aviation system and the airline system are just under too much pressure, and now you’re seeing the result of that.

    It’s on not only regulators like the FAA, the Department of Transportation but also companies to make sure that these major airlines – which are huge corporations – to make sure that their pilots are safe and doing the job properly with the proper amount of rest, with the proper amount of resources.

    WOLF: Right. It’s in nobody’s interest for there to be an incident.

    MUNTEAN: Everyone says safety is a top priority, of course.

    But depending on your viewpoint, safety can have a lot of different meanings.

    WOLF: It’s always been my sense that air traffic is one of the most, if not the most, government-regulated systems in the country. Unlike other areas where there might be a move toward deregulation, this is something the government controls and is going to continue to control.

    MUNTEAN: It’s super regulated because a lot of the rules are, frankly, written in blood.

    When you talk about this runway incursion issue, the landmark case is the Tenerife accident (in 1977), where KLM and Pan Am 747s that both diverted to Tenerife, an island near Spain, ran into one another and killed a bunch of people. There were some survivors, but it was a classic runway incursion incident.

    One of the airplanes was back taxiing down the runway, as the KLM crew essentially blasted off without regard for where the other airplane was. They couldn’t see it because the weather was poor.

    These regulations are often born out of horrible disasters. And I think the thing to point out here is that we have avoided disaster in these six cases, but in some cases came pretty close. It underscores why things were so regulated and also why the regulators are taking this so seriously.

    WOLF: What are you looking out for?

    MUNTEAN: I would point out these things are still under investigation. And the National Transportation Safety Board has tried to shed a lot of light on this issue. I asked Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the NTSB, why do you think these things are happening more?

    She said, well, it’s possible that these things are happening more. It’s also possible that these things are getting more attention. It doesn’t matter; it’s good that these things are being brought to the spotlight.

    That could ultimately have a huge impact on safety. Aviation is not waiting for another Tenerife. They’re taking these one-off scares and really trying to learn from them.

    WOLF: You sound very passionate about all of this.

    MUNTEAN: I love flying more than anything. The cool part of my job is I get to talk about aviation for a living, and it’s something I’m so passionate about.

    I also instruct and teach people. I just came back from this incredible trip in Kenya where I got to instruct for the Kenya Wildlife Service Airwing, flying with essentially rangers, who are also pilots, with an anti-poaching air force.

    And that was just incredibly cool, but the focus is safety. Maybe I’m a little biased, but aviation is just like something I always geek out on. It’s fun to talk about. …

    I was invited with a group of instructors to go there, and we were in a national park south of Nairobi, called Tsavo West. We flew with 19 different pilots. Three instructors from the States essentially go down and audit their flying ability and safety.

    They’re very, very good pilots. Because they fly at a few hundred feet, guarding against poachers and spotting wildlife, they don’t have a ton of margin for error. We did a lot of brush-up things with them, and they were all very appreciative, and it was a very cool and rewarding experience flying smaller airplanes.

    Those are the type of airplanes that are best suited for that mission, because they can fly low and slow and have a lot of visibility. You can’t do that in a jet.

    It’s sort of like flying into Jurassic Park, because you see elephants all the time, and we saw rhinos and more zebras than I can ever count, and giraffes. But these pilots do a really important job, and (it) was really cool to be a part of it.

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  • NTSB investigating Norfolk Southern’s safety culture after conductor is killed in accident involving dump truck in Ohio | CNN

    NTSB investigating Norfolk Southern’s safety culture after conductor is killed in accident involving dump truck in Ohio | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A Norfolk Southern conductor was killed Tuesday after being struck by a dump truck at a facility in Ohio, prompting a National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the railway’s safety culture due to the “number and significance” of recent accidents.

    The conductor, identified as 46-year-old Louis Shuster, was fatally injured early Tuesday morning at the Cleveland-Cliffs Cleveland Works property, the railroad said in a news release. It is the third incident involving the railroad in the state in just over a month.

    Shuster was struck when a dump truck carrying limestone collided with the front left side of the first car of the train. He was outside the car when he was struck, a Cleveland police spokesperson told CNN.

    Norfolk Southern is working with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, the Cleveland Police Department and Cleveland-Cliffs representatives to learn more, it said.

    The National Transportation Safety Board said on Twitter that it had sent crews to the scene.

    The NTSB said in a statement later that its safety culture probe encompasses multiple incidents and three deaths since December 2021, including the toxic East Palestine derailment and the employee killed earlier Tuesday. It is already investigating a October 28 derailment in Sandusky, Ohio.

    “The NTSB is concerned that several organizational factors may be involved in the accidents, including safety culture,” the board said in a statement. “The NTSB will conduct an in-depth investigation into the safety practices and culture of the company. At the same time, the company should not wait to improve safety and the NTSB urges it to do so immediately.”

    Norfolk Southern’s CEO is scheduled to testify before a Senate committee Thursday.

    “Norfolk Southern has been in touch with the conductor’s family and will do all it can to support them and his colleagues. We are grieving the loss of a colleague today. Our hearts go out to his loved ones during this extremely difficult time,” the railroad said.

    Shuster was member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and employed as a Norfolk Southern conductor, according to the union.

    “Lou was a passionate and dedicated union brother,” said Pat Redmond, Local Chairman of BLET Division 607. “He was always there for his coworkers. He was very active in helping veterans who worked on the railroad and veterans all across our community.”

    Shuster, a resident of Broadview Heights, Ohio, was president of BLET Division 607 in Cleveland. Shuster has a 16-year-old son and cared for his elderly parents, and was an Army veteran, the union said.

    “This was a tragic situation and it’s a devastating loss for the Shuster family as well as the members of this union,” said BLET National President Eddie Hall. “All railroad accidents are avoidable. This collision underscores the need for significant improvements in rail safety for both workers and the public.”

    Cleveland-Cliffs is a flat-rolled steel company, according to its website, and its Cleveland Works facility sits on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland.

    CNN has reached out to Cleveland-Cliffs, Cleveland police and the Ohio governor’s office for more information.

    The conductor’s death comes as Norfolk Southern is facing criticism for two recent derailments in Ohio, including one in East Palestine last month that resulted in the release and burning of a toxic chemical that left nearby residents complaining of headaches, coughing and rashes they believe are tied to the fiery crash.

    As the railroad works with the Environmental Protection Agency to remediate the site, it announced a new six-point safety plan Monday designed to help prevent similar derailments in the future.

    And in Springfield, about 200 miles southwest of East Palestine, another Norfolk Southern freight train derailed Saturday.

    The crash knocked out power and the area and resulted in a temporary shelter-in-place order for homes within 1,000 feet of the scene. Crews later determined nothing had spilled from the derailed cars and there was no environmental harm.

    Casualties, including injuries and deaths, involving railroad employees are not uncommon, according to data from the Federal Railroad Administration, which shows there were more than 13,500 incidents involving on-duty employees across the industry in 2022, including 1,060 involving Norfolk Southern employees.

    Forty-two rail employees died while on duty last year, the administration said. Five of those individuals were Norfolk Southern employees.

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  • Norfolk Southern announces new safety measures after East Palestine disaster as NTSB probes another Ohio train derailment | CNN

    Norfolk Southern announces new safety measures after East Palestine disaster as NTSB probes another Ohio train derailment | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    As federal investigators visit the site of another Norfolk Southern train derailment in Ohio, the company vowed new safety measures in response to its toxic train wreck that ravaged the town of East Palestine.

    Norfolk Southern will revamp its hot bearing detector network as part of a new six-point safety plan, the company announced Monday.

    “Hot bearing” or “hot box” detectors use infrared sensors to record the temperatures of railroad bearings as trains pass by. If they sense an overheated bearing, the detectors trigger an alarm, which notifies the train crew they should stop and inspect the rail car for a potential failure.

    After the February 3 toxic derailment in East Palestine, investigators discovered hot bearing sensors detected a wheel bearing heating up miles before it eventually failed – but didn’t alert the train’s crew until it was too late, according to a February 23 preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board.

    Currently, the average distance between detectors on the Norfolk Southern network is 13.9 miles. On Monday, the company announced it would examine every area where the distance between detectors is greater than 15 miles and would develop a plan to deploy additional detectors where needed.

    Norfolk Southern said other new safety measures would include:

    • Working with manufacturers of “multi-scan” hot bearing detectors, which are able to “scan a greater cross-section of a railcar’s bearings and wheels” to accelerate development and testing.

    • Adding 13 “acoustic bearing” detectors that analyze the acoustic signature of vibration inside the axle and would be able to identify potential problems that a visual inspection could not. These detectors would be added to “high-traffic” routes in Norfolk Southern’s core network.

    • Collaborating with Georgia Tech to advance safety inspection technology using “machine vision and algorithms powered by artificial intelligence to identify defects and needed repairs.”

    • Accelerating the installation of new inspection technology, including the use of high-resolution cameras stationed in strategic locations on its Premier Corridor, which is the train line that connects the Northeast and the Midwest and runs through East Palestine.

    About 200 miles southwest of East Palestine, NTSB investigators arrived Monday in Springfield Ohio – where a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed Saturday.

    Investigators will be “looking at the condition of the track, the mechanical condition of the train, operations, the position of the cars in the train, and signal and train control among other things,” the NTSB said in a statement. “They will also be collecting event recorder data, on-board image recorders, and will conduct interviews with the crew and other witnesses.”

    Investigators with the agency are expected to release a preliminary report in two to three weeks.

    The 212-car freight train was heading south through Clark County en route to Birmingham, Alabama, when 28 of its cars derailed – downing large power lines, knocking out power and temporarily prompting shelter-in-place orders for homes within 1,000 feet.

    Crews later determined there were no spills from the derailed cars, and authorities said there was no environmental harm.

    “There was no release of any chemical or any hazardous material to the soil, to the air, to the water,” Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Anne Vogel said Sunday.

    The cause of the derailment remains under investigation, Norfolk Southern said.

    Four of the derailed tank cars had previously been carrying diesel exhaust fluid and an additive commonly used in wastewater treatment, but they were empty when they derailed, Norfolk Southern General Manager of Operations Kraig Barner said.

    “There’s always a small residual amount left in the tanks,” Smith told CNN. “The derailed tank cars are not hazardous.”

    Those empty tankers carried residual product in “very minor amounts” that “dried very quickly,” Springfield Fire Assistant Chief Matt Smith said. He said his team checked the crash site and confirmed nothing had spilled onto the ground.

    But one car was carrying PVC pellets that affected the soil at the crash site, Vogel said. She said that the EPA “will be onsite ensuring that as cars are removed by Norfolk Southern that the soil is not impacted under the ground.”

    After the derailment, authorities sought to assure the community in Clark County that their air, water and soil are safe.

    “Since there have been no releases, we’re looking at clean air, clean soil and clean water for our residents,” Clark County Health Commissioner Charles Patterson said. “Technicians will continue to be on site to ensure that there isn’t any contamination that has been missed.”

    While the two recent train derailments in Ohio have made national news, data from the Federal Railroad Administration Office of Safety Analysis shows there have been at least 1,000 derailments in the United States each year during the past decade.

    The process of removing soil from under the tracks at the East Palestine derailment site started Saturday, the federal Environmental Protection Agency said. The agency had ordered Norfolk Southern to remediate the site, including the excavation of potentially contaminated soil.

    The work could take up to two months, depending on weather conditions and other unforeseen delays, the agency said. The EPA said nearby residents might notice additional odors during that time.

    Some 1,900 feet of rail has been fully removed from the crash site, and about one half of the contaminated soil beneath the removed line has been excavated, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s office said Monday.

    About 3.2 million gallons of liquid waste and about 2,000 tons of solid waste have been removed, DeWine’s office said, citing the state’s EPA.

    While the soil work is underway, Norfolk Southern has agreed to provide financial assistance to residents for various necessities, including temporary lodging, travel, food and clothing, the EPA said.

    Impacts from the East Palestine derailment were also felt in other nearby communities in Pennsylvania, where Norfolk Southern has made an “initial agreement” to pay millions for damages there, officials said Monday.

    The railroad will establish a $1 million community relief fund to support local businesses and residents impacted by the crash in Beaver and Lawrence counties, a news release from Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office said.

    Norfolk Southern also agreed to pay $5 million to reimburse Pennsylvania fire departments that have to replace damaged or contaminated equipment after responding to the derailment, the release said. The agreement also includes money to cover some operating and response costs for Pennsylvania’s environmental protection, health and emergency management departments.

    These payments would be separate from other “applicable legal obligations” that may be imposed, the release said.

    Norfolk Southern earned a record $3.3 billion in net income last year, more than 400 times greater than the $7.4 million that Shapiro said the company agreed to pay to Pennsylvania communities.

    The company spent $4.2 billion on share repurchases and dividends to shareholders and has plans to repurchase another $7.5 billion in shares going forward, or more than 1,000 times the initial amount it has promised to Pennsylvania.

    The East Palestine derailment fueled outcry among residents who have reported headaches, coughing and other ailments after the fiery crash.

    The train was hauling the dangerous chemical vinyl chloride and other chemicals that are feared to have leaked into the surrounding ecosystem.

    Some employees who responded to the East Palestine crash site were not given proper protective equipment and have experienced migraines and nausea, the American Rail System Federation – a union for railroad workers – said in a letter last week.

    Norfolk Southern said it had not received any reports of injury or illness from employees involved in the initial response.

    “Norfolk Southern was on-scene immediately after the derailment and coordinated our response with hazardous material professionals,” the railroad said in a statement.

    The company also said “required PPE was utilized, all in addition to air monitoring that was established within an hour.”

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  • FAA is investigating a close call between 2 aircraft at Boston Logan | CNN

    FAA is investigating a close call between 2 aircraft at Boston Logan | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Air traffic controllers stopped a departing private jet from running into a JetBlue flight as it was coming in to land Monday night in Boston, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

    The FAA says it is investigating the incident. This is the fifth close call involving a commercial airliner on a runway this year.

    The two planes involved in Monday night’s apparent close call at Boston Logan International Airport came within 565 feet (172 meters) of colliding, according to Flightradar24’s preliminary review of its data.

    Asked for comment on the Flightradar24 analysis, the agency told CNN, “The FAA will determine the closest proximity between the two aircraft as part of the investigation.”

    “According to a preliminary review, the pilot of a Learjet 60 took off without clearance while JetBlue Flight 206 was preparing to land on an intersecting runway,” the FAA said in a statement on Tuesday.

    “JetBlue 206, go around,” said the controller in Boston Logan’s tower, according to recordings archived by LiveATC.net.

    The FAA says its air traffic controller told the crew of the Learjet to “line up and wait” on Runway 9 as the JetBlue Embraer 190 approached the intersecting Runway 4 Right.

    “The Learjet pilot read back the instructions clearly but began a takeoff roll instead,” the FAA said in a statement. “The pilot of the JetBlue aircraft took evasive action and initiated a climb-out as the Learjet crossed the intersection.”

    The National Transportation Safety Board tells CNN it has not launched an investigation into the incident at Boston Logan, though it has investigated four other runway incursions involving commercial airliners at major US airports this year.

    On Friday, the agency announced it was investigating a possible “runway incursion” in Burbank, California, involving Mesa and SkyWest regional airliners.

    Three other incidents have occurred at Honolulu, Austin and New York’s JFK airport this year.

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  • House GOP committees plot investigations into East Palestine derailment | CNN Politics

    House GOP committees plot investigations into East Palestine derailment | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    A series of House Republican committees are plotting to launch investigations into the toxic train disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, multiple committee aides told CNN.

    GOP lawmakers are vowing to use their oversight power to dig into what they describe as the Biden administration’s flawed response to the train wreck, which has left East Palestine’s residents afraid to use the city’s air and municipal water after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed on February 3.

    They have also left the door open to holding hearings on the subject, including potentially bringing in Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to testify publicly, the aides said, though such decisions have not yet been made.

    The GOP’s increased urgency for oversight comes as several lawmakers have criticized President Joe Biden for not visiting East Palestine. Biden told reporters on Friday he has no plans to travel to the site of the derailment and defended his administration’s response to the wreck.

    The House committees on Transportation and Infrastructure, Energy and Commerce and Oversight are among the panels vowing to find answers to what happened, as well as hold the Biden administration and rail industry accountable for the fallout.

    Some GOP members of the committees are also discussing a potential field hearing in East Palestine, though no official plans have been made yet, sources familiar with the talks tell CNN.

    Axios first reported on the committees’ plans.

    The Energy and Commerce Committee has asked the EPA to appear before the panel’s Environment, Manufacturing & Critical Materials subcommittee chaired by GOP Rep. Bill Johnson, who represents East Palestine, a committee aide told CNN.

    Johnson and Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington state Republican, formally kicked off their probe on February 17, when they sent a letter to Regan demanding answers on a timeline of events relating to the train wreck, a list of the chemicals on board, materials relating to the EPA’s and local agencies’ response, as well as other information regarding the derailment.

    Johnson and McMorris Rodgers gave the EPA until March 3 to respond to their request.

    The Energy and Commerce Committee has asked for an all-members briefing, a committee briefing, as well as a hearing date from EPA officials. A source familiar told CNN they are still awaiting a response.

    The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee plans to “keep Members informed as facts come out,” committee spokesman Justin Harclerode told CNN. The committee is also closely watching the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the incident.

    “The important thing is to learn exactly what happened, what factors played a role in the accident, and what factors did not. The Committee is staying engaged on this issue, but no one should jump to any conclusions or act without all the facts. Which is exactly what the NTSB is working to provide through their investigation,” Harclerode said.

    House Oversight Chairman James Comer, meanwhile, sent a letter to Buttigieg on Friday, in which he called the incident “an environmental and public health emergency that now threatens Americans across state lines.” The Kentucky Republican requested that Buttigieg turn over a series of documents relating to the derailment, including when the administration first learned of the incident and communications regarding the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s handling of materials in the derailment.

    “At this time, Chairman Comer is focused on acquiring the documents and information requested in his February 24 letter to Secretary Buttigieg,” Comer spokesman Austin Hacker told CNN.

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  • Shipments of contaminated waste to resume from Ohio train derailment site | CNN

    Shipments of contaminated waste to resume from Ohio train derailment site | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    The Environmental Protection Agency has approved resuming shipments of contaminated liquid and soil out of East Palestine, Ohio, where a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed earlier this month.

    The EPA on Friday ordered the train’s operator, Norfolk Southern, to halt the shipments so that it could review the company’s plans for disposal, adding to the controversy surrounding the crash that has also left residents of the town worried about potential long-term health effects.

    That’s as officials in Texas and Michigan complained they didn’t receive any warning that hazardous waste from the crash would be shipped into their jurisdictions for disposal.

    Shipments now will be going to two EPA-certified facilities in Ohio, and Norfolk Southern will start shipments to these locations Monday, EPA regional administrator Debra Shore said at a news conference Sunday.

    “Some of the liquid wastes will be sent to a facility in Vickery, Ohio, where it will be disposed of in an underground injection well,” Shore said. “Norfolk Southern will also beghin shipping solid waste to the Heritage Incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio.”

    Until Friday, Norfolk Southern was “solely responsible” for disposing of waste from the train derailment, Shore said Saturday, but waste disposal plans “will be subject to EPA review and approval moving forward.”

    All rail cars, except for those held by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), have been removed from the site of the derailment, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Director Anne Vogel said in an update Sunday.

    The NTSB is currently holding 11 railcars as part of its investigation into the derailment, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement Sunday.

    “This is so critically important to moving on to next steps. We can now excavate additional contaminated soil and began installing monitoring wells,” Vogel said. The Ohio EPA will oversee the installation of water monitoring wells at the site of the derailment that will measure contaminant levels in the groundwater below.

    Every aspect of transporting and disposing of the hazardous waste material “from the moment trucks and rail cars are loaded until the waste is safely disposed of” will be closely regulated and overseen by federal, state, and local governments, Shore said Sunday.

    Shore detailed the federal, state, and local compliance requirements expected from Norfolk Southern.

    “These extensive requirements cover everything from waste labeling, packaging, and handling, as well as requirements for shipping documents that provide information about the wastes and where they’re going,” Shore said.

    The hazardous waste material previously sent to facilities in Michigan and Texas is now being processed at those facilities, Shore said.

    About 2 million gallons of firefighting water from the train derailment site were expected to be disposed in Harris County, Texas, with about half a million gallons already there, according to the county’s chief executive.

    Also, contaminated soil from the derailment site was being taken to the US Ecology Wayne Disposal in Belleville, Michigan, US Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan said Friday.

    The Michigan and Ohio facilities were, in fact, EPA approved sites, but they are not currently accepting any more shipments at this time, and the EPA is “exploring to see whether they have the capacity” to accept shipments in the future, Shore said.

    A spokesperson Gov. DeWine told CNN the governor was not briefed on where in the country the shipments would be sent. But this is typical, as the train company is responsible for the transport of material and the EPA is responsible for regulating that transport, DeWine spokesman Daniel Tierney said Saturday.

    The February 3 derailment of the Norfolk Southern train and subsequent intentional release of vinyl chloride it was hauling first forced East Palestine residents out of their homes, then left them with anxiety about health effects as reports of symptoms like rashes and headaches emerged after they returned.

    Officials have repeatedly sought to assure residents that continued air and water monitoring has found no concerns. The EPA reported last week that they have conducted indoor air testing at a total of 574 homes and detected no contaminants associated with the derailment.

    Federal teams in East Palestine have begun going door-to-door to check in with residents, conduct health surveys and provide informational flyers after President Joe Biden directed the move, a White House official told CNN.

    Also, a 19-person scientific team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been collecting information from residents about symptoms they have experienced since the derailment, said Jill Shugart, a senior environmental health specialist for the CDC.

    The EPA also installed “sentinel wells” near the city’s municipal well field to monitor contaminants in well water as part of the agency’s long-term early detection system “to protect the city for years to come,” Vogel, head of the Ohio EPA, said Saturday.

    In a Saturday update on the removal of contaminated waste, DeWine said 20 truckloads of hazardous solid waste had been hauled away from the Ohio derailment site. Fifteen of those truckloads were disposed of at a licensed hazardous waste treatment and disposal facility in Michigan and five truckloads were returned to East Palestine.

    About 102,000 gallons of liquid waste and 4,500 cubic yards of solid waste remained Saturday in storage on site in East Palestine – not including the five truckloads returned, according to DeWine. Additional solid and liquid wastes are being generated as the cleanup progresses, he added.

    Dingell told CNN on Saturday that neither she nor Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer were aware of plans for toxic waste to be delivered to disposal sites in her district.

    “I called everybody,” Dingell said. “Nobody had really been given a heads up that they were coming here.”

    Across the country, Texas Chief Executive Lina Hidalgo expressed frustration that she first learned about the expected water shipments to her state from the news media – not from a government agency or Texas Molecular, the company hired to dispose of the water.

    She added that although there’s no legal requirement for her office to be notified, “it doesn’t quite seem right.”

    Hidalgo said Texas Molecular told her office Thursday that half a million gallons of the water was already in the county and the shipments began arriving around last Wednesday.

    On Thursday, Texas Molecular told CNN it had been hired to dispose of potentially dangerous water from the Ohio train derailment. The company said they had experts with more than four decades of experience in managing water safely and that all shipments, so far, had come by truck for the entire trip.

    Hidalgo’s office had been seeking information about the disposal, including the chemical composition of the firefighting water, the precautions that were being taken, and why Harris County was the chosen site, she said.

    According to a Thursday news release from Ohio Emergency Management Agency, more than 1.7 million gallons of contaminated liquid had been removed from the immediate site of the derailment. Of that, more than 1.1 million gallons of “contaminated liquid” from East Palestine had been transported off-site, with the majority going to Texas Molecular and the rest going to a facility in Vickery, Ohio.

    CNN asked the Ohio agency the location of the remaining 581,500 gallons which had been “removed” but not “hauled off-site” and has yet to receive a response.

    Regarding the causes of the accident, a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report found that one of the train’s cars carrying plastic pellets was heated by a hot axle that sparked the initial fire, said Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the safety board. So far, the investigation found the three crew members on board the train did not do anything wrong prior to the derailment, though the crash was “100% preventable,” she said.

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  • Texas and Michigan officials say they didn’t know water, soil from Ohio train wreck would be transported into their jurisdictions | CNN

    Texas and Michigan officials say they didn’t know water, soil from Ohio train wreck would be transported into their jurisdictions | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Officials in Texas and Michigan are complaining they didn’t receive any warning that contaminated water and soil from the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, would be shipped into their jurisdictions for disposal.

    About 2 million gallons of firefighting water from the train derailment site are expected to be disposed in Harris County, Texas, with about half a million gallons already there, according to the county’s chief executive.

    “It’s a very real problem, we were told yesterday the materials were coming only to learn today they’ve been here for a week,” Judge Lina Hidalgo said Thursday.

    Contaminated soil from the derailment site is being taken to the US Ecology Wayne Disposal in Belleville, Michigan, US Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan said Friday.

    “We were not given a heads up on this reported action,” Dingell said in a news release on Friday. “Our priority is to always keep the people we represent safe.”

    Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said 4,832 cubic yards of soil have been removed from the ground in East Palestine and about six truckloads were on the way to Michigan.

    The complaints widen the controversy caused by the February 3 train derailment that left residents complaining about feeling sick after hazardous chemicals seeped into the air, water and soil.

    A National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report found that one of the train’s cars carrying plastic pellets was heated by a hot axle that sparked the initial fire, according to Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the safety board.

    Residents worry rashes and headaches may be tied to chemicals from train crash

    As the temperature of the bearing got hotter, the train passed by two wayside defect detectors that did not trigger an audible alarm message because the heat threshold was not met at that point, Homendy explained. A third detector eventually picked up the high temperature, but it was already too late by then.

    “This was 100% preventable. … There is no accident,” Homendy said during a news conference Thursday.

    Residents in East Palestine frustrated by lack of answers

    In a news conference Thursday, Hidalgo expressed frustration that she first learned about the expected water shipments Wednesday from the news media – not from a government agency or Texas Molecular, the company hired to dispose of the water.

    Hidalgo said Texas Molecular told her office Thursday that half a million gallons of the water was already in the county and the shipments began arriving around last Wednesday.

    She added that although there’s no legal requirement for her office to be notified, “it doesn’t quite seem right.”

    Texas Molecular is receiving the water from trucks, but it’s unclear if trucks are used for the entire trip, Hidalgo said. The company told her office they’re receiving about 30 trucks of water a day, she said.

    Texas Molecular said Friday that all shipments, so far, have come by truck for the entire trip.

    “Texas Molecular neither transports nor selects the mode of transportation for the water,” Jimmy Bracher, vice president of Sales for VLS Environmental Solutions, which owns Texas Molecular, told CNN in a statement Friday evening.

    “The company that generates the waste will determine/select who ships the wastewater and they must be DOT and EPA approved transporters,” Bracher said.

    On Thursday, Texas Molecular told CNN it has been hired to dispose of potentially dangerous water from the Ohio train derailment. The company said they are experts with more than four decades of experience in managing water safely.

    Hidalgo’s office is seeking information about the disposal, including the chemical composition of the firefighting water, the precautions that are being taken, and why Harris County was the chosen site, she said.

    “There’s nothing right now to tell me – to tell us – there’s going to be an accident in transport, that this is being done in such a way that is not compatible with the well, that there’s a nefarious reason why the water is coming here and not to a closer site,” Hidalgo said. “But it is our job to do basic due diligence on that information.”

    More than 1.7 million gallons of contaminated liquid has been removed from the immediate site of the derailment, according to a Thursday news release from the Ohio Emergency Management Agency. Of this, more than 1.1 million gallons of “contaminated liquid” from East Palestine has so far been transported off-site, with the majority going to Texas Molecular and the rest going to a facility in Vickery, Ohio.

    CNN has asked the Ohio agency the location of the remaining 581,500 gallons which has been “removed” but not “hauled off-site” and has yet to receive a response.

    Wayne County, Michigan, officials have been in contact with officials with a variety of federal and state agencies, along with the train company involved in the derailment since learning of the transportation of the contaminated materials, Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans said in a news conference on Friday evening. Evans said the county did not receive a call from anyone that this was happening.

    The

    Professor: Independent expert needed in toxic spill response

    “Doing it in a way that doesn’t let citizens of Wayne County know that it’s coming just looks nefarious to me,” Evans said.

    Officials are not aware if this move was done “maliciously or not” but says there are “disconnects,” Evans said.

    “We learned about it via the grapevine and then saw Governor DeWine announced it on his site,” Dingell said in a news conference.

    Five trucks have been transported to the area so far, 99% with contaminated water and 1% with contaminated soil, according to Dingell. The truck containing soil could have been transported to the area as early mid-week, Dingell added.

    The transportation of the materials to the facility in Michigan has been paused and another site is likely to be found, Dingell and Evans said.

    CNN has reached out to the EPA and Norfolk Southern, the company that owns the derailed train, for comment.

    The 149-car train operated by Norfolk Southern had three employees on board: a locomotive engineer, a conductor and a trainee who were all in the head end of the locomotive, Homendy told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday.

    So far, the investigation found the crew did not do anything wrong prior to the derailment, though the crash was “100% preventable,” she said.

    The next phase of the investigation will examine the train’s wheelset and bearing as well as the damage from the derailment, the NTSB report noted. The agency will also focus on the designs of tank cars and railcars, along with maintenance procedures and practices.

    Investigators will also review the train operator’s use of wayside defect detectors and the company’s railcar inspection practices. More specifically, determining what caused the wheel bearing failure will be key to the investigation, Homendy said.

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  • A first report on the Ohio toxic train wreck was released. Here’s what it found — and what investigators are still looking into | CNN

    A first report on the Ohio toxic train wreck was released. Here’s what it found — and what investigators are still looking into | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    After federal officials released an initial report concluding that this month’s toxic train wreck in Ohio was completely preventable, investigators will begin examining procedures, practices and design prior to the derailment that has sparked long-term concerns among hundreds of frustrated residents.

    The National Transportation Safety Board on Thursday released its preliminary report on the investigation into the February 3 train crash in East Palestine, Ohio, where residents have been complaining about feeling sick after hazardous chemicals seeped into the air, water and soil.

    Ohio environmental officials made a civil referral this week asking the state attorney general’s office to begin “legal and/or equitable civil actions” against Norfolk Southern, which could result in a civil complaint if negotiations with the company were to fail.

    The NTSB report found that one of the train’s cars carrying plastic pellets was heated by a hot axle that sparked the initial fire, according to Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the safety board. As the temperature of the bearing got hotter, the train passed by two wayside defect detectors that did not trigger an audible alarm message because the heat threshold was not met at that point, Homendy explained. A third detector eventually picked up the high temperature, but it was already too late by then.

    “This was 100% preventable. … There is no accident. Every single event that we investigate is preventable,” Homendy said during a news conference Thursday. “The NTSB has one goal, and that is safety and ensuring that this never happens again.”

    The next phase of the investigation will examine the train’s wheelset and bearing as well as the damage from the derailment, the NTSB report noted. The agency will also focus on the designs of tank cars and railcars along with maintenance procedures and practices.

    Plus, investigators will review the train operator’s use of wayside defect detectors and the company’s railcar inspection practices. More specifically, determining what caused the wheel bearing failure will be key to the investigation, Homendy said.

    On Friday, Homendy said on “CNN This Morning” that she’s concerned politics could cloud the investigation and prevent safety improvements. Former President Donald Trump visited the site of the train derailment on Wednesday where he criticized President Joe Biden’s administration’s handling of the railway disaster.

    “This is not a time for politics,” Homendy said. “There is a time for politics. It is not this.”

    On Thursday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also visited the derailment site, and when asked how political figures like Trump could help, Buttigieg addressed the former president directly saying he could “express support for reversing the deregulation that happened on his watch.”

    Another key aspect of the investigation will focus on the response to the chemical disaster, particularly the manual detonations of tanks carrying toxic chemicals.

    Five of the 38 derailed train cars were carrying more than 115,000 gallons of vinyl chloride, according to the NTSB’s report. Exposure to high levels of vinyl chloride can increase cancer risk or cause death.

    Those five cars “continued to concern authorities because the temperature inside one tank car was still rising,” indicating a polymerization reaction which could have resulted in an explosion, the report said. To help prevent a potentially deadly blast of vinyl chloride, crews released the toxic chemical into a trench and burned it off on February 6 — three days after the derailment.

    Since then, some East Palestine residents have said they are experiencing headaches, dizziness, nausea and bloody noses — a host of health issues they say they did not have prior to the crash.

    At the same time, officials have been adamant in reassuring residents of the air’s safety and the municipal water supply.

    Around 2 million gallons of firefighting water from the train derailment site are expected to be disposed in Harris County, Texas, according to the county’s chief executive.

    Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said her office was told by Texas Molecular on Thursday that the shipments began arriving around last Wednesday, she said.

    Texas Molecular was hired to dispose of the potentially dangerous water from the train derailment, the company, which said it has more than four decades of experience in managing water safely, has told CNN.

    The company told Hidalgo’s office Thursday that half a million gallons was already in the county.

    Hidalgo expressed frustration that she first learned about the water shipments from the news media – not from a government agency or Texas Molecular,

    “It’s a very real problem we were told yesterday the materials were coming only to learn today they’ve been here for a week,” Hidalgo said.

    She added that although there’s no legal requirement for her office to be notified, “It doesn’t quite seem right.”

    Texas Molecular is receiving the water from trucks, but it’s unclear if trucks are used for the entire trip, Hidalgo said. The company told her office they’re receiving about 30 trucks of water a day, she said.

    CNN is seeking comment from Texas Molecular about how the water is being transported.

    Hidalgo said her office is looking for information about the disposal, including the chemical composition of the firefighting water, the precautions that are being taken, and why Harris County was the chosen site.

    “There’s nothing right now to tell me – to tell us – there’s going to be an accident in transport, that this is being done in such a way that is not compatible with the well, that there’s a nefarious reason why the water is coming here and not to a closer site,” Hidalgo said. “But it is our job to do basic due diligence on that information.”

    A total of 1.7 million gallons of contaminated liquid has been removed from the immediate site of the derailment, according to a Thursday news release from the Ohio Emergency Management Agency.

    More than 1.1 million gallons of “contaminated liquid” from East Palestine has been transported off-site so far, with the majority going to Texas Molecular and the rest going to a facility in Vickery, Ohio.

    CNN has asked the Ohio agency the location of the remaining 581,500 gallons which have been “removed” but not “hauled off-site.”

    Congresswoman Debbie Dingell of Michigan said she was “not given a heads up” that contaminated soil from East Palestine would be transported to the US Ecology Wayne Disposal in Belleville, Michigan.

    “We were not given a heads up on this reported action,” Dingell said in a press release on Friday, “Our priority is to always keep the people we represent safe.”

    Dingell said inquires to the EPA, Department of Transportation, Norfolk Southern, US Ecology, the state of Ohio and others involved are in the process.

    On Friday afternoon, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine released an update on the removal of the contaminated site in East Palestine, saying that soil would be transported to Michigan.

    So far, 4,832 cubic yards of soil have been removed from the ground in East Palestine. Approximately six truckloads of that contaminated soil are on their way to the hazardous waste disposal facility in Michigan, according to a press release from DeWine.

    The 149-car train operated by Norfolk Southern on February 3 had three employees on board: a locomotive engineer, a conductor and a trainee who were all in the head end of the locomotive, Homendy told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday.

    So far, the investigation found the crew did not do anything wrong prior to the derailment, though the crash was “100% preventable,” Homendy said.

    Video of the train before the derailment showed what appeared to be an overheated wheel bearing, according to the NTSB report. Footage showed sparks flying from underneath the train.

    NTSB investigators are now focusing on one train car’s wheel set and bearing to figure out what may have caused the overheating, Homendy said.

    “We have a lot of questions about that,” she said Friday, including the “thresholds and why they vary so much between railroads.”

    Ultimately, it’s the railroads that set the temperature thresholds for the detectors, Homendy said.

    Releasing publicly a probable cause or causes for the derailment could take 12 to 18 months, Homendy said during the news conference.

    “We are very deliberative. We are the gold standard when it comes to investigations globally, and we are methodical in our approach,” Homendy said. “But if we see a safety issue that we need to be addressed immediately, something systemic, we will not hesitate to issue an urgent safety recommendation.”

    In the meantime, here’s what the NTSB preliminary report found so far:

    • One wheel bearing’s temperature reached a “critical” level — 253 degrees Fahrenheit above the ambient temperature — and prompted an audible alarm that instructed “the crew to slow and stop the train to inspect a hot axle,” the report says.
    • The train’s engineer applied the train’s brakes and additional braking after the alert of an overheating axle, the report states. “During this deceleration, the wheel bearing failed,” Homendy explained. “Car 23 derailed, and the train initiated an emergency brake application and came to a stop.”

    Even after reading the preliminary NTSB report, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost told “CNN This Morning” that there’s still a lot of facts he doesn’t know.

    Among his biggest questions are: “Had the train been shorter, had there been additional staff, could this have been averted? Based on the alerts that occurred, how long is the reaction time and how is that influenced by the size of the train?” Yost told CNN.

    The US Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Norfolk Southern to cover the full cost of cleaning up the aftermath of the train crash.

    “EPA has special authority for situations just like this where we can compel companies who inflict trauma and cause environmental and health damage to communities, like Norfolk Southern has done, to completely clean up the mess that they’ve caused and pay for it,” EPA administrator Michael Regan said.

    Norfolk Southern will be required to:

    • Provide a descriptive work plan on how they intend to clean up the water, soil and debris
    • Reimburse the EPA for providing residents a cleaning service of their homes and businesses
    • Show up to public meetings and explain their progress

    If the company does not follow the order, the EPA will step in to complete the duties, while fining Norfolk Southern up to $70,000 a day, Regan said Wednesday during a CNN town hall.

    “And the law gives us the authority to charge Norfolk Southern up to three times the amount that the cleanup will cost us,” he said.

    The company plans to take a series of measures moving forward to minimize the long-term impacts of chemicals on the land and groundwater, including ripping up the tracks where the train derailed and removing soil underneath, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw said.

    Shaw added his company is working with the Environmental Protection Agency on a “long-term remediation plan.”

    Yost, who received the referral from the Ohio EPA to initiate necessary legal civil actions against Norfolk Southern this week, told CNN any criminal referral in Ohio regarding the derailment would be a decision made by local prosecutors.

    “We’ve been in contact with the local county prosecutor, and … we may be assisting him, but at this point, he has not empaneled a grand jury, to my understanding,” he said Friday on “CNN This Morning.”

    Ohio environmental officials made a civil referral Tuesday asking Yost’s office to “initiate all necessary legal and/or equitable civil actions” and “seek appropriate penalties” against Norfolk Southern, according to a copy of the referral provided by the attorney general’s office.

    “I respectfully request that this referral result in the filing of a civil complaint in the appropriate court if efforts on your part to resolve this matter through negotiation fail,” Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Anne Vogel wrote in a letter to Yost.

    Vogel cited potential violations of state laws regarding air and water pollution and solid and hazardous waste.

    Expanding the definition of a high-hazard flammable train – a standard the derailed train did not meet, despite sparking a major fire – is among the changes NTSB advocated for in the past, Homendy said Friday.

    NTSB urged regulators to include in the classification “a broad array of flammable materials,” rather than focusing on crude oil, she said.

    Additionally, NTSB will look at whether vinyl chloride needs to be carried in more fortified cars, Homendy said.

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  • Feds are sending medical experts to Ohio toxic train wreck site as residents’ safety concerns simmer | CNN

    Feds are sending medical experts to Ohio toxic train wreck site as residents’ safety concerns simmer | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    The Biden administration said it has deployed federal medical experts to help assess what dangers remain at an Ohio village where a train carrying hazardous materials derailed this month, a ramp-up of federal support at the governor’s request as anxious residents point to signs of adverse effects.

    Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Thursday asked the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Department of Health and Human Services to send teams to East Palestine, where the train derailed February 3 and sparked a dayslong blaze.

    “This request for medical experts includes, but is not limited to, physicians and behavioral health specialists,” DeWine wrote in a letter to the CDC. “Some community members have already seen physicians in the area but remain concerned about their condition and possible health effects – both short- and long-term.”

    The Biden administration approved the request and began deploying teams from both federal agencies in part for public health testing and assessments, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday.

    That is in addition to aid the Federal Emergency Management Agency is providing, according to Jean-Pierre, who noted Thursday that the train derailment situation is “much more expansive” than what FEMA can offer.

    The federal support boost to a community of some 5,000 people along the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line comes amid some residents’ growing concerns that some areas may not be safe to live in.

    An evacuation order that was in place for areas near the crash site was lifted February 8 after officials said air and water sample results led them to deem the area safe, officials said.

    But a chemical stench lingered in areas, with some residents saying the odor left them with headaches and pains in their throat. Plus, officials estimate thousands of fish were killed by contamination washing down streams and rivers.

    Further spurring residents’ questions about safety – some of which were expressed at an emotional community meeting Wednesday – were crews’ decision to conduct controlled detonations February 6 of some tanks carrying toxic chemicals to prevent a more dangerous explosion. Though a larger blast was averted, the detonations essentially released chemicals into the air, including vinyl chloride that at high levels could kill and increase cancer risk.

    On Thursday, the head of the federal Environmental Agency Administration visited East Palestine and vowed to use the agency’s enforcement authority to hold the train operator, Norfolk Southern, accountable.

    “I want the community to know that we hear you, we see you, and that we will get to the bottom of this,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said Thursday during a news conference. “We are testing for all volatile organic chemicals. We’re testing for everything. We’re testing for everything that was on that train. So, we feel comfortable that we are casting a net wide enough to present a picture that will protect the community.”

    During the visit, Regan observed some of the ongoing remediation efforts following the hazardous train derailment. While the state EPA has the primary responsibility over the scene, Regan noted the federal arm is ready to provide aid when needed.

    Regan also noted that Norfolk Southern has signed a notice of accountability, acknowledging the company will be responsible for the cleanup.

    Meanwhile, another train operated by Norfolk Southern derailed Thursday morning in Michigan’s Van Buren Charter Township, and local officials said there was no evidence the area was exposed to hazardous materials.

    First responders arrived at the crash location around 8:30 a.m. and found around 30 rail cars had derailed. One of the overturned rail cars contained agricultural grain while the other overturned cars were empty, Van Buren Township Public Safety said.

    One rail car contained liquid chlorine, but it was not part of the overturned section and was removed from the scene, officials added.

    CNN has reached out to Norfolk Southern for comment on the train derailment in Michigan.

    Federal transportation investigators are working vigorously to determine what caused the 100-car freight train to crash in Ohio, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday in a thread of tweets.

    “You have my personal commitment that the NTSB will CONTINUE to share all information publicly as soon as possible following our analysis,” board chairwoman Jennifer Homendy wrote. “Next: NTSB investigators will thoroughly examine the tank cars once decontaminated. As always, we’ll issue urgent safety recommendations as needed.”

    One of the elements under scrutiny is an apparent overheated wheel bearing seen on video before the derailment, the NTSB has said. The apparent overheating began at least 43 minutes before the train derailed, according to a CNN analysis of surveillance videos the network obtained.

    At around 8:12 p.m. on February 3, sparks from an apparent wheel bearing overheating were visible as the train passed through Salem, Ohio, two surveillance videos obtained by CNN show. Bright light and sparks are seen emanating from one of the rail cars.

    No sparks were seen in surveillance video taken 14 minutes earlier as the train passed through Alliance, Ohio.

    The train derailed in East Palestine around 8:55 p.m., about 43 minutes after the sparks were seen in Salem.

    It remains unclear what caused the overheating and whether it is linked to the derailment.

    Homendy, whose agency is responsible for investigating various transportation crashes from aviation to railways, implored the public on Twitter not to speculate about the cause of the crash.

    The train was carrying a range of toxic materials, including vinyl chloride, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate, isobutylene and butyl acrylate, the US Environmental Protection Agency has said.

    Of those, the vinyl chloride gas that caught fire could break down into compounds including hydrogen chloride and phosgene, a chemical weapon used during World War I as a choking agent, according to the EPA and the CDC. Vinyl chloride – a volatile organic compound, or VOC, and the most toxic chemical involved in the derailment – is known to cause cancer, attacking the liver, and can also affect the brain, Maria Doa of the Environmental Defense Fund told CNN.

    It’s the dangers these chemicals pose that has put East Palestine residents on edge over the past two weeks.

    During an intense community town hall meeting Wednesday in a high school gym, East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway addressed the February 6 controlled detonations, saying the only option was to release the chemicals manually or risk greater danger to residents.

    “There (were) two options: We either detonate those tanks, or they detonate themselves,” Conaway told a group of reporters at Wednesday’s meeting.

    “Yes, harmful chemicals went into the air. I am truly sorry, but that is the only option we had. If we didn’t do that, then they were going to blow up, and we were going to have shrapnel all across this town.”

    Jami Cozza, an East Palestine resident who attended the meeting and was vocal about the issues her family have been facing since the train derailed, said she will not return home until it’s safe. Cozza told CNN she’s staying at a hotel paid for by the train company due to toxicity in her home cause by the derailment.

    Cozza explained the train company told her it was safe to return home after conducting air testing. However, she insisted the company run soil and water tests, and only then did a toxicologist deem her house unsafe.

    “Had I not used my voice, had I not thrown a fit, I would be sitting in that house right now, when they told me that it was safe,” Cozza said Thursday, adding she’s worried that not all residents are receiving the proper level of testing.

    Cozza noted the company has also offered to pay all of her moving expenses. “It’s not about the money. It’s about our house,” she said.

    Representatives of the train’s operator, Norfolk Southern, did not attend the community meeting Wednesday, citing safety concerns after it said employees were threatened, further escalating tensions.

    Despite the company’s absence, the mayor said the operator has been collaborating with local officials “tremendously.”

    Earlier this week, Norfolk Southern said it plans to create a $1 million charitable fund to support the East Palestine community.

    The company initially said it would make $1,000 payments to residents who lived within a mile of the spill evacuation zone. But the company has since decided to pay each resident in the entire 44413 ZIP code that money, a spokesman for the company told CNN.

    As of Tuesday evening, Norfolk Southern has distributed more than $1.5 million in direct financial assistance to more than 1,000 families and some businesses to cover costs related to the evacuation, the company said Wednesday in a news release.

    Those payments are in addition to the company’s offer to reimburse expenses related to residents evacuating during the incident, which includes the costs of hotels stays, food and more, company spokesperson Connor Spielmaker said.

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  • 5 derailed train cars carrying hazardous material at risk of exploding are no longer burning, official says | CNN

    5 derailed train cars carrying hazardous material at risk of exploding are no longer burning, official says | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Five train cars that contained vinyl chloride, a potentially explosive chemical, are no longer burning after a train derailment in Ohio, a Norfolk Southern official said Tuesday.

    The burning stopped after a controlled release of the unstable, toxic chemical Monday at the train derailment site in East Palestine, near the Pennsylvania border.

    Four of those five cars have been cleared from the wreckage, and crews are working to remove the fifth car, Norfolk Southern official Scott Deutsch said Tuesday.

    The train, which partially derailed Friday, had more than 100 cars. About 20 of those cars were carrying hazardous materials, said the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident.

    “There have been no reports of significant injuries – either in the initial derailment or in the controlled detonation last night,” Ohio Department of Public Safety Director Andy Wilson said Tuesday.

    But it’s not yet clear when residents who were ordered to evacuate can return home, East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick said Tuesday.

    “Once the Ohio Department of Health, the United States Environmental Protection Agency in conjunction with the East Palestine Fire Department and Norfolk Southern Railroad have determined that this is safe for East Palestine residents to return to their homes – and, quite frankly, once I feel safe for my family to return – we will lift that evacuation order and start returning people home,” Drabick said.

    Three days of anxiety about a potentially deadly explosion culminated in a loud boom Monday, when crews started the controlled release of vinyl chloride into a pit to burn it away.

    A large plume of black smoke shot up toward the sky and the operation went as planned.

    “The detonation went perfect,” Deutsch said. “We’re already to the point where the cars became safe. They were not safe prior to this.”

    Vinyl chloride is a man-made chemical used to make PVC and it burns easily at room temperature.

    It can cause dizziness, sleepiness and headaches; and has been linked to an increased risk of cancer in the liver, brain, lungs and blood.

    Breathing high levels of vinyl chloride can make someone pass out or die if they don’t get fresh air, the Ohio Department of Health said.

    The train derailment Friday led to a massive inferno and increased pressure inside the hot steel.

    By Sunday evening, the burning wreckage threatened a catastrophic explosion capable of spewing toxic fumes and firing shrapnel up to a mile away, officials said.

    Mandatory evacuations were ordered over several square miles straddling the Ohio-Pennsylvania border.

    After the breach, officials detected “slightly elevated” readings of the phosgene and hydrogen chloride in the burn area and “only one minor hit for the hydrogen chloride downwind of the burn area” within the exclusion zone, the EPA’s James Justice said Monday evening.

    Such readings were expected after the controlled release, Justice said.

    As for East Palestine’s water supply, no impacts to the waterway were detected as of Monday evening, an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency official said.

    A team will continue to monitor the air and water quality in the area, officials said.

    Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who had also called for evacuations, said Monday evening that air and water quality is being monitored closely and no concerning readings had been detected so far.

    But he told Pennsylvanians who live within 2 miles of the East Palestine derailment to keep sheltering in place with their windows and doors closed Monday evening.

    Derailed train cars smoldered Monday in East Palestine, Ohio.

    The derailment has upended life in East Palestine, a village of about 5,000 people. Schools have been closed for the rest of the week, and some residents haven’t been home since the initial evacuation orders Friday.

    When the Norfolk Southern train crashed in East Palestine, about 10 of 20 cars carrying hazardous materials derailed.

    One rail car carrying vinyl chloride became a focus of concern when its malfunctioning safety valves prevented the release of the chemical inside, a Columbiana County Emergency Management Agency official said.

    That meant “the car’s just building pressure inside the steel shell, and that’s a problem,” Deutsch said Monday.

    But after the controlled release, “There’s no pressure now in the cars,” he said.

    On Monday afternoon, charges were used to blow small holes in each rail car, allowing the vinyl chloride to spill into a flare-lined trench.

    While the cause of the derailment remains under investigation, National Transportation Safety Board Member Michael Graham said Sunday that there was a mechanical failure warning before the crash.

    “The crew did receive an alarm from a wayside defect detector shortly before the derailment, indicating a mechanical issue,” Graham said. “Then an emergency brake application initiated.”

    Investigators also identified the point of derailment and found video showing “preliminary indications of mechanical issues” on one of the railcar axles, he said.

    The NTSB has requested records from Norfolk Southern and is investigating when the potential defect happened and the response from the train’s crew, which included an engineer, conductor and conductor trainee.

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  • A freight train derailment in Ohio puts US infrastructure back in a bruising spotlight | CNN Politics

    A freight train derailment in Ohio puts US infrastructure back in a bruising spotlight | CNN Politics

    A version of this story appears in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.


    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    On the eve of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, American infrastructure is back in the worst kind of spotlight.

    The fiery derailment of train cars carrying hazardous chemicals on the eastern edge of Ohio has led to an evacuation zone across both Ohio and Pennsylvania.

    Five of the derailed train cars are carrying vinyl chloride – a chemical that is currently unstable and could explode, hurling toxic fumes into the air and shooting deadly shrapnel as far as a mile away, officials said.

    “There is a high probability of a toxic gas release and/or explosion,” Columbiana County Sheriff Brian McLaughlin warned. “Please, for your own safety, remove your families from danger.”

    The derailment is, of course, felt most acutely in the surrounding community, where residents who don’t evacuate face arrest. But the incident also highlights the exact kind of concern that led to a considerable investment in rail projects as part of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure law passed in late 2021.

    To better understand the derailment in Ohio, and how current or future legislation could help avoid similar situations, we turned to Najmedin Meshkati, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Southern California.

    Our conversation, conducted over the phone and lightly edited for flow and brevity, is below.

    Since the fire in Ohio is still burning, investigators haven’t been able to walk around the crash site.

    But officials have identified the point of derailment and found video showing “preliminary indications of mechanical issues” on one of the railcar axles. The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating when the potential defect happened and the response from the crew.

    LEBLANC: What are the investigators going to be looking into here?

    MESHKATI: This accident will be investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board, which is an independent federal safety investigation organization. They do a very good job and thorough job, independently.

    They will look at this accident from an interdisciplinary standpoint. They’ll look for equipment failure, they’ll look for mental fatigue, the signaling electronics, and also they will look at the human factors and organizational safety culture.

    The other organization that most probably will do an investigation is the Federal Railroad Administration, which is a regulatory agency, part of the Department of Transportation.

    NTSB typically does an excellent job, and the FRA. Hopefully they will come up with some recommendations to proactively address this issue.

    LEBLANC: How often do these recommendations actually turn into new policies or guidance?

    MESHKATI: That’s an excellent question without an excellent answer.

    The National Transportation Safety Board, they issue a report at the end of the year. They have something which is called the “most wanted list” that they put their recommendations for safety improvement for railroads on based on accident investigations.

    And then it’s up to these different organizations or private sector regulatory agencies to implement recommendations. Again, NTSB doesn’t have enforcement power. They can make recommendations.

    Rail travel is recognized as the safest method of transporting hazardous materials in the US, according to the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration.

    “The vast majority of hazardous materials shipped by rail tank car every year arrive safely and without incident, and railroads generally have an outstanding record in moving shipments of hazardous materials safely,” FRA says on its website.

    LEBLANC: How common is it for freight trains to carry hazardous material? Is it unusual?

    MESHKATI: No. They do that, and they do it fairly safely. Unfortunately, this type of thing happens, but they’re preventable because these are the types of accidents, if it’s a derailment – the causes of derailment are fairly understandable.

    It could be due to the mental fatigue or the tracks or it could be the speed or not following the procedures.

    Passenger and freight rail received $66 billion in the sprawling bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in 2021. Implementation, however, will take years.

    LEBLANC: Once fully implemented, will the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package help prevent derailments similar to this one? Is there other legislation that could help?

    MESHKATI: I think money and funding is important, but what we need – this is my personal opinion based on my 38 years of research – what we need in the railroad industry is dedicated, committed leadership to safety.

    You can throw around as much money as much as you want. But see, here is the thing – technological systems are composed of three subsystems: a human subsystem, organizational subsystem and technological subsystem.

    And they are like the three links in a chain. A chain breaks at its weakest link. We can put all the money that we have on the technological subsystems, get the better tracks, get better computers, get better positive train control and everything.

    But what about the human and organizational subsystems? We need to give adequate attention to them. And that’s where a committed, informed leadership comes into play.

    When a freight train travels across the country, two people are in the cab of the locomotive working to keep the train, its often hazardous and flammable contents, and the communities they are passing through, all safe.

    Now the railroads are saying that, given today’s modern technology, just one person is enough. But the rail unions say single-person crews pose a tremendous safety risk, not just to the engineer working alone in the cab for hours on end, but to all the communities the trains pass through.

    LEBLANC: What are your thoughts on this proposal to staff freight trains with just one person?

    MESHKATI: I have studied this issue for many, many years.

    I’ve seen the disastrous impact that the consolidation and crew reduction could have on the safety of technological systems. This is something that we need to learn from other industries and just curb our irrational exuberance for this because the technology is available.

    Yes, there is an AI technology that can monitor the routine pattern.

    “That’s why we don’t need a human” – this is a very simple-minded, irrational exuberance.

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  • 6 dead after a pair of vintage military aircraft collided at a Texas air show | CNN

    6 dead after a pair of vintage military aircraft collided at a Texas air show | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Six people are dead after two World War II-era military planes collided in midair and crashed at Dallas Executive Airport during an airshow Saturday afternoon, killing all on board, the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s office said Sunday.

    “We can confirm that there are six (fatalities),” a spokesperson for the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s office told CNN in a phone call.

    More than 40 fire rescue units responded to the scene after the two vintage planes – a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra – went down during the Wings Over Dallas airshow.

    In video footage of the crash that was described by Dallas’ mayor as “heartbreaking,” the planes are seen breaking apart in midair after the collision, then hitting the ground within seconds, before bursting into flames.

    Here are the latest developments as investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are due to arrive at the scene Sunday.

    The Federal Aviation Administration said the crash took place at around 1:20 p.m. Saturday.

    The Allied Pilots Association – the labor union representing American Airlines pilots – has identified two pilot retirees and former union members among those killed in the collision.

    Former members Terry Barker and Len Root were crew on the B-17 Flying Fortress during the airshow, the APA said on social media.

    “Our hearts go out to their families, friends, and colleagues past and present,” the union said. The APA is offering professional counseling services at their headquarters in Fort Worth following the incident.

    Terry Barker killed in the Dallas Saturday plane crash

    The death of Barker, a former city council member for Keller, Texas, was also announced by Keller Mayor Armin Mizani on Sunday morning in a Facebook post.

    “Keller is grieving as we have come to learn that husband, father, Army veteran, and former Keller City Councilman Terry Barker was one of the victims of the tragic crash at the Dallas Air Show,” Mizani wrote.

    “Terry Barker was beloved by many. He was a friend and someone whose guidance I often sought. Even after retiring from serving on the City Council and flying for American Airlines, his love for community was unmistakable.”

    A 30-year plus veteran of the Civil Air Patrol’s Ohio Wing, Maj. Curtis J. Rowe, was also among those killed in the collision, Col. Pete Bowden, the agency’s commander, said on Sunday.

    Rowe served in several positions throughout his tenure with the Civil Air Patrol, from safety officer to operations officer, and most recently, he was the Ohio Wing maintenance officer, Bowden said. Rowe’s family was notified of his death Saturday evening, the commander added.

    “I reach to find solace in that when great aviators like Curt perish, they do so doing what they loved. Curt touched the lives of thousands of his fellow CAP members, especially the cadets who he flew during orientation flights or taught at Flight Academies and for that, we should be forever grateful,” Bowden wrote in a Facebook post.

    “To a great aviator, colleague, and Auxiliary Airman, farewell,” he said.

    In a Saturday news conference, Hank Coates, president and CEO of the Commemorative Air Force, an organization which preserves and maintains vintage military aircraft, told reporters that the B-17 “normally has a crew of four to five. That was what was on the aircraft,” while the P-63 is a “single-piloted fighter type aircraft.”

    Debris from two planes that crashed during the airshow. The B-17 was one of about 45 complete surviving examples of the model, which was produced by Boeing and other airplane manufacturers during World War II.

    The Commemorative Air Force identified both aircraft as based in Houston.

    No spectators or others on the ground were reported injured, although the debris field from the collision includes the Dallas Executive Airport grounds, Highway 67 and a nearby strip mall.

    The B-17 was part of the collection of the Commemorative Air Force, nicknamed “Texas Raiders,” and had been kept in a hanger in Conroe, Texas, near Houston.

    It was one of about 45 complete surviving examples of the model, only nine of which were airworthy.

    The P-63 was even rarer. Some 14 examples are known to survive, four of which in the US were airworthy, including one owned by the Commemorative Air Force.

    More than 12,000 B-17s were produced by Boeing, Douglas Aircraft and Lockheed between 1936 and 1945, with nearly 5,000 lost during the war, and most of the rest scrapped by the early 1960s. About 3,300 P-63’s were produced by Bell Aircraft between 1943 and 1945, and were principally used by the Soviet Air Force in World War II.

    A frame from a video taken at the airshow shows smoke rising after the crash.

    The FAA was leading the investigation into the air show crash on Saturday, but the NTSB took over the investigation once its team reached the scene, the agency said at a news conference Sunday. The team dispatched by the NTSB consists of technical experts who are regularly sent to plane crash sites to investigate the collision, according to the NTSB.

    “Our team methodically and systematically reviews all evidence and considers all potential factors to determine the probable cause, NTSB member Michael Graham said.

    Investigators have started securing the audio recordings from the air traffic control tower and conducting interviews of the other formation crews and air show operations, according to Graham.

    Neither aircraft was equipped with a flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder, often known as the “black box,” he added.

    Investigators surveyed the accident site using both an NTSB drone and a photograph of the scene from the ground to document the area before the wreckage is moved to a secure location, Graham said. A preliminary accident report is expected four to six weeks, but a full investigation may last 12 to 18 months before a final report is released.

    Graham appealed to witnesses saying if anyone has any photos or videos of the incident, they should share them with the NTSB.

    “They’ll actually be very critical since we don’t have any flight data recorder data or cockpit voice recorders or anything like [those devices],” Graham said. “They’ll be very critical to analyze the collision and also tie that in with the aircraft control recordings to determine why the two aircraft collided and to determine, basically, the how and why this accident happened and then eventually, hopefully, maybe make some safety recommendations to prevent it from happening in the future.”

    According to Coates, the individuals flying the aircraft in CAF airshows are volunteers and follow a strict training process. Many of them are airline pilots, retired airline pilots or retired military pilots.

    “The maneuvers that they (the aircraft) were going through were not dynamic at all,” Coates noted. “It was what we call ‘Bombers on Parade.”

    “This is not about the aircraft. It’s just not,” Coates said. “I can tell you the aircraft are great aircraft, they’re safe. They’re very well-maintained. The pilots are very well-trained. So it’s difficult for me to talk about it, because I know all these people, these are family, and they’re good friends.”

    Mayor Johnson said in a tweet after the crash, “As many of you have now seen, we have had a terrible tragedy in our city today during an airshow. Many details remain unknown or unconfirmed at this time.”

    “The videos are heartbreaking. Please, say a prayer for the souls who took to the sky to entertain and educate our families today,” Johnson said in a separate tweet.

    The Wings Over Dallas event, which was scheduled to run through Sunday, has been canceled, according to the organizer’s website.

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  • Vintage military aircraft collide mid-air at Dallas air show | CNN

    Vintage military aircraft collide mid-air at Dallas air show | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra collided and crashed at the Wings Over Dallas airshow around 1:20 p.m. on Saturday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

    “At this time, it is unknown how many people were on both aircraft,” the FAA said in a statement.

    Authorities responded to the incident at Dallas Executive Airport, Jason Evans with Dallas Fire-Rescue told CNN on Saturday.

    There are currently more than 40 fire rescue units on scene, the agency’s active incidents page shows.

    The Commemorative Air Force identified both aircraft as being out of Houston.

    “Currently we do not have information on the status of the flight crews as emergency responders are working the accident,” a statement from the group said, adding it is working with local authorities and the FAA.

    The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the collision. The NTSB will be in charge and is expected to provide additional updates.

    The event, which was scheduled to run through Sunday, has been canceled, according to the organizer’s website.

    Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said in a tweet after the crash, “As many of you have now seen, we have had a terrible tragedy in our city today during an airshow. Many details remain unknown or unconfirmed at this time.”

    “The videos are heartbreaking. Please, say a prayer for the souls who took to the sky to entertain and educate our families today,” Johnson said in a separate tweet.

    Debris from the collision fell onto southbound Highway 67, according to a report from CNN affiliate WFAA. Southbound and northbound lanes of the highway were shut down after the incident, the Dallas Police Department said.

    The B-17 was part of the collection of the Commemorative Air Force, nicknamed “Texas Raiders,” and had been hangered in Conroe, Texas near Houston. It was one of about 45 complete surviving examples of the model, only nine of which were airworthy.

    The P-63 was even rarer. Some 14 examples are known to survive, four of which in the United States were airworthy, including one owned by the Commemorative Air Force.

    More than 12,000 B-17s were produced by Boeing, Douglas Aircraft and Lockheed between 1936 and 1945, with nearly 5,000 lost during the war, and most of the rest scrapped by the early 1960s. About 3,300 P-63’s were produced by Bell Aircraft between 1943 and 1945, and were principally used by the Soviet Air Force in World War II.

    This is a developing story.

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