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Tag: travel safety and security

  • Airplane bounces along Heathrow runway during Storm Gerrit | CNN

    Airplane bounces along Heathrow runway during Storm Gerrit | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    It’s been a stormy tail end to Christmas for the UK and Ireland, as the countries were hit by Storm Gerrit coming in from the Atlantic on Wednesday, bringing gale force winds and flooding in its wake.

    It caused havoc for aviation, with flights being canceled across the countries. Air traffic restrictions saw major delays at Heathrow, with flight cancellations across the UK, including Manchester and Glasgow. The UK’s flag carrier British Airways canceled 13 flights because of the weather. In Ireland, Dublin Airport remained unscathed, though Cork saw four diversions, to Dublin and Shannon.

    Planes that managed to take off faced an equally difficult fate: trying to land in the storm.

    One American Airlines flight was caught on camera during a particularly bumpy landing at Heathrow on December 27.

    The Boeing 777, coming in from Los Angeles, was seen wobbling from side to side as it came down, toppling briefly towards the left, before appearing to bounce or “bunny hop” on the runway before sticking to terra firma and slowing down.

    The “insane” landing was filmed by Big Jet TV owner Jerry Dyer, who regularly sets up livestreams at airports around the world to watch flights coming in, and has a particular soft spot for stormy weather.

    Dyer told CNN in 2022 that he’s drawn to the “battle” between man and nature during a storm at an airport.

    “Whenever there’s windy conditions, stormy conditions, I’m always up at Heathrow,” he said at the time.

    “It’s a lot more exciting to watch than aircraft just landing down and touching down and all that kind of stuff. It’s the battle, isn’t it? It’s the forces of nature against an alloy tub with wings on it that we built and we have to control it down onto the ground in Mother Nature’s winds.

    “It’s a fantastic thing to watch.”

    His livestream of Storm Eunice in 2022, in which planes battled to land at Heathrow despite 122 mile-per-hour winds battering the UK, captivated the entire country.

    There were more than 200 severe wind gust reports across Britain and Ireland on Wednesday, with a possible tornado sighting in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester. A level 2 of 3 threat for a severe storm remained for far southeastern Ireland and west-central UK until early Thursday morning, according to the European Storm Forecast Experiment (ESTOFEX).

    Streaming the AA flight, Dyer’s famously enthusiastic commentary noted the air “vortex” around the wings as it came in, before lamenting “oh stop it, stop that” as the plane bounced down the runway.

    “How he did not go around I just have no idea,” he commented.

    Despite the conditions, flight AA134, which had departed LA on December 26, touched down just one minute late – at 11.41 a.m. on December 27, according to flight tracker FlightRadar.

    It then took off again around two hours later, making its way to Dallas, where it landed early. Luckily with a different crew.

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  • What we know about the off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot accused of trying to shut off a plane’s engines mid-flight | CNN

    What we know about the off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot accused of trying to shut off a plane’s engines mid-flight | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    An off-duty pilot who was riding in the cockpit of an Alaska Airlines flight en route to San Francisco on Sunday is facing dozens of attempted murder charges after he tried to shut down the plane’s engines mid-flight, authorities say.

    The suspect, identified as Alaska Airlines pilot Joseph D. Emerson, 44, attempted to cut off fuel to the engines but the quick action of the aircraft’s captain and first officer kept the engines from failing completely, the airline said, adding Emerson was subdued by the flight crew.

    The flight was forced to divert to Portland, Oregon, where the suspect was taken into custody by the Port of Portland police, the port said in a statement.

    Emerson has been charged in Oregon with 83 felony counts of attempted murder, 83 counts of reckless endangerment and one count of endangering an aircraft, booking records show.

    Authorities do not believe the incident was an act of terrorism or ideologically motivated violence, a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told CNN’s Josh Campbell. The source noted the suspect may face additional federal charges.

    Here’s what we know.

    After taking off from Everett, Washington, on Sunday, Alaska Airlines Flight 2059 – operated by regional carrier Horizon Air – reported a “security threat related to an off-duty Alaskan Airlines pilot, identified as Captain Joseph Emerson, who was traveling in the flight deck jump seat,” the airline said in a statement.

    Pilots will sometimes ride in a cockpit “jump seat” when traveling in their official capacity or commuting between airports.

    While in the cockpit, Emerson had tried to shut down both of the Embraer 175’s engines by pulling its fire extinguisher handles, the airline said.

    “The fire suppression system consists of a T-handle for each engine; when pulled, a valve in the wing closes to shut off fuel to the engine,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement to CNN. “After they are pulled, some residual fuel remains in the line.”

    The airline said the quick reaction of the crew to reset both handles helped restore the flow of fuel and prevent the engines from cutting out.

    “Our crew responded without hesitation to a difficult and highly unusual situation, and we are incredibly proud and grateful for their skillful actions,” the airline said in a statement.

    The plane was at cruise altitude when the incident occurred, Capt. Mike Karn, senior manager of flight security for American Airlines, said in a memo circulated at his airline.

    The flight crew detained the suspect and the plane was diverted to Portland International Airport, the Port of Portland said in a statement.

    “I think he’s subdued,” one of the plane’s pilots can be heard saying in air traffic control audio recorded by LiveATC.net. “Other than that, we want law enforcement as soon as we get on the ground and are parked.”

    Once the flight landed in Portland around 6:30 p.m., the suspect was taken into custody by Port of Portland police officers, the port said.

    No injuries were reported on the flight, the FBI said.

    All passengers were later able to fly to San Francisco with a new crew and aircraft, the airline said, noting it is “reaching out to each of them individually to discuss their experience and check-in on their well-being.”

    Emerson has been detained at the Multnomah County Detention Center as both the FBI and the Port of Portland police investigate the incident, authorities said.

    The FBI’s Portland field office confirmed its investigation in a statement Monday and assured travelers there is “no continuing threat related to this incident.”

    The Federal Aviation Administration also said it is supporting local law enforcement in the investigation.

    The FAA said it has briefed other airlines on preliminary details of the incident and informed carriers the incident is not related to “current world events” – apparently referring to the war in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas.

    Passengers describe their emergency landing

    Two passengers on the flight told CNN that the airline crew maintained a calm environment on the plane as the incident played out.

    Aubrey Gavello, one of the passengers, said she didn’t realize something was wrong until a flight attendant announced over the loudspeaker that the plane needed to land immediately.

    “We didn’t know where we were landing and we didn’t know what was wrong. But (the flight attendant) assured us we were safe,” Gavello said on “Laura Coates Live” Monday night.

    Later, the pilot informed passengers through the loudspeaker that there had been a “disturbance in the cockpit,” said Alex Wood, who was seated at the front of the plane. Wood said he was wearing headphones and slept through the incident.

    “I was right by the cockpit, but nothing woke me up. Nothing was loud enough, nothing was rambunctious enough to wake me up,” Wood said.

    After the plane landed, about five police officers boarded the plane and escorted the suspect off the aircraft, Gavello recalled. She noted the suspect was calm and cooperative and had his hands secured by zip ties.

    “Props to the Alaska crew for keeping everyone calm,” Gavello said.

    “It was all handled super well,” said Wood.

    The pair said they didn’t realize the gravity of the situation Monday, when they woke to news headlines about the suspect trying to shut down the plane engines.

    “I’m honestly grateful that we didn’t know anything when they rebooked us and got us on a second plane,” Gavello said. “I don’t know if I would have felt comfortable doing that if we had all the information.”

    Emerson’s neighbor, Ed Yee, told CNN it was “very shocking” to hear of the suspect’s alleged actions.

    “He seems like a really nice guy. Nothing abnormal about him,” Yee said.

    Emerson has worked in aviation for at least two decades, according to information shared by Alaskan Airlines.

    He first joined the Alaska Air Group in 2001 as a first officer with Horizon. In 2012, Emerson left Horizon and joined Virgin America as a pilot.

    After Alaska Airlines acquired Virgin America in 2016, Emerson became a first officer with Alaska and worked about three more years to become a pilot for the airline, according to the airline statement.

    “Throughout his career, Emerson completed his mandated FAA medical certifications in accordance with regulatory requirements, and at no point were his certifications denied, suspended or revoked,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement.

    FAA records show Emerson held an Airline Transport Pilot certification with ratings to fly the Airbus A320, Boeing 737, Canadair Regional Jet, and De Havilland Dash 8. He did not hold a certification to fly the ERJ 175, those records indicate, the type of airplane in use during Sunday’s incident.

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  • How booming Vietnam offers the US an alternative to China | CNN Business

    How booming Vietnam offers the US an alternative to China | CNN Business

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden is in Vietnam for a visit intended to deepen economic ties between Washington and Hanoi as part of efforts to reduce America’s reliance on China.

    The former foes have formally upgraded diplomatic ties to a “comprehensive strategic partnership,” a symbolic yet highly important move that experts say will solidify trust between the nations as America seeks an ally in Asia to counteract political tensions with China and advance its ambitions for key technologies, such as chipmaking.

    Companies from Apple (AAPL) to Intel (INTC) have already pushed deeper into the country to diversify their supply chains, maxing out many Vietnamese factories and helping fuel an economic expansion that continues to defy a global slowdown.

    On Monday, the White House announced a “landmark deal” between Boeing and Vietnam Airlines worth $7.8 billion, which is expected to support more than 30,000 jobs in the United States. Reuters has reported that the carrier will buy 50 Boeing 737 Max jets.

    Biden’s visit, which followed the G20 summit in India, is the first by a US president to Vietnam since Donald Trump’s 2019 trip. He has met with Vietnamese General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and other leaders to “promote the growth of a technology-focused” Vietnamese economy, as well as discuss ways to improve stability in the region, according to the White House.

    In recent years, their trade has already soared under an existing partnership agreed in 2013, so the elevation in relations is “just catching up with the reality that already exists,” Ted Osius, president of the US-ASEAN Business Council and a former US ambassador to Vietnam, told CNN.

    The United States imported nearly $127.5 billion in goods from Vietnam in 2022, compared with $101.9 billion in 2021 and $79.6 billion in 2020, according to US government data.

    Last year, Vietnam became America’s eighth largest trading partner, rising from 10th place two years earlier.

    The two sides have been moving closer as US officials, particularly Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, have repeatedly pointed to the importance of “friend-shoring.”

    The practice refers to the movement of supply chains toward allies in part to shield businesses from political friction.

    “Rather than being highly reliant on countries where we have geopolitical tensions and can’t count on ongoing, reliable supplies, we need to really diversify our group of suppliers,” she said in a speech last year at the Atlantic Council think tank.

    Those tensions add to a litany of pressures, including rising labor costs and an uncertain operating environment that have already made corporations think twice about how much business they do in China, which is still considered the factory of the world.

    But increasingly, it has competition. During the US-China trade war, which started in 2018, businesses of all sizes began moving manufacturing to emerging markets such as Vietnam and India over tariffs.

    After the pandemic broke out, corporations were increasingly forced to consider strategies known as “China plus one,” which meant spreading out production hubs as a way to reduce reliance on a sole manufacturing base.

    The latest exodus could cost China dearly: In a 2022 report, Rabobank estimated that as many as 28 million Chinese jobs directly relied on exports to the West and could leave the country as a result of “friend-shoring.”

    Some 300,000 of those jobs, focused on low-tech manufacturing, are expected to move to Vietnam from China, analysts wrote.

    From an industrial perspective, the country has been booming for years, said Michael Every, a Rabobank global strategist who authored the report. Relatively lower wages and a youthful population have provided Vietnam with a solid workforce and consumer base, bolstering the case to invest in the nation of 97 million people.

    A fruit vendor walking past an Apple store in Hanoi

    But companies hoping to make the switch may already be too late, as some factories are so stretched, customers must wait, he said.

    Alicia García-Herrero, chief economist at Natixis, pointed to what she called “overheating,” saying demand for manufacturing in Vietnam has outstripped supply in some cases.

    “Too many companies [are] going to Vietnam,” she told CNN.

    Vietnam enjoyed an advantage, as it was first in the region to build up supply chain capabilities “for many, many sectors” years ago, she explained.

    Shortly after Biden landed in Vietnam on Sunday, the White House announced a new semiconductor partnership.

    “The United States recognizes Vietnam’s potential to play a critical role in building resilient semiconductor supply chains, particularly to expand capacity in reliable partners where it cannot be re-shored to the United State,” it said in a statement.

    The semiconductor industry has emerged as a key source of tension in US-China relations. Beijing and Washington are both racing to boost their prowess in the sector, and each side has recently enacted export controls aimed at limiting the other’s capacity.

    The United States needs a trusted partner for its supply of chips, and Vietnam can do just that, Osius said.

    Intel sees it that way. The California-based chipmaker has committed $1.5 billion to a sprawling campus located just outside Ho Chi Minh City, which it says will be its largest single assembly and test facility in the world.

    Osius expects more investments in the field to follow as Washington shores up ties with Hanoi.

    “The significance of Vietnam in that supply chain will increase,” he predicted. “We’re going to see an acceleration when it comes to collaboration in tech.”

    The International Monetary Fund projects Vietnam’s growth will slow to 5.8% from 8% last year as it copes with less overseas demand for its exports.

    But that compares favorably with a global growth forecast of 3%, and is noticeably faster many of the world’s major economies, such as the United States, China and the eurozone.

    “As the rest of Asia underwhelms, Vietnam will still be one of the fastest growing economies,” Natixis said in a recent research note.

    That’s compelling for corporations looking for bright spots in an otherwise gloomy environment.

    Such interest was noted in March, when the US-ASEAN Business Council led its biggest-ever business mission to Vietnam. The delegation consisted of 52 American firms, including corporate heavyweights such as Netflix (NFLX) and Boeing (BA).

    Of course, companies still have reservations over factors such as Vietnamese tech regulations, which they fear could include limits on the “transfer of data across borders, or too many rules requiring data localization,” according to Osius.

    In some cases, businesses are also concerned by how the country’s infrastructure still pales in comparison to a longtime trade powerhouse like China’s.

    For example, “there isn’t a sufficient port capacity for some of the goods to be exported as quickly as companies want them to be moved,” Osius said.

    Politically, Vietnam shares many similarities to China in that it is an authoritarian one-party state that tolerates little dissent.

    But overall, businesses simply want an easy way to hedge their bets.

    Vietnam is an obvious choice, because it’s a cheap alternative to manufacturing in China, said García-Herrero.

    For various sectors, transitioning isn’t difficult, because many Chinese suppliers also moved there because of US tariffs, she explained. “It’s the most similar because you have the same providers as in China.”

    The Biden administration, too, will likely be keen to secure that alternative.

    “It’s quite clear that they’re trying to set up a series of foreign policy victories ahead of 2024 [by] signing a strategic comprehensive partnership with Vietnam,” said Every, the Rabobank analyst.

    — CNN’s Kyle Feldscher, Jeremy Diamond and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

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  • 2 dead, 2 injured from fire rescue helicopter crash in Pompano Beach, Florida | CNN

    2 dead, 2 injured from fire rescue helicopter crash in Pompano Beach, Florida | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A Broward County, Florida, sheriff’s fire rescue helicopter crashed into an apartment complex Monday morning, leaving two people dead and two others injured.

    Authorities identified the dead as Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue Captain Terryson Jackson, who was in the helicopter, and an unnamed adult woman who lived in the apartment complex.

    The crash occurred near an airfield just north of Fort Lauderdale as the helicopter was on its way to an emergency call, authorities said.

    “At approximately 8:46 a.m., emergency personnel responded to a call of an aircraft alert located southwest of the Pompano Beach Airpark. The helicopter involved in the crash is a BSO Fire Rescue helicopter. Pompano Beach Fire Rescue transported two people to an area hospital,” the Broward County Sheriff’s department said in a news release.

    A total of three Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue personnel were on board the helicopter “that crashed into a structure following an in-flight fire one-half mile from Pompano Beach Airpark,” according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

    Just before it crashed, the aircraft was smoking and on fire near the rear, video posted to CNN affiliate WPLG appeared to show.

    The two injured victims are being treated at the hospital and “do not have life-threatening injuries and are listed in fair condition,” officials said.

    Terryson Jackson, 50, had worked in fire rescue in Broward County for 19 years, according to a Facebook post from the sheriff’s office.

    “As a flight paramedic, he impacted the community daily, providing critical patients with the highest pre-hospital care,” reads the post. “He consistently showed an unmatched passion for the job. He always provided expert care, compassion and reassurance to those during their most significant time of need.”

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  • US military to conduct additional interviews with witnesses of Kabul airport bombing | CNN Politics

    US military to conduct additional interviews with witnesses of Kabul airport bombing | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The senior US general for the Middle East has ordered additional interviews be conducted regarding the 2021 Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, which killed 13 US service members during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the US military announced Friday.

    The additional interviews are the result of an internal review ordered by the commander of US Central Command Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, who directed US Army Central commander Lt. Gen. Pat Frank in June to review public testimony about the bombing for any new information not included in CENTCOM’s previous report.

    “The purpose of these interviews is to ensure we do our due diligence with the new information that has come to light, that the relevant voices are fully heard and that we take those accounts and examine them seriously and thoroughly so the facts are laid to bare,” said a statement from CENTCOM spokesman Michael Lawhorn.

    Though the interviews don’t constitute a formal reopening of the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the attack, this represents an effort by the military to re-examine testimony after members of those killed have expressed anger and dissatisfaction with the original review.

    It’s unclear if the new interviews will include Afghans who witnessed the blast, which killed more than 170 Afghan civilians.

    When pressed on whether the interviews would include Afghans, Lawhorn said it would be “up to the Supplementary Review Team to decide who to interview.”

    “I cannot be explicit about anything that the Supplementary Review Team may or may not decide to review in the future,” Lawhorn said.

    CENTCOM released a lengthy after-action review last year that included statements from more than 100 witnesses. Many service members interviewed gave conflicting recollections about the person they were on the look-out for – some said no description seemed to fit clearly, or that they didn’t see anyone fitting the description they’d been given before the blast, while others said they believed they saw the person in question in the crowd.

    Among the differing recollections of what happened on August 26, 2021, is testimony from Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, who was seriously injured in the blast and who has said he was not interviewed in CENTCOM’s original investigation.

    Vargas-Andrews testified before Congress in March that Marines had requested permission to shoot who they believed to be the suicide bomber, but never got permission.

    “Plain and simple, we were ignored. Our expertise was disregarded. No one was held accountable for our safety,” Vargas-Andrews said.

    Lawhorn’s statement said that Vargas-Andrews’ public comments “made statements about his experience that contained new information not previously shared by any other witness.” Frank’s review also found that additional service members were not interviewed due to “their immediate medical evacuation in the aftermath of the attack.”

    “These interviews will seek to determine whether those not previously interviewed due to their immediate medical evacuation possess new information not previously considered, and whether such new information, if any, would affect the results of the investigation, and to ensure their personal accounts are captured for historical documentation,” he added.

    The news comes just weeks after Gold Star family members of some of the 13 US troops who were killed in the Abbey Gate bombing demanded answers before Congress, saying they did not feel that they’d been given the full truth about what happened to their loved ones.

    Lawhorn’s statement said that the next of kin of the 13 service members who were killed “are currently being informed of the supplementary interviews.”

    The process for the interviews will begin “in the coming days,” Lawhorn said. Kurilla has requested an update on those interviews within 90 days, but has directed Frank to “take whatever time is necessary to ensure each of the witnesses not interviewed as part of the investigation have an opportunity to share their experience and perspective.”

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  • Emergency evacuation slide from United flight falls into neighborhood near Chicago O’Hare International Airport | CNN

    Emergency evacuation slide from United flight falls into neighborhood near Chicago O’Hare International Airport | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A United Airlines Boeing 767 plane lost its emergency evacuation slide in mid-air Monday – and it ended up in the backyard of a home near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, officials and a witness said.

    Patrick Devitt lives in the neighborhood where the slide came down, several miles from the runways at O’Hare. He told CNN affiliate WLS his father-in-law and son were inside their home and heard a boom in their backyard around 12:15 p.m. CT. Devitt’s father-in-law walked outside, saw the slide in the backyard and told Devitt’s son to call 911.

    Devitt was on his way home from work at the time. When he got to the house, he dragged the slide from his backyard to the front of the home. He said the large piece of equipment damaged the roof of the home and a kitchen window screen, WLS reported.

    “When it’s all stretched out,” Devitt told the Chicago station, “it’s larger than a small car. It’s a very, very big piece of equipment that fell.”

    Maintenance workers at O’Hare discovered the plane was missing its slide after it landed, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. United Airlines said, “We immediately contacted the FAA and are working with our team to better understand the circumstances around this matter.”

    The Chicago Police Department said it responded to the incident in the 4700 block of North Chester Avenue but deferred questions about the investigation to the FAA, the lead agency.

    In 2019, a slide fell off a Delta flight landing at Boston’s Logan International Airport. It, too, fell in a residential area. There were no injuries.

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  • Patriots’ Jack Jones arrested after two loaded guns found in carry-on luggage, police say | CNN

    Patriots’ Jack Jones arrested after two loaded guns found in carry-on luggage, police say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    New England Patriots cornerback Jack Jones was arrested Friday at Boston Logan International Airport after two firearms were discovered in his carry-on luggage, according to Massachusetts State Police.

    The Transportation Security Administration issued a press release saying TSA officers had found two loaded firearms and ammunition in a Los Angeles-bound male passenger’s luggage.

    The TSA, which did not identify the passenger, said it notified police after detecting the weapons “during the routine X-ray screening of carry-on luggage at the airport’s security checkpoint.”

    Police said Jones was charged with two counts each of the following offenses: possession of a concealed weapon in a secure area of an airport, possession of ammunition without a firearm identification card, unlawful possession of a firearm, carrying a loaded firearm, and possession of a large-capacity feeding device.

    Under Massachusetts law, any magazine that holds more than 10 rounds of ammunition is considered “large capacity.”

    Jones’ bail was set at $50,000. It was lowered to $30,000, which Jones posted, police say.

    He was released from custody and is scheduled to be arraigned in East Boston District Court next week.

    CNN has reached out to Jones’ representatives for comment.

    The Patriots confirmed the arrest in a statement, saying, “We have been notified that Jack Jones was arrested at Logan Airport earlier yesterday. We are in the process of gathering more information and will not be commenting further at this time.”

    New England selected the cornerback out of Arizona State University in the fourth round (121st overall) of the 2022 NFL Draft.

    In his rookie season, Jones had 30 combined tackles and two interceptions in 13 games.

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  • FAA lifts ground stop at NYC airport but delays flights due to smoke | CNN Business

    FAA lifts ground stop at NYC airport but delays flights due to smoke | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    The Federal Aviation Administration lifted a ground stop for flights bound for New York’s LaGuardia airport due to smoke but has delayed some flights on the ground.

    Flights into Philadelphia are also being impacted because of the wildfire smoke, the FAA says. It reported the average delay is about a half-hour. A similar delay to the one at LaGuardia is in place in Newark.

    “The FAA has slowed traffic to and from the New York City area airports due to reduced visibility from wildfire smoke,” the FAA told CNN in a statement. “The agency will adjust the volume of traffic to account for the rapidly changing conditions.”

    As of 2:45 p.m. ET, airlines in the US have canceled 120 flights and delayed another 1,928, according to data from tracking site FlightAware.

    The Federal Aviation Administration says the extreme wildfire smoke haze lingering over the Northeast US due to Canadian wildfires could delay flights through Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.

    US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg tweeted Wednesday that, “Smoke from Canada’s wildfires is affecting visibility in our airspace and leading to delays. The FAA is fully prepared to modify operations as needed.”

    This story has been updated from the original.

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  • Philadelphia is under a ‘code red’ alert as millions from the East Coast to Canada suffer unhealthy air from Quebec’s wildfires | CNN

    Philadelphia is under a ‘code red’ alert as millions from the East Coast to Canada suffer unhealthy air from Quebec’s wildfires | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    As an orange haze of wildfire smoke from Canada smothers parts of the eastern US, officials are warning residents in both countries of unhealthy or hazardous air Wednesday.

    More than 55 million people in the eastern US are under air quality alerts due to the smoke. The heaviest smoke is forecast to impact the Northeast through the Mid-Atlantic and down to the Carolinas, and smoke conditions in those regions could last through at least Thursday.

    Major metro areas in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut now have air quality indexes (AQIs) above 150 – which is considered “unhealthy,” according to the government website AirNow.gov.

    Philadelphia had an AQI of 205 as of Wednesday morning, which is classified as “very unhealthy.”

    New York City; Jersey City, New Jersey; and New Haven, Connecticut all had “unhealthy” AQIs ranging from 155 to 171 on Wednesday morning.

    Live updates on the smoke’s spread

    And the Canadian capital of Ottawa is getting hit with some of the worst air quality, according to AirNow.gov, a partnership of the US Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies.

    A woman walks her dog along the Ottawa River in Ottawa as smoke obscures Gatineau, Quebec, on Tuesday.

    While New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, are expected to see their air quality improve throughout the day, the air over Boston, Pittsburgh and Raleigh, North Carolina, is expected to get worse Wednesday.

    Philadelphia issued a “code red” alert Wednesday, warning certain residents should stay indoors.

    The elderly, young children and those who are pregnant or have heart or lung conditions could experience serious health effects from the smoke, said James Garrow, spokesperson for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

    “For those who are not considered to be in a sensitive group, we are asking those folks to avoid strenuous activities outdoors like jogging or exercising,” Garrow told CNN Wednesday.

    “We are asking folks to avoid unnecessary time outdoors,” he said.

    “But if they need to be outdoors, they should be masked and head inside as often as they need.”

    Garrow said it’s not clear how long the code red alert will last, “or if it will change to another level of warning.”

    New York City had the worst air pollution of any major city in the world at one point Tuesday night, before dropping to second-worst behind New Delhi, India, according to air quality tracker IQair.

    The smoke has also triggered air quality alerts in parts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas, according to the National Weather Service.

    Air quality in the US Northeast has deteriorated this week as more than 150 wildfires rage in Quebec, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center.

    In Quebec, the entire town of Chibougamau – population 7,000 – is under a mandatory evacuation order as fast-moving wildfires wreak havoc across the region.

    “Given the current situation, the mayor of Chibougamau, Manon Cyr, has declared a state of emergency and announced the mandatory evacuation of the entire town, including the resort area,” the town announced in a Facebook post Tuesday night.

    So far this year, the province has endured more than 400 wildfires, which is twice the average for this time of year.

    More than 9 million acres have been charred by wildfires in all of Canada this year – about 15 times the normal burned area for this point in the year.

    The alarming air quality prompted New York Mayor Eric Adams to ask residents to limit their outdoor activity and state environmental officials to issue an air quality health advisory for the city through Wednesday.

    “Active children, adults, and people with lung diseases such as asthma should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors,” New York City Emergency Management said.

    The nation’s largest public school district canceled all outdoor activities Wednesday, but will remain open. At least 10 school districts in central New York state canceled outdoor activities and events Tuesday.

    Overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, the air quality index for the city topped 200, pushing it into the “very unhealthy” range, according to air quality tracker AirNow. By 7 a.m. Wednesday, New York City’s air quality index was just below 180, a designation of “unhealthy.”

    Human-induced climate change has exacerbated the hot and dry conditions that fuel wildfires.

    Scientists recently reported that millions of acres scorched by wildfires in the Western US and Canada – an area roughly the size of South Carolina – could be traced back to carbon pollution from the world’s largest fossil fuel and cement companies.

    The intense wildfire smoke hovering over the Northeast could delay flights through major cities, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

    As of noon ET Wednesday, airlines in the US have canceled 71 flights and delayed another 1,042, according to tracking site FlightAware.

    “Boston, the New York metro area, Philadelphia and the DC metro area are all experiencing some smoke that could impact travel to the airports,” Sam Ausby with the FAA said in a video posted on the agency’s Twitter account.

    Aviation weather reports show Newark Liberty International Airport is among the East Coast airports where visibility is the lowest – just 2 miles as of 11:51 a.m. ET.

    But smoke does not necessarily pose a major safety hazard for commercial flights, which can operate normally without visual reference to the ground or horizon.

    Wildfire smoke is particularly dangerous because it contains tiny particulate matter, or PM2.5 – the tiniest of pollutants.

    When inhaled, it can travel deep into lung tissue and enter the bloodstream. It comes from sources like the combustion of fossil fuels, dust storms and wildfires, and has been linked to several health complications including asthma, heart disease and other respiratory illnesses.

    And the impacts could be deadly: In 2016, about 4.2 million premature deaths were associated with fine particulate matter, according to the World Health Organization.

    “If you can see or smell smoke, know that you’re being exposed,” said William Barrett, the national senior director of clean air advocacy with the American Lung Association. “And it’s important that you do everything you can to remain indoors during those high, high pollution episodes, and it’s really important to keep an eye on your health or any development of symptoms.”

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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

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    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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  • Terrifying moments as plane door opens midair on Asiana Airlines flight | CNN

    Terrifying moments as plane door opens midair on Asiana Airlines flight | CNN

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    Seoul, South Korea
    CNN
     — 

    The door of an Asiana Airlines jet opened as it was coming in to land in Daegu, South Korea, on Friday afternoon, leaving wind whipping through the plane’s cabin as terrified passengers gripped their armrests, video of the incident shows.

    An airline official said a man in his 30s who was sitting at the emergency seat seemed to have opened the door when the aircraft was about 700 feet (213 meters) above the ground and about two to three minutes from landing in the city 150 miles (240 kilometers) south of Seoul.

    However, company officials told CNN the plane had landed safely.

    Local police said a man has been arrested.

    A total of 200 people were on board, including 194 passengers, according to Asiana Airlines.

    According to the Daegu Fire Department, 12 people suffered minor injuries from hyperventilation and nine of them have been sent to hospitals in Daegu.

    The aircraft was identified on the Flightradar 24 tracking website as an Airbus 321.

    The jet was on a flight from Jeju island, off South Korea’s southern coast, to Daegu.

    Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas of Airline Ratings described the incident as “very bizarre.”

    “Technically, it’s not possible to open those doors in flight,” he told CNN.

    Thomas noted that the landing speed of an A321 is about 150 knots (172 mph), meaning winds of that speed are passing the aircraft. The door, behind the wing of the aircraft, opened into that airstream, he said.

    “It seems implausible that the door could be opened in the first place and then against the airstream technically impossible, but somehow or another it has happened, Thomas said.

    This is a breaking story and will be updated

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  • The Philippines will briefly shut its airspace later this month in a bid to tackle recent airport outages | CNN

    The Philippines will briefly shut its airspace later this month in a bid to tackle recent airport outages | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel’s weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations opening, inspiration for future adventures, plus the latest in aviation, food and drink, where to stay and other travel developments.


    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    “It’s more fun in the Philippines” is the tourism tagline that draws travelers from around the globe to explore the country’s pristine beaches and lush mountains.

    But getting there is not always a smooth journey, as anyone unfortunate enough to be at Manila’s airport during two crippling power outages this year discovered.

    Those outages, on Labor Day and New Year’s Day, caused widespread chaos with hundreds of flight cancellations affecting tens of thousands of passengers.

    In a bid to solve that issue, the Philippines will close the whole country’s airspace for 6 hours on May 17 to replace malfunctioning electrical equipment.

    “It’s the entire Philippine airspace that will be shut down,” Bryan Co, senior assistant general manager at the Manila International Airport Authority, said in a press briefing on Tuesday.

    The work will replace the uninterruptible power supply for the air traffic management center and the airspace closure will take place between 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. local time, usually a period of lower air traffic, Co added.

    Co called on airlines to prepare for its airspace going dark by re-arranging their flight schedules and advising passengers on alternative arrangements early on.

    Built 75 years ago, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL) in Manila – the country’s main international gateway – has been struggling to cope with soaring passenger traffic since flights resumed after pandemic restrictions were lifted.

    On May 1, the airport’s Terminal 3 suffered an almost nine-hour outage that led to the cancellation of 48 Cebu Pacific’s domestic flights on the Labor Day long weekend holiday.

    Crowds of unhappy passengers lining up at Cebu Pacific’s counter heckled staff over a lack of clarity on flight arrangements, according to videos from CNN affiliate CNN Philippines.

    A full electrical analysis is being conducted in the aftermath of the incident and an audit may take up to 90 days to assess which updates need to be prioritized, the airport authority said.

    Just days before the chaos, a newly-formed Manila International Airport Consortium (MIAC) had made proposals to the national government outlining a series of upgrades at the country’s largest airport, aiming to double annual passenger capacity to 62.5 million by 2028, the group of six conglomerates said in a statement on Thursday.

    The airport handled 48 million passengers in 2019, despite being designed to handle 31.5 million, it said, and the revamp is expected to cost $1.8 billion (100 billion Philippine pesos).

    Upgrades had long been overdue especially after tens of thousands of travelers were stranded in the Southeast Asian hub after severe power interruptions impacted air traffic control at the country’s largest airport on New Year’s Day this year. Nearly 300 flights were either delayed, canceled or diverted to other regional airports and at least 56,000 passengers were affected.

    The Philippine government launched an official investigation into what led to a severe outage on New Year’s Day, which took place during the busy year end travel season that sees large numbers of foreign tourists as well as overseas citizens flying into the country from abroad to mark Christmas and New Year.

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  • Environmental groups sue FAA for SpaceX launch that exploded in April | CNN

    Environmental groups sue FAA for SpaceX launch that exploded in April | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Environmental groups are suing the Federal Aviation Administration in federal court over SpaceX’s launch of its massive Starship rocket last month.

    The rocket – the most powerful ever built – lifted off the pad, spewing debris over miles, before exploding over the Gulf of Mexico four minutes into flight.

    This story is breaking news and it will be updated.

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  • US Army orders aviation safety stand down following deadly helicopter crashes | CNN Politics

    US Army orders aviation safety stand down following deadly helicopter crashes | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The chief of staff of the US Army has grounded all Army aviators not involved in critical missions following two recent helicopter crashes that left 12 soldiers dead.

    The order from Army Chief of Staff James McConville grounds the aviators “until they complete the required training,” according to the Army.

    “The safety of our aviators is our top priority, and this stand down is an important step to make certain we are doing everything possible to prevent accidents and protect our personnel,” McConville said in a statement.

    Army pilots, at McConville’s direction, “will focus on safety and training protocols to ensure our pilots and crews have the knowledge, training and awareness to safely complete their assigned mission.”

    The safety stand down comes after Thursday’s mid-air collision of two AH-64 Apache helicopters near Fort Wainwright, Alaska, that killed three soldiers and wounded another. 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 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.”

    That deadly collision came just weeks 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 medical evacuation helicopters were conducting a routine training mission when they crashed at approximately 10:00 pm local time in an open field across from a residential area. All nine of the service members aboard the two aircraft were killed.

    The incidents are under investigation, according to the Army, but “there is no indication of any pattern” between the two.

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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

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    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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  • Hundreds of Southwest Airlines flights are delayed after FAA lifts nationwide ground stop | CNN

    Hundreds of Southwest Airlines flights are delayed after FAA lifts nationwide ground stop | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Hundreds of Southwest Airlines flights were delayed after technical issues that prompted the airline to temporarily halt its operations on Tuesday morning.

    Southwest said the flight delays were the result of “data connection issues resulting from a firewall failure,” a problem that led to a brief ground stop.

    The Federal Aviation Administration initiated the ground stop at the airline’s request, citing “equipment issues.” The ground stop was soon lifted, and in a tweet at 11:35 a.m. ET Southwest said it had resumed operations.

    “Early this morning, a vendor-supplied firewall went down and connection to some operational data was unexpectedly lost,” spokesman Dan Landson said in a statement.

    Southwest had delayed 1,820 flights or 43% of its schedule as of just after noon Tuesday, according to FlightAware. The airline has canceled only nine flights on Tuesday, according to FlightAware. Southwest says its workers “worked quickly to minimize disruptions.”

    Southwest reported technology issues Tuesday morning and said it would “hopefully be resuming our operation as soon as possible.”

    The FAA in a statement told CNN that Southwest “requested the FAA pause the airline’s departures.”

    The problems come months after the airline was forced to cancel more than 16,700 flights between December 20 and 29, roughly half its schedule during that period. The airline attributed the meltdown in part to changes to its staff scheduling computer systems. Southwest last month unveiled an “action plan” to prevent another operational meltdown.

    Southwest called the latest problem “intermittent technology issues” in a social media post to customers. Several took to social media to complain about delayed flights.

    “We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but we’re hoping to get everyone going ASAP,” the airline wrote in another social media post.

    A massive winter storm started the service problems during the holiday season, but Southwest had a much tougher time recovering because of an antiquated crew scheduling system that was quickly overwhelmed, leaving the airline unable to get the staffing it needed to locations to operate flights. Nearly half of its schedule was canceled during from December 20 to December 29. Some days, as many as 75% of its scheduled flights were grounded.

    Part of what created worse problems at Southwest than at other airlines is that crew members had to call in to the airline, rather than notify it electronically, to let them it of their availability.

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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

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    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

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    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

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    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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  • Marine injured in Kabul airport bombing recounts ‘catastrophic’ US withdrawal from Afghanistan at House hearing | CNN Politics

    Marine injured in Kabul airport bombing recounts ‘catastrophic’ US withdrawal from Afghanistan at House hearing | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    US Marine Corps Sergeant Tyler Vargas-Andrews can remember in specific detail the moment that a suicide bomber attacked Kabul airport’s Abbey Gate in August 2021 amid the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

    “A flash and a massive wave of pressure. I’m thrown 4 feet onto the ground but instantly knew what had happened. I opened my eyes to Marines dead or unconscious lying around me. A crowd of hundreds immediately vanished in front of me. And my body was catastrophically wounded with 100 to 150 ball bearings now in it,” he recalled.

    Vargas-Andrews, 25, offered emotional and detailed testimony of the days leading up to the bombing, which took the lives of 13 US service members and more than 100 Afghans, as part of a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the evacuation from Afghanistan.

    The Biden administration’s frenzied withdrawal after two decades of US involvement in the war has come under immense scrutiny by Republican lawmakers, including the new chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, who has vowed to investigate the matter.

    However, those accusations in Congress about who is responsible for the chaotic final weeks of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan have fallen largely along party lines, with Republican lawmakers pointing fingers at the Biden administration and Democratic lawmakers casting blame on the Trump administration for the deal that set the US withdrawal into motion.

    In a statement to CNN Wednesday, White House spokesperson for oversight Ian Sams also pointed to the deal President Joe Biden “inherited” from Trump and said the last administration “failed to establish an evacuation plan and slowed down processing of special visas for our Afghan allies.”

    “Instead of returning the U.S. to active combat with the Taliban and putting even more of our troops’ lives at risk, President Biden made the tough decision to finally end the 20-year war in Afghanistan, bring our troops home, and safely evacuate tens upon tens of thousands of Americans and Afghan allies,” Sams said. He added that the withdrawal put “the U.S. in a stronger position to lead the world and address the challenges of the future, while continuing to welcome our Afghan allies and maintaining our ability to deal with terrorist threats in the region.”

    Wednesday’s hearing featured the testimonies of two service members who were on the ground in Afghanistan during those final weeks: Vargas-Andrews and US Army Specialist Aidan Gunderson. In addition, three people involved with groups who worked to evacuate Afghans – Francis Hoang from Allied Airlift 21, retired Lt. Col. David Scott Mann from Task Force Pineapple and Peter Lucier from Team America Relief – and immigration lawyer Camille Mackler, who worked to try to get the administration to begin relocating vulnerable Afghans well before the fall of Kabul, all served as witnesses.

    Vargas-Andrews described the withdrawal as a “catastrophe,” telling lawmakers that “there was an inexcusable lack of accountability and negligence.” He painted a picture of days of chaos and violence toward Afghans who were trying to flee the Taliban, described the US State Department as “not prepared to be at” the Kabul airport, claimed that threat warnings were disregarded by higher command on the day of the attack.

    Vargas-Andrews described the horrific scenes he witnessed from his post at Abbey Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA), telling lawmakers that “Afghans were brutalized and tortured by the Taliban.”

    “Some Afghans turned away from HKIA tried to kill themselves on the razor wire in front of us that we used as a deterrent,” he said. “Countless Afghans were murdered by the Taliban 155 yards in front of our position day and night.”

    “We communicated the atrocities to our chain of command and intel assets but nothing came of it,” he said.

    Vargas-Andrews said on the day of the August 26 suicide attack, he spotted a man in the crowd who fit the description of “a suicide bomber in the vicinity of and nearing Abbey Gate.”

    “Over the communication network we passed that there was a potential threat and an IED attack imminent. This was as serious as it could get,” he said, noting that he asked for permission to shoot, but “our battalion commander said, and I quote, ‘I don’t know,’ end quote.”

    “Myself and my team leader asked very harshly, ‘Well, who does? Because this is your responsibility, sir.’ He again replied he did not know but would find out. We received no update and never got our answer. Eventually the individual disappeared. To this day, we believe he was a suicide bomber,” he said.

    “Plain and simple, we were ignored. Our expertise was disregarded. No one was held accountable for our safety,” he said.

    Beyond the suicide attack, witnesses spoke about the mental health toll that the botched evacuation has had on US veterans of the war in Afghanistan.

    Mann, the retired lieutenant colonel, said he had a friend who took his own life, whose wife said “that the Afghan abandonment reactivated all the demons that he had managed to put behind him from hard time and Afghanistan together.”

    “And he just couldn’t find his way out of the darkness of that moral injury,” he said.

    They also spoke broadly about their work to try to aid the Afghans who worked alongside US troops during the war, the “majority” of whom were left behind in the evacuation, and the need to continue to work to help them.

    “I and thousands of others received frantic pleas for help from our Afghan allies whose lives were in peril,” said Hoang from Allied Airlift 21. “Thousands of us guided tired and scared Afghan families through crowds and Taliban checkpoints. The weight of this work was crushing. We left jobs, drained savings, reopened old wounds.”

    “We looked in horror as our screens filled with images of violence and desperation outside the gates of Kabul airport. We wept as we listened to messages left by children pleading for our help. Nine times out of 10 our efforts failed. But every success was a family saved, a promise kept,” he said.

    “It is our turn to summon the courage to fill our commitment to the Afghan allies still left behind,” Hoang said.

    Mackler, the immigration lawyer, told lawmakers that “what happened in August of 2021 was the product of decades long of inaction and systemic failures that we can no longer ignore.”

    “To ensure that the actions we heard today were not in vain, we must use this moment to create and implement better solutions,” she said, and called on Congress to take steps like passing the Afghan Adjustment Act.

    “After all, as we’ve been told, those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it. We saw that in Afghanistan. We tried to learn the lessons from Vietnam and we were ignored, and we cannot allow a future generation to go through this as well,” Mackler said.

    This story has been updated with additional information.

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