Date: 12/30/2008
By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — When the first of many loud alarms sounded on the space shuttle Columbia, the seven astronauts had about a minute to live, though they didn’t know it.
The pilot, William McCool, pushed several buttons trying to right the ship as it tumbled out of control. He didn’t know it was futile. Most of the crew were following NASA procedures, spending more time preparing the shuttle than themselves for the return to Earth.
Some weren’t wearing their bulky protective gloves and still had their helmet visors open. Some weren’t fully strapped in. One was barely seated.
In seconds, the darkened module holding the crew lost pressure. The astronauts blacked out. If the loss of pressure didn’t kill them immediately, they would be dead from violent gyrations that knocked them about the ship.
In short, Columbia’s astronauts were quickly doomed.
A new NASA report released Tuesday details the chaotic final minutes of Columbia, which disintegrated over Texas on Feb. 1, 2003. The point of the 400-page analysis is to figure out how to make NASA’s next spaceship more survivable. The report targeted problems with the spacesuits, restraints and helmets of the Columbia crew.
Many of the details about the astronauts’ deaths have been known — they died either from lack of oxygen during pressure loss or from hitting something as the spacecraft tumbled and broke up. However, the new report paints a more detailed picture of the final moments of the Columbia crew than the broader investigation into the accident five years ago.
Astronaut Pam Melroy, deputy study chief, said the analysis showed the astronauts were at their problem-solving best trying to recover Columbia, which was starting to crack up as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere with a hole in its left wing, damage that had occurred at liftoff. “There was no way for them to know that it was going to be impossible.”
The crew had lost control of the motion and direction of the spacecraft. It was pitching end-over-end, the cabin lights were out, and parts of the shuttle behind the crew compartment — including its wings — were falling off.
“It was a very disorienting motion going on,” NASA deputy associate administrator Wayne Hale said in a telephone conference call. “There were a number of alarms going off simultaneously. The crew was trying very hard to regain control. We’re talking about a brief time in a crisis situation.”
The NASA study team is recommending 30 changes based on Columbia, many of them aimed at the spacesuits, helmets and seatbelts for both the shuttle and the next space capsule NASA is building. Since the accident, NASA has quietly made astronauts put more priority on getting their protective suits on, Melroy said.
NASA’s suits don’t automatically pressurize, “a basic problem of suit design and it is one we intend to fix with future spacecraft,” Hale said.
Had the astronauts had time to get their gear on and get their suits pressurized, they might have lived longer and been able to take more actions. But they still wouldn’t have survived, the report notes.
The report lists events that were each potentially lethal to the crew: Loss of cabin pressure just before or as the cabin broke up; crew members, unconscious or already dead, crashing into objects in the module; exposure to a near vacuum at 100,000 feet; and crashing to the ground.
Killed in the Columbia disaster along with pilot McCool, were commander Rick Husband, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, and Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon.
Columbia was the second space shuttle NASA has lost. The hole in its wing was caused by a piece of foam insulation that broke off the fuel tank and slammed into it at launch. The shuttle Challenger blew up shortly after liftoff on 1986, also claiming seven lives. Investigators in both accidents pointed to a NASA culture of ignoring problems that later turned fatal.
Dr. Jonathan Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon and husband of Laurel Clark, praised NASA’s leadership for the report “even though it says, in some ways, you guys didn’t do a great job.”
“I guess the thing I’m surprised about, if anything, is that (the report) actually got out,” said Clark, who was a member of the team that wrote it. “There were so many forces” that didn’t want to produce the report because it would again put the astronauts’ families in the media spotlight.
Some of the recommendations already are being applied to the next-generation spaceship being designed to take astronauts to the moon and Mars, said Clark, who now works for the National Space Biomedical Research Institute at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Kirstie McCool Chadwick, sister of William McCool, said a copy of the report arrived at her Florida home Tuesday morning but she had not read it.
“We’ve moved on,” Chadwick said. “I’ll read it. But it’s private. It’s our business … Our family has moved on from the accident and we don’t want to reopen wounds.”
NASA held the report till after Christmas at the request of the families.
John Logsdon, who was a member of the original Columbia accident investigation board, questioned the need for the report, saying, “Those people are dead. Knowing in specifics how they died should be a private matter.”
But for friends of the astronauts working on the investigation, confirming that the crew didn’t suffer much “is a very small blessing,” Melroy said.
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Correspondent Mike Schneider in Orlando, Fla., contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
The NASA report: http://www.nasa.gov/news/reports/index.html
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Odd bumping noise heard on Denver plane’s tape
Tue Dec 23, 6:25 am ET
By COLLEEN SLEVIN, Associated Press Writer –
DENVER – Investigators trying to determine why a Continental Airlines plane veered off a runway and skidded into a ravine heard an odd bumping and rattling noise on the flight’s recorders shortly before it tried to take off.
The noise was detected 41 seconds after the jet started speeding down a runway at Denver International Airport on Saturday. Four seconds later, one of the crew members called for the takeoff to be aborted, said Robert Sumwalt, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board.
The recording ends six seconds after that, probably because the plane slammed to the ground after hurtling off an embankment, he said.
Sumwalt revealed the findings late Monday after an initial review of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders. Experts planned to begin a more in-depth analysis of the contents of the recorders in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday while investigators return to the plane’s wreckage in a snowy field at the airport.
All 115 passengers and crew members escaped the jet, which caught fire on the right side. Thirty-eight people were injured, including the plane’s captain.
Sumwalt said investigators have found no problems with the plane’s engines, tires or brakes, but they are not yet ruling anything out.
The plane traveled about 2,000 feet after leaving the runway, crossing a grassy strip and a taxiway before going off the embankment, hitting the ground at its base. It then went up a slight hill, over an access road and then down another small hill on the other side of the road before landing on its belly, its landing gear shorn off.
Lead NTSB investigator Bill English said the plane’s flight data recorder shows the thrusters on both engines were switched to reverse. He said that normally happens when crew members try to stop a takeoff.
Sumwalt said investigators are still gathering information about the exact wind conditions on the runway at the time of the accident. However, he said the cockpit voice recorder contained no comments about wind.
Investigators have not yet interviewed the plane’s captain, who was flying the plane, because Sumwalt said he is physically unable. He didn’t elaborate. They have talked to the first officer, who said the plane began moving off the center of the runway as it reached about 103 mph while speeding down the runway for takeoff.
The plane continued to accelerate, reaching a maximum speed of about 137 mph, Sumwalt said.
Off-duty crew members who had flown the plane earlier in the day also were on board at the time of the accident, and Sumwalt said the first officer from that crew returned to the plane three times to help rescue passengers. Sumwalt also reported that those crew members said they had no problems with the plane during their flight.
A fire charred and ripped open much of the right side of the plane, with the worst damage around a crack around the fuselage. Sumwalt said all the passenger seats remained intact during the plane’s wild ride off the runway, although seats in row 18, near the crack, had loose fittings.
Sumwalt said the runway was bare and dry when the plane attempted to take off for Houston and no debris was found there.
___
On the Net:
Denver Airport: http://www.flydenver.com
National Transportation Safety Board: http://www.ntsb.gov
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press
By COLLEEN SLEVIN, Associated Press Writer –
DENVER – Investigators trying to determine why a Continental Airlines plane veered off a runway and skidded into a ravine heard an odd bumping and rattling noise on the flight’s recorders shortly before it tried to take off.
The noise was detected 41 seconds after the jet started speeding down a runway at Denver International Airport on Saturday. Four seconds later, one of the crew members called for the takeoff to be aborted, said Robert Sumwalt, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board.
The recording ends six seconds after that, probably because the plane slammed to the ground after hurtling off an embankment, he said.
Sumwalt revealed the findings late Monday after an initial review of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders. Experts planned to begin a more in-depth analysis of the contents of the recorders in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday while investigators return to the plane’s wreckage in a snowy field at the airport.
All 115 passengers and crew members escaped the jet, which caught fire on the right side. Thirty-eight people were injured, including the plane’s captain.
Sumwalt said investigators have found no problems with the plane’s engines, tires or brakes, but they are not yet ruling anything out.
The plane traveled about 2,000 feet after leaving the runway, crossing a grassy strip and a taxiway before going off the embankment, hitting the ground at its base. It then went up a slight hill, over an access road and then down another small hill on the other side of the road before landing on its belly, its landing gear shorn off.
Lead NTSB investigator Bill English said the plane’s flight data recorder shows the thrusters on both engines were switched to reverse. He said that normally happens when crew members try to stop a takeoff.
Sumwalt said investigators are still gathering information about the exact wind conditions on the runway at the time of the accident. However, he said the cockpit voice recorder contained no comments about wind.
Investigators have not yet interviewed the plane’s captain, who was flying the plane, because Sumwalt said he is physically unable. He didn’t elaborate. They have talked to the first officer, who said the plane began moving off the center of the runway as it reached about 103 mph while speeding down the runway for takeoff.
The plane continued to accelerate, reaching a maximum speed of about 137 mph, Sumwalt said.
Off-duty crew members who had flown the plane earlier in the day also were on board at the time of the accident, and Sumwalt said the first officer from that crew returned to the plane three times to help rescue passengers. Sumwalt also reported that those crew members said they had no problems with the plane during their flight.
A fire charred and ripped open much of the right side of the plane, with the worst damage around a crack around the fuselage. Sumwalt said all the passenger seats remained intact during the plane’s wild ride off the runway, although seats in row 18, near the crack, had loose fittings.
Sumwalt said the runway was bare and dry when the plane attempted to take off for Houston and no debris was found there.
___
On the Net:
Denver Airport: http://www.flydenver.com
National Transportation Safety Board: http://www.ntsb.gov
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press
Missing plane’s pilot had only student license
Date: 12/17/2008
By DANICA COTO
Associated Press Writer
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The pilot of a plane that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle with 11 passengers aboard had only a U.S. student pilot license and should have never been allowed to fly, Dominican authorities said Wednesday.
Adriano Jimenez had been stripped of his Dominican license in 2006 because he was caught flying multiengine planes when he was only authorized to fly helicopters, said Pedro Dominguez, president of the Dominican Pilots Association. Two weeks ago, he had a minor accident while landing a small plane at a Dominican airport.
“An in-depth investigation was never opened to prevent what today we are lamenting,” Dominguez said.
Jimenez loaded 11 passengers onto a twin-engine plane in Santiago, Dominican Republic, on Monday and filed a flight plan for a landing in Mayaguana Island in the Bahamas, but he never arrived, according to the Dominican Civil Aviation Institute.
Jimenez sent an emergency signal about 35 minutes after takeoff and then disappeared from the radar. He was flying in low visibility over rough seas, according to U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Barry Bena.
U.S. Coast Guard crews suspended their search Wednesday night after scouring about 5,300 sq. miles (13,727 sq. kilometers) without turning up any sign of the plane or its passengers, said Guard spokesman Lt. Matt Moorlag in Miami.
The plane went missing in the Bermuda Triangle, a zone of the Atlantic Ocean noted for a supposedly high number of unexplained losses of small boats and aircraft.
The U.S. Coast Guard says the mysteries can usually be attributed to storms that flare up quickly and to swift, Gulf Stream currents that wash away evidence of wreckage.
“Overall, the U.S. Coast Guard is not impressed with supernatural explanations of disasters at sea,” Moorlag said.
The missing aircraft’s owner, Luis Perez of Puerto Rico, said he hired a pilot to fly the BN2A MK III Trislander to the Dominican Republic so that Jimenez, a potential buyer, could inspect it.
The pilot who was supposed to fly the plane with Jimenez at his side refused to do so when Jimenez arrived at the airport with 11 passengers, according to Luis Irizarry, an attorney for Perez’ company. He said Jimenez then took the plane himself without authorization.
Jimenez, 43, received a U.S. student pilot license in March, according to U.S. Federal Aviation Administration records.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By DANICA COTO
Associated Press Writer
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The pilot of a plane that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle with 11 passengers aboard had only a U.S. student pilot license and should have never been allowed to fly, Dominican authorities said Wednesday.
Adriano Jimenez had been stripped of his Dominican license in 2006 because he was caught flying multiengine planes when he was only authorized to fly helicopters, said Pedro Dominguez, president of the Dominican Pilots Association. Two weeks ago, he had a minor accident while landing a small plane at a Dominican airport.
“An in-depth investigation was never opened to prevent what today we are lamenting,” Dominguez said.
Jimenez loaded 11 passengers onto a twin-engine plane in Santiago, Dominican Republic, on Monday and filed a flight plan for a landing in Mayaguana Island in the Bahamas, but he never arrived, according to the Dominican Civil Aviation Institute.
Jimenez sent an emergency signal about 35 minutes after takeoff and then disappeared from the radar. He was flying in low visibility over rough seas, according to U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Barry Bena.
U.S. Coast Guard crews suspended their search Wednesday night after scouring about 5,300 sq. miles (13,727 sq. kilometers) without turning up any sign of the plane or its passengers, said Guard spokesman Lt. Matt Moorlag in Miami.
The plane went missing in the Bermuda Triangle, a zone of the Atlantic Ocean noted for a supposedly high number of unexplained losses of small boats and aircraft.
The U.S. Coast Guard says the mysteries can usually be attributed to storms that flare up quickly and to swift, Gulf Stream currents that wash away evidence of wreckage.
“Overall, the U.S. Coast Guard is not impressed with supernatural explanations of disasters at sea,” Moorlag said.
The missing aircraft’s owner, Luis Perez of Puerto Rico, said he hired a pilot to fly the BN2A MK III Trislander to the Dominican Republic so that Jimenez, a potential buyer, could inspect it.
The pilot who was supposed to fly the plane with Jimenez at his side refused to do so when Jimenez arrived at the airport with 11 passengers, according to Luis Irizarry, an attorney for Perez’ company. He said Jimenez then took the plane himself without authorization.
Jimenez, 43, received a U.S. student pilot license in March, according to U.S. Federal Aviation Administration records.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Australian couple loses home via Facebook
Date: 12/16/2008 12:00 AM
By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press Writer
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — You’ve been “superpoked” — and served. An attorney in Australia has used the popular networking Web site Facebook to notify a couple that they lost their home after defaulting on a loan.
The Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court last Friday approved lawyer Mark McCormack’s application to use Facebook to serve the legally binding documents after several failed attempts to contact the couple at the house and by e-mail.
Australian courts have given permission in the past for people to be served via e-mail and text messages when it was not possible to serve them in person.
The lender’s application to take back the house in the capital, Canberra, was approved on Oct. 3 after the couple failed to appear in court. The lender was then required to serve the so-called default judgment on the couple before it could seize the property.
“It’s somewhat novel, however we do see it as a valid method of bringing the matter to the attention of the defendant,” said McCormack, who represents a mortgage lender.
Facebook has become a wildly popular online hangout, attracting more than 140 million users worldwide since it launched in 2004. Facebook friends can “poke” or “superpoke” each other — terms for giving someone a playful nudge.
Lawyer and computer forensic expert Seamus Byrne said he was aware of only one similar case in Australia. A Queensland state District Court judge ruled in April against documents being served by Facebook because the option of contacting a person via a post office box had not yet been exhausted.
In the latest ruling, Master David Harper insisted that the documents be attached to a private e-mail sent via Facebook that could not be seen by others visiting the pages.
McCormack said he and a colleague found the woman’s Facebook page using personal details that she had given the lender including her birth date and e-mail address. The man was listed on her page as a friend. Neither had imposed security options that deny strangers access to their pages.
McCormack said he did not bother searching for the couple through any other social networking sites.
“It’s one of those occasions where you feel most at home with what you know and I myself have a Facebook account,” McCormack said.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press Writer
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — You’ve been “superpoked” — and served. An attorney in Australia has used the popular networking Web site Facebook to notify a couple that they lost their home after defaulting on a loan.
The Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court last Friday approved lawyer Mark McCormack’s application to use Facebook to serve the legally binding documents after several failed attempts to contact the couple at the house and by e-mail.
Australian courts have given permission in the past for people to be served via e-mail and text messages when it was not possible to serve them in person.
The lender’s application to take back the house in the capital, Canberra, was approved on Oct. 3 after the couple failed to appear in court. The lender was then required to serve the so-called default judgment on the couple before it could seize the property.
“It’s somewhat novel, however we do see it as a valid method of bringing the matter to the attention of the defendant,” said McCormack, who represents a mortgage lender.
Facebook has become a wildly popular online hangout, attracting more than 140 million users worldwide since it launched in 2004. Facebook friends can “poke” or “superpoke” each other — terms for giving someone a playful nudge.
Lawyer and computer forensic expert Seamus Byrne said he was aware of only one similar case in Australia. A Queensland state District Court judge ruled in April against documents being served by Facebook because the option of contacting a person via a post office box had not yet been exhausted.
In the latest ruling, Master David Harper insisted that the documents be attached to a private e-mail sent via Facebook that could not be seen by others visiting the pages.
McCormack said he and a colleague found the woman’s Facebook page using personal details that she had given the lender including her birth date and e-mail address. The man was listed on her page as a friend. Neither had imposed security options that deny strangers access to their pages.
McCormack said he did not bother searching for the couple through any other social networking sites.
“It’s one of those occasions where you feel most at home with what you know and I myself have a Facebook account,” McCormack said.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Ex-congressman may get jail for drunken driving
Date: 12/8/2008
By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Disgraced former Rep. Vito Fossella is headed to court to find out if he has to serve jail time for a drunken-driving incident that wrecked his career by revealing he’d fathered a child from an extramarital affair.
A judge has scheduled a Monday afternoon hearing to decide if Fossella, a New York City congressman for more than a decade, was so drunk he should be slapped with a five-day jail sentence.
Fossella was arrested after running a red light on May 1 in a Virginia suburb of Washington, and convicted of drunken driving in October. Under Virginia law, a driver who registers a blood alcohol content of 0.15 or higher must serve five days behind bars. Police say Fossella’s blood alcohol content was 0.17.
The arrest led to revelations that Fossella — who has a wife and three children in his home district of Staten Island — also had a young daughter with a former Air Force officer.
Fossella decided not to seek re-election this year, and a Democrat won his seat. Now, Fossella faces the prospect of ending his once-promising political career with a stint in the slammer.
Judge Becky Moore of Alexandria General District Court has received pre-sentencing arguments from both sides.
In court papers, Fossella’s lawyer, Jerry Phillips, contends the machine the police used to test Fossella’s blood alcohol content was faulty and for that reason he should not face jail time.
The lawyer is asking the judge to sentence Fossella to a suspended jail sentence, an alcohol safety course and a one-year suspension of his driver’s license in Virginia.
Prosecutor David Lord dismissed the contention there was anything wrong with Fossella’s intoxication test results, and suggested Fossella may have pounded drinks just before getting behind the wheel, which would have led to his 0.17 reading on the machine.
“It is a reasonable inference that if a person ‘slams’ or rapidly consumes alcohol immediately before leaving a bar, the suspect will experience a rising BAC at the time of arrest,” Lord argued, referring to the blood alcohol level.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Disgraced former Rep. Vito Fossella is headed to court to find out if he has to serve jail time for a drunken-driving incident that wrecked his career by revealing he’d fathered a child from an extramarital affair.
A judge has scheduled a Monday afternoon hearing to decide if Fossella, a New York City congressman for more than a decade, was so drunk he should be slapped with a five-day jail sentence.
Fossella was arrested after running a red light on May 1 in a Virginia suburb of Washington, and convicted of drunken driving in October. Under Virginia law, a driver who registers a blood alcohol content of 0.15 or higher must serve five days behind bars. Police say Fossella’s blood alcohol content was 0.17.
The arrest led to revelations that Fossella — who has a wife and three children in his home district of Staten Island — also had a young daughter with a former Air Force officer.
Fossella decided not to seek re-election this year, and a Democrat won his seat. Now, Fossella faces the prospect of ending his once-promising political career with a stint in the slammer.
Judge Becky Moore of Alexandria General District Court has received pre-sentencing arguments from both sides.
In court papers, Fossella’s lawyer, Jerry Phillips, contends the machine the police used to test Fossella’s blood alcohol content was faulty and for that reason he should not face jail time.
The lawyer is asking the judge to sentence Fossella to a suspended jail sentence, an alcohol safety course and a one-year suspension of his driver’s license in Virginia.
Prosecutor David Lord dismissed the contention there was anything wrong with Fossella’s intoxication test results, and suggested Fossella may have pounded drinks just before getting behind the wheel, which would have led to his 0.17 reading on the machine.
“It is a reasonable inference that if a person ‘slams’ or rapidly consumes alcohol immediately before leaving a bar, the suspect will experience a rising BAC at the time of arrest,” Lord argued, referring to the blood alcohol level.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Pa. driver charged in deaths of charity walkers, both 72, from Puerto Rico
Date: 12/6/2008
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A central Pennsylvania man was charged with careless driving in the deaths of a couple who were struck as they walked to a fundraiser.
David K. Shiery, 47, of Enola, was speeding when his pickup struck Able Seda and his wife, Carmen Sanchez-Seda, both 72, on Oct. 6, authorities said. The speed was not high enough to warrant vehicular homicide charges, city spokesman Matthew Coulter said. The posted speed limit in the area is 35 mph.
The victims were on their way to a diabetes fundraising walk, which began on City Island. They had recently moved to Harrisburg from Puerto Rico, officials said.
Shiery was charged with two counts of careless driving causing death. Court records show he has three previous traffic convictions since 2002 for disregarding traffic devices in the area.
The impact threw the couple 70 to 80 feet and caused significant damage to the truck, denting the bumper and crushing the hood, Harrisburg Police Chief Charles Kellar said.
Carmen Sanchez-Seda died at the scene while Able Seda died the next morning at a hospital, police said.
Shiery has been sent a summons to appear in court, records show.
A man who answered an Associated Press call to Shiery’s home Saturday hung up.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A central Pennsylvania man was charged with careless driving in the deaths of a couple who were struck as they walked to a fundraiser.
David K. Shiery, 47, of Enola, was speeding when his pickup struck Able Seda and his wife, Carmen Sanchez-Seda, both 72, on Oct. 6, authorities said. The speed was not high enough to warrant vehicular homicide charges, city spokesman Matthew Coulter said. The posted speed limit in the area is 35 mph.
The victims were on their way to a diabetes fundraising walk, which began on City Island. They had recently moved to Harrisburg from Puerto Rico, officials said.
Shiery was charged with two counts of careless driving causing death. Court records show he has three previous traffic convictions since 2002 for disregarding traffic devices in the area.
The impact threw the couple 70 to 80 feet and caused significant damage to the truck, denting the bumper and crushing the hood, Harrisburg Police Chief Charles Kellar said.
Carmen Sanchez-Seda died at the scene while Able Seda died the next morning at a hospital, police said.
Shiery has been sent a summons to appear in court, records show.
A man who answered an Associated Press call to Shiery’s home Saturday hung up.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
US investigator leads plane crash probe
Date: 12/5/2008
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A U.S. investigator is studying the charred wreckage of a small plane that plowed into a Puerto Rican rainforest to pinpoint the cause of the deadly crash.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board says Todd Gunther is leading the probe.
The Rockwell International 690B plane slammed into El Yunque mountain on Wednesday, killing Caribbean pilot Ken Webster and two U.S. tourists on board.
A spokesman for the Medical Mutual of Ohio health insurance company is identifying the two Americans as Kent W. Clapp, the firm’s chief executive, and his fiancee, Tracy Turner. Puerto Rican officials previously had identified the man as Ken Clapp.
The couple from Avon Lake outside Cleveland chartered the plane from the British Virgin Islands.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A U.S. investigator is studying the charred wreckage of a small plane that plowed into a Puerto Rican rainforest to pinpoint the cause of the deadly crash.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board says Todd Gunther is leading the probe.
The Rockwell International 690B plane slammed into El Yunque mountain on Wednesday, killing Caribbean pilot Ken Webster and two U.S. tourists on board.
A spokesman for the Medical Mutual of Ohio health insurance company is identifying the two Americans as Kent W. Clapp, the firm’s chief executive, and his fiancee, Tracy Turner. Puerto Rican officials previously had identified the man as Ken Clapp.
The couple from Avon Lake outside Cleveland chartered the plane from the British Virgin Islands.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.