Commercial Jet Hits Violent Turbulence Over Nebraska, With 30 Injured, One Critically

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Posted on 21st July 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Thirty people were injured, one critically, when a United Airlines jet hit severe turbulence over Kansas Tuesday night,  according to the Federal Aviation Administration, throwing passengers around like dolls.

 http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/dozens-injured-as-united-flight-967-hits-severe-turbulence-diverted-to-denver/19562537

The flight was diverted to Denver International Airport, where it landed safely at 7:45 p.m., the FAA said. Flight 967 had originated at Dulles International Airport in Washington, and was bound for Los Angeles.

Twenty six passengers and four crew members were hurt, with one person suffering critical injuries. The injured, who were taken to local Denver hospitals, were treated for whiplash, bruises, strains and sprains, according to a report by AOL.

The Boeing 777 was flying over Kansas, at about 34,000-feet altitude, when it encountered the severe turbulence. Passengers said the plane suddenly jerked up and down violently.

One passenger told The Denver Post that the woman in the seat next to her hit her head on the side of the cabin so hard that she left a crack above the window. And a woman on the other side of the aisle flew up and hit the plane’s ceiling.

The plane had been carrying 255 passengers and 10 crew members.

 

Judge Allows Lawsuit Stemming From Yankee Cory Lidle’s Fatal Plane Crash To Proceed

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Posted on 7th July 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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 A judge ruled Tuesday that the widow of New York Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle, who was killed when a small plane he  was in crashed into a Manhattan building, can proceed with a lawsuit stemming from his death, according to the New York Post.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/lidle_crash_suit_flies_on_uDLKvNiDHnIKKQYY56ioHK

Melanie Lidle has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against aircraft manufacturer Cirrus Design Corp. The suit alleges that a defective control system lead to the crash, in which the plane carrying the Yankee and flight instructor Tyler Stanger hit an apartment building on the Upper East Side.

The widow Lidle’s attorney had presented testimony from five experts, and Manhattan federal judge Barbara Jones found that based on their evidence there was sufficient cause for the litigation to proceed. 

 Right before the accident Lidle and Stanger were flying over the East River in Manhattan. Then they tried to make a U-turn, and hit the building while doing so. 

The National Transportation Safety Board found that the pair had started their turn too late to have enough room to successfully make the turn.     

  

 

Missing plane’s pilot had only student license

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Posted on 17th December 2008 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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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.

US investigator leads plane crash probe

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Posted on 5th December 2008 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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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.

Marshfield, WI Plane Crash

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Posted on 24th November 2008 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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MARSHFIELD, Wis. (AP) – Authorities in Wisconsin say a small airplane has crashed in the backyard of a house in Marshfield, killing the three people on board the aircraft.

No one on the ground was injured.

Officials said the plane had caught fire after the crash late Saturday and burned the back wall of the house.

Marshfield Fire Department Deputy Chief Roy Dolens told WSAW-TV that it wasn’t immediately clear whether the pilot was trying to land at the Marshfield airport or if the plane had just taken off.

Federation aviation investigators were expected to examine the crash scene.

Marshfield is located about 40 miles southwest of Wausau, Wis.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

5 dead, 3 hurt after plane hits Oregon home in fog

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Posted on 4th August 2008 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 8/4/2008 9:53 PM

BC-Oregon Plane Crash,3rd Ld-Writethru/379


By JOSEPH B. FRAZIER
Associated Press Writer

GEARHART, Ore. (AP) _ A small plane crashed into a seaside house in heavy fog early Monday, killing two people aboard and three children inside the vacation home, authorities said.

A woman and two children in the home were injured.

Gearhart city officials said pilot Jason Ketchson and passenger Frank Toohey were aboard the plane that crashed before 7 a.m., apparently hitting a tree during conditions described as foggy with low clouds.

When the plane crashed, six people were in the four-bedroom rental home for a family reunion and vacation, City Administrator Dennis McNally said. A vacant house next door was also damaged.

The children killed were identified as Julia Reimann, 10, of Beaverton; and Hesam Farrar Masoudi, 12, and Grace Masoudi, 8, both from Denver.

Ruth Jackson-Reimann, 47, and two children, Christopher Reimann, 13, and Sarah Reimann, 11, were flown to Portland for treatment at a burn center, said Michael Griffiths, executive director of the regional emergency transport consortium Life Flight.

The hospital declined to release their conditions.

Jackson-Reimann rescued one of the children and another climbed out a window, officials said. Two adults staying at the home were out for a walk when the plane crashed.

The owner of the house, Greg Marshall of Portland, told The Oregonian newspaper that the victims arrived Sunday for a planned two-week stay.

The plane, a four-seat Cessna, was owned by Aviation Adventures in Seaside. The company had rented it to Ketchson, McNally said.

McNally said the plane had just taken off from the airport and was apparently headed to Klamath Falls in southern Oregon.

An explosion was reported about 20 seconds after the crash.

Rebecca Herren lives about a block and a half from the crash site.

“I heard the plane above and thought, ‘Gosh, it’s awfully low and awfully early,’” she said.

The explosion shook her house and was followed by two smaller explosions, she said. The city said homes were rocked up to a half-mile away.

The cause of the crash has not been determined. Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board investigators were on the scene.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Airport boss: Runway where jet crashed is adequate

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Posted on 1st August 2008 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 8/1/2008 7:57 PM

By AMY FORLITI
Associated Press Writer

OWATONNA, Minn. (AP) _ The manager of a regional airport where eight people died in the crash of a business jet said Friday that the 5,500-foot runway is adequate, noting that similar aircraft land there routinely.

“It’s a good business line,” Dave Beaver said of the runway.

Beaver, manager of the Owatonna Degner Regional Airport, said severe weather in the area had calmed down by the time the Hawker jet crashed at about 9:45 a.m. He said he would let investigators decide whether the airport’s systems were working properly at the time of the crash.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators were surveying the wreckage and looking for clues Friday. Some investigators examined the runway, where witnesses said the plane landed and became airborne again before disappearing behind a row of trees about 500 feet from the runway’s edge.

The plane hit the ground in a cornfield and skidded for about 50 yards, then crossed a gravel road and continued to skid, clearing the corn in its path and leaving behind a swath of dirt and debris.

It came to rest with its fuselage nearly vertical and its landing gear out. The cabin was a pile of crunched metal and debris, and the white tail poked up about a foot above a sea of corn. A piece of siding with rivets lay on the road, and other pipes, bits of yellow insulation, a pully, wires and bits of metal were tossed about. The area smelled slightly of fuel.

Seat cushions were scattered along the skid. Other signs of the lives lost peppered the debris: plastic drinking cups and paper plates, a granola bar wrapper, and packaging from a bag of Tazo Earl Grey tea. A cracked CD jewel case lay in the road near a playing card face down in the gravel.

NTSB member Steven Chealander said the agency wouldn’t speculate on a cause until the investigation is complete, which could take a year. Investigators will examine the weather, the background of the pilots, the plane’s condition, witness accounts and air controller traffic prior to the crash.

“We are in the evidence-gathering stage of this investigation,” Chealander said in a briefing to reporters.

The cockpit voice recorder was recovered Thursday and sent to the NTSB lab in Washington for analysis, along with a flight management system, a device that contains data but is less elaborate than the flight data recorders on large jets.

The jet was carrying six casino and construction executives and two pilots when the plane went down, killing all aboard. The executives were coming to Owatonna to meet with representatives of a local glass company called Viracon to discuss a $2 billion hotel-casino complex being built in Atlantic City by Revel Entertainment.

The airport has no control tower, and pilots communicate with Federal Aviation Administration stations nearby.

An hour before the crash, a wind gust of 72 mph was reported in Owatonna, according to the National Weather Service. But witnesses said the crash occurred after the worst of the storm had passed, with the sky clearing and only light rain.

One witness said there was standing water on the runway. But Beaver said during a news conference that no other pilots reported braking problems.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Investigation into US plane crash that killed 8

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Posted on 1st August 2008 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 8/1/2008 6:07 AM


By AMY FORLITI
Associated Press Writer

OWATONNA, Minnesota (AP) _ U.S. investigators planned Friday to search the wreckage of a small plane for clues to why it crashed near a regional airport, killing all eight people on board.

The victims included two pilots and six passengers, all casino and construction executives who were heading to Owatonna, Minnesota, for a business meeting.

The Raytheon Hawker 800 went down Thursday morning, shortly after severe weather had moved through southern Minnesota. The weather conditions, as well as the plane’s structure, its systems and other factors, are being examined by the National Transportation and Safety Board, said John Lovell, the investigator in charge.

A cockpit voice recorder and a flight management system were recovered and sent to the NTSB lab in Washington to be analyzed.

The charter jet, flying from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Owatonna, a town of 25,000, went down in a cornfield northwest of Degner Regional Airport, Sheriff Gary Ringhofer said. The wreckage was not visible from the airport, and roadways leading to the site were blocked off.

Debris was scattered 500 feet (150 meters) beyond the airport’s runway. Late Thursday, the Dakota County coroner was on the scene working to identify victims.

Seven people were found dead at the crash site. One died later at a hospital.

Two other people who were supposed to be on board did not get on the flight, said Doug Neville, Department of Public Safety spokesman.

By late Thursday night, five of the victims had been identified. Revel casino spokeswoman Valerie Edmonds said three employees were killed in the crash, but said their identities would not be released until Friday at the earliest.

The airport Web site describes it as “ideal for all classes of corporate aircraft use” with an all-weather instrument landing system.

Neville said the airport has no control tower, and pilots communicate with controllers in Minneapolis.

___

Associated Press writer Wayne Parry in Atlantic City, New Jersey contributed to this report.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Small jet crashes in Minn.; 8 killed include execs

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Posted on 31st July 2008 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Date: 7/31/2008 11:27 PM


By AMY FORLITI
Associated Press Writer

OWATONNA, Minn. (AP) _ A small jet crashed Thursday while preparing to land at a regional airport in Minnesota, killing eight people, including casino and construction executives.

Authorities initially thought 10 people may have been aboard the Raytheon Hawker 800, which went down about 9:30 a.m. about 60 miles south of the Twin Cities.

But by late evening, Department of Public Safety spokesman Doug Neville said it had been confirmed that eight people were on board.

The plane was carrying two pilots. Seven people were dead at the scene. One died later at a hospital.

Severe weather had been moving through southern Minnesota earlier Thursday, but witnesses and the National Weather Service said the storms were subsiding at the time of the crash.

The charter jet, flying from Atlantic City, N.J., to Owatonna, a town of 25,000, went down in a cornfield northwest of Degner Regional Airport, Sheriff Gary Ringhofer said. The wreckage was not visible to reporters because tall corn obscured the crash site.

The debris was scattered 500 feet beyond the airport’s runway. Late Thursday, the Dakota County coroner was on the scene working to identify victims.

A National Transportation Safety Board investigating team will look at a variety of factors, such as the plane structure and weather, said John Lovell, the investigator in charge.

A cockpit voice recorder and a flight management system were recovered and sent to be analyzed, the NTSB said.

Cameron Smith, a mechanic at the airport, said he spoke by radio with the jet’s pilot just minutes before the crash. The pilot was about to land and was asking where he should park for fuel, Smith said.

He ran to the crash scene to see if anyone could be helped, but saw only a long skid path and debris that he described as “shredded.”

He said: “There was no fuselage. There were just parts.”

By late Thursday night, five of the eight victims had been identified. They are:

— Karen Sandland, 44, a project manager on the Revel casino project who worked out of Tishman Construction’s Newark, N.J. office, company spokesman Bud Perrone said.

— Two pilots, Clark Keefer of Bethlehem, Pa. and Dan D’Ambrosio of Hellertown, Pa., according to Brad Cole, president of East Coast Jets, the company which owned the plane.

— Two executives of APG International, a Glassboro, N.J. company that specializes in glass facades: Marc Rosenberg, the company’s chief operating officer, and Alan Barnett, its assistant project manager, according to company spokeswoman Amelia Townsend.

Revel spokeswoman Valerie Edmonds confirmed that three Revel employees were killed in the crash, but said their identities would not be released until Friday at the earliest.

The airport lies alongside Interstate 35 as it skirts Owatonna’s western edge. The airport’s Web site describes it as “ideal for all classes of corporate aircraft use” with an all-weather instrument landing system.

___

Associated Press writer Wayne Parry in Atlantic City, N.J. contributed to this report.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.