A small plane carrying a group of people from California to Montana crashed into a cemetery not far from the airport in Butte and burst into flames, killing seven adults and seven children on Sunday, while a FedEx cargo plane smashed into a runway and burst into a ball of fire while attempting to land at Tokyo’s Narita Airport yesterday, killing the American pilot and copilot.
Investigators believe wind shear, or a sudden gust of wind, may have been a factor in the Tokyo crash, but the US National Transportation Safety Board gave no explanation for the Montana crash during a press conference on Sunday night. .
“There was nothing left of it,” said Steve Guidoni of Butte, who saw the crash on Sunday. “It just went straight into the ground. I went over there to try to help. I thought maybe I would pull someone out of the fire.”
PHOTO: EPA
Guidoni said he saw luggage and seat cushions lying around, but no bodies. He said the biggest piece of the plane was the size of a kitchen table.
“You wouldn’t even know a plane was there,” he said.
The single engine turboprop crashed and burned at Holy Cross Cemetery, 152m short of Bert Mooney Airport in Butte, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesman Mike Fergus said.
The plane was believed to be taking its occupants on a ski trip.
A California newspaper, the Napa Valley Register, reported on its Web site late on Sunday that a family of five from St Helena, California, including three preschoolers, was among the victims.
The aircraft had departed from Oroville, California, and the pilot had filed a flight plan showing a destination of Bozeman, about 137km southeast of Butte. But the pilot canceled his flight plan at some point and headed for Butte, Fergus said.
The flight originated at Brown Field Municipal airport in San Diego on Saturday evening and flew to Redlands, California, said Rachel Laing, a San Diego city spokeswoman.
The plane left on Sunday morning for Vacaville, California, Flight Aware said. From there it flew to Oroville and then to Butte.
Meanwhile, in Tokyo, questions were also being raised about the safety of the MD-11, a wide-body airliner built by McDonnell Douglas and based on the DC-10, being used by FedEx.
The flight from FedEx’s hub in Guangzhou appeared to bounce after its initial touch down, and then skipped along Narita’s main runway.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS