- @
- Followers:
No Tweets Found
CNN POLITICS ON FACEBOOK » | CNN POLITICS ON TWITTER »
Finding Amelia Earhart: New clues revealed
A mystery that has enthralled Americans for nearly a century may be on its way to being solved.
New evidence released Friday revealed clues that may solve the mystery of what happened to aviator Amelia Earhart, Discovery News reports.
The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery announced that a new study suggests that dozens of radio signals once dismissed were actually transmissions from Earhart’s plane after she vanished during her attempted around-the-world flight in 1937.
The announcement was made at the start of a three-day conference in Washington dedicated to Earhart and the group’s search for the famous aviator’s remains and the wreckage of her plane.
On the conference website, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery called Earhart’s unanswered distress calls “The smoking gun that was swept under the rug.”
Discovery News reported that the group has determined 57 “credible” radio transmissions from Earhart after her plane went down.
It has been researching the disappearance of Earhart, her navigator, Fred Noonan, and her Lockheed Electra aircraft for 24 years. Its members have developed a theory that Earhart’s remains lie on Nikumaroro Island in the Western Pacific.
Nikumoro Island, then called Gardner’s Island, had been uninhabited since 1892, the group said. In its version of Earhart’s final days, she and Noonan landed there after failing to find another island. They landed safely and radioed for help, the hypothesis goes. Eventually, the Electra was swept away by the tide, and Earhart and Noonan could no longer use its radio to call for help. U.S. Navy search planes flew over the island, but not seeing the Electra, they passed on and continued the search elsewhere.
The discovery of what is believed to be an old jar of anti-freckle cream may also provide clues to this decades-old mystery. It is suspected that the cosmetic bottle found on Nikumaroro Island once belonged to Earhart.
The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery will launch an expedition to Nikumaroro Island on July 2, the 75th anniversary of Earhart’s disappearance. This is their ninth expedition.
US Airways jetliner diverted on flight over Atlantic
A US Airways jetliner en route from Paris to Charlotte, North Carolina, has been diverted to Bangor, Maine, for a "security issue," airline spokesman Andrew Christie told CNN.
A Transportation Safety Administration statement said the plane has landed safely in Bangor.
"TSA is aware of reports of a passenger who exhibited suspicious behavior during flight. Out of an abundance of caution the flight was diverted to BGR where it was met by law enforcement," the statement said.
A US Airways spokesperson said there 179 passengers and nine crew aboard the flight.
FULL STORY
Russian airliner disappears over Indonesia
[Updated at 7:34 a.m. ET] Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan told Metro TV the Sukhoi jet went missing at about 2 p.m. local time in the area of Bogor, West Java.
The jet was on a demonstration flight that should've lasted 30 minutes, taking off and expected to land again in Jakarta's Halim airport. About 46 people were onboard he said.
National Search and Rescue Agency official Gagah Prakosa said on Metro TV that there was an initial search by air that's been suspended because of darkness. A ground search continues.
[Updated at 7:24 a.m. ET] Russia's newest civilian airliner disappeared Wednesday from radar screens during a demonstration flight in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, state-run Ria Novosti news service reported. There were 44 passengers on board.
The pilots requested permission to descend from 10,000 feet to 6,000 feet, air traffic controllers said. After that, all radio contact was lost.
The plane began making its descent but vanished from radar screens at 6,200 feet in a mountainous area.
By the time the plane was due to return it should have burned up its fuel, RIA Novosti said.
The Sukhoi Superjet-100 airplane arrived in Jakarta as part of a demonstration tour of six Asian countries. It had been to Myanmar, Pakistan and Kazakhstan, and was due to visit Laos and Vietnam after Indonesia, RIA Novosti said.
Sukhoi manufactures military aircraft and is known especially for its fighter jets. Its civilian aircraft is narrow-bodied with a dual-class cabin that can transport 100 passengers over regional routes.
Colombian Air Force helicopter crashes, killing 13
A helicopter carrying members of the Colombian Air Force and police crashed in the north of the Latin American nation on Monday, killing all 13 people on board.
The crash took place at 4:30 p.m. local time (5:30 p.m. ET) in the municipality of Sabanagrande, near Colombia's Caribbean coast, according to a statement from the Colombian Air Force.
Seven of the dead were from the air force and six were from the police.
"We regret the accident of the Air Force helicopter crash," President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia said in a message posted on his official twitter account. "Our condolences to the families of the patriotic heroes who died in this accident."
In an amateur video broadcast on the local Caracol TV, dozens of people were shown standing near the crash site, which was covered with smoke and flames.
FULL STORY
Gotta Watch: Rough plane landings
Imagine being aboard a commercial airliner as it violently bucks and bumps through rough winds. Or, the feeling of terror as you realize the aircraft you're on has to make an emergency landing. You've gotta watch how some pilots handled intense moments like these - all caught on camera.
Wind whips jetliner across runway
Planes landing in Bilbao, Spain, fight to land straight while flying in 50-60 mph winds.
iReporter relives near-plane crash
In 2008, iReporter Dave Gering shared his experience of riding on a plane that nearly crashed in Germany.
'We're gonna be in the Hudson'
The FAA released audiotapes of the US Airways flight that crash-landed in the Hudson River.
Report: Plane with 127 aboard crashes in Pakistan
[Updated at 10:48 a.m. ET] An airplane with 127 people on board crashed Friday near an airport in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Pakistan's GEO-TV reported, citing sources. The country's Civilian Aviation Authority confirmed reports of a crash, the station said.
The Boeing 737 was flying from Karachi and crashed on landing, the Karachi-based Pakistani news channel reported.
The weather conditions in the area include high winds and limited visibility, according to CNN meteorologist Mari Ramos.
Rescue teams were reportedly headed to the crash site.
FULL STORY
Overheard on CNN.com: It's a bird ... it's a plane ... it's ... Venus!
Editor's note: This post is part of the Overheard on CNN.com series, a regular feature that examines interesting comments and thought-provoking conversations posted by the community.
A report released Monday about an incident that sent several passengers flying out of their seats on an Air Canada flight on January 14, 2011, has got many of our readers testing out their commenting wits. The report says the first officer woke up from a nap - the rules allow for a brief "controlled rest" period at cruising altitude - and suddenly mistook the planet Venus to be another plane overhead. He panicked and the plane went into a dive before the crew corrected its position so an actual approaching C-17 plane could pass underneath.
Pilot sends plane into dive after mistaking Venus for oncoming plane
How does something like this happen?
HitomiAdrien: "This doesn't make sense to me. Why would he make such a brash move? Even if it were another plane, at the size of a dot there has to be other protocol (trying to locate that other plane on their GPS?) and a significant amount of time to get out of the way considering how big Venus isn't from the Earth. Therefore; why take a nose dive on a dot of light before taking other precautions that you were trained to do in school and through experience?"
WithReason7: "Venus on a clear night at 35,000 feet is brighter than airplane lights. Had it been plane on a collision course, they probably would have had about five seconds to avoid collision, not enough time to check GPS and have a nice chat ..."
This person gave an actual piloting perspective.
jsnight: "It happens more than you think. A pilot almost turned an airplane upside down when he mistook stars for yard lights and thought they were upside down. I have over 20,000 flight hours and although I've never taken any evasive action, I have been startled. You can look down at a chart, look up and think you're in an unusual attitude."
All kinds of people can relate. FULL POST
This Week's Top Videos
Editor's Note: This post is a recap of the top five videos on CNN.com from the past week. So in case you didn't catch our best videos during the week, here is your chance to see what you missed.
This week's top video gained the attention of more than a million CNN.com viewers and featured chilling footage of the Texas tornadoes tossing tractor-trailers into the air. The second most watched video on CNN.com this week was the tragic firsthand account of the Oakland university shooting, followed by video examining Nadya Suleman's welfare application, the crash of an F-18 jet into a Virginia apartment complex and finally the timeline of the Trayvon Martin shooting.
Big rigs sucked into storm
Truck trailers are thrown around violently as a tornado rips through North Texas.
Shooting chaos captured on cell phone
Art Richards shot cell phone video at Oikos University where a gunman killed seven people.
Nadya Suleman admits being on welfare
Anger and outrage as "Octomom" Nadya Suleman, admits she's receiving food stamps. HLN's Nischelle Turner reports.
Witness: Jet crash a 'horrific sight'
Zack Zapatero describes what he saw when a Navy jet crashed into an apartment building in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Trayvon Martin's last minutes
Law enforcement expert Alex Manning analyzes a complete time line of the Trayvon Martin shooting, based on 911 calls.
CNN prime time: Kid-free zones on planes, 'nothing left' for Santorum
Specter: No point in Santorum continuing
Arlen Specter is mincing no words when it comes to whether or not Santorum should throw in the towel.
Flights with a no-child zone
When it comes to kids on airplanes, don't get Richard Quest started.
Swain: 'Hoodies feed into stereotype'
Boyce Watkins and Carol Swain argue the aspect of race in the Martin case and the movement to boycott Sanford, Florida.
Overheard on CNN.com: Not-so-fabulous flights send some readers' tempers soaring
Editor's note: This post is part of the Overheard on CNN.com series, a regular feature that examines interesting comments and thought-provoking conversations posted by the community.
United Airlines Flight 857 wasn't exactly the best flight ever. The toilets broke, so the flight stopped in Anchorage, Alaska, and things only got more interesting from there. The 13-hour flight from San Francisco to Shanghai was three days late. Readers commented on this story and griped about modern air travel.
Broken toilets strand United passengers in Alaska
There were a few readers who dread flying.
AngelaD: "Once a year, I fly overseas with my children ... and this is one of the scenarios I dread and fear. And although I understand that some of these things can happen, it is the endless waiting in the plane and the airport just for an answer that can drive one crazy. My tickets cost thousands of dollars (in economy, of course) and I wonder what they all do with my money. I feel for the people of that flight."
But some said readers should stop complaining.
SherwoodOR: "They could have just flown on and finished the trip with the toilets backing up into the aisles. In some parts of the world on some airlines, that would have been the choice. Would you prefer that?"
Take the train instead. FULL POST
Investigators say they've found key clue to fate of Amelia Earhart
Investigators think they've uncovered a key clue that will lead them to solve the mystery of what happened to legendary aviator Amelia Earhart, who disappeared on a trans-Pacific flight 75 years ago.
Ric Gillespie, executive director of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), said a new enhanced analysis of a photo taken on the Pacific atoll of Nikumaroro, formerly Gardner Island, three months after Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared, may show the landing gear of her Lockheed Electra protruding from a reef.
“We found some really fascinating and compelling evidence," Gillespie said at a news conference in Washington on Tuesday.
“Finding the airplane would be the thing that would make it conclusive,” he said.
Gillespie said the photo was taken by a British survey team in October 1937 and had been seen by Earhart researchers many times. But investigators took a new look at it in 2010 and, when their suspicions were triggered, had the photo checked by U.S. State Department experts. In a blind review, they determined the component in the picture is the landing gear of a Lockheed Electra.
"This is where the airplane went into the drink," Gillespie said.
This Week's Top Videos
Editor's Note: This post is a recap of the top five videos on CNN.com from the past week. So in case you didn't catch our best videos during the week, here is your chance to see what you missed.
The top videos on CNN.com this week featured a jaws-like shark swarm, a new high-tech Dreamliner, the story of a mother's dramatic reunion and some horrifying video of torture and death in Syria as the uprising there reaches the one year mark. Click below to see the videos that impacted so many others this week.
Sharks go on feeding frenzy
Sharks off the coast of Australia go on a feeding frenzy. Australia's Network Ten reports.
Syria: Torture captured on video
CNN's Arwa Damon reports on torture captured on video carried out allegedly by Syrian soldiers.
Child survives family's slaughter
In Syria, a rescue operation to retrieve bodies of a massacred family turns up a child who lived. Arwa Damon reports.
Mom reacts to son found after 8 years
Dr. Drew talks to Auboni Champion-Morin, whose son was found after being kidnapped 8 years ago.
Go inside Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner
Lizzie O'Leary reports on whether the new Boeing 787 is everything it's cracked up to be.
Delta jetliner rolls off taxiway during test
A Delta Airlines jetliner veered off a taxiway during maintenance testing at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport early Tuesday, causing significant damage to the aircraft, an airline spokesman said. No one was injured, he said.
"Mechanics testing the engines of a Boeing 737-700 this morning experienced a problem with the plane’s braking system," Delta spokesman Eric Torbenson said.
The plane left a taxiway near 8 Right at the airport, he said, and rolled partially down an embankment.
There were no passengers aboard, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Gotta Watch: Cool cars
"Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads." So said Doc Brown at the end of "Back to the Future" just before he took off into the sky in his famed DeLorean.
The road less traveled or not traveled at all, in some very cool cars, has us talking today. The idea came to us after we saw a piece on a folding car that's perfect for the avid parallel parker. Adjust your mirrors and fasten your seat belts for today's Gotta Watch.
Folding car
No, it's not a Transformer, but wouldn't it be cool if this electric car from the brains at MIT made that Transformer sound?
Up, up and away!
Getting from here to there on the street? That's so five minutes ago. Check out this plane-car hybrid for the traveler who wants the best of both worlds.
Dive and drive
If you prefer mermaids to meter maids, strap on your SCUBA gear for this underwater wonder, which caught our eye back in 2008.
Micron CEO dies in Idaho plane crash
Micron CEO and chairman Steve Appleton died Friday morning in a small-plane crash in Boise.
Micron, a maker of semiconductors and flash memory, confirmed Appleton's death at age 51 in a press release that praised his "passion and energy."
Appleton (pictured) was flying a Lancair fixed-wing single-engine plane that crashed at 8:58 a.m. local time at Boise Airport, a spokeswoman for the airport told CNN's John Fricke. She could not confirm whether the accident took place at takeoff, landing or during flight.
FULL STORY
Overheard on CNN.com: Baldwin's refusal to turn off cell phone no surprise to many
Editor's note: This post is part of the Overheard on CNN.com series, a regular feature that examines interesting comments and thought-provoking conversations posted by the community.
Alec Baldwin's addiction to the cell phone game "Words with Friends" got him booted from an American Airlines plane parked at a Los Angeles International Airport gate Tuesday, the actor's spokesman said.
Baldwin tweeted he would never again fly on American Airlines, "where retired Catholic school gym teachers from the 1950's find jobs as flight attendants."
Readers focused on two issues: outrage over Baldwin's behavior toward a flight attendant and frustration over rules about the in-flight use of cell phones and electronic devices. They also commented on Baldwin's past treatment of his daughter and public comments he's made.
Game addiction costs Alec Baldwin his airline seat
Many readers, such as MistrMistr, expressed outrage: "So because he's a 'star' he can break the rules? Then he goes on Twitter and tells his sheep about (it) so they can all be amazed that they would do that to the 'Alec the Great.' But the worst part? American Airlines is kissing his butt."
Other commenters agreed, saying celebrities should not be entitled to special treatment on airplanes.
lcook5: "American Airlines is not a big favorite with me, but this is ridiculous. Not complying with federal flight restrictions should get anyone kicked off a flight. Why do some of the rich and/or famous see themselves as above the law? If I were American Airlines, I would permanently ban him from any additional flights and advise all other airlines of the potential problems if they allow him to fly with them. Baldwin should be ashamed of himself."
FAA administrator resigns after arrest
Federal Aviation Administrator Randy Babbitt resigned Tuesday, three days after he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving near his suburban Washington home.
In a brief statement released to the press, Babbitt said he had submitted his resignation to his boss, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and that LaHood had accepted it.
Babbitt, a former airline pilot, said serving as FAA administrator had been "the highlight of my professional career."
"But I am unwilling to let anything cast a shadow on the outstanding work done 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by my colleagues at the FAA," Babbitt said.
The statement made no mention of the arrest.
Earlier in the day, LaHood told reporters he was "disappointed" that he had learned about Babbitt's Saturday night arrest only after police in the city of Fairfax, Virginia, released a press release about the incident.
FULL STORY3rd person dies due to New York helicopter crash
A 60-year-old woman on Sunday became the third person to die as a result of a helicopter crash last month in New York's East River, said a spokeswoman for the city's medical examiner's office.
Harriet Nicholson was pronounced dead at approximately 3:22 a.m. Sunday at Bellevue Hospital, said Ellen Borakove from the office of the chief medical examiner.
After an autopsy, officials determined that she died due to "respiratory complications of near-drowning," according to Borakove.
Nicholson was among those on board a Bell 206 Jet Ranger that plunged into the water on October 4, moments after pilot Paul Dudley had radioed that his aircraft was experiencing problems, National Transportation Safety Board member Mark Rosekind said last month.
FULL STORY
Electric plane wins $1.35 million prize
A Pennsylvania company has won a $1.35 million prize from NASA for developing a highly efficient airplane power by electricity.
Pipistrel-USA.com of State College earned the top prize in the CAFE Green Flight Challenge, sponsored by Google, NASA announced Monday.
The plane developed by Pipistrel doubled the fuel efficiency requirement for the competition - flying 200 miles in less than two hours while using less than a gallon of fuel per occupant or the equivalent in electricity. The winning plane used a little more than a half-gallon of fuel per passenger for the 200-mile flight.
Team Pipistrel-USA.com was one of 14 entrants in the competition, which began two years ago. In total, the 14 teams invested $4 million in the competition, according to NASA.
"Two years ago the thought of flying 200 miles at 100 mph in an electric aircraft was pure science fiction," Jack W. Langelaan, team leader of Team Pipistrel-USA.com, said in statement. "Now, we are all looking forward to the future of electric aviation."
Second place, and a $120,000 prize, went to Team eGenius of Ramona, California, whose leader, Eric Raymond, congratulated Team Pipistrel.
Convicted Lockerbie bomber says truth will come out
The truth about the bombing of a PanAm airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 will come out "one day, and hopefully in the near future," the only man convicted the bombing told Reuters in an interview aired Monday.
"In a few months from now, you will see new facts that will be announced," Abdelbeset al-Megrahi told Reuters. "I don't want to speak about that because there are people who are looking after that themselves."
Al-Megrahi's comments come about five weeks after CNN's Nic Roberston visited al-Megrahi's home, where his family said he was in a coma and near death from terminal prostate cancer.
At the time of his late August visit, Robertson found al-Megrahi in a metal hospital bed, attached to an IV drip and cared for by an elderly woman that the family said was his mother. He was, Robertson said, "paper-thin, his face sallow and sunken."
FULL STORY
On Twitter
@cnnbrk on Twitter
Recent Comments