A Japan Airlines aircraft with passengers still on board was on fire on a runway at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Tuesday after a possible collision with a Coast Guard aircraft, Nippon TV reported.
Live footage on public broadcaster NHK showed flames coming out of the windows of the aircraft.
A Japan Airlines aircraft with passengers still on board was on fire on a runway at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Tuesday. TBS NEWS DIG / Youtube
A spokesperson at Japan Airlines said the aircraft, originating from Shin-Chitose airport in Hokkaido, was carrying more than 300 passengers.
Poland will hand over four MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine in the coming days, making the Eastern European country the first member of the NATO bloc to supply warplanes to Kyiv after months of pleading.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters, made the announcement Thursday.
“We can say confidently that we are sending MiGs to Ukraine,” Duda said at a press conference in Warsaw. “We have a dozen or so MiGs that we got in the 90s handed down from the German Democratic Republic and they are functional and play a part in the defense of our airspace.”
“They are at the end of their operational life but are still functional.”
Poland will send MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, with the first four aircraft expected to arrive in Kyiv in the coming days. AFP via Getty Images Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, right, has been one of Ukraine’s most loyal supporters since the start of the war. via REUTERS
The president added that the first four planes “in full working order” will be handed to Ukraine in the next few days. Additional aircraft will be delivered after being “serviced and prepared for handover.”
On Tuesday, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said his government could send its MiGs “within the next four to six weeks.”
Polish leaders previously stressed that sending the fighter jets to Ukraine would be only done within a larger international coalition.
Slovakia has also expressed willingness to supply its MiG-29s to Kyiv, but has stopped short of announcing a decision.
Ukraine’s air force is familiar with the Soviet-designed MiGs and could put them to use right away.AFP via Getty Images
The two nations have been lobbying other NATO members to follow suit.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Thursday that the debate about sending fighter jets was ongoing.
“This is something we’re discussing in the group of allied countries. It’s a big wish from Ukraine,” she said.
Ukraine’s air force pilots are familiar with the Soviet-era MiG-29s and could put them to use right away without having to spend months learning to fly them, which would be the case with other foreign aircraft.
Polish air force reportedly has 28 of the warplanes, which it has been using since 1989. Asked last week how many of the aircraft Warsaw might supply to Kyiv, the head of the president’s office, Pawel Szrot, said it would “certainly” be fewer than 14.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called on leading NATO countries, including the US and Great Britain, to send Kyiv modern fighter jets to defend Ukrainian cities from Russia’s deadly missile and drone attacks.
President Biden in January flatly rejected the notion of handing over F-16 planes to Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the war in Feb. 2022, the US has provided $27.5 billion in vital military assistance, including equipment and munitions, to Ukraine.
In Bakhmut, there is a growing concern that Ukrainian forces are using ammunition at a pace that is outstripping the allies’ supplies.AFP via Getty Images
But according to reporting by the New York Times, even that might be insufficient given the furious pace at which Kyiv’s forces defending the key city of Bakhmut have been burning through ammunition.
American and European officials have warned Kyiv that firing thousands of artillery shells a day at the enemy was unsustainable and could potentially jeopardize Ukraine’s planned counteroffensive aimed at retaking territories controlled by Moscow’s forces.
Ukraine has decided to defend Bakhmut in the east, but experts are concerned that it could put at risk Kyiv’s planned counteroffensive. AP
The US and Britain are preparing to supply thousands of artillery shells and rockets to replenish Ukraine’s dwindling supplies this spring, and European Union countries are pooling their resources to produce and buy more ammunition.
But an American defense official speaking to the Times on condition of anonymity warned that Ukraine’s NATO allies do not have enough ammo in their stockpiles to meet the continually growing demand, and churning out more will take months and possibly years.
Ukraine’s leadership has made a decision to take a stand and defend Bakhmut, which Moscow’s regular forces and mercenaries from the Wagner Group have been trying to capture for months at an enormous cost in lives on both sides.
The Ukrainian military is now facing a crucial dilemma: to hold Bakhmut at all costs, and in doing so potentially imperil a counteroffensive, or to allow the enemy to seize the strategically important city that could open a path for Vladimir Putin’s troops to make additional territorial gains.
Experts are divided on Bakhmut’s importance, with some arguing that Ukraine’s forces are wearing down Russian reserves in the front line “meat grinder” to buy Kyiv more time ahead of the counteroffensive, and others warning that Ukraine itself could run out of troops and ammunition to continue the fight.
Matthew McConaughey’s wife had quite the adventure on Wednesday.
Camila Alves McConaughey was on the Lufthansa flight that was forced to land in Virginia after it was hit by severe turbulence, sending the Germany-bound flight into a brief free fall.
Alves posted a clip from her seat to her 1 million Instagram followers, displaying the chaos inside the plane and sharing her experience following the emergency landing.
“On Flight last night, plane dropped almost 4000 feet, 7 people went to the hospital, Everything was flying everywhere,” Alves said in her post. “To respect the privacy of those around me that’s all I am showing but the plane was a CHAOS And the turbulence keep on coming.”
At least one passenger reported the plane being struck by lightning during the flight.
“People who didn’t have the seat belts fastened got hurt mostly cause it came as surprise without seat belt sign on and lighting hit the plane badly,” the passenger’s spouse said on Twitter.
Alves and her Lufthansa flight experienced turbulence over Tennessee, Wednesday.Instagram: Camila Alves McConaughey
Seven people were hospitalized when the turbulence struck during dinner service.Instagram: Camila Alves McConaughey
Alves confirmed her flight Wednesday was the same one that was forced to land at Dulles International Airport, after hitting “severe turbulence” over Tennessee, hospitalizing seven.
“The @lufthansa flight you are seeing on the news today!!!! Yes…that one. Thank God everyone was safe and ok,” Alves said in her caption.
The 40-year-old designer was grateful to the airline for the accommodations they gave her, and even said she got to have a drink after the rollercoaster of a flight.
“I must say everyone @marriottbonvoy by the airport of Washington where we had to divert to and spend the night was so kind! And we made it to the bar with 1 minute before closing…slept well, getting on new flight today, To the journey I continue… Karin Lacy was a savior with me until 1am working on new flights!!!”
The eventful trip continued for the model as her rescheduled flight was expected to face turbulence on Thursday.
Camila Alves McConaughey shared an update from her rescheduled flight on Thursday.Instagram: Camila Alves McConaugheyInstagram: Camila Alves McConaughey
“Just my luck, after last night, I just got on the rescheduled flight and the pilot’s saying we have a 45-minute turbulence getting out of Washington (DC), just my luck, wish me luck,” Alves said in a video to her Instagram story.
The Brazilian-born model and McConaughey have three kids together and live in Austin, Texas.
This question bedevils smaller arguments over Western aid to the brave Ukrainian forces. Bringing it into tighter focus is Vladimir Putin’s decision to pass the winter with ever-more-brutal strikes on Ukraine’s infrastructure and civilian targets — such as last Saturday’s murderous missile attack on a Dnipro apartment building, which killed dozens including six children.
Putin’s invasion must fail. Anything else represents a serious blow to US interests in Europe, to NATO’s stability and to the larger world order. Atop all Moscow’s brutality, the war on Ukraine is as much an attack on that order as it is a territorial gambit.
But Washington is mired in a game of escalation that’s lethargic, confused — and reactive. Yes, we’ve sent Ukraine lots of help — including lethal aid — but only after Putin upped his violence first. And even US “escalations” are hesitant. Our meager gift of one Patriot air defense system, for example, carries all the risks President Joe Biden professes to fear, but with minimized benefits: Ukraine needs more Patriots for them to be effective.
We’ve also kiboshed MiG transfers from regional allies, balked at sending tanks and said no to more advanced tactical missile systems that would greatly increase Ukrainian range — all on the theory that helping Ukraine strike inside Russia might prompt Putin to go nuclear.
He and other top Russians keep making that threat, because it works to keep the West from doing more.
Yet it’s plain that more is required to force Putin to end the war. A military defeat, at the moment, looks like the only real path to freedom and security for Ukraine. A negotiated settlement seems off the table, as the Kremlin’s demands remain “let us win.”
Putin’s insane territorial claims would almost certainly exceed anything Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky might agree to, while Zelensky and his government want everything back, including Crimea. Even if the West threatens to end its support to blackmail Ukraine into some bad deal, Putin’s record shows he’ll break it at his own convenience.
A mild winter (so far) has aided the Ukrainians’ resistance. And the Russian army’s deep-rooted logistical and personnel issues bode ill for Putin’s rumored coming massive troop callup.
Putin plainly means to outlast his way to victory, betting as much on Western will as any battlefield success. Ukraine and its allies can defeat that approach by holding firm.
But ultimate victory relies on a strategy led by the United States that puts Ukraine on the front foot enough to force Russia to give up the fight.
A spokesman for Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority says a flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder have been retrieved from the site of the crash of a passenger plane that went down on approach to a newly opened airport in the tourist town of Pokhara.
Jagannath Niraula said the boxes were found on Monday, a day after the ATR-72 aircraft crashed, killing 68 of the 72 people aboard. He said they will be handed over to investigators.
Pemba Sherpa, spokesperson for Yeti Airlines, also confirmed that both the flight data and the cockpit voice recorders have been found.
Nepal began a national day of mourning Monday, as rescue workers rappelled down a 984 feet gorge to continue the search. Two more bodies were found Monday morning.
Rescuers scour the crash site in the wreckage of a passenger plane in Pokhara, Nepal, on Jan. 16, 2023. AP
It remains unclear what caused the crash, the Himalayan country’s deadliest airplane accident in three decades. The weather was mild and not windy on the day of the crash.
A witness who recorded footage of the plane’s descent from his balcony said he saw the plane flying low before it suddenly veered to its left. “I saw that and I was shocked… I thought that today everything will be finished here after it crashes, I will also be dead,” said Diwas Bohora. After it crashed, red flames erupted and the ground shook violently, like an earthquake, Bohora said. “I was scared. Seeing that scene, I was scared.”
Another witness said he saw the aircraft twist violently in the air after it began descending to land, watching from the terrace of his house. Finally, Gaurav Gurung said, the plane fell nose-first towards its left and crashed into the gorge.
Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority said the aircraft last made contact with the airport from near Seti Gorge at 10:50 a.m. before crashing.
A woman cries as the body of a relative, a victim of the plane crash, is brought to a hospital in Pokhara, Nepal, Jan. 15, 2023AP
The twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft, operated by Nepal’s Yeti Airlines, was competing the 27-minute flight from the capital, Kathmandu, to Pokhara, 125 miles west. It was carrying 68 passengers, including 15 foreign nationals, as well as four crew members, Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. The foreigners included five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one each from Ireland, Australia, Argentina and France.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the Pokhara Academy of Health and Science, Western Hospital, where the bodies are being kept. Relatives and friends of victims, many of whom were from Pokhara, consoled each other as they waited.
Bimala Bhenderi was waiting outside the post-mortem room Monday. She was planning to meet her friend, Tribhuban Paudel, on Tuesday when she heard that his flight had crashed. “I’m so sad, I can’t believe it still,” she said in tears.
Gyan Khadka, a police spokesperson in the district, said 31 bodies have been identified and will be handed over to family after officials finish post mortem reports. The bodies of foreigners and those that are unrecognizable will be sent to Kathmandu for further investigation.
68 of the 72 people aboard have been confirmed dead.AP
On Sunday, Twitter was awash with images that showed plumes of smoke billowing from the crash site, about nearly a mile away from Pokhara International Airport. The aircraft’s fuselage was split into multiple parts that were scattered down the gorge.
Hours after dark, scores of onlookers remained crowded around the crash site near the airport in the resort town of Pokhara as rescue workers combed the wreckage on the edge of the cliff and in the ravine below.
Local resident Bishnu Tiwari, who rushed to the crash site near the Seti River to help search for bodies, said the rescue efforts were hampered by thick smoke and a raging fire.
“The flames were so hot that we couldn’t go near the wreckage. I heard a man crying for help, but because of the flames and smoke we couldn’t help him,” Tiwari said.
At Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, family members appeared distraught as they waited for information.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal rushed to the airport after the crash and set up a panel to investigate the accident.
”The incident was tragic. The full force of the Nepali army, police has been deployed for rescue,” he said.
Nepalese rescue workers and civilians gather around the wreckage of a passenger plane that crashed in Pokhara, Nepal, on Jan. 15, 2023.AP
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it’s still trying to confirm the fate of two South Korean passengers and has sent staff to the scene. The Russian Ambassador to Nepal, Alexei Novikov, confirmed the death of four Russian citizens who were on board the plane.
Omar Gutiérrez, governor of Argentina’s Neuquen province, wrote on his official Twitter account that an Argentine passenger on the flight was Jannet Palavecino, from his province.
The Facebook page of Palavecino says she was manager of the Hotel Suizo in Neuquen city. She described herself as a lover of travel and adventure tourism.
Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers told reporters Monday that “our hearts go out to all of the families of the crew and passengers” who died, adding that the government was providing consular support to the family of an Australian who was aboard the plane.
Pokhara is the gateway to the Annapurna Circuit, a popular hiking trail in the Himalayas. The city’s new international airport began operations only two weeks ago.
The type of plane involved, the ATR 72, has been used by airlines around the world for short regional flights. Introduced in the late 1980s by a French and Italian partnership, the aircraft model has been involved in several deadly accidents over the years.
In Taiwan two earlier accidents involving ATR 72-500 and ATR 72-600 aircrafts happened just months apart.
According to the Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety database, there have been 42 fatal plane crashes in Nepal since 1946.AP
In July 2014, a TransAsia ATR 72-500 flight crashed while trying to land on the scenic Penghu archipelago between Taiwan and China, killing 48 people onboard. An ATR 72-600 operated by the same Taiwanese airline crashed shortly after takeoff in Taipei in February 2015 after one of its engines failed and the second was shut down, apparently by mistake.
The 2015 crash, captured in dramatic footage that showed the plane striking a taxi as it hurtled out of control, killed 43, and prompted authorities to ground all Taiwanese-registered ATR 72s for some time. TransAsia ceased all flights in 2016 and later went out of business.
ATR identified the plane involved in Sunday’s crash as an ATR 72-500 in a tweet. According to plane tracking data from flightradar24.com, the aircraft was 15 years old and “equipped with an old transponder with unreliable data.” It was previously flown by India’s Kingfisher Airlines and Thailand’s Nok Air before Yeti took it over in 2019, according to records on Airfleets.net.
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Yeti Airlines has a fleet of six ATR 72-500 planes, company spokesperson Sudarshan Bartaula said.
Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest, has a history of air crashes. Sunday’s crash is Nepal’s deadliest since 1992, when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it plowed into a hill as it tried to land in Kathmandu.
According to the Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety database, there have been 42 fatal plane crashes in Nepal since 1946.
According to a 2019 safety report from Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority, the country’s “hostile topography” and “diverse weather patterns” were the biggest dangers to flights in the country. The report said such accidents happened at airports that had short strips of runway for takeoff and landing and most were due to pilot error.
The report added that 37% of all air crashes in Nepal between 2009 and 2018 were due to pilot error, not counting helicopters and recreational flights.
The European Union has banned airlines from Nepal from flying into the 27-nation bloc since 2013, citing weak safety standards. In 2017, the International Civil Aviation Organization cited improvements in Nepal’s aviation sector, but the EU continues to demand administrative reforms.
The Transportation Security Administration says that a traveler attempted to bring an “emotional support pet” boa constrictor snake through security.
A spokesperson for the agency tweeted that the incident happened at Tampa International Airport in December when a woman had the snake, named “Bartholomew,” in her carry-on bag. The snake was detected when the bag went through an x-ray machine.
The spokesperson said that TSA contacted the airline, which said that she couldn’t bring the snake aboard the aircraft.
According to the agency, the snake is four feet in length.
“There’s a danger noodle in that bag… Our officers at Tampa International Airport didn’t find this hyssssssterical! Coiled up in a passenger’s carry-on was a 4’ boa constrictor! We really have no adder-ation for discovering any pet going through an x-ray machine,” the TSA said in an Instagram post.
The world’s first flight officially took off from North Carolina’s Outer Banks on this day in history, Dec. 17, 1903.
The Wright brothers were allegedly the first to successfully fly a powered and controlled airplane in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, after years of experimenting with the concept of flight.
Brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright began testing out flying in 1899, while Samuel Langley of the Smithsonian did the same, according to the National Park Service (NPS).
Langley’s attempts were underwritten by the War Department yet were unsuccessful, since his efforts relied on the brute power of the machines to keep suspended in air.
But the Wrights’ vision that humans would have to oversee operating the planes themselves solved the issue, NPS recorded.
The duo developed a concept called “wing warping,” according to History.com.
That concept emulated the angle of bird wings.
Wilbur Wright famously said, “It is possible to fly without motors, but not without knowledge and skill.”
The brothers took more than 1,000 glides from the top of Big Kill Devil Hill, which made the Wrights the first true pilots, NPS said.
Wilbur and Orville wright are seen on flyer I in 1910. Bettmann Archive
As their flying skills and mastery of the air were crucial for their invention to function, the brothers soon solved the problem of a sustained lift through more experimentation.
Now that they were able to control the aircraft while in flight, the brothers felt ready to take it to the skies.
The next obstacle was figuring out how to power the plane, according to NPS.
While gasoline engine technology had recently advanced during this time, the Wrights designed their own engine that was lightweight and suitable for their flyer.
The next obstacle was figuring out how to power the plane, according to NPS.
While gasoline engine technology had recently advanced during this time, the Wrights designed their own engine that was lightweight and suitable for their flyer.
First flight of Wright brothers’ aircraft, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Dec. 17, 1903.Heritage Images via Getty Images
NPS considered this “one of their most original and purely scientific achievements.”
The duo returned to their camp in Kill Devil Hills where they mounted their engine on the new 40-foot, 605-pound plane with double tails and elevators.
The first attempt to fly on Dec. 14, 1903, was a failure — resulting in Wilbur Wright nose-diving into the sand after climbing too steeply on takeoff.
After three days of making repairs to the aircraft, the brothers were ready for attempt no. 2 on Dec. 17.
Wilbur Wright won the opportunity to fly first in a coin toss — so it was little brother Orville Wright’s turn to give it a go.
Even though the 27mph winds weren’t ideal, the pair signaled the volunteers from a nearby lifesaving station that they were about to try again.
The brothers took turns flying the plane three more times that same day to get used to the controls.Bettmann Archive
Orville Wright hopped in and tested the controls, including the cradle that he swung with his hips, which warped the wings and turned the machine, and a lever that controlled gas flow.
Orville Wright knew it would take “all his finesse” to handle the new, improved and altogether heavy machinery, the NPS noted.
Orville Wright released the restraining wire at 10:35 a.m. as he moved down the rail and left the ground.
Lifesaving station employee John Daniels snapped the iconic photo of the Wright plane taking off on a preset camera.
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Wilbur Wright is seen running alongside as his brother takes the first flight.
With a lot of attention on the controls, Orville Wright kept the plane in flight until it hit the sand 120 feet away from the rail.
The brothers took turns flying the plane three more times that same day to get used to the controls.
Each time they took off, their distance would increase little by little, until Wilbur Wright finally reached 852 feet in 59 seconds on his last attempt.
The Wrights’ machine had successfully flown, but it would never fly again, according to NPS.
After Wilbur’s final flight, the plane caught a gust of wind, rolled over and suffered irreparable damage.
But the brothers still triumphed the win and sent their father, Bishop Milton Wright, a telegram reporting their historic achievement.
Two years later, according to History.com, the Wright brothers built and flew the first fully practical airplane.
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