April 12, 2016 - SAUDI ARABIA - Lightning killed 12 sheep in Saudi Arabia following a thunderstorm that
hit various parts of the Gulf Kingdom this week, a newspaper reported on
Wednesday.
The 12 sheep were in their farm in the Southern Saudi town of Bisha when they were struck by the bolt on Tuesday, Sabq Arabic language daily said.
"All the sheep were charred to death after the barn was struck by lightning in the farm," the paper said. - Emirates 24/7.
April 9, 2016 - CHINA - Shocking pictures of a massive road crash have emerged on
Chinese media showing wreckage of a sleeper bus and two trucks that
reportedly collided on China’s major Shenyang-Haikou expressway.
There
are at least eight victims, according to reports.
The accident happened on
China’s Shenyang-Haikou Expressway in the city of Jiaozhou in the
Shandong Province, which is located in the northeastern part of the
country, according to a witness who uploaded photos to the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo.
These dramatic pictures show the aftermath of a major runway accident in
Jakarta after two planes collided during takeoff. Picture: You
Tube/Ippi Thyssen
April 6, 2016 - EARTH - Here are the latest incidents of plane crashes across the planet.
2 Passenger planes crash while taxiing at Jakarta airport in Indonesia
Two passenger planes collided late on Monday on an airport runway in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, an airline spokesman said, causing minor damage but no injuries to passengers.
A Batik Air plane carrying 49 passengers and seven crew was taking off from Jakarta’s Halim Perdanakusuma airport when it clipped a TransNusa plane being towed across the runway.
Andy Saladin, a spokesman for Lion Air Group, said the pilot aborted the takeoff of the Boeing 737-800 aircraft to ensure the safety of those on board.
“All the passengers and crew are safe, and will be flown using a replacement aircraft,” Saladin said in a statement.
Batik Air is part of Lion Group, which runs Indonesia’s biggest low-cost carrier Lion Air.
Transport ministry spokesman JA Barata also confirmed there were no casualties and all passengers and crew were safely evacuated.
The left wing of the Batik flight was damaged in the clash and the tail of the ATR craft operated by TransNusa — another domestic airline mainly serving the east of the archipelago — was also mangled, Barata said.
WATCH: Planes collide on Jakarta runway.
Pictures on social media showed scorch marks around the damaged sections, with videos posted online capturing a brief fire before it was brought under control by emergency crews.
Barata said the airport in Jakarta’s east — primarily a military and government terminal that services some domestic routes — would be temporarily closed following the incident. - News.
Japanese air force plane disappears from radar with 6 people on board
Credit: NHK
A small Japanese Air Force plane carrying six
people has disappeared from radar in southwestern Japan, prompting a
search operation in a mountainous region where the aircraft may have
crashed, officials say. The U125A aircraft took off from Kanoya Air Field
on Kyushu island at 2:30 p.m. local time on Wednesday to carry out
aerial inspections of airport facilities. The plane disappeared from
radar screens at 2:35 p.m. when it was about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles)
north of the base.
The aircraft, which belongs to Japan's Air Self-Defense Force and is
capable of carrying up to 16 people depending on its configuration, was
said to have been carrying a total of 6 people. Their identities were
not immediately released.
Japan's Ministry of Defense said a search-and-rescue operation involving
multiple helicopters was underway in a mountainous area where the plane
may have crashed, but nothing had been found as of late Wednesday
night. - BNO.
Plane crash in Anderson County, South Carolina with 2 on board.
Federal Aviation Administration officials are trying to figure out
what caused an engine failure on a small plane that was forced to make a
hard landing in Anderson County.
Two people on board the plane were not injured.
Anderson County Sheriff’s deputies say the plane landed near Omega
Farms Ln. and Long Road off Highway 81. The plane landed nose down and
is registered to a person out of Simpsonville.
Taylor Jones with Emergency Services say the plane was being flown by
a flight student with his instructor. They were on a high performance
endorsement training flight.
The pair flew from the Greenville Downtown Airport to the Anderson
Airport. The plane was on the return flight to Greenville when the pilot
had engine trouble.
Both the instructor and pilot are fine after landing in the pasture.
We’re told the Beechcraft 35 Bonanza plane was removed from the pasture
Monday night. - WSPA.
Plane crashes at Hooks Airport in Spring, Texas
Officials are investigating a plane crash that took place at Hooks Airport Sunday afternoon.
Officials
say a retired Marine was flying a WWII-style plane with another man on
board when a tailwind pushed the plane off the runway as they tried to
land.
The pilot was apparently practicing for a charity competition.
Officials said the tailwind pushed the biplane into a ditch on the right of the runway.
Both men are expected to be OK and officials feel the vintage plane can most likely be repaired back to working condition. - KHOU.
Pilot uninjured in crash at Washington County Airport, Pennsylvania
No landing gear was deployed Tuesday evening when this plane hit the
runway at Washington County Airport. There were no injuries. - Courtesy
of Washington County Redevelopment Authority
A local pilot who had just had the engine of his small plane checked in
West Virginia did not deploy his landing gear but escaped injury Tuesday
when the craft came down on Washington County Airport’s sole runway.
William McGowen, executive director of the Washington County Redevelopment Authority which operates the 401-acre airport southwest of Washington in North and South Franklin townships, said the incident occurred at sunset and resulted in the closure of the airport for about an hour.
Pilot Dean Gutzwiller, who was returning home from a trip to Charleston, W.Va., was alone in the four-seat, single-engine Cessna 182 Skylane at 7:25 p.m. when it came down.
McGowen, a former U.S. Navy pilot, said failure to deploy landing gear occurs because “usually something distracts you, like other traffic in the area or the sun in your eyes.”
There is no air traffic control tower at the Washington County Airport, but officials immediately issued a notice to airmen and notified Pittsburgh Approach control about the closure.
“Pittsburgh Approach is typically talking to the airplanes that are closest to us,” said Scott Gray, executive director of the Washington County Airport.
North Franklin and South Franklin volunteer fire companies, Washington County emergency services and state police responded, using flashing lights to warn aviators of trouble on the ground.
“They were Johnny on the spot,” McGowen said, noting that the crews also used spotlights as they put rigging on the plane so a crane could lift it and have the landing gear dropped so the airport’s fixed-based operator, Skyward Aviation, could tow the Cessna from the runway.
Gray said two pilots had planned to land just after the Cessna. One plane waited at the Allegheny County Airport while another was at Rostraver Airport. Both landed at the Washington County Airport after it reopened at 8:50 p.m.
“We will investigate this,” said Tim Peters, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in New York City, whose initial information called the incident a “gear-up landing.”
FAA records show the Cessna Skyward is owned by David A. Miller, an attorney in Palmer, Texas. A message left for him was not immediately returned. - Observer Reporter.
Plane crash lands at Chesterfield County Airport, Virginia
An airplane made a crash landing at the Chesterfield County Airport last Wednesday after its landing gear failed.
The crash involved a single-engine Piper aircraft that had taken off from Chesterfield and was returning after a flight.
The landing gear collapsed, causing the aircraft to slide to a stop.
The crash occurred around 11:45 a.m. on the airport’s main runway. There were no injuries to the pilot, but the plane’s fuselage and propeller were damaged in the crash. The crash remains under investigation. - Chesterfield Observer.
Pilot, passenger escape injury in Cherokee County crash-landing in Oklahoma
Plane. Courtesy/Oklahoma Highway Patrol
Two people aboard a small plane escaped
injury during a crash-landing in rural Cherokee County early Tuesday,
the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported. The plane partially landed in a pond near North 387 Road and 660 Road about 1:30 a.m., trooper Dwight Durant said.
The plane was occupied by pilot Mark Button, 49, of Missouri, and Shaun Besson, 31, of Wisconsin, the OHP reported.
Durant
said the plane was on its way to Tulsa from Alabama. The men told
authorities Button was going to drop off Besson so he could pick up a
car.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash. - Tulsa World.
April 6, 2016 - INDIA - Two persons were killed by lightning in separate incidents in the district on Tuesday evening.
Shankaramma (25), a resident of Vithal Nagar village in Shikaripur
taluk, who had been to the farm on the outskirts of the village to
harvest coriander crops, was killed when she was struck by lightning.
Four other women working with her have been admitted to the government
hospital in Shikaripur town.
Lightning also claimed another life in Muddinakoppa village. Shafi
Ahmed, a resident of Bapuji Nagar in the city, was waiting below a tree
when the incident took place. Afeez, a friend of the deceased, was also
injured. - The Hindu.
April 4, 2016 - BANGLADESH - At least 30 people mostly farmers were struck and killed by lightning in
the last 10 days at different parts of the country as nor'westers
started to hit since last month.
The frequency of the storms (Kalboishakhi) usually rises in April and
May, and the deaths from lightning could go up significantly if
precautions are not taken properly. This seasonal storm is typically
accompanied by lightning.
The maximum 13 people were killed by lightning on Thursday in
seven districts. Most of the victims were farmers working on the field.
Of them, three teenagers were killed in Munshiganj and two each in
Faridpur, Kishoreganj, Bagerhat and Manikganj districts.
Earlier, two people were killed on March 30 and five on March 28 during
nor'westers at different parts of the country. Six others, killed on
March 27, include three schoolboys of Netrakona.
Reports say three farmers were struck by lightning and killed while working on a salt field at Moheshkhali of Cox's Bazar.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department broadcasts early warning of the impending thunderbolt.
On May 6, 2013, at least 24 deaths by lighting were reported from different districts.
In 2011, a total of 179 people were killed by lightning - 58 getting
killed in the month of May alone. During April and May the following
year, lightning killed a staggering 152 people.
In the wake of rise in lightning strikes, Bangladesh Red Crescent
Society (BDRCS) has started awareness campaign on social media,
especially Facebook, to bring down the number of deaths and injuries
from lightning.
Urging not to panic during a storm accompanied by lighting, the BDRCS
suggests that people stay away from tall trees, electric pillars and
towers, and take shelter under a concrete ceiling. Touching corrugated
iron sheets (tin) or metals during lighting may claim lives.
People stuck in cars due to storms can also avoid casualty by not touching its metal body.
Being near water bodies including ponds and rivers can be fatal during a lightning, the BDRCS says.
It asks people to not use or switch off electronic items including
phones, laptops, WiFi, cordless phones and landphones when lighting
strikes frequently. - Dhaka Tribune.
April 4, 2016 - TANZANIA - Two residents of Ikwiriri District in Coast Region died while two others
escaped with serious injuries after being struck by lightning.
The incident occurred yesterday around 1pm at Umwe Kati in Ikwiriri when watching a movie at a makeshift pavilion.
Confirming the tragedy, Rufiji District Commissioner Nurdin Babu named
the deceased as Haji Lupango, 17, and Adam Kitumbi, 6, both residents of
Umwe Kati in Coast Region.
According to the district Commissioner, those who sustained injuries are
Salum Makuka and Zuberi Mkono, who are admitted to Mchukwi Hospital in
Ikwiriri.
"There was a huge thunder accompanied by lightning that struck the pavilion in Ikwiriri," Mr Babu said.
When contacted for comment, medical officer at Mchukwi Hospital
Rashid Omari said he received four people who had been struck by
lightning.
Dr Omari said two of them had already died.
He said after examining the injured (Makuka and Mkono) he discovered
that they were in critical conditions, a situation that compelled him to
transfer them to Mchukwi Hospital.
Lightning may be seen and not heard when it occurs at a distance too
great for the sound to carry as far as the light from the strike or
flash.
On earth, the lightning frequency is approximately 40-50 times a second or nearly 1.4 billion flashes per year. - All Africa.
One person died, five people were injured
after a small plane crashed into a car on Interstate 15 North near State
Route 76, near San Diego, California, on Saturday, April 2, 2016.
Courtesy of Torrence Jenkins
April 3, 2016 - EARTH - Here are the latest incidents of plane crashes across the planet.
A small plane that made headlines when it landed safely on a Southern California freeway years ago crashed on the same stretch of road Saturday, slamming into a car and killing a woman in the vehicle.
Five others, including the pilot and his passenger, were injured in the crash on a stretch of Interstate 15 that has been the scene of several emergency landings.
Witnesses said the single-engine plane appeared to be having problems before it banked and came down, California Highway Patrol Officer Chris Parent said. One man said he didn't hear the plane's engine as it passed overhead.
The Lancair IV landed on its belly and skidded about 250 feet before striking the rear of a black Nissan Altima sedan that was stopped on the shoulder of the road in San Diego County near Fallbrook. The driver of the car had pulled over to synchronize the Bluetooth device on his phone, Parent said.
The impact crumpled the back of the car, fatally crushing Antoinette Isbelle, 38, of San Diego in the back seat and injuring three others in the vehicle, authorities said.
"The plane went completely into the trunk and pushed the rear bumper almost into the rear passenger seat," said John Buchanan, spokesman for the North County Fire Protection District.
Pilot Dennis Hogge, 62, and his female passenger suffered major injuries, Parent said. The driver suffered moderate injuries, and his other two passengers were expected to survive their injuries.
The plane was once owned by major league catcher Matt Nokes, who made a noteworthy landing on busy I-15 when the engine quit on its second flight on Feb. 18, 2000.
Aamiah Grant posted this photo to Twitter on April 1, 2016 showing a plane which crashed onto the 15-N.
Emergency personnel investigate the scene of plane crash, Saturday, April 2, 2016 in Fallbrook, Calif. Photo: Don Boomer/The San Diego Union-Tribune via AP
Nokes guided the high-performance $500,000 plane to a smooth landing and safely taxied off the road without injuries.
Nokes went on to fly the plane every day for five years without incident before selling it. He said it had been rebuilt several times since he sold it.
"It was crazy," Nokes told The Associated Press on Saturday. "Everything worked out so beautifully. It was almost a humorous thing. Unfortunately, it doesn't always turn out that way."
When Nokes heard about the crash, he unsuccessfully tried to reach Hogge. He didn't realize Hogge had been injured.
He described Hogge as a good man, an outstanding pilot and a master plane builder.
"It's just horrible to hear about," said Nokes who spent 11 years in the majors, mostly with the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees.
The stretch of freeway is no stranger to unusual landings. Parent said he's aware of three other planes that have come down on that stretch of freeway about 50 miles north of San Diego in the past decade.
Nokes said the freeway is a popular route for flying because there are fewer flight restrictions than along the Interstate 5 corridor.
The crash caused major backups throughout the day on the freeway that runs from the Mexican border through Las Vegas and Salt Lake City to Canada. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said. - FOX News.
Pilot seriously injured in Gippsland plane crash in Australia
A pilot has suffered spinal and chest injuries in a light plane crash in Gippsland, in Victoria's east.
Emergency services were called to the scene of the crash, on Upper Maffra Road in Newry, at 12.45pm.
The pilot, a man aged in his sixties, has been flown to the Alfred Hospital in a serious but stable condition.
He was the only person on board the ultra-light plane.
It's understood the plane clipped power lines and landed in a paddock. - The Age.
Small plane crashes in Gloucester County
A small plane overturned in a field in Gloucester County April 2, 2016 (Photo: Hagen Forsman)
A small plane crashed into a field in South Harrison Township Saturday afternoon, authorities said.
The private plane overturned, but the pilot had only minor
injuries, according to the Gloucester County emergency
communications center. He was not taken to the hospital.
The crash was reported near Monroeville and Lincoln Road around 4 p.m.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane flipped after it
landed while the county emergency response center described the incident
as a crash.
"The plane experienced an engine-related problem," the FAA said in a statement.
FAA officials and police were investigating. - NJ.
Student pilot survives plane crash near Salmon Arm
Image Credit: Shuswap Search and Rescue
A pilot is safe and doing well after a small plane crash near the Salmon Arm Airport Friday night.
John Schutt with Shuswap Search and Rescue says members were called out around 9:30 p.m.
He says a Cessna 152 went down into the East side of Mount Ida.
Schutt says a search plane and ground crews were sent out to find the plane and were able to determine its location.
Schutt wouldn't comment on why the plane went down. - CFJC Today.
3 killed in plane crash in Mexico
Primero Mining Corp.today confirmed that a plane crash resulting in three fatalities has occurred close to its San Dimas mine in Mexico.
"This tragedy has impacted every person
at Primero deeply and we send our deepest condolences to the families,
friends and colleagues of the deceased," stated Ernest Mast, President
and C.E.O. "All survivors are being treated for their injuries, and we
will provide support to the affected families to help them through this
difficult time. The Company will cooperate fully with aviation
authorities to determine the cause of the accident." - Market Wired.
Pilot remains hospitalized after plane crash in New Mexico
A small passenger plane sits off the runway after being flipped by the wind on Thursday at the Shiprock Airstrip.(Photo: Daily Times file photo)
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday that the federal agency was notified of the crash and has started an investigation.
"The NTSB investigator determined he did not need to go to the scene," spokesman Chris O'Neil said. "He is doing what's called a desk investigation."
O'Neil said a final report will be released once the investigation is complete.
Tumminaro, a licensed airline transport pilot, was practicing a "touch and go" landing procedure in a single-engine Cessna when a gust of wind flipped the aircraft onto the paved airstrip, according to a Navajo Police Department press release.
Tumminaro, 67, was transported by helicopter to San Juan Regional Medical Center, the release states. A passenger, Ryan Arroyo, did not report injuries, but he was also transported to the Farmington hospital.
Werbner said Friday that Arroyo, 33, is no longer at the hospital.
Arroyo said in an interview Thursday the two men departed from their hometown of Durango, Colo., that morning on a sightseeing trip.
Navajo Division of Transportation spokesman Carl Slater said Friday that a review of records indicated there had never before been a crash at the Shiprock Airstrip. Slater said the airstrip reopened on Friday.
New Mexico State Police are continuing to investigate the crash, according to press release issued Friday. - Daily Times.
Pilot killed in air force plane crash in Jordan
A Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) pilot was killed and another was injured when their Hawk aircraft crashed early Thursday during a training mission, according to an army statement.
The statement by the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army identified the killed pilot as Major Muath Bani Fares and the injured as Captain Sharaf Al Tafour.
The statement did not give details on the reason of the crash.
Bani Fares was 33 years old and married with three children. He is from the village of Ashrafiyah in the Koura District in Irbid, some 65 kilometres north of Amman, Ahmad Thyabat, a resident of the same village, told The Jordan Times.
He will be laid to rest on Friday in his hometown, Thyabat said, adding the father of the fallen pilot is a retired major general and a former assistant to the director of the Public Security Department.
The man said residents of the entire district of Koura were saddened by the tragic news. - Jordan Times.
Small plane crash near Clinton, B.C.
Image Credit: Contributed
A pilot from the Pacific Flying Club has walked away after the single
engine plane he was piloting crashed this morning in the Cariboo.
The incident happened in the Meadow Lake Road area between Clinton and 70 Mile House.
Bill Yearwood of the Transportation Safety Board says it appears the crash was caused by a mechanical issue in the Cessna 172.
"First information is that the pilot reported some problems and was
trying to land the aircraft. He is okay, and has been taken to hospital
to have a look at any bumps and bruises," said Yearwood.
Yearwood says the Pacific Flying Club is based at the Boundary Bay
Airport in the Lower Mainland, and the man was en route to Vanderhoof.
Yearwood adds the TSB plans on interviewing the pilot before releasing the damaged aircraft. - CFJC Today.
Man killed in Ilembe District plane crash
IPSS Medical Rescue
The light aircraft crashed in a sugarcane plantation near Glendale in the Ilembe District a little earlier this morning.
Unconfirmed reports from the scene suggest the microlight struck power lines in the area.
IPSS Medical Rescue's Paul Herbst says the pilot was fatally injured.
"It
seems like a microlight aircraft has gone down. Unfortunately, the
pilot sustained serious injuries and was declared dead on arrival.
Search and Rescue parties are also here to try and get him out to the
nearest main roads," he said.
Emergency services say
the microlight spraying crop was being flown by a single occupant. The
South African Civil Aviation Authority will investigate the exact cause
of the crash. - ECR.
Plane crashes into sea near Tel Aviv beach, 2 injured
A small aircraft trying to make an emergency landing seemed to forget
that it wasn’t a floatplane and landed in the Mediterranean Sea near
Metzizim Beach in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.
The pilot reportedly radioed a mayday to nearby Sde Dov Airport so
it could land there, but somehow lost control of the plane and crashed
into the water.
Video footage of the incident, which occurred on Sunday
afternoon, shows the small plane slowly sinking in the water after the
crash, which probably wouldn't have happened if it crashed in the
buoyant Dead Sea.
WATCH: Plane makes emergency landing in sea off Tel Aviv.
Two people on board the plane, a 57- and 47-year-old
described as fully conscious, were rescued by witness who swam out,
according to Israel National News.
A police rescue boat then arrived at the scene and took them to Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center for minor injuries.
Two bystanders were treated at the scene with minor shoulder injuries sustained during the rescue. - RT.
April 3, 2016 - PHILADELPHIA, UNITED STATES - Two people have died and 30 suffered injuries when an Amtrak
train collided with a backhoe on the tracks and a car derailed near
Philadelphia, officials said.
Service has been suspended along the
Northeast Corridor in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
There were 341 passengers and seven crewmembers on board Palmetto train 89 at the time of the incident, which took place in Chester, Delaware County.
“This morning, Amtrak Train 89, operating from New York to Savannah, Georgia, struck a backhoe that was on the tracks and derailed the lead engine south of Philadelphia,” the Amtrak spokesman said, adding the cause of the crash is now being investigated.
Amtrak is a partially government-funded US passenger railroad service, which operates over 300 trains on a daily basis on 34,000 kilometers (21,300 miles) of track, connecting more than 500 destinations in 46 American states and three Canadian provinces.
On May 12, 2015, an Amtrak train from Washington, D.C. to New York derailed and crashed in the Port Richmond neighborhood of Philadelphia, killing eight people and injuring over 200 others. - RT.
April 3, 2016 - THAILAND - A tourist bus hit by a train in Nakhon Pathom in Thailand Sunday, leaving 30 injured and three people dead.
The impact occurred as the double-decker bus was slowly
crossing the tracks and a speeding train crashed into it, causing the
bus to spin out of control.
WATCH: Train crash in Thailand.
The video shows the impact from two separate camera angles, revealing the intensity of the crash.
The
bus was taking a group of workers from a factory west of Bangkok to the
island of Koh Samui for a holiday, according to a local police officer.
The three dead were Thai nationals.
Road accidents are a common in Thailand.
WATCH: Dashcam footage captures the moment a midsize car traveling in the slow lane on the highway is rear ended at tremendous speed by a black Mercedes-Benz last week.
A study by University of Michigan ranked Thailand’s roads as the second most dangerous in the world. - RT.
April 3, 2016 - FLORIDA, UNITED STATES - Florida's Palm Beach County saw 1,700 lightning strikes in just two
hours during Tuesday's storms, according to the National Weather
Service.
April 3, 2016 - INDIA - In a saddening incident,five including three women were killed
and six injured in lightning strikes at different places in Mayurbhanj
district on Friday.
Of them two died and six were injured due to the natural calamity while
undertaking obsequies in a pond at Badapeta under Sadar block.
Three women each at Gudialabandha village under Badasahi block,
Budurubani under Udala block and Sarbana under Kaptipada block died of
the lighting strike. - Mumbai News.
April 2, 2016 - ARGENTINA - A real life 'spider pig ' has been born - with eight trotters.
Amazingly the same sow also gave birth to another piglet with two mouths.
The unusual animals were born in El Galpon, in the north-west Argentine province of Salta.
Farmer Santiago Valdez said he was astonished when the sow delivered the
eight-hooved piglet, dubbed "spider-pig," after its namesake in The Simpsons movie.
Sadly, the piglet did not survive for long, and died shortly after birth.
The farmer was even more shocked when the second pig was born with two mouths, although that had to be put down as it was unable to feed itself.
Mr Valdez snapped a few pictures of the spider-pig before it
died, and shared them to social media where they quickly went viral.
He said: "I have no idea why it happened. I was surprised that nobody had asked for it, to carry out investigations.
One piglet was born with two mouths. CEN
Pictures of the piglet went viral after being shared on social media. CEN
"But nobody asked for it, so I just threw it away."
He added that he had not noticed any abnormality in the sow that was
giving birth, although she had begun to produce less piglets.
The deformed animal is just one in a series of abnormal animal births registered in rural Argentina.
In November 2015 a piglet with two bodies and one head was born in the north-eastern province of Entre Rios.
A calf born with two heads and six legs, and a chick with four legs were also born in rural Argentina in the same week.
Animal rights activists believe the birth defects may be down to
industrial chemicals that the farmers are said to have used on their
land, or could be the side-effect of intensive farming techniques. - Mirror.
Solar wind flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on April 4-5. Credit: SDO/AIA.
April 2, 2016 - SPACE - A G1-class geomagnetic storm is in progress on April 2nd as Earth enters a stream of fast-moving solar wind. Magnetic fields in the stream have a "negative polarity." This means they can easily link to Earth's magnetic field, opening a crack in our planet's defenses against solar wind.
High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras after nightfall.
Birds flying north for the spring and humans relying on global positioning satellites to navigate could get a little lost this weekend.
Three coronal holes spread across the sun are pointing at the Earth. As a result, a minor geomagnetic storm alert has been issued for Saturday by the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado, and the Space Weather Operations Centre of the U.K. Met Office in Exeter.
“Early on Day 3 (2nd April), a high-speed stream from coronal hole 67 is expected to reach Earth,” said the Met Office.
Credit: SDO/AIA.
Forecasters in the U.S. and U.K. predict this could confuse migrating
birds and other animals, cause minor problems with satellites and make
an aurora visible as far south as Maine and Michigan.
The storms could rise to G2 level on a five-step scale, which would mean the Northern Lights might be seen in New York and some electrical transformers could be damaged.
Magnetic Lines
Viewed
through X-ray telescopes, coronal holes can appear to be vast, dark,
blank spaces in sun’s swirling atmosphere. They are the places where the
sun’s magnetic lines don’t return to the surface.
How does that work?
As the sunspot number continues to plummet,
the face of the sun is increasingly blank. Today, only one sunspot
punctuates the solar disk, circled in this April 1st image from NASA's
Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Touch your fingertips together and they form an arc -- this is what the magnetic lines do on the sun.
Now spread your fingers outward so they aren’t touching and are pointing away from you.
This is what happens with the magnetic lines on the sun when a coronal hole opens.
The
solar wind, a stream of charged particles flowing away from the sun,
bursts out with greater velocity from the coronal holes.
When the holes point at the Earth, the planet is caught in even stronger winds and the chances of geomagnetic storms increase.
So, if you run into a lost bird Saturday, help the little fellow on his way. That is, if you know where you are yourself. - Bloomberg | Space Weather.
April 1, 2016 - PARIS, FRANCE - At least 17 people have been injured in a huge gas explosion,
which rocked a residential building in central Paris, French media cited
firefighters as saying.
Local residents have reportedly been evacuated.
Police sources confirmed to AFP it was a gas explosion.
A
firefighter, blown by the blast, was seriously injured, the
firefighters told Liberation. Sixteen other people, including 10
firefighters, were slightly injured, he added.
Firefighters and ambulances have been deployed to the scene. "We heard a loud explosion and saw smoke," two students from Ferrandi college told AFP. "People were scared, they believed that it was a bomb," a college employee added.
"I felt my floor shake and heard a loud noise, then it smelled like smoke outside," Jenna Binion, a local resident, told the Local, "There are a lot of people in the streets and I can hear a lot of sirens.
"The blast reportedly took place not far from the Montparnasse area, on the left bank of the Seine.
It’s in the 6th administrative district of the French capital, near Ferrandi college.Plumes of smoke can be seen in photos and videos posted on Twitter.
The Paris police press office told Sputnik the cause of the explosion "was a house fire." - RT.
April 1, 2016 - KOLKATA, INDIA -
FIVE CONSTRUCTION COMPANY officials have
been arrested by Indian police after a flyover bridge collapsed killing
at least 24 people.
Rescuers said today there was no hope of finding any more survivors
after clearing the crumbled concrete and twisted metal rods from an
overpass that collapsed onto a crowded Kolkata neighbourhood, killing at
least 24 people and injuring more than 80.
Sixty-seven people were pulled from the debris alive, and the wreckage has been was cleared.
“There is no possibility of finding any person alive,” said SS
Guleria, deputy inspector general of the India’s National Disaster
Response Force.
Engineers are being consulted about a part of the bridge still
hanging over the disaster area, after which workers will “slowly start
dismantling this particular section to avoid any collateral damage to
houses around it.” Arrests
Police arrested five officials from a Hyderabad-based construction
company contracted in 2007 to build the overpass, and sealed its Kolkata
office.
The officials from the IVRCL Infrastructure Co. are being
investigated for culpable homicide, punishable with life imprisonment,
and criminal breach of trust, which carries a prison sentence of up to
seven years, police said.
The company signed a contract in 2007 to build the overpass, and was far behind schedule for the project’s completion.
The
partially constructed overpass had spanned nearly the width of the
street and was designed to ease traffic through the densely crowded Bara
Bazaar neighborhood in the capital of the east Indian state of West
Bengal. Within hours of concrete being poured into a framework of steel
girders on Thursday, about 100 metres of the overpass collapsed.
“I heard an explosion, a solid one,” said resident Rabindra Kumar
Gupta, who had been home eating lunch. “My apartment shook. The whole
building shook. When I looked outside, there was a lot of smoke.”
Smashed yellow taxis, a crushed truck, destroyed rickshaws and the
legs of trapped people jutted from the fallen girders and concrete.
The construction company was far behind schedule for the overpass.
“We completed nearly 70% of the construction work without any
mishap,” IVRCL official KP Rao said yesterday. He was not among those
detained on Friday. “We have to go into the details to find out whether
the collapse was due to any technical or quality issue.”
Police said 39 of the more than 80 people taken to hospitals were still being treated Friday morning. Challenging
As workers in yellow hard-hats operated huge cranes, bulldozers and
other equipment to clear the rubble and pry apart the concrete slabs
this morning, crowds of people waited anxiously to see if neighbours and
friends had survived. The intersection had been a place where street
vendors and service workers regularly plied their trades.
WATCH: Sickening moment of lethal bridge collapse in Kolkata, India caught on camera.
“There used to be a tailor who sat here on this corner. We wonder
about him. A cigarettes and tobacco vendor — we knew everyone who used
to stay around this crossing,” resident Pankaj Jhunjhunwala said.
Rescuers also used dogs and special cameras to find people who were trapped, he said.
The operation was a “very, very challenging task,” said OP Singh, chief of the National Disaster Response Force.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in Washington at the time of
the collapse, said he was “shocked and saddened,” according to a message
on his Twitter account. - The Journal.
