Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Two helicopters operated by Sea World Helicopters collided near the Sea World theme park located in Gold Coast, Australia Monday, leaving four people dead and three critically injured. The helicopters, believed to be taking off and landing, crashed on a nearby sandbar at around 2 PM AEST (UTC 4:00).

Witnesses reported a loud bang before seeing one landing nearby and another crashing down after the helicopters moved too close to each other. It is believed that one helicopter, taking off with 7 passengers collided with a helicopter landing with 6 passengers, causing the helicopter taking off to crash onto the sandbar.

Police have reported that the four dead were 40-year-old pilot Ash Jenkinson, a 37-year-old woman from New South Wales and a 57-year-old and 65-year-old couple from the United Kingdom. Three more passengers were reportedly in hospital with critical injuries. Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell has stated that the crash could have been “far worse”, as one helicopter landed on the sandbar safely. The ATSB has begun to investigate the incident, asking witnesses to contact it.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said that it was an “unthinkable tragedy”, expressing her sympathy for the people affected on Twitter. Friends of Jenkinson, the pilot, have remembered him on social media as a “big guy with a big heart” and “someone you just naturally wanted to be around”.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

San Francisco, California —Shortly after an extended question and answer session last night, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan easily secured an endorsement from the San Francisco Green Party as nominative challenger to the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in California’s 8th congressional district.

Sheehan answered a wide variety of questions helping to overcome a common perception that she is a one-issue candidate. Sheehan emphasized the stance for which she is famous, regarding ending the War in Iraq and dramatically reducing the amount of money spent by the Pentagon, explaining that the United States’ founders intended for us to have militia, not a multi-trillion dollar military used for “corporate imperialism.”

She also demonstrated a knowledge in a variety of topics that are important to party members, underscoring a commitment to the Green Party’s “10 Key Values,” while acknowledging that her campaign’s platform on indigenous rights is still being developed.

She stressed her differences from speaker Pelosi’s positions, and reaffirmed her belief that Pelosi has been complicit in maintaining the US presence in Iraq. Sheehan pointed out that she presently lives in the district, whereas Pelosi only recently purchased a home in Pacific Heights, her first in San Francisco. Pelosi has often been criticized for her absence from the district she represents. Sheehan provided an understanding of local issues, including the recent Hunter’s Point controversy, reiterating her commitment to “affordable housing, better mass transit, alleviating traffic, dependence on fossil fuels, [and] rent control.”

On the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, Sheehan said, “I’ve never said it’s been an inside job, I’m not convinced of that,” but asserted that there are questions about the attacks that still need to be answered that only an independent, thorough investigation could provide.

Sheehan is receiving support from independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader and expected Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney. When asked whom she would endorse for president, Sheehan replied, “It’s a tossup between Ralph and Cynthia.”

Cindy Sheehan is still collecting the signatures needed to get on the ballot by the July filing date, but is expected to gain a substantial amount at the Gay Pride celebrations in the upcoming weeks. Sheehan is not running as a Green Party candidate, and has the endorsement of the local Peace and Freedom Party.

Also present was Barry Hermason, Green Party candidate for California’s 12th district, which includes most of the south-west quarter of San Francisco.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

An English lawyer has pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice. He faked a legal judgment and sent it to a father who was pleading in Taunton family court to be able to remain involved in his child’s upbringing. The lawyer, London barrister Bruce Hyman, now awaits his sentence. The judge indicated that he could receive a prison sentence. Bruce Hyman is well-known in media circles, having produced The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on BBC Radio. He also produced a series with Clive Anderson, at Above the Title Productions, called Unreliable Evidence.

The father, a former City financier, had attended a series of court hearings in order to make suitable arrangements to see his child following an acrimonious divorce. Shortly before one of these hearings he received an email, ostensibly from a self-help group to which he belonged, which had attached a Court of Appeal case that appeared favourable to an application he had made for the judge to stand down from the case. The father, who was representing himself, duly showed the case to the judge. At this point, Bruce Hyman, the lawyer representing the former wife, claimed to the judge that the case was a forgery, which indeed it turned out to be.

After confirming that the self-help group had not sent him the email, the father then embarked on some detective work his own. The fraudulent email was traced via its header to a dial-up internet connection and a phone number belonging to a shop in London. The shop was able to recover CCTV footage which showed a man sending the email from an Apple laptop. The man turned out to be Bruce Hyman.

Sentencing of Hyman is due in Bristol Crown Court on the 19th of September.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

The development application for a McDonald’s restaurant at Minyama, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in Australia, has been rejected by the Sunshine Coast Regional Council.

“We knocked back a Hungry Jack’s on Nicklin Way because of the nuisance code,” said divisional councilor Chris Thompson. “We already have a 24-hour McDonald’s at Mooloolaba, only one kilometre away, and there are already [anti-social] issues at that site.”

Local residents previously vowed to fight any McDonald’s development at the proposed site due to the risk of anti-social behavior. Protest group spokesman John Meyer-Gleaves was “over the moon”.

“It’s not often you knock Maccas [McDonald’s] over,” he said.

Mayor Bob Abbot said Minyama was in some ways more suitable than Mooloolaba. However, he was concerned about the proximity to a residential estate.

The rejection is expected to be ratified at an ordinary meeting of the council on Thursday.

“It needs to be endorsed or ratified by council at its ordinary meeting on Thursday and then it will become a statutory decision of council,” Chris Thompson said. “I’m reasonably pleased with the outcome.”

Monday, January 11, 2010

United Airlines Flight 634 made an emergency landing yesterday morning when only two of the three landing wheels on the Airbus A319 deployed as the plane was making its final approach into Newark, New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport. After multiple attempts to fix the problem failed, the pilot decided that an emergency landing was the only remaining choice.

Only the plane’s nose gear and left landing gear had descended. The right landing gear would not release. The airliner made a go-around as the crew attempted to fix the problem. Passenger Jim Falk knew something was wrong saying, “Normally a big plane like that doesn’t do a bypass, so we knew something was wrong.”

However, the pilot decided that nothing could be done to bring the gear down, and an emergency landing was declared. “We are going to have an unusual landing,” the pilot calmly announced to the 53 passengers seated on the plane, according to passenger Moritz Loew. Another passenger, Paul Lasiuk said he was more shocked than scared, telling himself, “You have no choice. You’re going to go through this.”

“Brace! Brace! Brace!”, the pilot announced over the plane’s public address system, calling for passengers to enter the brace position as the plane made a touchdown on the runway at Newark. The plane touched down on the nose wheel and left rear wheel before lurching to the right causing sparks to fly as the right engine skidded along the runway. Eventually, the plane came to stop at 9:27 A.M. EDT.

Afterward, passengers and crew evacuated the plane by sliding down the evacuation slides and moving quickly away from the plane. They were then taken by bus to the airline’s lounge where they told their stories to investigators and waited for their luggage. Three passengers reported minor injuries but refused treatment.

The emergency landing caused the airport to shut down for 20 minutes, but service quickly resumed on two of the airports three runways. The plane remained on the runway throughout the afternoon as investigators determined the cause of the landing gear failure.

This is in contrast to last week, when the airport was shutdown for six hours after a young man named Haisong Jiang breached security by passing through an exit to kiss his girlfriend goodbye.

According to passengers, the crew remained calm during the ordeal. Jim Falk said, “They did a great job. There was no yelling, screaming, panicking or anything.” Falk said he wanted to buy a bottle of champagne for the currently unnamed pilot. Falk added, “The pilot did a beautiful job. He didn’t put it in the water like the other pilot did, but he should be commended.”

Martin Trebino, a spokesperson for United Airlines said they would not release the pilot’s name on Sunday, but did not indicate when his name would be made available either.

Paul Lasiuk said, “I’ve had a lot of worse landings at Newark before. It was unbelievably smooth.”

Moritz Loew joked with himself afterward saying, “What’s a great landing? One that you walk away from.”

The flight, which left Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport early Sunday morning around 6 A.M. reported no other problems during the flight up until the incident. According to United Airlines spokesperson Robin Urbanski, it remains unclear why the landing gear failed to deploy. Urbanski added that passengers’ tickets would be refunded and that they would receive vouchers and credit towards any future flight.