Dozens dead, many injured as train derails in Taiwan

TAIPEI --  A Taiwan express train with almost 500 aboard derailed in a tunnel on Friday after hitting a truck that had slid down a bank onto the track, killing at least 50 passengers and injuring 146 in the island's worst rail disaster in seven decades.

Images from the scene showed some carriages ripped apart by the impact, with others crumpled, hindering rescuers in their efforts to reach passengers.

By mid-afternoon no one was still trapped, though the fire department said it had found body parts, meaning the number of those killed, who included the driver, was likely to rise.

"People just fell all over each other, on top of one another," a woman who survived the crash told domestic television. "It was terrifying. There were whole families there."

Taiwan's government said there were 496 people on the train, including 120 without seats. Many were tourists and people heading home at the start of a traditional long weekend holiday to tend to family graves. One French citizen was among the dead, officials said.

The train was traveling from Taipei, the capital, to the southeastern city of Taitung.

It came off the rails north of the eastern city of Hualien after hitting a truck that had slid off a road from a nearby construction site, Feng Hui-sheng, the Taiwan Railways Administration's deputy director, told reporters.

Feng said the manager of the site, which was stabilizing the mountainside to prevent landslides, visited around 9 a.m. and stopped his truck in front of the site office.

"At present it is suspected because the vehicle wasn't braked properly, it slid for around 20 meters along the site access road and entered the eastern trunk line," he added.

The official Central News Agency said police had taken in the manager for questioning.

The fire department showed a picture of what appeared to be wreckage of the truck beside the derailed train, with an aerial image of one end of the train still on the track next to the construction site.

'EVERYTHING SHOOK'

Survivors described their terror as the train slammed into the truck and ground to a halt.

"It suddenly came to a stop and then everything shook," one told local television. "It was all so chaotic."

Passengers in some carriages still in the tunnel had to be led to safety, the railway administration said.

Images showed an injured passenger carried away on a stretcher, with her head and neck in a brace, while others gathered suitcases and bags in a tilted, derailed carriage as some walked on the train's roof to exit the tunnel.

The accident occurred at the beginning of a long weekend for the traditional Tomb Sweeping Day holiday.

Taiwan's mountainous east coast is a tourist destination. The railway that snakes down from Taipei hugs the coast and is known for its tunnels, in one of which the crash took place. The link to Taipei opened in 1979.

Taiwan's state-owned railways are generally reliable and efficient, but have had a patchy safety record over the years.

The last major crash was in 2018, when 18 people died and 175 were injured when a train derailed in the island's northeast.

In 1948, 64 people are estimated to have died when a train burst into flames in northern Taiwan.

-reuters-

4 killed in Cambodia building collapse

KEP, Cambodia—Four people were killed and more than a dozen injured when a 7-storey building under construction collapsed in southern Cambodia on Friday trapping workers under the rubble, an official told AFP, as the search for more victims went into the night.

The building in coastal Kep province was meant to be a hotel but crumpled at around 4:30 p.m., with photos showing concrete floors sandwiched together as heavy machinery moved in to help clear the wreckage.

Cambodian leader Hun Sen said in a Facebook post he was traveling to the site and he arrived late Friday evening.

Sixteen people were injured in addition to the 4 who died, Ros Udong, spokesman for the Kep provincial administration, told AFP by phone.

Deadly accidents plague the kingdom's poorly regulated building sector even as the country has enjoyed a construction boom.

In June, nearly 30 people died after the collapse of a building under construction in Sihanoukville, a beach town undergoing a Chinese investment bonanza.

Last month at least 3 workers died and more than a dozen others were seriously injured after an under-construction dining hall at a temple collapsed in the tourist town of Siem Reap.

There are an estimated 200,000 construction workers in Cambodia, most unskilled, reliant on day wages and not protected by union rules, according to the International Labor Organization.

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Boeing ousts Muilenburg, names David Calhoun as CEO amid MAX crisis

NEW YORK — Boeing on Monday pushed out its embattled chief executive, Dennis Muilenburg, as it attempts to pivot from a protracted crisis surrounding the grounding of its top-selling 737 MAX after 2 deadly crashes.

More than nine months after the MAX was grounded and a week after halting production of the aircraft, Boeing named board Chairman David Calhoun as chief executive and president, saying the company needed to "restore confidence" and "repair relationships with regulators, customers and all other stakeholders." 

A week ago, Boeing took the monumental step of temporarily shutting down MAX production because of the crisis, which has pushed the aircraft's return to the skies into 2020 and raised the anxiety level among Boeing's workforce and suppliers. 

Though coming during the sleepy days ahead of the Christmas holiday, the move was not entirely unexpected after Boeing stripped Muilenburg of his chairman title in October, installing board member Calhoun in that post.

Still, while Boeing watchers had seen Muilenburg's days as numbered, some expected him to stay on until the MAX was returned to service. 

But the timing of that landmark event remains unclear and will depend on the Federal Aviation Administration, which has made it clear it is not in a hurry.

An FAA spokesman said the agency does not comment on personnel decisions. 

"The FAA continues to follow a thorough process for returning the Boeing 737 MAX to passenger service," the FAA spokesman said. "Our first priority is safety, and we have set no timeframe for when the work will be completed."

Muilenburg repeatedly offered predictions on the 737 MAX return to service that proved overly-optimistic. His prospects further dimmed last week when its Starliner unmanned spacecraft came up short in a NASA mission to reach the International Space Station.

Muilenburg's departure was "long overdue," said former National Transportation Safety Board chief Jim Hall.

"Boeing clearly needs to reset the table and put someone in who puts safety first," Hall told AFP.

ANOTHER INSIDER? 

Shares rallied on the announcement of the leadership shakeup, which came after calls in Congress for Muilenburg to go. The stock price jumped 2.9 percent to finish at $337.55.

But Scott Hamilton of Leeham News, an aviation website, noted that Calhoun had roundly praised Muilenburg's performance as CEO in a November television interview.

The executive has been "part of the Board policy-making that led to the cost-cutting some say had deleterious impact on the development of the MAX," Hamilton wrote.

"Calhoun has been on the board 10 years," he said. "Is Calhoun, an insider, the right person to pull Boeing out of its dive?"

Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, called for a "complete management house cleaning" at Boeing and new leadership "who will take safety seriously."

Calhoun previously served as vice chairman of General Electric, where he had a long career after starting with the company soon after graduating from Virginia Tech. He also currently serves as senior managing director of investment banking firm Blackstone Group.

Following the announcement, Calhoun reached out to lawmakers, airline CEOs, suppliers, regulators and other key stakeholders, a Boeing spokesman said.

Muilenburg will leave the company immediately but Calhoun will not take the CEO post until January 13, 2020, while he exits existing commitments, Boeing said in a news release.

During that period, Chief Financial Officer Greg Smith will serve as interim CEO. Meanwhile, board member Lawrence W. Kellner will become non-executive chairman of the board effective immediately.

AWKWARD RESPONSE TO CRISIS 

Muilenburg's response to the crisis was increasingly criticized as the MAX grounding has dragged on far longer than initially expected as more disturbing details have dribbled out about the certification of the aircraft and issues with the flight software implicated in both crashes. 

He also was seen as tone deaf and awkward towards families of the 346 people killed in the crashes.

Michael Stumo, whose daughter Samya was killed in the Ethiopian Airlines crash in March, called Muilenburg's departure "a good first step toward restoring Boeing to a company that focuses on safety and innovation."

"The next step is for several Board members who are underperforming or underqualified to resign," Stumo said. 

The company resisted grounding the planes even after the second crash when Muilenburg pressed his case in phone calls with President Donald Trump. 

Probes of the 2 crashes have focused in particular on the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, an automated flight control system.

FAA chief Steve Dickson ripped Muilenburg in October for not disclosing communications from a Boeing pilot that raised questions about the MCAS system. 

The FAA also called out the company for its overly-optimistic statements about restoring the MAX saying it created the perception Boeing was trying "to force FAA into taking quicker action."

Agence France-Presse 

6 injured as giant cruise ships collide off Mexico

MEXICO CITY, Mexico - Six people were injured Friday when 2 enormous cruise ships operated by US-based Carnival collided off Mexico's Caribbean coast, the company said.

"Oh my God!" a man can be heard saying in a dramatic video of the Carnival Glory crashing into the Carnival Legend as it docked at the popular island resort of Cozumel.

"Someone could have died!" he said.

Videos posted online show the 290-meter (952-foot) Glory slowly arcing through the azure water off Cozumel toward the 294-meter Legend, then making impact with a loud boom.

The Legend's massive bow then scraped along the back of the Glory, leaving the tip of the other ship's stern a mangled jumble of wreckage.

"Carnival Glory was in the process of docking when it made contact with Carnival Legend which was already docked," the company said in a statement.

"Six guests with minor injuries have presented themselves to the Carnival Glory medical center for evaluation."

Carnival said it was still assessing the damage, but insisted there was no impact on the seaworthiness of either ship or their itineraries.

"We have advised guests from both ships to enjoy their day ashore in Cozumel," it said.

According to Carnival, the Glory weighs 110,000 tons and has capacity for 2,980 guests and 1,150 crew. The Legend weighs 88,500 tons and has capacity for 2,124 guests and 930 crew.

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At least 35 killed in Delhi factory fire

NEW DELHI, India - At least 35 people have died in a factory fire in India's capital New Delhi, with the toll still expected to rise, police told AFP Sunday.

The blaze broke out in the early hours in the city's old quarter, whose narrow and congested lanes are lined with many small manufacturing and storage units.

"We have since rescued at least 50 people," Sunil Choudhary, New Delhi's deputy chief fire officer, told AFP.

They were "laborers and factory workers sleeping inside this four- or five-storied building," he said, adding that the fire had been extinguished but rescue operations were ongoing.

A senior Delhi police official said eight or nine people were carried out later, bringing the overall number rescued to at least 58.

Fire officials said it was very difficult to access the dark, poorly lit premises in the commercial hub of Sadar Bazar.

Local news channels aired footage of firemen carrying people out of the narrow lanes to nearby emergency vehicles.

The building was filled with school bags and packing material, fire officials said, but cautioned they were still unsure about the cause of the blaze.

"All the rescued persons were rushed to the nearby local hospitals, which have already confirmed 35 deaths. Some of the others are also in a serious state," Sadar Bazar's assistant commissioner of police told AFP.

"Most who've died were sleeping when the fire broke out and died due to asphyxiation," they said. 

The police officer -- who said emergency personnel remained on the scene -- also warned that the toll was likely to rise as "many others are in a critical condition."

Many factories and small manufacturing units in big Indian cities are often located in old, cramped quarters of the cities, where the cost of land is relatively cheaper.

Such units often also serve as sleeping quarters for poor, mostly migrant laborers and workers, who manage to save money by sleeping overnight at their workplaces.

Lack of planning and lax enforcement of building and safety regulations often leads to such deadly accidents.

"The fire in Delhi's Anaj Mandi on Rani Jhansi Road is extremely horrific. My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones," Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on Twitter.

"Wishing the injured a quick recovery. Authorities are providing all possible assistance at the site of the tragedy," he added.

Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, described the incident as "very very tragic news." 

"Rescue operations going on. Firemen doing their best. Injured are being taken to hospitals," Kejriwal wrote on Twitter. 

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3 dead in Black Hawk helicopter crash in Minnesota

A Black Hawk helicopter went down in central Minnesota on Thursday, killing all three soldiers on board, after it lost contact with the Minnesota National Guard during a maintenance test flight, Governor Tim Walz said on Thursday.

Emergency crews gathered at the scene. The names of the crew were not released, but Walz told a news briefing an investigation would be launched into the reasons for the crash.

"At approximately 1400 hours today a Minnesota Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter went down approximately 16 miles south west of St. Cloud," Walz said, referring to a city in the state's central region.

"The crash resulted in the death of all three crew."


On Twitter, the Minnesota National Guard earlier said it had lost communication with the craft at about 2 p.m. 

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16 dead as trains collide in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh - Two packed trains rammed into each other in Bangladesh on Tuesday, killing at least 16 people and injuring nearly 60 others, police said.

Three coaches were sent crashing off the tracks at Mondobhag station in the town of Kasba when a Dhaka-bound train and a locomotive bound for Chittagong collided.

"At least 16 people have been killed. And another 58 were injured. We have sent the injured to different hospitals in the region," local police chief Anisur Rahman told AFP.

Cranes and other lifting gear were brought in to rescue trapped passengers, many of whom were asleep when the early morning crash took place.

"There was a loud noise, then I saw the train was completely ripped apart," one injured passenger told Somoy TV.

"All the people around me were crying. There was blood everywhere. Some people had broken hands and legs," another told the broadcaster. 

"My son was with me. I still don't know what happened to him," the man added.

Hayat ud Doula Khan, a government official in the district, said the Dhaka-bound Turna Nishitha train, hit the Chittagong-bound Udayan Express at about 3:00 am (2100 GMT Monday) as the Udayan was about to go through Mondobhog station.

Khan told AFP that the Turna Nishitha should have waited outside the station to let the other train pass and that an investigation had been started. A Bangladesh railway official told reporters faulty signals could be to blame.

"Three coaches were badly mangled and the victims are from these coaches," Khan said, adding that train services out of Dhaka had been halted because of the accident.

Train accidents are common in Bangladesh and are often caused by poor signaling or other rundown infrastructure.

According to the Shipping and Communication Reporters Forum (SCRF), a private media research group, between January 1 and June 30 this year, at least 202 rail accidents took place in the South Asian country of 168 million people where some of the track is a century old.

In June, a train plunged into a canal after the bridge it was crossing gave way. Five people were killed and 100 injured.

The SCRF said pedestrians using mobile phones while crossing tracks, negligence by railway employees and poor maintenance of lines and bridges were the main cause of crashes.

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Taiwan bridge collapse crushes fishing boats, some crew feared trapped

TAIPEI - A bridge collapsed into a harbor in northeastern Taiwan on Tuesday, crushing several fishing boats with some crew feared trapped, authorities said, although the number of casualties was not immediately clear.

Several injured people were taken to hospital, while divers plunged into the waters in a search for those feared trapped in a couple of fishing boats, 2 government officials from the port township of Suao told Reuters.

"The bridge collapsed at around 9:30 a.m. while an oil tanker vehicle was on it, setting the vehicle on fire," said Shih I-chun, the secretary of the town's mayor. "We feared that some fishermen might be trapped in the boats."

Authorities have pressed soldiers into the rescue effort and set up an emergency center to run the operation.

The collapse of the bridge, which carries traffic over the busy fishing port, damaged 3 fishing boats and 2 vehicles, including the tanker, the officials said, though the reason for the collapse in clear weather was not immediately clear.

Late on Monday, Typhoon Mitag, packing maximum winds of 162 kph, swept past northeastern Taiwan, injuring 12 people and cutting power to more than 66,000 homes, with more than 150 flights cancelled.

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US man drowns while proposing underwater in Tanzania

NAIROBI - An American man has drowned while proposing to his girlfriend underwater at an idyllic island off the coast of Tanzania, a luxury resort said in a statement Sunday.

His girlfriend Kenesha Antoine posted on her Facebook page footage of Steven Weber proposing to her through the window of their underwater hotel room at the luxury Manta Resort in Zanzibar.

"You never emerged from those depths so you never got to hear my answer, 'Yes! Yes! A million times, yes, I will marry you!!'," she wrote Friday in a post confirming his death.

Her video shows Weber swimming up to the window, and pressing a handwritten note against it which read: "I can't hold my breath long enough to tell you everything I love about you, but everything I love about you I love more every day. Will you please be my wife, marry me."

He then pulled out a ring as Antoine squealed with joy while filming.

It is unclear what went wrong during the proposal at Pemba Island, a popular honeymoon destination.

"We never got to embrace and celebrate the beginning of the rest of our lives together, as the best day of our lives turned into the worst, in the cruelest twist of fate imaginable," Antoine wrote.

"Knowing him, always quick with an off-color joke, he's probably entertaining someone with a story about how he royally screwed up that proposal and died while being extra."

Manta CEO Matthew Saus confirmed to AFP in an email Sunday that "a male guest tragically drowned while freediving alone outside the underwater room" on Thursday.

"The accident is currently under investigation by the local Zanzibar police authority."

The couple were staying in the resort's famed "Underwater Room", a $1,700 (1,500 euro) a-night floating structure offshore in crystal clear waters, where the bed is surrounded by glass windows looking into the ocean.

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4 dead after bus carrying Chinese tourists crashes in Utah

LOS ANGELES, United States - At least four people were killed and up to 15 others critically injured when a bus transporting Chinese tourists crashed on Friday near Bryce Canyon National Park in the western US state of Utah, local authorities said.

The Utah Highway Patrol said the crash took place in the morning about 11 kilometers from the park entrance, forcing the road to be shut as ambulances and rescue vehicles rushed to the site.

It said a total of 30 people, including the driver, were on board the bus as it headed to the famous park.

"Four have been killed 12-15 with critical injuries and 10 more with minor to serious injuries," the Highway Patrol said in a tweet.

It posted pictures of the mangled bus, with its roof partly caved in, lying on the side of the main highway leading to the park entrance.

"The bus was traveling east bound when it ran off the road and rolled into the guardrail," the Garfield County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook message that described the crash as "horrible."

It said the injured were transported to various hospitals, some by helicopter.

China's embassy in Washington said on Twitter that it had initiated its emergency protocols and sent personnel to assist the victims.

Utah Governor Gary Hart expressed sadness over the tragedy.

"My heart sank when I heard the news that a tour bus crashed near Bryce Canyon," he said in a tweet. "I grieve with all who lost loved ones in this crash and I'm grateful for the quick work of first responders, as well as all those who are volunteering to act as translators."

Bryce Canyon is one of the most visited national parks in the US, attracting some 1.5 million tourists every year.

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Cargo plane carrying four missing in eastern Indonesia

TIMIKA, Indonesia - An Indonesian cargo plane with four people on board lost contact with air traffic control on Wednesday, an official said, the latest incident to hit the country's poor aviation record.

The Twin Otter DHC6-400, set off from the city of Timika on Wednesday at 10:39 am (0239 GMT) and was headed to Ilaga, a mountainous region in the remote eastern province of Papua and was scheduled to arrive 50 minutes after taking off.

"After 2.5 hours, there has been no information from the nearest airport on the plane's whereabouts, we decided to announce the plane has lost contact," local transportation agency head, Yan Purba told Metro TV.

The aircraft was carrying three crew members and one passenger as well as 1.7 tons of rice.

Search and rescue have been assembled for the missing plane which was flying in a good weather condition, Purba said.

Indonesia relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands, but mountainous Papua is a particularly difficult area to reach.

The country has a poor aviation safety record and Papua is a particularly problematic place to fly due to its mountainous terrain and frequent poor weather.

In June, a military helicopter with 12 people on board lost contact just minutes after it took off from a remote Papua district Oksibil, to Sentani, also in Papua.

The remains of the aircraft have not been found to this day.

Earlier in 2016, a cargo plane carrying construction materials crashed in Ilaga, killing all four people on board.

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Tanzania tanker blast kills dozens as crowd siphons fuel

DAR ES SALAAM—A fuel tanker exploded in eastern Tanzania on Saturday killing at least 60 people, authorities said, as flames ripped through a crowd that had gathered to siphon petrol from it.

Video clips circulating on social media showed the charred remains of dozens of young men and burnt motorbikes. In footage from before the explosion, a large crowd was collecting liquid from puddles in yellow jerry cans.

"The fire was huge and it was challenging to rescue victims. I have seen about 65 to 70 people being rescued because the fire was fast spreading across the accident area," witness Daniel Ngogo told Reuters.

"...The situation is really bad. Many people died, here even those who were not stealing fuel because this is a busy place."

In the aftermath, one man held his face in his hands as he watched a huge plume of black smoke twist onto the sky.

"People started running and I fell down, everyone tried to escape but it was too late," said local resident Hasani Oligenes, twisted bodies and motorbikes piled up behind him.

Government spokesman Hassan Abbasi said at least 60 people died and 70 were injured in the blast, which occurred in Morogoro, a town around 200 km west of the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

The government was helping coordinate the salvage operation "to ensure we bury the bodies... relatives identify the bodies of their loved ones, and those injured get proper treatment," he added, in comments broadcast live by a state TV channel.

President John Magufuli was "shocked and saddened" by the accident, his office said in a statement. (Writing by Hereward Holland; editing by John Stonestreet)

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Bus plunges into gorge in Indian Kashmir, 35 dead

Kashmiri volunteers and medical staff move on a stretcher a girl injured on a road accident after a vehicle fell into a gorge along the Mughal road in south Kashmir’s Shopian district, at a hospital in Srinagar on June 27, 2019. Eleven passengers, including nine girls, died in the road accident so far, local media reported. 
Tauseef Mustafa, Agence France-Presse

SRINAGAR, India - At least 35 people were killed Monday when an overcrowded bus plunged into a gorge in Indian-administered Kashmir, officials said.

It was the second deadly crash in less than a week in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, renowned for its mountainous terrain and abysmal road safety record.

The bus skidded off a road in the remote Kishtwar region and fell into a deep, narrow valley, senior police official M. K. Sinha said.

Thirty-five people died in the accident and 17 were injured, local official Angrez Singh Rana said. 

Seven of the injured were in critical condition and were evacuated to a nearby hospital, he said.

A separate crash on Monday in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh state killed three school students and their driver, the Press Trust of India reported.

Last week, 11 students on their way to a picnic were killed when their bus fell into a gorge in Shopian district of Kashmir, officials said.

Some 150,000 people die in road accidents on average each year in India, according to official figures.

pzb/abh/stu/fox

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Train derails in US, spilling vegetable oil, closing major highway

NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES—A Union Pacific freight train derailed in Nevada, US on Wednesday, spilling vegetable oil and prompting the closure of an interstate highway.

The vegetable oil spilled out of 1 of the 22 derailed cars after the train went off the tracks shortly before 11 a.m. local time, the Elko County Sheriff's Office said on Facebook, citing Union Pacific Railroad officials.

"We had some vegetable oil and some diesel spill. There was nothing hazardous that was released or in the derailed cars," Union Pacific spokeswoman Kristen South said.

South said ammunition was being carried on the train but was not in the cars that derailed. She said there were no injuries in the derailment and that the cause was under investigation.

The derailment near Wells, Nevada, about 180 miles (290 km) west of Salt Lake City, Utah, prompted authorities to shut down Interstate-80 in both directions, the Nevada Department of Transportation said on Twitter.

A photo of the scene showed smoke rising from a jumble of rail cars.

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17 hurt as plane skids off Myanmar runway

YANGON, Myanmar - A Biman Bangladesh Airlines plane skidded off the runway when it landed in bad weather at Yangon's international airport on Wednesday evening, injuring at least 17 people, officials said.

The Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft was carrying 29 passengers and 4 crew when it bounced while landing during heavy winds in Myanmar's commercial capital, Bangladesh's ambassador said. The plane was severely damaged.

The 17 who sustained mostly minor injuries were admitted to a local hospital, Manjurul Karim Khan Chowdhury told Reuters.

"The main reason, the pilot told me, was the weather – crosswinds," he said. "When he was trying to land... suddenly the aircraft jumped, went up and went down heavily."

A photo published by the Myanmar Times showed the plane halfway off the runway with its fuselage apparently broken.

Shakil Miraj, general manager for Biman Bangladesh, also blamed bad weather for the crash.

The airline flies between Yangon and Bangladesh's capital Dhaka 4 days a week.

A spokesman for Myanmar's Department of Civil Aviation declined to comment, saying the department had not received a report of the incident from the ground.

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41 feared dead in Russian plane blaze disaster: investigators

MOSCOW -- Forty-one people including at least 2 children are believed to have died when a Russian passenger plane made an emergency landing and was engulfed in flames at Moscow's busiest airport Sunday, investigators said.

Dramatic footage shared on social media showed Aeroflot's Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft, land at Sheremetyevo international airport, flames and black smoke pouring from its fuselage.

Passengers could be seen leaping onto an inflatable slide at the front and running from the blazing plane as huge black columns of smoke billowed into the sky.

"There were 78 people including crew members on board the plane," the Investigative Committee said in a statement, adding it had headed to the northwest Russian city of Murmansk.

"According to the updated info which the investigation has as of now, 37 people survived."

Another 11 people were injured, Dmitry Matveyev, the Moscow region's health minister said earlier in the day. Three of them had been hospitalized but they were not in a serious condition, he added.

Investigators said they were looking into various lines of inquiry and it was premature to draw any conclusions about the cause of the accident.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had offered his condolences to the victims' loved ones, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has also ordered a special committee to investigate the disaster.

The jet carrying 73 passengers and five crew members had just left Sheremetyevo when the crew issued a distress signal, officials said.

"Flight Su-1492 took off on schedule at 6:02 pm," said a statement from the airport.

"After the take-off, the crew reported an anomaly and decided to come back to the departure airport. At 6:30 pm, the aircraft made an emergency landing," it added.

The tabloid newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda quoted one passenger, Petr Egorov, who said: "We had just taken off and the aircraft was hit by lightning.... The landing was rough, I almost passed out from fear."

"The plane sent out a distress signal after takeoff," a source told Interfax news agency.

"It attempted an emergency landing but did not succeed the first time, and on the second time the landing gear hit (the ground), then the nose did, and it caught fire," the source added.

Interfax, citing an anonymous source, said the plane had landed with its fuel tanks full because, having lost contact with air traffic controllers, it was too dangerous to dump its fuel tanks over Moscow.

Several flights have been diverted to other Moscow airports or Nizhny Novgorod, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) east of the Russian capital.

The Sukhoi Superjet-100 was the first civilian aircraft developed in Russia's post-Soviet era and at the time of its launch, in 2011, was a source of national pride.

But it struggled to convince buyers from airlines outside Russia, and several foreign carriers that did buy it have since preferred to cut back its use or phase it out completely, citing its reliability.

The Russian government offered subsidies to encourage Russian airlines to buy the Superjet and Aeroflot became its main operator. 

In September 2018, it announced a record order of 100 Superjet-100s.

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'Miracle' as passengers safe after plane skids into Florida river

MIAMI -- Dozens of shocked passengers were evacuated to safety from the wings of a stricken Boeing 737 on Saturday in Florida after the jet made a rough landing in a lightning storm and skidded off the runway into a river. 

The plane carrying 143 people including crew from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba slammed into shallow water next to a naval air station in Jacksonville after a hard landing that saw the plane bounce and swerve down the runway, passengers said.

No fatalities or critical injuries were reported.

"As we went down... the plane bounced and screeched and bounced more and lifted to the right and then it lifted to the left," Cheryl Bormann, a defense attorney who was on board the flight, told CNN.

"And then it sort of swerved and then it came to a complete crash stop."

Some oxygen masks deployed and overhead lockers flew open during the landing, she added.

Twenty-one adults were taken to local hospitals, but none were critically injured, the Jacksonville sheriff's office said on Twitter. Others were treated for minor injuries at the scene. 

Captain Michael Connor, commanding officer at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, told reporters it was a "miracle" no more serious injuries or fatalities had occurred.

"We could be talking about a different story this evening, so I think there's a lot to say about, you know, the professionalism of the folks that helped the passengers off the airplane... it very well could be worse," he said.

All 136 passengers and seven aircrew on board had been accounted for, NAS Jacksonville said in a statement.

However, there were fears for a number of pet animals traveling in the plane's luggage compartment. 

The pets had "not been retrieved yet due to safety issues with the aircraft," NAS Jacksonville said in an update on Facebook.

The National Transportation Safety Board said a 16-member team had arrived on site to investigate the incident, and would brief the media later in the day.

Boeing said it was aware of the incident was and providing technical assistance to the agency as it conducts its probe.

'LIGHTNING AND THUNDER' 

Images showed the Miami Air International plane lying partially submerged in water after the rough landing, with its nose cone missing.

Passengers in life vests were instructed to clamber onto the wings of the jet before being transported to shore aboard inflatable life rafts, Bormann said.

"We couldn't tell where we were, a river or an ocean. There was rain coming down. There was lightning and thunder. We stood on that wing for a significant period of time," she told CNN.

Navy security and emergency response personnel including some 90 firefighters were on the scene.

Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry tweeted that the White House had called to offer assistance as the situation was developing.

"All alive and accounted for. Our Fire and Rescue teams are family to all," said Curry.

Teams were working to control jet fuel spilling into the St Johns River, he added.

The "Rotator" flight from the US military base in Cuba carries passengers including military personnel and family members.

The plane involved was a Boeing 737-800, in operation for 18 years, according to the FlightRadar24 website.

US aerospace giant Boeing is under scrutiny following 2 crashes that killed a total of 346 passengers and crew and grounded its newer 737 MAX planes worldwide.

Both a Lion Air crash in Indonesia in October and March's Ethiopian Airlines crash outside Addis Ababa occurred shortly after takeoff.

source: news.abs-cbn.com  

More than 50 feared killed in landslide at Myanmar jade mine

More than 50 people were feared dead after a landslide in northern Myanmar engulfed jade miners while they were sleeping, local police said Tuesday, the latest deadly accident in a notoriously dangerous industry.

Dozens die each year in landslides caused by jade mining, a poorly regulated industry rife with corruption and sandwiched between the country's borders with China and India.

Local police described a freak accident in Kachin state on Monday night so big it created a huge "mud lake" that buried the miners as well as some 40 vehicles.

"Fifty-four people are missing in the mud," a duty officer from Hpakant township police station told AFP, asking not to be named.

"There's no way they (the missing) could have survived."

Only 2 bodies had been recovered so far.

The Ministry of Information confirmed the accident and number of missing, adding that the area was mined by Myanmar Thura Gems and Shwe Nagar Koe Kaung companies.

Myanmar Thura Gems director Hla Soe Oo told AFP by phone he was on his way to the site and had no further details. 

Local media shared images, unverified by AFP, that showed the walls of a mine stretching vertically a couple of hundred meters above a vast pool of mud, revealing only the tops of 2 yellow excavation vehicles.

Hundreds of onlookers gathered nearby, staring at the site and taking photos with their phones.

PRIZED IN CHINA 

The open jade mines in Kachin's Hpakant township have turned the remote area into a vast moonscape-like terrain.

Fatal landslides in the area are common with victims often from impoverished ethnic communities looking for scraps left behind by big firms.

A major collapse in November 2015 left more than 100 dead.

In July last year, the bodies of 23 landslide victims were recovered after a days-long search hampered by heavy monsoon rains.

The jade industry is largely driven by insatiable demand from neighboring China, where the translucent green gemstone has long been prized.

Watchdog Global Witness estimated that the industry was worth some $31 billion in 2014, although very little reaches state coffers.

Northern Myanmar's abundant natural resources -- including jade, timber, gold and amber -- help finance both sides of a decades-long civil war between ethnic Kachin insurgents and the military.

The fight to control the mines and the revenues they bring frequently traps local civilians in the middle.

A 17-year ceasefire broke down in 2011, and since then more than 100,000 people have been displaced by fighting -- some of them multiple times.

On coming to power in 2016, civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi promised to make the peace process with the country's myriad armed groups her top priority -- a pledge that has yet to yield significant results.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Holiday island mourns after bus crash kills 29 German tourists

Portugal and Germany mourned on Friday after 29 German tourists died when their bus tumbled down a slope and crashed into a house on the tourist island of Madeira.

Drone footage showed the mangled wreckage lying against a building on a hillside near the town of Canico, the vehicle's roof partially crushed and front window smashed.

Rescue workers attended to injured passengers on the grass where the bus rested nearby, some of them bearing bloodied head bandages and blood-stained clothes.

A woman who survived the accident said on the TVI television channel that the bus crashed after hitting a wall.

"It happened just after the bus started, one minute or a few seconds later. People were flying through the windows," said the woman, who was not named.

"Some people were crying for help and we could immediately see some people were dead," said her husband, who also survived the crash. "Help arrived very fast."

Local authorities said most of the dead were aged in their 40s and 50s. Twelve men and 17 women were among the victims, an official at the Nelio Mendonca hospital, Tomasia Alves, told reporters.

They were among the more than one million tourists who visit the Atlantic islands off the coast of Morocco each year, attracted by their subtropical climate and rugged volcanic terrain.

"It is with sadness and dismay that I think of our compatriots and all the other people affected by the terrible bus accident in Madeira," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a statement.

"My sincere condolences go above all to those families that have lost loved ones in this tragedy," she added, thanking the Portuguese emergency services for their efforts.

- Investigation launched -

Witnesses and officials said the 50-odd tourists had left their hotel on their way to the regional capital Funchal for dinner when the bus crashed on Wednesday.

Local media said two Portuguese nationals survived the crash: the driver and a tour guide.

Prosecutors have opened a probe. The vice-president of the regional government Pedro Calado said it was "premature" to attribute the cause of the accident.

He said the bus was five years old and had been recently inspected.

The injured were "in a state of shock, with memories of terrible images. An injured woman said she had lost her partner," Ilse Everlien Berardo, the pastor at the German Evangelical church in Madeira, told Germany's RTL network.

Frankfurt-based tour operator Trendtours said 51 of its customers were involved in the accident. Another company, Schauinsland, said it also had two customers in the crash.

The companies sent their condolences to victims' families and said they were sending teams to Madeira to offer support.

Trendtour said the bus had been hired by a local operator and crashed off the road "for a reason still unknown."

- Makeshift morgue -

A makeshift morgue has been set up at the airport in Funchal, local media reports said. Medical teams will be flown in from Lisbon to carry out autopsies.

German holidaymakers were the second largest group after British tourists to visit Madeira in 2017, according to Madeira's tourism office.

Known as the Pearl of the Atlantic and the Floating Garden, Madeira is home to just 270,000 inhabitants.

The Portuguese government decreed three days of national mourning.

"I express the sorrow and solidarity of all the Portuguese people in this tragic moment, and especially for the families of the victims who I have been told were all German," President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told Portuguese television.

Alves said the hospital hoped to begin returning victims' bodies to their families by Saturday.

The last serious bus accident in Madeira occurred in December 2005, killing five Italian tourists in Sao Vicente. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

6 die after plane hits house in Chile

SANTIAGO, Chile - Six people died on Tuesday after a light aircraft crashed into a house in southern Chile, authorities said.

The plane plummeted after getting entangled in power lines shortly after take-off from La Paloma airport in Puerto Montt, a port city 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) to the south of the capital Santiago, said Harry Jurgensen, the governor of the Los Lagos region.

Local television pictures showed the house, which caught fire after being hit by the plane, completely gutted.

The plane's tail could be seen on television images lying in the garden of the destroyed house.

Authorities did not reveal the identity of the victims but said the pilot was among the dead -- two women and four men.

No one was in the house when the plane hit.

The aircraft was owned by the "Archipielago" company, which operates commercial flights in a region that is difficult to access.

source: news.abs-cbn.com