Passenger jet collides with truck at Los Angeles airport, injuring eight

An Aeromexico passenger jet collided with a utility truck on a taxiway of Los Angeles International Airport shortly after landing on Saturday, injuring eight employees who were aboard the truck, but no one on the plane was hurt, authorities said.

The cause of the mishap, which damaged the right wing of the Boeing 737 and left the large supply truck overturned on its side, remained under investigation, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey.

Six men and two women aboard the truck were taken to an area hospital for treatment of various unspecified injuries, none of them considered to be life-threatening, Humphreys said.

Airport officials said all eight were listed in stable condition.

No one among the approximately 150 passengers and crew aboard the plane, Aeromexico Flight 642 from Mexico City, required any medical attention, according to Humphreys.

But a statement from the airport said one passenger reported suffering some pain after leaving the aircraft.

The accident occurred at about 2:30 p.m. Pacific time. There was no fuel spill or fire, and the plane was able to finish taxiing to its gate, where the passengers disembarked.

Los Angeles International ranks as America's second-busiest airport, with nearly 700,000 takeoffs and landings a year.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Bernard Orr)

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Rapper Coolio charged with felony firearm possession in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES - Grammy-winning rapper Coolio was charged on Thursday with unlawful firearm possession stemming from a handgun that prosecutors said was found in his backpack during baggage screening at Los Angeles International Airport last month.

The recording star, whose legal name is Artis Leon Ivey, 53, could be sentenced to as much as three years in state prison if convicted, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said in a statement.

Prosecutors said it was illegal for the performer to carry a gun because of two prior felony convictions - in 2001 for carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle and in 2009 for possession of cocaine base.

The rap artist was scheduled to appear in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday for an arraignment, but the hearing was postponed until Oct. 26 after his lawyer told the judge that Coolio was out of state performing, district attorney spokesman Ricardo Santiago said.

Santiago said a warrant for Coolio's arrest would be issued if he failed to appear for the later court date.

The rapper's lawyer, Michael Aisen, declined to comment on the case.

Coolio, a Los Angeles-area native, is perhaps best known for his 1995 Grammy Award-winning hit "Gangsta's Paradise," the No. 1 US chart-topper that year and one of the best-selling singles of all time.

According to Los Angeles police who arrested Coolio at the airport, a stolen, loaded pistol was discovered in the rapper's backpack on the X-ray screening belt as his entourage was going through security to board a flight en route to a concert.

Another member of the entourage initially claimed ownership of the bag, but evidence in the backpack directed police to Coolio, who by then had boarded the plane, and police removed him from the aircraft, police spokesman Rob Pedregon said.

Pedregon said Coolio acknowledged under questioning that the bag and the gun were his, but said little else after he was taken into custody.

Prosecutors said the case remains under investigation by police.

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Kanye West set to complete community service over photographer assault

Kanye West has nearly completed the community service hours imposed on the rapper after he pleaded no contest to charges that he assaulted a photographer outside Los Angeles International Airport, his attorney told a court on Tuesday.

West did not appear at the progress hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court, but his attorney Blair Berk said at the hearing that her client has completed 228 out of 250 hours of community service and will likely finish the rest by a Sept. 15 court date, allowing him to fulfill the terms of his probation.

West was involved in a fight outside of Los Angeles International Airport in July 2013 with photographer Daniel Ramos, an incident that followed a 2008 encounter he had with a photographer at the airport that had resulted in his arrest.

In a video posted by celebrity news website TMZ of the 2013 incident, the rapper appeared to lunge at Ramos, and prosecutors accused him of trying to take equipment from the photographer.

West, who has been in the spotlight since his 2004 album "The College Dropout," started garnering even more frequent paparazzi attention when he began dating reality TV star Kim Kardashian in 2012. The couple has since married and they have a daughter, North West.

In 2013, West pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery and grand theft charges stemming from the incident. In March 2014, he was sentenced to two years of probation, which included a requirement to complete community service and anger management counseling.

Berk told Reuters on Tuesday that the rapper has completed all of his anger management counseling.

West last year avoided a civil trial over the fracas when he settled a lawsuit brought by Ramos.

(Reporting by Phoenix Tso, Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Eric Beech)

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LOOK: A 'Fast & Furious' plane

Universal Pictures has recently unveiled the luxury Fast & Furious 777 airliner at Los Angeles International Airport. Actor-producer Vin Diesel was on hand as Etihad Airways Flight 171 arrived from Abu Dhabi to kick off the global junket and world premiere of "Furious 7."

The newly decaled Boeing 777 will fly the direct route between Abu Dhabi and Los Angeles.

Abu Dhabi is a key location for "Furious 7." Over the course of two weeks in April 2014, the team filmed in areas outside Abu Dhabi in the Liwa Desert, as well as in the city center at such locations as the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Emirates Palace hotel, the Yas Marina F1 race circuit and the Etihad Towers.

“We are pleased to work together with Universal, an organization which shares that same spirit of innovation and reimagination when it comes to the world of entertainment, to unveil our newly decaled Boeing 777 aircraft in support of the Fast & Furious franchise, and
'Furious 7' which premieres next month and highlights our airline’s home of Abu Dhabi,” Peter Baumgartner, chief commercial officer of Etihad Airways, said in a statement released on Thursday.

“When we began filming 'The Fast and the Furious' in 2000, if you told me that we would one day have our logo on a wide-body jet, I would have said you were crazy,” quipped producer Neal H. Moritz, who has shepherded all seven films in the series.

The Fast & Furious decal will remain on the plane for the next four to six months.

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Suspected LA airport gunman planned 'suicide' mission

The suspect in a deadly shooting at Los Angeles International Airport wrote that he intended to die after killing at least one security officer, the head of a key congressional security committee said on Sunday, as authorities stepped up patrols at the airport and considered changes to aviation security rules.

Paul Anthony Ciancia, 23, also discussed weaknesses in airport security in the "suicide" note before Friday's attack, Michael McCaul, the Republican chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, told CNN.

"The other thing he wanted to talk about was how easy it is to bring a gun into an airport and do something just like he did," McCaul said of the note.

An officer with the Transportation Security Administration died in the shooting, the first employee from the agency killed in the line of duty since it was created after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Three others were wounded on Friday.

Extra uniformed and plainclothes police were patrolling Los Angeles' international airport, the world's sixth-busiest, as it resumed full operations on Sunday, said Sergeant Belinda Nettles, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Airport Police.

Passengers were cautioned to expect delays, Nettles said.

The shooting also has brought calls for improved U.S. airport security. The alleged gunman is believed to have deliberately taken advantage of security vulnerabilities and targeted TSA agents with an assault weapon before police shot and wounded him, ending the rampage.

The federal Transportation Safety Administration is exploring changes to security at Los Angeles' international airport and other airports, TSA Administrator John Pistole told reporters on Saturday.

"We have been discussing what the policies and protocols have been to now," Pistole said. "Obviously, this gives us great concern." He did not additional provide details.

MOTIVE UNCERTAIN

McCaul said the note allegedly written by Ciancia "talks a lot about killing TSA agents, and he said, 'If I just kill one, my mission is accomplished.'"

In a criminal complaint filed on Saturday, investigators said they found a handwritten letter signed by Ciancia in his bag that addressed TSA officials, writing that he wanted to "instill fear in your traitorous minds."

It was not immediately clear whether McCaul was referring to the same note mentioned in the complaint.

Investigators have declined to discuss a possible motive for Ciancia's reported grievance with the TSA.

Authorities charge that Ciancia walked into the airport's Terminal 3 on Friday morning, took out an assault rifle from his bag and opened fire, shooting dead Gerardo Hernandez, a 39-year-old TSA officer at a document checkpoint.

Ciancia, authorities charge, then went on to shoot and wound two other TSA employees and a passenger, prompting a panicked evacuation.

The passenger, Brian Ludmer, described in local media reports as a 29-year-old high-school teacher, was awaiting further surgery on his fractured leg at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, a spokesman for the hospital said on Sunday.

Another victim, who has not been identified, remains in critical condition, the spokesman said.

The U.S. attorney in Los Angeles has charged Ciancia with murdering a federal officer and committing violence at an international airport, crimes that carry a possible death penalty if Ciancia is convicted.

McCaul also said that police visited Ciancia's home after being alerted by worried relatives, but he had already left for the airport.

Ciancia's father, who lives in Pennsville Township, New Jersey, called local police before the shooting after Ciancia, who moved to California 18 months ago and lives in suburban Los Angeles, sent his brother a worrisome text message.

McCaul said police in Pennsville contacted Los Angeles police, who then "visited the suspect's home the morning of the shooting and missed him by literally, probably, 45 minutes."

Andy Neiman, an LAPD spokesman, said on Sunday that before the shooting began, officers went to Ciancia's home and spoke to his roommates. They said they had seen Ciancia that morning before he left the house.

"His roommates had seen him and said he was in good shape and there was no additional follow-up," Neiman said.

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