Page 118 - Disaster Accident
Technical snag delays IndiGo's Delhi-Mumbai flight by 2 hours
An IndiGo's flight from Delhi to Mumbai was delayed by nearly two hours Thursday evening after it developed a technical fault half an hour before its scheduled departure from the national capital, a source said. The private airline confirmed the incident and said the passengers were accommodated on an alternate flight to facilitate their journey. "After waiting for 25 minutes in the plane, we were informed that the plane had confronted some technical glitch and that was causing the delay. "Later, we were deplaned, saying the engineers were to inspect the plane," said an affected passenger. The flight 6E-755 finally departed for Mumbai at around 6 pm after a delay of nearly two hours, the passenger added. "An IndiGo A320 aircraft (non-neo) operating 6E-755 (DEL- BOM) was delayed by approximately 2 hours due to a minor technical glitch. "The aircraft was held for further inspection. To minimise further delay, passengers were re-accommodated on an alternate flight," the ...
Sri Lanka reduces Easter blasts death toll; says 253 killed
Sri Lanka on Thursday night revised down the death toll from the Easter Sunday blasts by more than 100, to "about 253", according to the health ministry. Authorities earlier said that nine suicide bombers, believed to be members of local Islamist extremist group called National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), carried out the devastating blasts that killed 359 people and wounded more than 500 others. However, Dr Anil Jasinghe, the Director General of the Health Services, said the larger death toll was released as a result of a calculation error. "The approximate total of the dead would be 253 and not 359 as reported in media," he said. Jasinghe said that at least 485 injured were admitted to six hospitals throughout the country. "By 10 a.m. today, the casualty number at hospitals has been reduced to 149. Only 6 had died in hospitals," Jasinghe said. On April 22, an estimated figure of 280 dead was released. "As it was not easy to count the correct number of dead due to extensive damages ...
20 rescued after boat develops leak near Goa island
A major accident was averted on Thursday evening, after boat operators and lifeguards rescued nearly 20 persons who were sailing in a recreational boat, which started taking in water near Bat island located off the port town of Vasco, officials of a private lifeguard service said.
3 tribals crushed to death by uprooted tree during festival
: Three tribals died after a tree uprooted by heavy rain and wind fell on them near here Thursday, police said. The three were taking part in an ethnic festivalwhen the accident happened, the police said adding that two children sustained minor injuries. Theywere taken to a taluk hospital and their condition was stated to be stable, they said. Certain pockets of northern district of Malappuram received heavy rain Tuesday. Several houses were damaged in the coastal areas of Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital,due to sea erosion and strong waves. Meanwhile, the meteorological department predicted heavy rain in the state next week andsounded an alert for four districts of Ernakulam, Thrissur, Idukki and Malappuram. "A well-marked low pressure area lay over east equatorialIndian Ocean and adjoining southeast Bay of Bengal and its associated upper air cyclonic circulation extends upto mid-tropospheric levels," the weather report said. The southern state had suffered the ...
1 killed in Signature Bridge car accident
Joyride on Signature Bridge turned ugly for four friends early on Thursday when one of them lost his life and three others suffered injuries in an accident after their speeding car lost control and collided with a driver in north Delhi, police said.
Fire breaks out at Shahdara factory
A massive fire Thursday broke out at a chemical factory in Shahdara's Jhilmil industrial area, officials said. According to the Fire Department, information about the blaze in a four-storey building was received around 6 pm and 26 fire tenders were rushed to the spot. Efforts are underway to douse the flames. No casualty has been reported so far, the Fire Department said, adding that the cause of the blaze was yet to ascertained.
Malaysian climber has 'miracle' rescue on Nepal's Mt Annapurna
A Malaysian climber stranded in the open for two nights on one of the world's most treacherous mountains was rescued in Nepal Thursday, expedition organisers said. Climbing experts said it was a "miracle" that 48-year-old Chin Wui Kin survived the freezing conditions on Mount Annapurna for so long. Chin reached the top of the 8,100-metre (26,500-foot) Himalayan mountain on Tuesday but failed to return to the nearest camp, one kilometre below the peak, with the rest of his group. Frantic efforts began to find him after his guide stumbled to the camp and raised the alert. "Our team has found him alive. He is conscious," Thaneshwor Guragain of Seven Summit Treks told AFP. A rescue helicopter spotted Kin waving from the snowy slopes at an elevation of around 7,500 metres (24,500 feet) early Thursday, organisers said. Four experienced sherpas were then dropped at another camp at 6,500 metres (21,300 feet) to try to reach him. "They have given him some water and are trying to bring him ...
EasyJet bans peanuts on flights
British airline easyJet has stopped selling peanuts and will remove all nuts from inflight foods, it said Thursday, to protect passengers with allergies. The no-frills carrier said passengers will also be asked not to eat nuts on board if fellow customers are allergic. "The safety and welfare of all of our customers and crew is our highest priority so we have a number of procedures in place to assist customers travelling with a nut allergy," an easyJet spokesman told AFP. "We ask that any customers with a nut allergy notify us ahead of travel and we will request that other passengers travelling on the flight do not consume any products containing nuts that they have brought with them on board. "We have also stopped the sale of peanuts on board and will be removing the last product from our inflight range which contains nuts in the coming months." The issue came to prominence in Britain with the death of 15-year-old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse on a British Airways flight from London to ...
Nepal marks quake anniversary as rebuilding continues
Nepal on Thursday marked the fourth anniversary of a massive earthquake that killed almost 9,000 people and left millions homeless, some of whom are still living in temporary shelters. Nepal's prime minister KP Sharma Oli joined locals and civil servants at a memorial in the Kathmandu Durbar Square, a UNESCO world heritage site being rebuilt after it was badly damaged in the April 2015 quake. "I would like to offer my condolences to those all who lost their lives," Oli said. "We are here remembering the pain of that day... and it is also important to examine how much work we have been able to do in the last four years to restore and rebuild what we lost." A minute's silence was observed around 11:56 am -- the time the 7.8-magnitude quake hit, triggering avalanches and landslides across the Himalayan nation and destroying schools and hospitals. The disaster also reduced more than a hundred monuments to rubble, including centuries-old temples and royal palaces in the Kathmandu valley ...
Storm death toll increases to 70 in South Africa
With 10 more deaths being reported on Thursday, the toll due to severe storms in South Africa has risen to 70, according to authorities.
HP govt seeks report on damage caused to apple crop in hailstorm
The Horticulture Department of Himachal Pradesh has sought a detailed report from its regional officers on the damage caused to the apple crop in the recent hailstorm, an official spokesperson said here Thursday. The apple crop in all development blocks of Shimla district, the Anni development block of Kullu district and the Karsog, Seraj, Gohar and Sundernagar development blocks of Mandi district have suffered heavy losses due to the hailstorm in the last few days, he said. The department has also advised horticulturists covered under the weather-based crop insurance scheme to contact the Agricultural Insurance Company of India on toll-free number 1800-103-0061 to register their complaints or inform about the losses incurred due to the hailstorm, the official said. The Horticulture Department has already directed the insurance company to assess the damage, he added.
Emirati woman wakes up after 27 years in coma
An Emirati woman defied medical odds when she regained consciousness after spending 27 years in a state of coma induced by an injury to the brain.In 1991, Munira Abdulla was involved in a road accident that left her in a state of reduced consciousness. In June of 2018, twenty-seven long years after the incident, she opened her eyes at a clinic in Germany, where doctors had been treating the complications of her long illness."I never gave up on her because I always had a feeling that one day she will wake up," The New York times quoted Abdulla's 32-year-old son Omar Webair as saying. Omar was four when the incident happened.The first signs of her miraculous recovery began to emerge last year when Abdulla started saying her son's name. "We didn't believe it at first, but eventually it became very clear that she was saying her son's name," said Dr Mueller.A couple of weeks later, she was repeating verses of Quran that she had learned decades back.Recoveries from Minimally Conscious state
NASA to conduct aseroid impact 'mock drill'
NASA, along with its international partners, is set to conduct a mock exercise that will play out a realistic -- but fictional -- scenario for an asteroid on an impact trajectory with Earth. The exercise will help the planetary defense community understand the important aspects of a possible disaster and identify issues for accomplishing a successful response. The real work of preparing for the possibility of an impact of near-Earth objects (NEOs) such as asteroids or comets goes on mostly out of the public eye, NASA said in a statement. In the spirit of better communication, next week at the 2019 Planetary Defense Conference, NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), and space science institutions, along with international partners, will participate in a 'tabletop exercise'. A tabletop exercise of a simulated emergency is commonly used in disaster management planning to help inform involved players of important aspects of a possible disaster and identify issues for ...
No fire incident aboard Boeing 777 aircraft: Air India
National carrier Air India on Thursday said that no fire incident took place aboard one of its Boeing 777 aircraft stationed at the IGI airport here.
11 killed, 2 injured in elevator collapse in China
Eleven workers were killed and two others seriously injured after an elevator collapsed at a construction site in China's northern Hebei Province on Thursday, local officials said. The incident occurred around 8 a.m. (local time) in Taocheng district of Hengshui city, according to the city government. The injured are being treated at a local hospital. An investigation into the cause of the collapse is underway, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Engine of Air India's Boeing aircraft shuts down at Delhi airport, 'black fumes' seen
An engine of an empty Boeing 777 aircraft of Air India shut down at the Delhi airport during a technical inspection on Wednesday night and "black fumes" were seen coming out of it, the airline said. "Yesterday night at Delhi when an engineer was doing a routine technical examination of the empty aircraft (777), auxiliary power unit (APU) auto shutdown took place," the airline said in a statement on Thursday. The APU is the smallest engine on an aircraft and situated at the tail of it. It provides the necessary power to start the main engines. Airport personnel observed black fumes from the APU exhaust and sprayed foam spray on it and part of the fuselage, the national carrier said. After opening the cowlings (cover) of the APU, "there was no traces of any burn or external damage noticed except for the minor oil leaks traces, which was normal", it said, adding that a detailed inspection was going on. The flight was supposed to depart for San Francisco at 3.30 am on Thursday, an airline
S Africa floods toll 'around 70'
Around 70 people have been killed in devastating floods in South Africa, an official said on Thursday, while 1,000 people have been forced from their homes. Heavy rains have lashed the southeast of the country, tearing down homes and ravaging infrastructure in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Eastern Cape provinces. The acting leader of KZN province, which includes port city Durban, Sihle Zikalala said "we are worried and quite devastated by the increase of the number of fatalities". "We're now told that the number (of fatalities) is getting around 70. The final figure will be released during the day," he said at a media briefing. "It is the first time in KZN that we experience such a loss of people, that we lose people in such a great number." President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the deluged province on Wednesday and pledged government funds to help those affected by the extreme weather. Emergency responders have reported collapsed buildings and flooded roads, blocked sewer lines and toppled ...
Over 73,000 eunuchs held for extorting money from railway passengers in past 4 yrs; almost 50 daily
More than 73,000 eunuchs were arrested for extorting money from railway passengers in the past four years, on an average 50 such people on a daily basis, the railway ministry has said in reply to an RTI query. The data assumes significance as passengers have complained of harassment by eunuchs who often board trains and extort money from them. Some of these passengers also had to face abuses, in the worst cases physical assault too, incase they refused to give in to such demands, officials said. The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has been regularly conducting special drives to check such instances, they said. In the reply to the RTI application, the railway ministry said a total of 73,837 eunuchs were arrested during 2015 and till January this year while extorting money from passengers. Of these, a total of 13,546 were arrested in 2015, 19,800 in 2016, 18,526 in 2017 and 20,566 in 2018, it said. As many as 1,399 eunuchs were arrested in January this year, the ministry said. "Policing .
Sri Lanka: Explosion near Colombo; no casualty reported
Four days after the deadly serial blasts claimed at least 359 lives, an explosion was reported on Thursday in Sri Lanka's Pugada town, about 40 Km east of capital Colombo, police said.There were no reports of any casualty.The blast occurred in a garbage dump behind the Pugoda magistrate's court, The Daily Mirror said quoting the police.On April 21, eight explosions rattled Sri Lankan cities of Colombo, Negombo, Kochchikede and Batticaloa as the Christian community celebrated Easter Sunday. At least 359 people were killed and over 500 others were injured in the serial blasts.The casualties included 39 foreign nationals, including 10 Indians.
Hot temperature key factor to predict risk of wildfires, finds study
Hot temperature is the most important factor in predicting the risk of wildfire than humidity, rainfall, and moisture, a new study has revealed.The details were presented in the meeting of the American Association of Geographers.Geography professor Susanna Tong and her students studied a variety of weather, microclimate and ground conditions in historic fires around Phoenix, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada, to determine which might be the most important in predicting the risk of wildfire.They found that temperature was a better predictor than humidity, rainfall, moisture content of the vegetation and soil and other factors."We examined a long list of data. The results show that the maximum temperatures had the highest correlation with fires. That makes sense because if you have high temperatures, a fire is easier to ignite," student Diqi Zeng said."The recent California wildfire, which is the deadliest and most destructive wildfire on record, showed clearly the devastating ...