Page 95 - Disaster Accident
Odisha seeks Rs 17,000 cr cyclone assistance
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday demanded Rs 17,000 crore long-term assistance from the Centre for the cyclone-ravaged state.
56 old ambulances damaged by fire in Hyderabad
: As many as 56 old and condemned ambulances parked in an open space near here were gutted in a fire Monday, police and fire service officials said. No one was injured in the incident, a police official told PTI. The cause of the fire, which broke out at 2 pm, was not known. Investigations were on, the police said. Two fire-tenders brought the flames under control, they said.
Centre releases additional Rs 1,000 cr to cyclone-hit Odisha
The Home Ministry Monday announced release of an additional Rs 1,000 crore to the cyclone-hit Odisha as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A Home Ministry statement said the amount would be in addition to the Rs 341 crore that had been provided to the Odisha's State Disaster Response Force in advance. As announced by Prime Minister after his aerial survey and review of relief efforts with the Odisha government, the Home Ministry has announced a further release of Rs 1,000 crore for assistance to the state, the statement said. The extremely severe cyclone 'Fani' made a landfall in Odisha on May 3 causing extensive damage in the state and claiming at least 34 lives.
Millions hungry as drought grips Somalia: charity
Drought has left nearly two million Somalis in desperate need of food, a humanitarian agency warned Monday, as poor rainfall pushes communities to the brink across East Africa. The Norwegian Refugee Council said hundreds of thousands of children were already suffering malnutrition in Somalia and millions had abandoned their homes in search of food in the arid, conflict-torn nation. "The humanitarian situation has deteriorated at an alarming rate as a result of the drought," Victor Moses, the council's country director in Somalia, said in a statement. The failure of the so-called long rains that usually sweep East Africa between March and May has caused widespread crop failures and heaped immense pressure on livestock-dependent communities in the greater region. Somalia is enduring its third-driest long rains season since 1981. The United Nations estimates that 1.7 million people are going hungry, with that figure expected to grow by another half a million come July. Last week, the UN .
41 killed in Russia plane fire
At least 41 people on board a Russian passenger plane were killed, after it caught fire while making an emergency landing at a Moscow airport yesterday, authorities said on Monday.Televised footage showed the Aeroflot flight SU 1492 sliding down the runway at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport with much of the rear part of the plane engulfed in flames, CNN reported.After the plane had come to a halt, passengers were seen using emergency slides from the plane's two forward doors to escape the burning plane.Initial reports said that the Moscow-bound plane was en route to Murmansk, a Russian city in the Arctic Circle when an emergency on board forced it to turn back.State media reported that a "loss of communication" caused by a "lightning strike" had led to the decision to return to Sheremetyevo.However, no official cause has yet been provided for the disaster.Shortly after the take off from around 6 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET), the Russian-made Superjet-100, which was carrying 73 ...
Tanker truck explosion kills 55 in Niger: ministry
Fifty-five people died when a tanker truck exploded near the international airport of Niger's capital Niamey overnight, an interior ministry spokesman said Monday. "The toll from the explosion is 55 dead and 36 injured," the official told AFP. "The victims were burnt." Witnesses said people were trying to collect petrol leaking from the truck, which had overturned on railway tracks, when the explosion happened.
Families of Lion Air crash victims criticise Boeing over alert issue
Families of victims in the Indonesia Lion Air crash hit out at Boeing Monday over its admission that engineers had identified a safety system glitch well before the fatal accident, in the latest knock to the plane maker's reputation. Boeing said Sunday engineers had found the safety alert issue on its 737 MAX aircraft in 2017, a year before the deadly crash in Indonesia that killed 189 people. According to Boeing, a supposedly standard piece of equipment that tells pilot about disagreements between angle of attack (AOA) indicators -- which measure the plane's angle vis-a-vis oncoming air to warn of impending stalls -- did not activate unless an additional optional indicator was purchased by airlines. Neither the Lion Air aircraft nor the Ethiopian Airlines jet that went down several months later, killing 157 people, had the feature. "That's negligence from Boeing in regards the AOA system," said Evi Samsul Komar, whose son and nephew were on the fatal flight. "Boeing needs to be more .
Centre must be pro-active after Fani: CPI-M
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) on Monday urged the central government to be pro-active in providing assistance to cyclone-battered Odisha which it said had reportedly killed over 50 people in Odisha.
Cyclone Fani: Dalai Lama donates Rs 10 lakhs to Odisha for relief work
Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama has donated Rs 10 lakhs for restoration and relief work in areas affected by Cyclone Fani in Odisha.In a letter to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Dalai Lama said, "I appreciate that relief efforts are underway and that everything possible is being done to help those affected. As a remark of solidarity with the people of Odisha, I am donating Rs 10 lakhs from the Dalai Lama Trust to the efforts to provide relief and rebuild."Dalai Lama offered his condolences to those families who have lost their loved ones. He also appreciated the "efficient precautions" Patnaik and his government have taken to evacuate people.Cyclone Fani lashed Odisha on Friday, triggering heavy rainfall accompanied by wind touching the speed of 200 kmph.The cyclone, the worst April storm in 43 years, caused "huge damage" in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri and Khordha districts in the state, according to the Odisha government.
41 dead in Moscow plane fire; Experts hunt for reason why
Russian emergency workers have recovered 41 bodies and two flight recorders from the wreckage of a plane that caught fire during an emergency landing in Moscow, officials said Monday as they sought to discover the cause of the disaster. Transport Minister Yevgeny Dietrich gave the death toll and said six of the survivors had been hospitalised. The plane, an Aeroflot SSJ100, was carrying 78 people, including five crew members. The plane caught fire Sunday evening about 6:30 p.m. as it came down hard on the runway at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport after turning back from a flight destined for Murmansk. The landing occurred about a half hour after takeoff, indicating that the plane had little time to dump its fuel. Videos showed desperate passengers hurrying down emergency slides deployed from the plane's forward section as black smoke billowed. One of the dead was flight attendant Maxim Moiseev, Dietrich said. Russian news reports, citing unnamed sources, said the Moiseev was in the back
Boeing dismissed key cockpit warning light as 'standard' feature
Boeing on Sunday said it was aware of a flawed safety feature with the 737 Max aircraft well before the deadly October 2018 Lion Air crash, but considered it to be a premium add-on to the aeroplane and hence decided not to do anything about it.The aerospace manufacturer, in a statement cited by The New York Times, added details regarding its initial confusion about a key cockpit warning light which the company believed was a standard feature in all of the new jets.The initial lack of knowledge about the feature's functionality, along with the delayed disclosure, added to the concern about Boeing's management of Max's design.The model 737 MAX came under scrutiny after 346 people lost their lives in two deadly plane crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.On March 10, 157 people on board an Ethiopian Airlines flight -- a Boeing 737 MAX jet -- lost their lives after the flight crashed just a few minutes after it took off from Adis Ababa.In October last year, a Boeing 737 MAX Lion Air flight ...
Pilot says lightning caused deadly Russian crash landing
The pilot of a Russian passenger plane that erupted in a ball of fire on the runway of Moscow's busiest airport, killing 41 people, said lightning led to the emergency landing. Investigators were on Monday working to understand the causes of the blaze after the Sukhoi Superjet-100 had to return to Sheremetyevo airport shortly after take-off Sunday evening. But pilot Denis Yevdokimov told Russian media the craft lost communication and needed to switch to emergency control mode "because of lightning" on the Aeroflot flight to the Arctic city of Murmansk. He did not specify if the plane was struck directly. "We managed to restore communication through the emergency frequency on our radio connection. But the link was only for a short time and kept cutting out... it was possible to say only a few words," he told the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. Videos on social media showed the plane crash-landing and then speeding along the runway with flames pouring from its fuselage. Passengers ...
Russia recovers 41 bodies from Moscow plane fire
Russia's transportation minister says 41 bodies have been recovered from the burned wreckage of an Aeroflot plane at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. Minister Yevgeny Dietrich also told reporters in a Monday briefing that six people who survived the disaster Sunday night have been hospitalised. The plane, a Sukhoi SSJ100, caught fire while making an emergency landing at the airport, after turning back on a flight to Murmansk for unspecified reasons. Russia's Investigative Committee says the flight recorders from the plane have been recovered and that investigators are looking into inexperienced pilots, equipment failure and bad weather as possible causes for the disaster.
Mamata didn't take my calls, refused meeting: Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of neither receiving nor returning his calls to assess the losses incurred by cyclone Fani.
5 of family injured in Delhi fire
Five members of a family were seriously injured after a LPG cylinder exploded causing a fire in a residential building in Geeta Colony area of East Delhi on Monday morning.
Both flight recorders recovered from burned Russian plane
Russia's main investigative body says both flight recorders have been recovered from the plane that caught fire while making an emergency landing at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, killing at least 40 people. Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko was also quoted by Russian news agencies on Monday as saying investigators are looking into three main possibilities behind the cause of the disaster: insufficient pilot qualifications, equipment failure and weather. Video on Russian TV showed the plane's underside bursting into flames and spewing black smoke after making a hard landing Sunday night. Those who escaped leapt out of the plane down inflatable emergency slides and ran across the tarmac. Storms were passing through the Moscow area as when the Aeroflot SSJ100 regional jet caught fire during the emergency landing, after it turned back for unspecified reasons en route to Murmansk.
Mamata refused my calls regarding cyclone twice: Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of neither receiving nor returning his calls regarding cyclone Fani.
Thrust reverser 'not working' on Florida plane that crashed in river
A feature that helps aircraft slow down on landing was broken on a Boeing 737 that skidded into a river in Florida, a top transportation safety official said Sunday. The plane carrying 143 people slid off the runway after a hard landing Saturday at a naval air station in Jacksonville during a lightning storm. Police said 21 people were taken to hospital with minor injuries but no fatalities or critical injuries were reported. Transport safety officials said one of the thrust reversers which are supposed to help to slow the aircraft down was not working. "The aircraft had been in maintenance and the maintenance log noted that the left-hand thrust reverser was inoperative," Bruce Landsberg, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters Sunday. He said investigators would be examining the maintenance of the aircraft in the weeks prior to the accident "and the condition of the thrust reversers will obviously be of interest." The pilot also requested a change of
41 killed as Russian plane crash lands in Moscow (2nd Lead)
At least 41 people, including two children, on board a Russian Aeroflot plane were killed after it burst into flames while making an emergency landing at a Moscow airport.
Boeing didn't tell airlines that safety alert wasn't on
Boeing has said that it discovered after airlines had been flying its 737 Max plane for several months that a safety alert in the cockpit was not working as intended, yet it didn't disclose that fact to airlines or federal regulators until after one of the planes crashed. The feature was designed to warn pilots when a key sensor might be providing incorrect information about the pitch of the plane's nose. But within months of the plane's debut in 2017, Boeing said, its engineers realized that the sensor warning light only worked when airlines also bought a separate, optional feature. The sensors malfunctioned during an October flight in Indonesia and another in March in Ethiopia, causing software on the plane to push the nose down. Pilots were unable to regain control of either plane, and both crashed, killing 346 people. It is not clear whether having the warning light would have prevented either the Lion Air crash or the March 10 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Max near Addis Ababa. .