British Airways flight mistakenly tells passengers plane will crash

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

LONDON –  Passengers flying over the Atlantic were terrified when it was announced twice that their plane could be about to crash.

British Airways (BA) Flight 206 was at 35,000 feet, halfway from Miami to London's Heathrow Airport, when the taped message was played by accident.

Screams rang out as it was repeated straightaway.

An Edinburgh man said, "It was about 3:00am. An alarm sounded, and we were told we were about to land in the sea. I thought we were going to die. My wife was crying, and passengers were screaming. Then they played an announcement telling us to just ignore the warnings."

Another passenger said, "When we landed, they were handing out letters apologizing, but it was the worst experience of my life. I don't think BA should get away with this."

A BA spokesman said of the scare en route to Heathrow on Friday, "The cabin crew canceled the announcement immediately and sought to reassure customers that the flight was operating normally. We apologize to customers for causing them undue concern."

In August 2010, a message announcing, "We may shortly need to make an emergency landing on water," was played by mistake on a British Airways flight from Heathrow to Hong Kong.

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Afghan official: 3 killed in helicopter crash

Monday, January 16, 2012

KABUL, Afghanistan –  A civilian helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan on Monday, killing all three people on board, an Afghan official said.

Marjan Haqmal, police chief of Nad Ali district in Helmand province, said the Russian-made aircraft probably went down because of a technical malfunction.

NATO confirmed that a civilian helicopter crashed Monday in southern Afghanistan. It said the site of the crash has been secured and that coalition forces are trying to gather more information about what happened.

The alliance did not provide information about casualties.

Dozens of Russian-built cargo helicopters are used by contractors working for the NATO-led coalition.

The coalition relies heavily on helicopters or airdrops to deliver food and other supplies to remote outposts in order to avoid using roads that are frequently mined by the insurgents. Transport aircraft are also frequently used for airdrops to isolated bases.

The Taliban have few dedicated anti-aircraft weapons, but they have damaged or destroyed dozens of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft using automatic rifles and other infantry weapons. In August, militants shot down a U.S. Chinook transport helicopter, killing 30 U.S. special operation troops, a translator and seven Afghan commandos.

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Freestyle skier Burke critical after crash

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Published January 11, 2012

| Sports Network

Freestyle skier Sarah Burke, who has won four Winter X Games gold medals in superpipe and is considered to be one of the top halfpipe riders in the world, was in critical condition Wednesday following an accident during a training session.

Burke, 28, suffered "serious injuries" while skiing in Park City, Utah, at a sponsor event on Tuesday.

She was airlifted to a hospital in Salt Lake City and was intubated and sedated in critical condition Wednesday, according to a statement by Dr. Safdar Ansari, a University of Utah Health Care head trauma specialist.

The Canadian Freestyle Ski Association said Burke's husband, Rory Bushfield, and her family were by her bedside and expressed thanks to well-wishers around the world.

"Sarah is a very strong young woman and she will most certainly fight to recover," her husband said, according to the ski organization.

Peter Judge, the chief executive of Canadian Freestyle, said: "This is an extremely unfortunate situation and we are awaiting further word on Sarah's condition."

Burke played an instrumental role in having her sport included in the Olympics for the first time. It will debut at the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia.

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