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A runway warning system failed to sound an alarm before an Air Canada jet collided with a fire truck that crossed its path while landing at New York's LaGuardia Airport, federal investigators said Tuesday. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators are looking at whether that lack of warning or any other problems with the airport's layers of safety precautions could have prevented the crash. Among the areas being explored are control tower staffing levels, who was in charge of coordinating the air and ground traffic and whether the fire truck heard the control tower's frantic, last-second warnings to stop. "We rarely, if ever, investigate a major accident where it was one failure," said National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Jennifer Homendy. "When something goes wrong, that means many, many things went wrong." The Air Canada plane carrying more than 70 people slammed into the fire truck late Sunday, killing both pilots and injuring several passengers. Most,
An Air Canada jet carrying more than 70 passengers collided with a fire truck while landing at New York's LaGuardia Airport in the US late Sunday, killing the pilot and copilot and injuring several others, officials said. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said LaGuardia is "well-staffed" but still faces a shortage of air traffic controllers. He said there are currently 33 certified controllers but the goal is to have 37. More than one controller was on duty at the time of the accident, he said. "I can't give specifics on what went wrong," Duffy said, deferring to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation. Canada also sent a team of investigators. The impact of the collision severed the cockpit, and hurled a flight attendant - still secured to her seat - far from the site of the crash, her daughter told a Canadian TV station. The flight attendant survived. The fire truck was crossing the tarmac just before midnight after being given permission to
A Mumbai-bound Air India aircraft was diverted to Medina, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday afternoon following an aft cargo fire indication in the cockpit that turned out to be false. After inspection, the plane was cleared for operations and took off for Mumbai, an official said. "Air India flight AI116, operating from New York (JFK) to Mumbai, was diverted to Medina, Saudi Arabia, following an aft cargo fire indication in the cockpit," the airline said in a statement. The Boeing 777 made a priority landing at Medina. "The aircraft landed safely without incident. Subsequent inspection of the aircraft after landing confirmed that the indication was false," the statement said.
A device thrown by a counter-protester at an anti-Islam demonstration in New York City on Saturday was confirmed to be an improvised explosive, according to a preliminary police analysis. As the investigation continued on Sunday, police said they were looking into a second suspicious device found in the same area of Manhattan's Upper East Side. Two people were in custody for their alleged role in Saturday's confrontation, which unfolded during a "Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City" event led by far-right activist Jake Lang outside the Manhattan residence of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The sparsely attended event drew a far larger group of counter-demonstrators, including one person who tossed a smoking object containing nuts, bolts, screws and a "hobby fuse" into the crowd, police said. In a social media post on Sunday, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the department's bomb squad determined the object was not a hoax device or smoke bomb, but an "improvised explosive device .
Millions of people in New York City and a large swath of the northeastern US were stuck at home under road travel bans and blizzard warnings Monday as a fierce winter storm barreled into the densely populated region with heavy snowfall and high winds. Cellphones across New York City received wailing push alerts Sunday night announcing a ban on non-emergency travel on all streets through noon Monday because of "dangerous blizzard conditions." Rhode Island and New Jersey implemented similar restrictions. Regional airports saw widespread cancellations and delays, and public transit was suspended in some areas. Even DoorDash announced it was suspending deliveries in New York City overnight. Blizzard warnings stretched from Maryland to Maine. Snow began falling Sunday as the storm moved north, and the National Weather Service said 1 to 2 feet (30 to 60 centimeters) of snow was possible in many areas, along with low visibility. Officials in several states urged people to avoid venturing ..
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani says the city will resume clearing makeshift homeless encampments, promising to take a more humane approach to a practice he previously criticized. Mamdani paused the previous mayor's policy for clearing encampments days after he took office in January, arguing that it did not do enough to get people into housing. But the Democrat on Wednesday said his new approach - led by the city's homeless services department, rather than police, and involving days of sustained outreach - will be more successful. "We will meet them looking to connect them with shelter, looking to them with services, looking to connect them with a city that wants them to be sheltered and indoors and warm and safe. And that is something that I believe will yield far better results," he said at an unrelated news conference. The decision came as at least 19 people have died outside over several days of brutal cold in the city, prompting concerns about the city's response. There is
One man was discovered under a layer of snow on a park bench in Queens. Another was found just steps from a Manhattan hospital. Yet another was pronounced dead on the ground beneath an elevated train line in the Bronx. Each is among a growing number of people - at least 10, as of Tuesday - who died after being exposed to the bitter cold that has persisted in New York City since late last Friday. Their causes of death are still under investigation, but some showed signs of having succumbed to hypothermia. Officials said several victims were believed to have been living on the streets. At least six of the fatalities came early Saturday, as the temperature in the city fell to minus 13 degrees Celsius. With the frigid weather expected to continue, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the city was adding additional homeless outreach workers, opening new warming centres and instructing hospitals to limit discharges "to ensure that people who have nowhere to go are kept indoors." But the rising deat
A gas explosion sent fire racing through the top floors of a high-rise apartment building in New York City early Saturday, killing one person and injuring 14 others as temperatures plunged into the single digits overnight, authorities said. Firefighters responded shortly before 12:30 am to the 17-story building in the Bronx, where people were seen leaning out of windows calling for help as flames engulfed parts of the top floors, officials said. Chief of Department John Esposito said firefighters were investigating reports of a gas odour on the 15th and 16th floors when the explosion occurred. He said there was major structural damage to about a dozen apartments and fires in 10 apartments on the 16th and 17th floors. Authorities did not immediately release information on the person who died. Another person was critically injured, five had serious injuries and eight had minor injuries, officials said. Officials said the building had been undergoing renovations, and work on the natur
Two luxury real estate brokers and their brother are scheduled to go on trial in New York City on sex trafficking charges Tuesday, just days after their lawyers renewed their request to a New York judge to toss out charges that they sexually abused dozens of women over the course of a dozen years. Jury selection was expected to last about two days, with opening statements scheduled for next Monday for a trial projected to last until early March. In papers filed in Manhattan federal court on Saturday, defence lawyers complained that prosecutors have unfairly treated their clients by rewriting the indictment as recently as last week and by recently adding charges the defence has not had time to investigate. The latest iteration of the indictment was filed Thursday, the third time in two months that prosecutors have updated an indictment that accuses Oren, Tal and Alon Alexander of showering women with free travel and luxury accommodations before drugging and raping them in vacation ..
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is standing behind a newly-appointed housing official as she faces backlash for years-old social media posts, including messages that called for the seizure of private property and linked homeownership to white supremacy. Cea Weaver, a longtime tenant activist, was tapped by the Democrat last week to serve as executive director of the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants. The mayor has vowed to expand and empower the office to take unprecedented steps against negligent landlords. But in a sign of the high-level scrutiny on Mamdani's administration, Weaver's since-deleted posts have sparked condemnations from officials in the US Department of Justice and the editorial board of The Washington Post. The posts, which were circulated on social media in recent days by critics of Mamdani, included calls to treat private property as a collective good and to impoverish the (asterisk)white(asterisk) middle class. A tweet sent in 2017 described homeownership as
Zohran Mamdani became mayor of New York City on Thursday, taking over one of the most unrelenting jobs in American politics with a promise to transform government on behalf of the city's striving, struggling working class. Mamdani, a Democrat, was sworn in at a decommissioned subway station below City Hall just after midnight, placing his hand on a Quran as he took his oath as the city's first Muslim mayor. After working part of the night in his new office, Mamdani then returned to City Hall in a taxi cab around midday Thursday for a grander public inauguration where U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of the mayor's political heroes, administered the oath for a second time. Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously. We may not always succeed, but never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try, Mamdani told a cheering crowd. To those who insist that the era of big government is over, hear me when I say this: No longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to