Two dead as plane crashes near Teterboro Airport

Just minutes after another pilot reported wind shear upon takeoff, a Learjet on its way to Teterboro Airport plunged from the sky in Carlstadt — causing a loud explosion and multiple fires as people on the ground scrambled to safety while the plane disintegrated in a fireball in the parking lot of the borough’s public works building.

The plane’s two crew members died in the crash, authorities said.

But remarkably, despite a devastating scene that included flames and black smoke billowing from two buildings, damage to 13 vehicles — many of which were on fire —and the remnants of the plane scattered across multiple parking lots, no one on the ground was injured.

UPDATE:Pilots in deadly crash didn't need to fly to Teterboro that night, spokesman says

Eyewitnesses said the plane appeared to be coming in low and struck power lines before clipping buildings in an industrial area of the borough that often bustles with activity in the afternoon.

The crash took place during a period of high wind gusts, although federal authorities did not provide information about what might have caused the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board was expected to arrive on the scene Tuesday to begin its investigation, a process that can take more than a year to complete. The NTSB typically releases preliminary reports weeks after a crash.

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Local authorities did not release information about the two people who were killed on the plane, saying at a 9 p.m. Monday press conference that the Bergen County medical examiner was working to identify them. They said that any further information about the crash would come from the Federal Aviation Administration or the NTSB.

Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco said it was "somewhat a miracle" that no one on the ground was injured. Carlstadt Deputy Police Chief Thomas Berta said the tragedy could have been compounded, given the location.

“Our industrial area is congested heavily during the day,” Berta said at a press conference at the Teterboro Airport Administration Building. “Thank God nobody [on the ground] was injured.”

Craig Lahullier, the Carlstadt mayor, said he initially feared that borough workers at the DPW building might have been hurt. But when he got to the scene, the building was empty, he said. The last employee had left the building just 15 minutes before the crash occurred at about 3:30 p.m.

“I tell you, it’s a miracle that [the DPW workers] were all out of there at that time,” Lahullier said. He added that the plane, which came to rest in the DPW parking lot, “was “pretty much disintegrated.”

Firefighters battled multiple blazes and had put them out in about 40 minutes, said a borough spokesman, Joe Orlando. Berta said workers evacuated from buildings “involved in the fire” and that authorities had accounted for all of the occupants, “so it appears we have no one on the ground that was injured in any way.”

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The FAA said the plane — a Learjet 35 that can hold up to seven people — was making its approach to Runway 1 at Teterboro at about 3:30 p.m. when it went down about one-quarter of a mile south of the airport.

The twin-engine plane was registered to a company called A&C Big Sky Aviation, of Billings, Montana, according to an FAA database. The company could not be reached for comment Monday.

The plane had taken off from Philadelphia International Airport, where it was being serviced by a company called Atlantic Aviation, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia airport said. Officials from the company, which also operates at Teterboro, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alexander Lawrence, who works at Pioneer Industries, near the crash site, said he hears planes headed to Teterboro all day long but that this one "was too close.” He said it hit the corner of a building and bounced off, crashing in a “ball of fire."

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TIMELINE:Crashes and mishaps at Teterboro Airport

"I couldn't believe it,” he said.

Johanna Pulido, who works at United Paper in the 99 Kero Road building, said the plane hit power lines as it came down, and that she and other workers evacuated in the immediate aftermath of the crash.

“It was between our building and the DPW,” she said.

The accident occurred amid wind advisories and gusts of up to 37 miles per hour between 3 and 4 p.m. at Teterboro, according to the National Weather Service.

At about 3:20 p.m., according to a recording of the air traffic control communications, a pilot taking off from Teterboro on Runway 24 radioed the control tower to report wind shear, a change in wind velocity that can affect a plane’s direction.

Andrew Barcia said he saw the plane "on its side" as it flew overhead.

“It looked like it was heading toward the airport," he said. “I feel sorry for those people inside.”

Naeem Majors, of Brooklyn, was working at Manhattan Door when the plane hit the building.

"We first heard the explosion, and afterwards we saw that a plane had just hit the building, and we got out of there," he said. "I left my phone, I left my glasses. We left out of the other side of the building, and our cars are totaled. It’s pretty bad.”

Majors added that it could have been much worse had people been leaving at the time of the crash, with much of the damage occurring outside the building. “People usually leave around the time that it happened,” he said. “Luckily no one was in their cars or walking towards their cars.”

Gustavo Yepez of Westwood, who also works at Manhattan Door, said he heard a “loud boom” and that he felt the floor shaking beneath him.

“The owner came inside and said, ‘Get out.’ We looked at each other and got out. All we saw was flames. For a second, we thought it was like being in a movie. It still feels surreal. I feel shook still.”

AOL co-founder Steve Case was on a plane at the airport when the crash occurred. He took a photo of billowing smoke in the distance and shared it on social media.

“Plane just crashed trying to land at Teterboro Airport in NJ. Missed runway and landed in adjacent industrial area. Airport closed,” he wrote.

Tedesco said the crash did not lead him to question safety at the airport. He said he is "very confident in the operations here at Teterboro," and added that it is "one of the safest airports in the country."

He said the FBI and the Sheriff’s Office were at the scene collecting evidence to assist the FAA, and that the Bergen County Technical High School Teterboro campus on Route 46 would be open with “support counseling for those that might need it.”

Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal said his office also was assisting in the investigation.

Connie Bovino, chairwoman of Hackensack’s condo and co-op advisory board, said she has been concerned about low-flying planes for some time. She favors a flight path that takes planes south along the Route 17 corridor, which she said would be less hazardous.

“We’re concerned with the high-rises; we’re concerned with the hospital and the schools … they’re going over lower and lower,” Bovino said. “It’s a shame that something like this has to happen before they realize we’ve got to make changes. It’s crazy.”

In 2005, a corporate jet taking off from Teterboro skidded across a runway, crashed through a fence, veered across the six lanes of Route 46, struck a car and slammed into a clothing warehouse. The two pilots were seriously injured, as were two occupants in the car. A cabin aide, eight passengers and one person in the building suffered minor injuries.

Staff Writers Keldy Ortiz, Kristie Cattafi, Rodrigo Torrejon, John Brennan, Tom Nobile, Svetlana Shkolnikova and Steve Janoski contributed to this article

Crash of Delta 191: 30 years since hell 'ripped open'

WFAA-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth

DALLAS — Sunday marked the 30th anniversary of the crash of Delta Flight 191 at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

The Lockheed L-1011 jumbo jet was coming in for a landing on a rainy Friday evening Aug. 2, 1985, when it encountered a "microburst" that sent the aircraft careening along the ground north of runway 17L, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The plane struck a car on Texas Highway 114, killing its driver, then broke up in a fireball as it slammed into two large above-ground water tanks.

The crash killed 136 passengers and crew on board plus the motorist; 27 people survived the impact.

The NTSB investigation said although the pilot was experienced and competent, training in dealing with microbursts was lacking. After the crash, pilots were required to train to react to microbursts and quickly take evasive action. Since then, weather forecasting and windshear detection also has improved.

Memories of the crash are still fresh for Dallas viewers who posted their accounts on WFAA-TV's Facebook page.

"My father was on that flight," Kirsten Monberg Gappelberg said. "Today we will convene with first responders at Founder's Plaza at 6 p.m. to remember that day."

"I remember Dixie Dunn, one of the senior flight attendants lost on the crash," wrote Linda Newman. "A beautiful soul."

"I was at the airport that day, with my two-year-old, picking up my husband on a flight that was supposed to land around the same time," Paula Cooper shared. "I'll never forget seeing the awful black smoke. People were parking in the middle of the road and running towards the crashed plane. I saw the crinkled up tanks on the north end of DFW that had been hit by the wings of the L-1011. I remember being absolutely stunned that anyone survived that awful crash."

Matt Lewis, who was working on the flight line for Delta that day, said the storm had blown luggage carts from the gate like they were child's toys.

"Later that evening, some of the other employees and I went to the crash site to volunteer," he wrote. "I was only 19 at the time, and I remember thinking that hell had ripped open and was right in front of me."

Pilot negligence caused Teterboro crash, lawsuit states

An insurance company is suing an airline and aviation company connected to the deadly crash of a Learjet at Teterboro Airport last year for negligence citing a federal report that the co-pilot should not have been at the controls.

Selective Insurance Company of New England, which insures the United Paper & Ribbon Corporation building on Kero road in Carlstadt, wants to recover $15,000 in damages caused by the crash that killed the pilot and co-pilot.

Ercument Muftahi, the building owner, saw his business property “substantially damaged or destroyed” by fire and debris from the Learjet as it nose-dived en route to Teterboro Airport on May 15, 2017, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Superior Court in Hackensack.

The fire, which resulted in loss of income, occurred "due to the carelessness, negligence and recklessness" of the aviation companies involved, the suit states.

A representative from Selective Insurance, and its attorney did not return calls for comment.

Selective Insurance is suing Trans-Pacific Air Charter, a Hawaiian company that employed the two pilots, and A&C Big Sky Aviation, which owned the small passenger jet.

A spokesperson for Trans-Pacific said the company had not yet seen the suit. Big Sky Aviation did not respond for comment.

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The suit states that co-pilot Jefferey Alino flew the plane on its approach to Teterboro, despite the fact that Trans-Pacific “knew or should have known that he did not have the proper experience, ratings or credentials to operate the aircraft at the time of the crash."

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The allegations are corroborated by a February report from the National Transportation Safety Board, which found that Alino was restricted under company standards from flying the plane at any point.

Trans-Pacific had a policy of ranking pilots on a 0 to 4 scale denoting their authorization to act as a flying pilot. Alino held a rating of 0 on the Learjet, meaning he could only perform second-in-command duties, according to the NTSB report.

Head pilot William Ramsey should have known this, and failed to “properly recognize that Alino was operating the aircraft in an unreasonable and unsafe manner, and take control of the aircraft as he should have as pilot," the lawsuit states.

Eyewitnesses to the crash said the aircraft plunged from the sky like a scene from a movie, causing a loud explosion and multiple fires as people on the ground scrambled to safety while the plane disintegrated in a fireball in the parking lot of the Carlstadt Department of Public Works building.

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Aside from the pilots, no one else was killed or injured.

A preliminary report by the NTSB revealed the plane was late making a turn that would have aligned it with a runway at Teterboro Airport, and then banked so far to the right that its wings appeared to be perpendicular to the ground shortly before it plummeted out of control, the agency found.

At nine miles out, the crew was told to contact the Teterboro tower, but they did not make contact until the plane was four miles from the runway. Experts had said that delay did not seem to be significant.

But what was significant, they said, was the "right circling turn" that the plane made less than one mile from the airport — a turn that is typically made four miles out.

The turn was “so extreme that the plane lost altitude”, the lawsuit states. Alino allegedly handed the controls over to Ramsey for help, but the plane stalled and crashed.

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A security camera captured an image of the plane with its right wing low and nose down at impact. The plane clipped one building and caused a fire that damaged two other buildings and 16 cars.

One building was the Carlstadt Department of Public Works, which had just closed for the day. The borough initially reported damage totaling $72,064 to DPW fencing, windows, paving and two vehicles.

Borough Administrator Joe Crifasi said the town received a check for about $35,000 two months after the accident.

The planes that continue to circle Carlstadt en route to Teterboro still bring feelings of dread in the community, knowing the accident could have been more severe had the Learjet crashed 15 minutes earlier, or in another part of town, he said.

"It's a constant reminder of what could have happened," Crifasi said. "There's a possibility that we wouldn't be here today."

Years before Shockwave jet truck crash, I rode it at 300 mph

I sat securely belted into the passenger seat of a truck that happened to have three jet engines strapped to the back of it.

It was the mid-1990s and we waited at the end of an airport runway in Bloomington, Illinois. I had an idea of what was to come, but not a clear, realistic understanding of it.

It was summer in central Illinois. A heavy, fireproof suit weighed on my work clothes underneath it. The truck's team required that I wear the suit and the heat was stifling. As a young TV reporter, I was rather naive when I signed a waiver to ride in the Shockwave.

An airplane appeared above us and the driver, Les Shockley, reached across, pushed down the face shield on my helmet, hit the throttle with his foot and my life would never be the same. The world went white.

Shockley built and designed the truck to be a stunt show novelty. And it was just that, successfully performing without incident at air shows across the country for more than three decades.

On Saturday, that show, at least the one using the Shockwave, came to a tragic end in a matter of seconds when the jet truck crashed on a runway at the Battle Creek Field of Flight Airshow. The accident killed the driver, Chris Darnell, 40, the only one on board this time. Darnell had been operating the Shockwave since 2012, according to the International Council of Air Shows.

'Living the dream'

The accident Saturday was the result of a mechanical failure, according to a Facebook post written on Saturday by Darnell's father, Neal Darnell.

"My youngest son passed away from his injuries at approximately 1:01 pm. No one else was involved," Neal Darnell, founder of Darnell Racing Enterprises, wrote. "We are so sad. He was so well loved by everyone who knew him. Chris so loved the Air Show business. He was 'Living the Dream' as he said."

The Battle Creek Police did not return a call seeking details on the cause of the accident. But a report by Kalamazoo-based WWMT-TV News on Tuesday said a blown rear tire likely set off a chain of events that caused the truck to catch fire and roll off the runway. A severed fuel line likely caused the explosion, Battle Creek Police Chief Jim Blocker said in the article.

In online videos, the crash happened just as pyrotechnics exploded on the airfield, but that fireball did not come from the truck.

“He did deploy his parachute early, so we can surmise from that he knew something was wrong,” Blocker said to WWMT.

The Darnell family did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Darnell Enterprises' website shows it owns other stunt trucks, including a military version of the Shockwave:

Aftershock Jet Fire Truck : A 1940 Ford Fire Truck with twin Rolls-Royce Bristol Viper Jet Engines totaling over 24,000 horsepower. It holds the Guinness record for Fire Trucks at 407 mph.

: A 1940 Ford Fire Truck with twin Rolls-Royce Bristol Viper Jet Engines totaling over 24,000 horsepower. It holds the Guinness record for Fire Trucks at 407 mph. Flash Fire Jet Truck: The Flash Fire has a 12,000 horsepower jet engine and reaches speeds exceeding 350 mph.

Neal Darnell told WWMT, despite this accident, his other stunt trucks will appear Saturday at a scheduled event in Goshen, Indiana, because his son would have wanted the show to go on.

Fastest semitruck on Earth

I did not know the Darnells. When I rode in the Shockwave, Shockley was the driver and his wife, Donna, did everything else including help me get into the fireproof suit and sign the legal waivers before I climbed on board.

Shockley was in his early 50s at the time. He had custom-built his beast in the 1980s by taking the shell of a Peterbilt cab and attaching three Pratt & Whitney jet engines to it. The result was the fastest semitruck in the world, producing 36,000 horsepower.

I remember Donna told me if they set the truck on its rear end, the jets could launch it straight up into space.

According to www.shockwavejettruck.com, the jet engines originally were in the USA Navy T2 Buckeye. The Buckeye is a "tandem-seat, carrier-capable, all-purpose jet trainer" used to train Navy and Marine Corps pilots and naval flight officers, according to military.com.

The Shockwave's engines make a total of 21,000 pounds of thrust, "which easily propels this truck to speeds over 350 mph while racing planes at air shows all over North America!" Shockwave also holds the record speed for semitrucks at 376 mph, the website said.

I don't remember the top speed Shockley and I got up to that day, but I know it was close to 300 mph.

He told me our ride elevates the heart rate to the equivalent of running a mile.

The uninformed volunteer

I found myself sitting next to Shockley by a fluke.

Every year, the Friday before the air show at the Central Illinois Regional Airport in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, there would be a media day.

I was the Bloomington-Normal bureau chief for the Peoria-based WHOI-TV so a photographer and I went. After interviewing a few stunt pilots, the media coordinators asked all the reporters and photographers if one of us would like to ride in the Shockwave.

No one was volunteering. I raised my hand to ask what the Shockwave was and somehow that segued into me being the volunteer.

I remember it being explained to me this way: It's a truck that goes to the end of the runway and waits for one of the stunt planes to fly overhead, then the truck races the plane and wins. That sounded harmless and I was assured that it's totally safe and only lasts a few seconds.

No one mentioned 300 mph.

Instant regret

The cockpit was full of black roll bars for safety and bucket seats. I was strapped in by a series of safety belts over my hips and chest. Shockley told me there were three braking systems and four parachutes to stop it.

Despite that, I still did not comprehend the speed we were about to achieve.

Shockley was an extremely nice man. He told me that we'd pause in front of the media audience for a minute so that I could wave to them. The truck was roasting hot, rattling and shaking. The reporters were hollering at me and waving. I waved back, oblivious to the fact that Shockley was revving fire from the jet engines to put on a display for the crowd.

We slowly drove across the tarmac to the end of the runway, as a calm Shockley kept chatting with me.

We sat there waiting, and then a plane flew overhead. Shockley reached over and pushed down my face shield — and I felt instant regret.

To describe the feeling of thrust from a standstill to nearly 300 mph is almost impossible.

The most striking part for me was how everything turned white. I lost all vision. We were going so fast, the world was literally a white blur. I also remember I couldn't really breathe because of the pressure of air coming at me. And the G-forces bent my neck back and pulled hard at my face. Just think about going down the steepest, fastest roller coaster and then multiply that by 10.

The worst was the psychological terror. I was certain I was going to die. I could not fathom how we'd ever stop at that speed. I knew that any little thing that could go wrong would kill us at that speed.

The only way I can characterize the fear would be to liken it to what I imagine it would feel like to jump from a building and hurtle toward the ground.

The gift

When we finally did stop, the pressure of the safety belts against my chest nearly squeezed the wind out of me. It took me several minutes to recover and feel like I could breathe.

Yet when I looked over at Shockley he was as nonchalant as my dad was when he pulled the family car into our driveway. Shockley asked if I was all right and I remember nodding because I couldn't talk.

Shockley, who died in 2019 at age 75 from complications from a stroke, had a gift. I imagine Chris Darnell had that same gift. They could do something the average person cannot: They could read their instrument panel, see the road ahead of them and operate the controls at 300 mph the same way you and I can at 45 mph.

And, for that reason, they both lived the dream.

Contact Jamie L. LaReau: jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.

Fighter jet crash at Michigan air show near Ypsilanti; no injuries

DETROIT − A retired Russian fighter jet flying in a Michigan air show crashed Sunday afternoon, as thousands of spectators, including children, watched in horror.

The two people aboard ejected before the jet went down just after 4 p.m., but when the plane hit the ground, it burst into a raging fireball, narrowly missing an apartment building in Van Buren Township and hitting vehicles but not injuring anyone. Emergency crews rushed to extinguish the flames.

The jet was flying in Yankee Air Museum's Thunder over Michigan air show at the Willow Run Airport near Ypsilanti, a city between Ann Arbor and Detroit.

The plane, a former Soviet − now Russian − MiG-23 aircraft, was doing aerial maneuvers. It was not immediately clear what malfunction led the two aboard to eject and the jet to crash. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.

Watch the video taken by spectators showing an explosion before the two people in the jet ejected.

"The pilot and backseater successfully ejected from the aircraft before the crash," Randy Wimbley, a spokesman for the Wayne County Airport Authority said. "While it did not appear they sustained any significant injuries, first responders transported the pair to a nearby hospital as a precaution."

The pilot, listed as Dan Filer in the program, and backseater can be seen ejecting, as their parachutes opened and eased them back to the ground. Some media accounts reported the two were in stable condition after being rescued.

The plane, Wimbley said, crashed into the parking lot at the Waverly on the Lake apartment complex, striking unoccupied vehicles, but "no one at the apartment complex nor the air show was injured."

Sunday's crash falls on the heels of two fatal ones last month as an air show was underway in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. A helicopter and a gyrocopter collided in midair, leaving two dead and two injured. Two others died earlier in the day when a single-engine plane went into nearby Lake Winnebago.

On Sunday, witnesses − including people who were not at the air show but close enough to see it − posted a video of the crash to social media. They described a loud boom and then plumes of dark smoke rising south of the airport.

The two-day show was celebrating its 25th anniversary, and Sunday was the last day.

Matthew Gerick, who was at the show, watched the two people eject, and then the plane zoom to the ground.

"Like, did we just watch that happen?" he told the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, after the plane went down. "I was sitting over on Beck Road watching the plane fly out toward (Interstate) 94 when it kept getting lower and lower. Then my wife and I saw the black smoke so we drove down to see the crash on 94 and it landed right next to the apartment building."

Contact Frank Witsil: fwitsil@freepress.com. Free Press reporters Jasmin Barmore and Kylie Martin contributed.

62 dead as Dubai plane crashes in bad weather in Russia

Doug Stanglin, and Jessica Estepa

USA TODAY

A Dubai airliner making a second attempt to land during strong wind and rain crashed in a fireball short of the Rostov-on-Don airport in southern Russia on Saturday, killing all 62 people aboard.

Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said the Boeing 737-800 operated by FlyDubai was carrying 55 passengers, most of them Russians, and a seven crew members of various nationalities, including a captain from Cyprus.

FlyDubai, a budget airline operating out of the United Arab Emirates, said Flight FZ981 was traveling from Dubai to the Rostov-on-Don airport, located about 600 miles south of Moscow.

Vasily Golubev, the governor of the Rostov region, told local journalists that the plane crashed about 800 feet short of the runway, according to Russian news agencies.

Although the precise reason for the crash was not immediately determined, "by all appearances, the cause of the air crash was the strongly gusting wind, approaching a hurricane level,” he said.

Both flight data recorders were recovered in good condition, according to the Russian Interfax news agency.

According to the weather data reported by Russian state television, winds at the time of the crash at an altitude of 1,640 feet and higher were around 67 miles per hour, the Associated Press reported.

Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for the flight-tracking website Flightradar24, told AP the plane missed its approach then entered a holding pattern.

According to Flightradar24, the plane circled for about two hours before making another attempt to land. It said a Russian Aeroflot plane scheduled to land around the same time made three landing attempts but then diverted to another airport.

According to Flightradar24 data, the Dubai plane began climbing again after a go-around when it suddenly started to fall with a vertical speed of up to 21,000 feet per minute.

"The aircraft completely fell apart at the start of the runway," Igor Oder, chief of the Southern Regional Center of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, said during a video conference, Tass news agency reported.

Closed-circuit TV footage showed the plane going down in a steep angle and exploding in a huge fireball that lit up the night sky.

The impact of the crash pulverized the jet, leaving few pieces of debris larger than a foot wide across a large area just off the main runway.

Some Russian aviation experts said the steep descent appeared to indicate the crash was likely caused by a gust of wind.

“It was an uncontrollable fall,” said Sergei Kruglikov, a veteran Russian pilot, said on Russian state television. He said that a sudden change in wind speed and direction could have caused the wings to abruptly lose lifting power.

Among the passengers, 44 people were from Russia and eight from Ukraine. Other victims were from India, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Colombia and the Seychelles Islands, the Tass news agency reports.

“Our primary concern is for the families of the passengers and crew who were on board. Everyone at FlyDubai is in deep shock and our hearts go out to the families and friends of those involved,” said FlyDubai CEO Ghaith al-Ghaith.

He said the pilots, who were from Cyprus and Spain, didn't issue a distress signal before the crash. They had 5,965 and 5,769 hours of flying time respectively, making them “quite experienced,” al-Ghaith added, the AP reports. The cabin crew included two Russians and citizens of Seychelles, Colombia and Kyrgyzstan.

It was FlyDubai’s first crash since the budget carrier began operating in 2009. It was launched in 2008 by the government of Dubai, the Gulf commercial hub that is part of the seven-state United Arab Emirates federation. The carrier has been flying to Rostov-on-Don since 2013.

The airline shares a chairman with Dubai’s government-backed Emirates, the Middle East’s biggest airline, though the two carriers operate independently and maintain separate operations from their bases at Dubai International Airport, the region’s busiest airport.

FlyDubai’s fleet consisted of relatively young 737-800 aircraft, like the one that crashed. The airline says it operates more than 1,400 flights a week.

The airline has expanded rapidly in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union, the AP reports. Dubai is a popular tourist destination for Russian visitors, who are attracted to its beaches, shopping malls and year-round sunshine. Many Russian expatriates live and work in Dubai, a city where foreigners outnumber locals more than 4-to-1.

FlyDubai has a good safety record. In January 2015, one of its planes was struck on the fuselage by what appeared to small-arms fire shortly before it landed in Baghdad. That flight landed safely with no major injuries reported.

Blue Angels pilot dies in Tenn. crash

Stacey Barchenger

The Tennessean

Editor’s note: Out of respect to the pilot's family, the Pensacola News Journal will not release the name of the Blue Angels pilot killed Thursday until a statement is made by the Navy. Our deepest condolences go out to the family, friends and the Blue Angels team.

Six elite military jets of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels flight team roared over Middle Tennessee on Thursday, but the cheers from fans on the ground in just hours turned to wails.

“Oh no, no, no, God bless his soul.”

A Blue Angel Pilot, whose name has not been officially released, was killed Thursday when his jet crashed at 3:01 p.m. just off Smyrna Airport.

Six pilots in matching blue jets were in the air practicing for the Great Tennessee Airshow this weekend.

The fatal crash was the first in nearly a decade involving the Navy’s aerobatic performance jets, whose flights are meant to showcase pride in the military. Local and federal investigators rushed to the scene looking for the cause.

The crash occurred the same day as another military performance plane, a U.S. Air Force Thunderbird, crashed near Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado after a flyover during a graduation ceremony. That pilot was not injured.

In Smyrna, Belinda McGriff and her granddaughter were walking to their home on Mingle Lane after watching the acts in the airshow practice. The six-in-formation Blue Angels screamed through the cloudy but blue skies before two jets split off.

“And we seen a Blue Angel come down real low behind the trees on the other side of Sam Davis (Road), and then boom,” McGriff said. “A big, big billow of fire came up.

“We could feel the heat off of it, we were that close.”

Her granddaughter recorded the fireball of orange and chimney of black smoke that rose from behind a line of trees. Four of the jets screamed by the smoke. The other pilots landed safely, Navy officials said.

The video captured the horror:

“No.”

“Oh guys watch out.”

“Oh no, no, no, God bless his soul,” McGriff’s voice says.

The crash shook the community. After nightfall, hundreds of people gathered for a candlelight vigil for the pilot at Smyrna’s Lee Victory Park.

Rick Tomlin, a Navy veteran, passed small American flags to residents. Tomlin said he broke down when he lowered his own flag at home to half-staff.

“I love these guys and watch them every time they come,” he said with tears in his eyes.

“Heaven gained a true angel today.”

The Navy said in statements late Thursday afternoon that the Blue Angels’ F/A-18 jet was taking off from Smyrna Airport when it crashed about two miles from the runway. The Navy and Federal Aviation Administration launched investigations of the crash.

“The Navy is deeply saddened by the loss of this service member,” a statement from the Naval Air Forces reads. “We extend our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to the family of the pilot, and those he served with.”

Pensacola mourns Blue Angel's death

The crash site was marked by black char, yellow police tape and flashing emergency lights of first responders. Helicopters buzzed overhead.

Five aircraft of the flight demonstration squadron sat on the runway nearby.

The plane went down in a field surrounded by homes and history, about 100 yards from the Civil War-era Sam Davis Home and Plantation. Smyrna Fire Chief Bill Culbertson said power lines brought down by the jet created several smaller fires.

In the aftermath, an 8-acre area around the site was closed off. The Blue Angels said they would not perform in the airshow, though the show was still scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

The Blue Angels are scheduled to fly 66 demonstrations in 34 cities throughout the nation this year, which is the team’s 70th anniversary year.

Thursday morning, the flight formation soared overtop downtown Nashville tracing the skyline with lines of white contrail.

Blue Angels pilots, support staff are tight-knit family

“Love.” “Very cool!” “An amazing experience,” Nashvillians posted on social media.

That awe spread to Smyrna as the formation began practices there Thursday afternoon. Several Rutherford County residents said the roar of the powerful planes became routine Thursday.

Until the boom.

Monica Hosford, who works at Cutting Edge hair salon on Sam Davis Road, has lived in Smyrna for 40 years. She remembered people gathering to watch past airshows from rooftops and parking lots.

Blue Angels pilots, support staff are tight-knit family

“This is very personal,” she said, calling the airshow a big draw for the area.

Jennifer Elliott was in her yard watching the Blue Angels practice. She went inside and felt the explosion at their house, which is about a mile from the Smyrna Airport.

”It sounded like car crashed into my house,” she said.

“Everything shook.”

Reach Stacey Barchenger at 615-726-8968 or on Twitter @sbarchenger.

ARCHIVE GALLERIES

Pilot in fatal plane crash before air show wasn't to perform 'acrobatic ...

STUART — The pilot of a rare military aircraft who died as his plane crashed while he was practicing for the Audi Stuart Air Show reportedly told two people that “no acrobatic maneuvers were to be performed,” according to a preliminary report released Monday by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Joseph Masessa, 59, a dermatologist with offices in Florida — locally, in Martin and St. Lucie counties — and in New Jersey and South Carolina, died Nov. 1 after his 1968 Grumman OV-1 Mohawk crashed at Stuart’s Witham Field as he prepared for the air show that was to start later that day.

He was supposed to perform a 12-minute routine.

A person the report said was acting as a crew chief said Masessa was readying for the air show the next day.

"His intent was to make a slow-speed low pass followed by a high-speed low pass and a normal landing to a full stop,” the NTSB report states.

More: Dr. Joseph Masessa, pilot in Stuart fatal plane crash, was patriotic, kind, 'adrenaline junkie'

A final report from the NTSB could take more than a year.

That type plane, of which fewer than 400 were built before production stopped in 1970, served with the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

Masessa, during a 2013 video interview, said when he bought the plane it had been “in a snowbank, pretty much, in Ogden, Utah, for three years.” He said he was the fourth civilian owner.

The crew chief said he saw Masessa check the flight controls, flaps and speed brakes as he taxied to takeoff.

More: Pilot killed in vintage military plane crash had 'special passion' for those missing in Vietnam

He said at one point the twin-engine plane “did a rapid right roll to an inverted position, and the nose dropped to what appeared to be a 45-degree nose down followed by impact and fireball,” the report states.

An air show performer about 0.4 miles away said the plane started climbing and made “a ‘dog leg’ to the left followed by a right turn ... The airplane then descended or dove in, and when near the approach end of runway 30, began to climb.”

He diverted his attention and after looking back saw the plane “‘overbanked’ about 100 degrees to the right.”

“He then saw the airplane in a nose-low attitude pulling, which continued until he lost sight,” the report states.

Attitude refers to orientation.

He said it sounded like the engines were at full power.

Another witness reported seeing the plane “in a 45-degree nose-down attitude ‘spiraling’ to the right.”

More: Stuart Air Show crash: Plane was 'nose down' before fatal crash in Stuart

“She thought the airplane was accelerating (consistent with power) or at least maintaining a constant rate during the descent, indicating to her that it was not decelerating,” the report states.

In the early part of the Vietnam War, Mohawk planes were outfitted with guns and rockets and used in close air-to-ground support for the troops, said Ron Pitcock, executive director and president of the OV-1 Mohawk Association. They later were used as electronic surveillance aircraft.

The air show wound up being canceled after the crash and subsequent poor weather.

Scottsdale plane crash: Report adds new details on how crash ...

The airplane that crashed after takeoff from Scottsdale Airport earlier this month was equipped with six seats but appears to have struggled to gain altitude on departure, federal investigators determined in a preliminary crash report published Thursday.

Using surveillance video from the airport and a traffic camera nearby, National Transportation Safety Board investigators pieced together the plane's final moments before the 8:48 p.m. crash April 9.

The plane's wings were "rocking during and shortly after" takeoff from Runway 3. As the plane went into a left-banking turn, the angle increased and the plane started to lose altitude, investigators wrote.

"The wings became nearly vertical, and the view of the airplane was lost behind a berm," they wrote. "Seconds later, the camera caught a fireball when the airplane impacted terrain."

Witnesses did not hear any unusual sounds or see the plane put off any unusual smoke during takeoff. One witness did, however, say the plane was traveling lower than most other aircraft that depart before it crashed onto TPC Scottsdale, killing all six people onboard.

Who was flying the plane?

The victims were identified as James Pedroza, 28; Mariah Coogan, 23; Erik Valente, 32; Anand Kamlesh Patel, 28; Helena Lagos, 22; and Iris Carolina Rodriguez Garcia, 23.

Scottsdale police identified those killed but initially said Valente was 26.

SEE ALSO:Social media influencers among 6 dead in TPC Scottsdale plane crash

Investigators said a certified airline transport pilot — Valente — and student pilot — Pedroza — were in the front of the plane, although they did not specify who was supposed to have been in control at the time of the crash. Pedroza was in the front left seat, and Valente was in the front right.

Two women sat in the back two seats, and a man and a woman occupied the middle two seats.

Earlier that evening, Valente flew the plane to Scottsdale from Las Vegas to pick up the passengers and return them to Nevada. It was his first flight in the airplane, and it remains unclear how familiar he was with its operation.

The report stops short of saying what caused the crash.

What caused the crash?

But three factors — all related to loading — could have contributed to the small Piper PA-24 Comanche crashing less than a mile away, experts told The Republic previously.

Six adults, fuel and, likely, luggage could have skewed the center of gravity, according to Brent Bowen, a professor in the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott. Based on the details released so far, the loaded weight and balance of the aircraft appeared to have exceeded capacity.

It's widely known among aviators that planes have two more seats than they can really use.

Additionally, a calculation — density altitude — to determine performance demands based on temperature and atmospheric conditions could have been incorrect, he said.

“A disaster could occur by miscalculating any of those components,” Bowen said previously, speaking generally about aircraft incidents and the ability of the Piper PA-24.

Details released in Thursday's report bolstered that initial assessment, he said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is in the process of meticulously evaluating the wreckage, which has been transported to a secure facility in the Valley.

The plane came to a rest on the golf course about one-quarter of a mile from the end of the departure runway. The main cabin was mostly burned, and parts of the wings were located apart from the fuselage.

The crash scene should be revealing, said Bill Waldock, a professor of safety science who specializes in aircraft accident investigation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

MORE ON SCOTTSDALE PLANE CRASH:

With a controlled crash, such as one caused by engine failure or a mechanical issue, a plane will leave a lengthy impact slide as the pilot tries to ease the aircraft to the ground.

That doesn't appear to be what happened April 9. The scene was contained to a relatively small area of TPC Scottsdale. Based on local television footage, the smoldering wreckage was contained, and the debris field was particularly small.

Thursday's preliminary report likely will be the last official update on the crash until the final report is released sometime in mid-2019.

Reach the reporter at 602-444-8515, jpohl@azcentral.com or on Twitter: @pohl_jason.

From the Archives: Drury Inn's Room 416 is mute tribute to those ...

Thomas B. Langhorne

Courier & Press

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story originally ran in 2012.

There is no Room 416 at the Drury Inn anymore.

The door to what would be Room 416 stands numberless in mute tribute to nine people who died 20 years ago Monday, when a fireball of searing hot aviation fuel roared through the windows after a plane crashed into Jojos restaurant next door. A maid at the North Side hotel said last week her master key will not open the room, which is used for storage.

In all, 16 people were killed Feb. 6, 1992, when a C-130B military transport plane dropped from the sky onto the Jojos at U.S. 41 and Lynch Road.

The incident cast a long shadow in the years that followed, spawning bitter recriminations and $36.3 million in Air Force payments to settle wrongful death, personal injury and property damage claims. It also inspired significant and potentially lifesaving improvements in local emergency response.

Lynn Jackson, one of just four people who escaped the inferno in Room 416, said she draws strength from the years she spent recovering from severe burns over 35 percent of her body.

"The way I look at my life is, I was blessed to have survived," said Jackson, who was 36. "I've been given a new lease on life, and I need to make it as fulfilling as possible. That's how I've tried to live my life."

Jackson is now vice president of a West Olive, Mich.-based management consulting firm that she co-founded in 1993 with former co-worker and fellow survivor Bill Capodagli.

They are now married.

On Feb. 6, 1992, Jackson and Capodagli were conducting a quality-control seminar for 11 employees of Plumbing and Industrial Supply Co., which lost a third of its workforce that day.

Looking back at the events of two decades ago, Jackson takes special pleasure in what she calls P and I Supply's robust recovery.

Company President Bruce Stallings, who lost a brother in the C-130B disaster, did not return a telephone message seeking comment. Jackson said she and Capodagli reconnected with him recently.

"His company has grown, and we're just thrilled to hear that piece of information from him," Jackson said. "The outpouring of love and affection and support after the crash for his company was very moving."

Capodagli declined to comment for this story other than to issue a statement celebrating P and I's success.

The Jojos building where once the fires raged is now occupied by a Denny's restaurant. It shows little outward evidence of that Thursday morning 20 years ago, when no one knew what was coming.

'Something bad just happened'

The first few seconds were confusing, say earwitnesses who remember looking up and blinking.It took a few more moments for confusion to turn to dread.

Most people didn't see the C-130B descend almost vertically and demolish the rear of Jojos.They didn't see the resulting explosion that showered the center north wall of the neighboring Drury Inn with thousands of gallons of burning jet fuel.

They felt it.

"The ground rolled under my feet one time. I could just feel the floor come up. It almost felt like a wave," Steve Gerard said of the disaster, which also killed the plane's five-man crew of Kentucky Air National Guard members and two Jojos employees.

"I thought we were having an earthquake, but there was never anything else.

It just stopped," said Gerard, who was working that day as general manager of the Denny's restaurant then located less than a half-mile north on U.S. 41.

So powerful was the force expended at impact that Gerard next wondered whether a semi tractor-trailer had slammed into his own building.

But the damage was concentrated down the road, in what a subsequent report of the U.S. Fire Administration called a "very small crash impact zone."

"The impact created a crater eight feet deep and 12 feet across .. and broke windows across the center portion of (the Drury Inn)," the report stated.

The destruction of the kitchen area in the southeast quarter of Jojos hurled bricks, chunks of concrete and parts of the C-130B at - and onto the roof of - the four-story Drury Inn.

The intensity of the blaze melted nearly everything in its path, including parts of vehicles that were parked outside Jojos. Military officials later estimated the C-130B had been carrying 6,000 gallons of fuel.

Emergency responders fixed the time of the crash at 9:53 a.m., because the cockpit clock was stopped at that time when they found it lying among the wreckage.

Becky Cook felt the impact too - from more than three miles away.

Cook, then as now a bookkeeper at M&M Auto Service on North Heidelbach Avenue, recalls being jolted out of her morning routine by what she, too, thought was an earthquake.

"It went, 'Boom!', then the desk shook. The floor shook. The whole building shook," she said. "We lost all power - computer, phones, everything was down.

"I said to (coworker Bob Mehling), 'Something bad just happened.'"

Seconds later, Cook saw something in the distance that made her blood run cold - a massive, rising cloud of thick black smoke that towered above Evansville's North Side for more than an hour.

"Disbelief," she said.

"We didn't know what it was. Disbelief."

Escape

Inside 416, all hell was breaking loose as a pitiless inferno of indescribable ferocity and dense, acrid black smoke engulfed the room. Just four of the room's 13 occupants - Jackson and Capodagli and P and I Supply employees Tom Welch and Marilou Ohning - got away with their lives.The only thing that mattered - who lived and who died - hinged on a value as random as where each person was standing.

The survivors, three of whom suffered severe burns, were able to escape because they were the closest to the door at the room's southwest corner and thus farthest from the window on the north wall.

Standing just seven feet from the door, Capodagli stared death in the face.

"I looked at Lynn and behind her out the small window. I didn't see the plane crash. All I saw was this ball of fire which almost looked like it was coming at us in slow motion," the U.S.

Fire Administration report quotes him.

It was all the time Capodagli needed.

"He had a second, a split-second, whatever that was, of notice, which in a fireball is everything," Jackson said.

Also working to Capodagli's advantage was the fact that he was wearing flat shoes, Jackson said, while she wore heels.

"When he ran, I ran but I was in sort of a classic traditional business suit also with heels and nylons, and so I was blown out of the room because that split-second made all the difference in the world," she said."I didn't run out of the room; I was blown out of the room."

After rushing the doorway, Capodagli dropped to the hallway floor and rolled to extinguish his flaming shirt. He then raced westward and onto a 4-by-6-foot balcony overlooking the hotel lobby.

Apparently unaware that anyone else had made it out of the room, he yelled down to hotel guests and employees that Room 416 was ablaze and 12 people were inside.

Judged not to be gravely injured and trapped on the tiny balcony after the fire alarm system closed a door, the 48-year-old Capodagli waited there without answers for nearly an hour.

He told The Evansville Courier he spent that time "worrying about the people in that room."

Meanwhile, a severely burned and dazed Jackson crawled through the thick, choking smoke in the hallway with Welch, also badly burned. They would later credit a Good Samaritan with saving their lives.

Hotel guest Jack Eddy, a West Virginia truck driver who had opened his door to see what all the commotion was about, spotted the pair and sprung into action.

Eddy and Welch pulled Jackson into Room 405, where Eddy helped put out the fire on her shirt. Evansville firefighters rescued the trio through a window using an aerial ladder 15 to 20 minutes after the crash.

Jackson said she will never forget what Eddy did for her in those harrowing moments.

"He dragged me all the way down the hall and had me breathe through a window until the firemen came. He was an angel, actually," she said.

Grateful as she is for her own survival, Jackson is plagued by sorrow that Feb. 6, 1992, brought a sudden end to the lives of nine P and I Supply employees, none of whom were older than 51.

The nine, all men, had awakened that morning ready to complete the final day of a three-day seminar and start their weekends.

They ranged from hourly workers to the company's vice president of operations, John R. "J.R." Stallings Jr., who left behind a wife and triplets.

The loss of life also has great emotional significance for Tom Ashby, former CEO and president of Evansville-based Brake Supply Co.

Ashby still mourns Stallings, a close family friend and racing buddy who died at 41 years of age. In the days after the C-130B crash, Ashby made available to P and I Supply several of his drivers who had volunteered to make pickups and deliveries.

"We called him 'Smiley,'" Ashby said of Stallings. "Because he had this dry sense of humor. He was one of those guys that didn't say a lot, but when he said something you could break up from what he said."

Ashby recalled that Stallings had been like an uncle to his children before getting married himself. "He was just a great pal," he said.

'Nothing Short of inSane'

Over the weeks that followed the crash, the truth about how it had happened gradually emerged, even though the Air Force did not disclose the cause in a 400-page public report.

And with the truth came righteous anger.

Based at Standiford Field in Louisville, Ky., the five-man Kentucky Air National Guard crew had been doing routine pilot proficiency training at Evansville Regional Airport less than a mile north.

Four separate sources - The Evansville Courier cited two within the military and two in other agencies that had access to a secret military report - said the crash's cause was pilot error.

The crew of the four-engine aircraft was practicing a takeoff when a supervising instructor-pilot in the cockpit simulated an engine failure.

According to the sources, the plane climbed to 1,300 feet on the three remaining engines, but a pilot relatively inexperienced in that aircraft, 25-year-old Lt. Vincent "Rin" Yancar, became distracted with checklists and air traffic control commands.

Yancar failed to notice the plane's airspeed was dropping precariously.

When the plane's speed dropped below the "in-flight minimum control speed," the C-130 shuddered, stalled and banked to the left, the side with the idled propeller.

Maj. Richard A. Strang, the instructor-pilot, seized control of the plunging aircraft and had begun to correct the stall when the crash occurred. The plane did not have enough altitude to recover, the sources said.Strang had wanted to use the Evansville airport because its 8,021-foot runway was better for less-experienced pilots, according to the public report of the accident.

But Susan Johnson, an injured Drury Inn guest who recalled hearing the cries of doomed men in Room 416, pointedly asked why military training and practice flights were conducted at airports in populated cities.

"I'm saying this probably just from anger," Johnson, a Mount Carmel, Ill., resident, told The Evansville Courier. "This needs to be out in White Sands, N.M., somewhere. It doesn't need to be near buildings and factories."

It was a point others made as well.

A March 29 Evansville Courier editorial pointed out that the newspaper had earlier reported the Air Force "won't allow some more dangerous maneuvers, such as simulated engine failures, when civilians are aboard."

"Simulated engine failures - exactly what was being practiced Feb. 6 when the C-130 hit Jojos," the editorial acidly observed. "Too dangerous to be practiced with a civilian aboard, when one civilian might be killed.

"But not too dangerous to be practiced over civilian installations like a Drury Inn, or a Whirlpool plant, where hundreds might have been killed had the Feb. 6 crash taken place just a few hundred feet to the north."

The editorial said conducting such training maneuvers at a civilian airport, over civilian installations, was "nothing short of insane."

Military training exercises at Evansville Regional Airport using C-130 planes essentially stopped after the 1992 crash.

"I don't recall seeing C-130s in here for years," said Doug Joest, the airport's manager.

"I think about three or four years ago one came through, and it flew some practice approaches and left. I think we might have gotten one phone call because people recognized it."

The Evansville-Vanderburgh Airport Authority District could not forbid the military from training there at any rate, Joest said, because airports that receive federal funds cannot turn away military operations.

"I think the military as a whole probably was sensitive to what happened here, and they found other places to practice, I presume," he said.

1999 brought evidence that the C-130B crash likely will always resonate emotionally in Evansville.

That year, an advertising agency removed an anti-smoking billboard on 41, across the street from the former crash scene, because its message was deemed insensitive to survivors and victims.

The billboard featured a downed airliner and the message, "Tobacco kills a 747 full of Hoosiers every 10 days."

Lessons

In the hurly-burly of the crash site at Jojos and the Drury Inn, disorganization worked against well-meaning responders who had swarmed to the scene without being called there.

Off-duty firefighters responding with their own equipment, police officers and sheriff's deputies without self-contained breathing apparatuses and an overabundance of ambulances - three-dozen from throughout the Tri-State - all combined to hinder a coordinated response.

"We had a lot of people that were responding, but they were doing their own things," said Sherman Greer, director of the Vanderburgh County Emergency Management Agency.

The U.S. Fire Administration report found much to commend in the way local emergency responders made use of what was then a relatively new $2.8 million radio system that operated at 800 megahertz. The radio system had multiple talk groups that allowed dispatchers to send police, fire and sheriff's officers on separate daily calls while still responding to the tragedy.

The report also noted that the local Incident Command System, which coordinated emergency response functions under a central command, had aided an orderly transition from response to investigation and recovery operations.

But there were problems - problems Greer says would not occur today because of what was learned in 1992. The perimeter of the crash site was not cordoned off by firefighters for 30 minutes, according to the federal report.

"With law enforcement personnel assisting firefighters and attempting several risky rescues without proper protective equipment, early fire scene security was not established," the report stated, pointing to smoke inhalation and related injuries suffered by a handful of responders.

The report cited the case of Evansville Police Department officer James "Duke" Gibson Jr., who rushed to the scene within minutes of the crash.

Gibson, 40, entered the blazing Drury Inn without a breathing apparatus before the arrival of additional firefighters and helped rescue people who were trapped inside.

He was overcome with smoke and toxic fumes and had to be carried out.

Eighteen days later, Gibson died. The Vanderburgh County Coroner's Office ultimately ruled his death was accidental and caused by a toxic reaction to medication.

Gibson and other officers described as "first responders" to the crash scene received the Evansville Police Department's Gold Merit Award for risking their lives to help others.

Greer winced as he recalled a river of jet fuel, hydraulic fluid and oil running into ditches alongside the Drury Inn.

"We were walking through it. I was as guilty as anybody else. We were walking through that stuff and tracking it around," he said.

"We had some stuff there that was actually glowing in the dark. There were people walking through there, and they weren't paying any attention to that. We didn't know what that was."

The glowing material turned out to be nontoxic dye for inflatable boats.

Greer also recalled seeing responders, Jojos employees and others walking through the crash scene with no protective breathing gear. He said photographs show the restaurant's manager talking to firefighters while standing close enough to a firetruck to feel the heat. "We wouldn't let that happen today because of the possibility of hazardous materials incidents," he said. "The fire department would tell the police department, 'I want this area cleared out and cordoned off, and nobody gets in here unless they are firefighters or have proper personal protection equipment.'

"We didn't know whether or not there was going to be a secondary explosion, so we should have treated that incident a lot more like a hazardous situation than we did. Today, we would."

Remembrance

Jojos restaurant, a small Japanese maple tree lends serenity to a memorial to employees Lynette Scott and Matt Phipps. The pair, who were just 27 and 28 years old, respectively, died after being pinned in the rubble at the rear of the restaurant.

"Dedicated in memory of their devoted service, warm smile and team spirit. Matt and Lynette are missed. Jojos Restaurant," the memorial states.

In other ways, too, the wounds inflicted on Feb. 6, 1992, have healed over.

That summer, Drury Inn reopened after a $2 million reconstruction that included a new indoor swimming pool, whirlpool and other features. The pool was built atop the one destroyed by the military plane's impact. Jojos also was rebuilt and reopened that year, transitioning to Denny's in 2009.

Lynn Jackson, now 56, went on to write two successful business books with Capodagli, with whom she heads up Capodagli Jackson Consulting.

As is often the case in aviation disasters, some who witnessed the horror in 1992 have spoken of suffering nightmares and post-traumatic stress.

But Jackson, who felt the flames and who underwent so many surgeries that she has literally lost count, has made peace with the past.

"A lot of people who knew me outside of the Evansville area would think, 'Oh, that lady is burned. It must be really horrible for her,'" she said. "But if you look at it in the context of, a lot of people lost their lives, I am the one who was blessed.

"Every day, I realize how fortunate I am to be with people who love and support me; have a thriving business; and enjoy all the beauty that life has to offer."

Casualties

DRURY INN

Darrel Arnold, 38, Evansville Charles Berqwitz, 22, Evansville Robert Hays, 45, Evansville David Horton, 29, Evansville Ronald Keown, 45, Chandler, Ind. Matthew Prasek, 27, Evansville Thomas Ruby, 28, Evansville John Stallings, 41, Evansville Harry Tenbarge, 51, Evansville

JOJOS

Lynette Scott, 27, Evansville Matthew Phipps, 28, Evansville

CREW OF C-130B

Maj. Richard Strang, 39, Floyds Knobs, Ky. Lt. Vincent Yancar, 25, Louisville, Ky. Capt. Warren Klingaman, 29, Louisville, Ky. Master Sgt. William Hawkins, 41, Crestwood, Ky. Master Sgt. John Medley, 38, Louisville, Ky.

ARCHIVE: UE plane crash hit Illinois town extra hard

UE grad survived crash, then killed by missile in Vietnam

Hilton DoubleTree opening confirmed Feb. 14


Ford hit with $1.7 billion verdict for F-series pickup roof collapse that ...

New York CNN Business —

The family of an elderly couple killed when the roof of their F-250 pickup collapsed during a rollover accident in 2014 has been awarded a massive $1.7 billion in punitive damages from Ford.

The jury appeared to endorse the plaintiff’s arguments that Ford knew of the problem years before the fatal crash, acted slowly to correct it and that other deaths have resulted from the same design flaw.

Evidence presented in the case showed that the F-250 pickups made in the 17 model years prior to 2017 all pose a risk to drivers and passengers in cases of a rollover, said Jim Butler Jr., the attorney who won the verdict. He said 5.2 million trucks have been built with the same faulty roof.

Perhaps even more troubling is that the best-selling F-150 pickups made before Model Year 2009 have a very similar roof design, Butler said. The F-150 has been the best selling US vehicle of any type for more than 40 years.

A Georgia jury awarded the family of a couple killed when the roof of their F-250 pickup collapsed during a rollover accident $1.7 billion in punitive damages. Nick Giles/Courtesy Butler Prather LLP

“There are many millions of F-150’s on the road with this roof,” Butler told CNN Business Monday. “I don’t know how many. They wouldn’t answer that at trial.”

The April 2014 crash in Gwinnett County, Georgia, killed Melvin Hill, 72, and his 62-year old wife, Voncile Hill. A jury had earlier awarded the family $24 million in compensatory damages. The $1.7 billion in additional damages was awarded by a jury on Friday.

The case originally went to trial in 2018 but the plaintiffs were granted a mistrial after three weeks because Ford introduced evidence that the court had ordered the company not to present, Butler said.

The punitive damages were awarded because Ford knew well in advance of the 2014 crash that it had a problem with the roof, Butler said. He said Ford’s engineers had already designed a safer roof, but the automaker did not move immediately to install it on the trucks.

“Long before the Hills were killed, Ford was on notice from their own engineers, own crash tests and dozens of accidents that people were being killed, and it did nothing,” Butler said.

Ford would not comment on Butler’s statement that the older F-150’s and F-250’s have similar roofs at danger of collapse. It did say it intends to appeal the huge verdict.

“While our sympathies go out to the Hill family, we don’t believe the verdict is supported by the evidence, and we plan to appeal,” the company said. “In the meantime, we aren’t going to litigate this matter through the news media.”

For years the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration had exempted heavy-duty trucks like the F-250 from the same safety standards as passenger cars and trucks. But Butler said that didn’t make a difference in this case.

“The NHTSA standard is irrelevant,” he said. “By law it’s no defense.”

And it wasn’t a change in the NHTSA standard, but potential pickup buyers doing research on the vehicle’s safety record that finally prompted Ford to put a stronger roof on both the F-150 and F-250, according to Butler.

Butler said evidence in the case clearly showed that the Hills would have survived the crash if the roof of the cab had not collapsed on them.

“They might as well have been in a convertible,” he said.

Butler conceded that the $1.7 billion verdict is likely to be reduced on appeal, but he’s hoping it serves as a wake-up call to both automakers and pickup truck owners.

“The Hill family is thankful to the jury for their verdict, and glad to get this phase of the litigation over with, finally,” Butler said. “An award of punitive damages to hopefully warn people riding around in the millions of those trucks Ford sold was the reason the Hill family insisted on a verdict.”

If punitive damages are upheld by higher courts, the Hill family and their attorneys will only get 25% of the award amount. Under Georgia law, the state gets 75% of the awards granted by the courts. The only way the plaintiffs would get the full amount of punitive damages is if there is a settlement reached between the two sides, Butler said.

As many as 45,000 Fords can't be sold because they're missing ...

New York CNN Business —

The still-clogged global supply chain continues to wreak havoc on the auto industry.

Ford said late Monday it will end September with between 40,000 and 45,000 large pickups and SUVs that it can’t finish because it doesn’t have all the parts.

Negotiations on various supplies, which Ford (F) did not identify, are raising its costs. The company warned late Monday that shortages and rising prices of supplies will cost it an extra $1 billion this quarter. Shares of Ford (F) fell 5% in premarket trading Tuesday.

The uncompleted vehicle problem should be a temporary setback: Although many of the uncompleted vehicles are highly profitable for the company, Ford said it should be able to hit its full-year earnings targets. That’s because Ford plans to shift the sales revenue it will get from the nearly completed vehicles into the fourth quarter.

Automakers have been struggling with various supply chain issues, specifically a shortage of computer chips, which has choked off vehicle production for much of the last two years.

The average vehicle has hundreds of computer chips, which control virtually every onboard system: They regulate fuel flow, help manage fuel economy, control crash-avoidance safety features and operate lumbar support and seat warmers.

This is not the first time that Ford has built vehicles with most but not all of their computer chips as it awaited. In March, the company announced it would ship some SUVs without all their some of their less crucial chips and then add them later after they were sold to customers. At times it has been forced to temporarily close some plants altogether due to chip shortages.

The shortage of vehicles, combined with strong demand from consumers, has sent vehicle prices soaring to record highs. Much of the windfall from higher prices is going to car dealerships, — which are independent businesses — rather than to the automakers, as most buyers are now paying above the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, or sticker price. It has been common practice for decades for customers to pay less than the sticker price.

Ford and other automakers keep anticipating that the supply problems will improve. In July, CFO John Lawler told investors that the company expected to see an “increase [in] volumes through the second half of the year, as some of the chip constraints ease.”

It’s not just automakers dealing with supply chain problems and shortages.

A survey of members released by the National Association of Manufacturers Monday showed 78% saying supply chain disruptions are their primary business challenge, with only 11% now believing improvement will occur by the end of the year.

The survey also found 76% cited higher raw material costs such as those highlighted by Ford as a problem, with 40% saying that inflationary pressures are worse today than six months ago. And 76% said they’re having problems finding the workers they need.

There is also growing concern that the US economy could fall into a recession soon, with most manufacturers expecting a recession either later this year or in 2023.

“Three out of four manufacturers still have a positive outlook for their businesses, but optimism has certainly declined,” said NAM CEO Jay Timmons.

Ford takes $2.7 billion hit as it drops efforts to develop full self ...

New York CNN Business —

Ford is essentially pulling the plug on an effort to develop its first full self-driving car, and it’s going to cost the automaker $2.7 billion to walk away.

The company announced Wednesday it would no longer provide financial support for Argo AI, a self-driving car technology company it invested $1 billion in back in 2017.

Instead of having Argo develop self-driving car technology for cars without steering wheels, brakes or accelerator pedals — what is known in the industry as Level 4 or L4 technology — Ford will instead pursue in-house development of a lower level of automated driving technology.

The level it will now pursue on its own, known as Level 3 or L3, allows a driver to not pay attention to the road in certain conditions, such as on the highway, but it would expect a driver to be aware enough to quickly take control of the car if needed.

The decision will mean that Argo AI will shutdown. And the drop in value of Ford’s investment in Argo caused it to take a $2.7 billion charge in the just-completed third quarter. That resulted in an $827 million loss in the period.

Even excluding the special charges for Argo and other items, Ford reported adjusted earnings per share of 30 cents, a slide from the 51 cents it earned on that basis a year ago, but a slight improvement over the 27 cents forecast by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.

Ford reported automotive revenue of $37.2 billion, a jump of $4 billion from a year ago and $1 billion more than the analysts’ forecasts. The revenue was helped by a $3.4 billion from higher pricing on vehicles.

Ford did have some problems in the quarter beyond the charge it took for closing down Argo. It said supply shortages left it with about 40,000 vehicles in its inventory at the end of the quarter that were built but awaiting needed parts before they can be shipped to dealers.

It also was hit with $1 billion in higher-than-expected supplier payments, and a $1.5 billion increase in commodity costs.

And it had a smaller profit and profit margin in its core North American market due to those higher commodity costs, and a loss in China, due to costs associated with the development of electric vehicles.

While higher pricing on vehicles helped its European unit post a narrow profit in the quarter compared to a narrow loss a year ago, CEO Jim Farley did concede, “Our performance in China and Europe is not nearly as healthy as we’d like it to be.”

But, in good news, Ford raised its goal for full-year cash that will be generated by the business to be between $9.5 billion and $10 billion — up from $5.5 billion to $6.5 billion — on strength in the company’s automotive operations.

Shares of Ford (F) were down 1% in after-hours trading following the earnings news.

But in the end, the big news of the earnings report was a major change in direction on self-driving vehicles.

The company insists it still expects to offer full self-driving vehicles in the future, just not soon enough to make the investment such technology will require today. It said it decided it is better to invest in driver assistance technology that is closer to being implemented on vehicles today, and that customers want from their new cars, rather than a fleet of robo-taxis with no drivers at all aboard.

“We’re optimistic about a future for L4 ADAS [advanced driver assistance systems], but profitable, fully autonomous vehicles at scale are a long way off and we won’t necessarily have to create that technology ourselves,” said Farley.

Farley said he expects to be able to find jobs for many of the Argo employees at Ford, having them switch gears to develop L3 driver assistance features.

“That’s really the decision, in many ways, that is driving what we’re doing here at Argo… we are deeply passionate about the L3 mission,” said Doug Field, Ford’s chief advanced product development and technology officer.

He said there is only so much talent available to develop the different driver assistance and self-driving features.

“So this is the way we want to use that talent,” he said.

Chris Isidore Matt Mcfarland Peter Valdes-Dapena

Toyota is recalling its first mainstream electric car because the ...

CNN Business —

Toyota has issued recalls for its first mainstream electric car and one of its full-sized pickup trucks for problems in which nuts or bolts could loosen and wheels or axles can become disconnected.

Toyota warned owners of BZ4X electric SUVs to stop driving them because the wheels might fall off. The SUVs only recently went on sale in the United States and the warning and recall announced by Toyota Motor Sales USA on Thursday applies to all approximately 260 BZ4X SUVs that have been delivered to customers so far.

BZ4X owners should stop driving the vehicles immediately, according to Toyota’s announcement. Bolts that hold the wheels on can loosen after even a relatively small number of miles on the road, allowing the wheels to detach. Toyota is still investigating why this can happen and under what sorts of conditions.

Toyota is warning drivers of the BZ4X crossover to stop driving them From Nathan Leach-Proffer/Toyota

Toyota doesn’t know, yet, how to fix the issue, the automaker said. Until a remedy has been figured out, Toyota dealers will pick up customers’ BZ4Xs and bring them to the dealership and provide free loaner vehicles in the meantime, Toyota said.

The Toyota BZ4X and Subaru Solterra electric crossovers were developed jointly by the two Japanese automakers. They share most of their engineering and even look very similar. Subaru has not announced a similar recall for the Solterra because none of those have been delivered to customers in the United States yet, Subaru spokesperson Jessica Tullman said in an email.

The BZ4X is Toyota’s first fully battery-powered electric vehicle that is not a modified version of a gasoline-powered model. Toyota had previously offered an electric version of the Rav4 SUV in some markets.

Nuts in the axle assemblies of some 2022 Toyota Tundra trucks may loosen, according to Toyota. Toyota

Toyota separately announced a recall for approximately 46,000 2022 Toyota Tundra full-size pickups in which nuts on the rear axle assembly can loosen. In some cases, this can cause an axle sub-assembly to become disconnected, affecting the truck’s stability and braking, according to Toyota. The problem with the Tundra is unrelated to the issue affecting the BZ4X, the company added.

To fix this problem, Toyota dealers will inspect and retighten the nuts if needed, free of charge, according to Toyota. Some parts may also be replaced if required at no charge, Toyota said in its announcement. Toyota is not warning Tundra owners to immediately stop driving their trucks, however.

BZ4X and Tundra owners with questions about the recall can call Toyota customer service at 800-331-4331.

Ford's electric F-150 Lightning is a better version of America's best ...

San Antonio, Texas CNN Business —

The Ford F-150 Lightning may be the best pickup truck the company has ever made. All it took was making it completely electric, something that, not long ago, might have seemed off-brand for a traditional truck company like Ford.

Newer automakers have so far led the way on electric trucks. Tesla in 2019 revealed the prototype for its futuristic, electric Cybertruck but still hasn’t put it into production. Rivian came out with its electric pickup, the R1T, which won the 2022 MotorTrend Truck of the Year Award. But the electric pickup truly hit the mass market last month when Ford started production on the F-150 Lightning at its famous Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan.

It’s quick and powerful, and it drives better than any F-150 I’ve been in before. All that, and it does stuff you never imagined a truck would do, like provide workspace that also functions as a drinks cooler under the hood. (The front storage compartment is watertight and has drain plugs.) It can even power your entire home for days if you need it to.

This is a real truck, not a toy for campers and not a weird design exercise. It’s now in production by a company that already knows how to produce vehicles in big numbers. Ford has plans to make 150,000 of these trucks a year, which is equal to about 20% of all the F-series trucks Ford sold last year. The Ford Lightning is an all-electric version of the best-selling truck in America. To learn what truck owners really want and need Ford had only to talk to its own customers. This wasn’t delving into foreign territory. I recently got to drive several versions of the truck under vastly different scenarios at a two-day event around San Antonio, Texas.

The Ford F-150 Lightning looks only subtly different from gas-powered versions. Courtesy Nimai Malle

In the fundamentals, this new F-150 doesn’t veer too far from its siblings. At a glance, if you don’t notice the charging port on one front fender and the fake charging port on the side, you might not notice it was anything but another F-150. Besides that, it has some extra lights running across the nose of the truck and across the tailgate, plus the grille has no holes on it. As I drove through the south Texas countryside I wondered how many people in the all the other pickup trucks around me realized how different this one was from theirs.

The F-150 Lightning has no engine in the front. Its huge boxy hood instead covers a massive storage space. To drive home the point, at the event in Texas, Ford representatives filled one with ice and served cold drinks from it. There are plugs in the storage space to power and to charge electronics, along with more plugs in the bed of the truck.

With one electric motor driving the front wheels and another the back, full-time all-wheel-drive is standard in every version of the Lightning. That includes a stripped down work truck with few amenities, a range of 230 miles, 426 horsepower and 775 pound-feet of torque, and a starting price around $40,000. That isn’t very different from the price of a four-wheel-drive V8-powered F-150 XL work truck which has a similar 400 horsepower and only 410 pound-feet of torque.

This is a real work truck that isn’t positioned as a luxury piece of camping equipment like, say, the Rivian R1T. As with other F-150 models, of course, the Lightning can be had with luxury levels of amenities and prices reaching six digits.

I spent some time in Lightning pickups towing heavy trailers and carrying heavy loads on highways and on narrow curving country roads. The truck does these things very well and can, in fact, accelerate up a highway on-ramp pulling a 5,000-pound trailer with remarkable ease. (The truck can tow up 10,000 pounds, according to Ford.) Electric motors provide instant response with smooth acceleration and are, of course, virtually silent.

With full tiime all-wheel-drive, the Ford F-150 Lightning proved to be capable off-road. Courtesy Nimai Malle

The thing that surprised me the most, though, was just how much more nicely the Lightning drives than gas-powered F-150s. That’s largely due to the improved weight balance that comes having heavy battery packs spread out between the front and back wheels rather than a big engine under the hood. The Lightning also has independent rear suspension, rather than a stiff solid rear axle like other F-150s do, so a bump on the side doesn’t immediately affect the other side. This, combined with the smooth power delivery of electric motors that never need to shift gears, make the Lightning a remarkably civilized highway cruiser. It’s also very quick – especially for a full-sized truck – when the accelerator is pressed.

Off-road, climbing perilously steep, muddy trails, the Lightning proved, again, remarkably capable. That may not be surprising given that the trail was one selected by Ford to show off the truck but, to Ford’s credit, the truck I drove clambered up slippery rocks with the same tires as the ones I drove on the Interstate. Electric motors, with their smooth and quick power delivery to whichever wheels can use it, are ideal for slippery work.

Besides doing all the things gas trucks can do but better and faster, the Lightning offers a number of bonus capabilities. First, there’s that huge “frunk,” or front trunk, with plugs and lights inside. Then there’s the fact that, when plugged into a home charger, it can automatically provide back-up power to the house if there’s an outage. That’s in addition to the fact that it can also run power tools at a worksite.

Of course, towing and hauling (and accelerating hard while towing and hauling) uses a lot of electricity. Without hauling a heavy load, an F-150 Lightning can go 230 or 320 miles on a charge, depending on what size battery pack the customer orders. Hard work eats into the truck’s range by about the same amount that it depletes a gas truck’s driving range, according to Ford.

However, gas trucks can go farther on a tank to start with – the V6-powered F-150 can go up to 520 miles, according to the EPA – and filling a tank takes less time than recharging a battery. That will be a serious issue for some buyers. Most pickup owners probably drive much less than 200 miles on a typical day, though, and could easily recharge overnight. The only problem now is that The Lightening will be tough to get for customers who did not previously place an order. Ford has stopped taking orders from retail customers due to high demand.

Much of what’s great about the F-150 Lightning will probably also be great about future EV trucks, like the Chevrolet Silverado EV and the Ram 1500 EV. The smooth performance and ample power are largely inherent to electric drive systems. But the F-150 Lightning marks a real turning point in America’s long love affair with pickups.