EgyptAir flight MS804 smoke detected before crash

EgyptAir flight MS804: smoke detected in 'multiple locations' before crash.

A picture posted on the Facebook page of the Egyptian armed forces spokesman shows part of the wreckage from EgyptAir flight MS804. Photograph: AP

French investigators confirm alerts sent in last minutes of flight indicated smoke in cabin, as Egyptian military releases pictures of debris
Smoke was detected in multiple places on board the missing EgyptAir flight MS804 minutes before it crashed, French investigators have confirmed, as the Egyptian military released pictures of the plane’s debris. Signs of smoke were picked up in a toilet and in the aircraft’s electronics, according to data from the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (Acars), which routinely transmits data to airlines about the condition of their planes. As the search for the plane’s flight recorders continued, the Egyptian military released pictures of some the debris recovered on Friday. Photographs of a life vest, parts of the plane’s chairs and other wreckage were posted on Facebook. In France, investigators confirmed the data about smoke warnings that was first reported by the website Aviation Herald, while the French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said no theory on the cause of the crash has been ruled out. “At this time ... all theories are being examined and none is favoured,” he said after meeting with relatives of victims.
The warnings came at about 2.26am local time on Thursday, just before air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane, which plunged into the Mediterranean killing all 66 on board during a scheduled flight from Paris to Cairo.
David Learmount, a consulting editor at Flight Global, said the data presented the beginning of a sequence of events that could be “the answer to what happened”, but he could not confirm whether the fire was triggered by an act of terrorism or an electrical fault. “There’s a report of smoke in the forward lavatory [and] a minute later there’s smoke in the avionics bay, which is very worrying; and then two minutes later the flight control computers, one after the other, start to fail,” Learmount told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “Now the question we are left with is did this start with an ordinary electrical fault, a short circuit which started a fire, or was the fire started deliberately with a small explosion or an incendiary device? “It could still be terrorism but it looks as if the aircraft went out of control because the controls were literally burning up. But we don’t know if it’s terrorism that started this or an electrical fault.”
Shaker Kelada, the former head of Egypt’s plane crash investigations unit, cautioned against reading too much into the data. “Alone, it means nothing. It’s the last four seconds at the end of the transmission. If it’s an indication of anything it could be a followup to an explosion. It could also happen if someone smokes in the cockpit or the bathroom. But there was no warning in the cockpit. “This could be the first indication of a bomb. Or it can be unrelated. Since we don’t have any further information we cannot tell anything.” Greece’s lead air accident investigator Athanasios Binis said on Saturday that the search had been narrowed to a 900-square mile area, approximately 290km north of Alexandria. “That is where we are focusing and the sea there is between 7,500-10,000ft deep. Our priority, now, is to find the black boxes and as much wreckage as possible.” Investigators were still unclear whether the plane’s sudden drop in altitude was controlled or not, he added. “We still don’t know how it dropped from 37,000ft to 15,000ft or whether the pilot had tried to control it. It seems that they had a series of technical malfunctions before they lost control but what caused that we have yet to discover.”
The passengers included 30 Egyptians, 15 French citizens, two Iraqis, two Canadians, and citizens from Algeria, Belgium, Britain, Chad, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. They included a boy and two babies. Seven crew members and three security personnel were also on board.
Ayrault, who was joined by Egypt’s ambassador to France at the meeting with passengers’ relatives on Saturday, said: “I strongly emphasised the desire of the French authorities to tell the entire truth about what happened. It’s a legitimate and essential expectation for all the families.” The meeting took place “in a climate of intense emotion and great dignity,” he said. Ayrault said finding the plane was a priority, along with finding black box recorders. A spokesman for France’s Bureau of Investigations and Analysis told AFP on Saturday: “There were Acars messages emitted by the plane indicating that there was smoke in the cabin shortly before data transmission broke off.”
The spokesman said it was “far too soon to interpret and understand the cause of Thursday’s accident as long as we have not found the wreckage or the flight data recorders”. The plane had taken a normal course through Greek airspace before abruptly taking sharp turns. The plane crashed at about 2.30am local time on Thursday while carrying 56 passengers, including Briton Richard Osman, and 10 crew. All those on board died. Despite theories that a bomb may have been smuggled on board, no claim of responsibility has so far been made by Islamic State or other terrorist groups.



source: www.theguardian.com

Officer shoots armed man outside White House

Secret Service officer shoots armed man outside White House.

A uniformed Secret Service officer shot and critically wounded a man who brandished a gun outside the White House Friday afternoon, authorities said.
The U.S. Secret Service said in a statement that the man approached a security gate on E Street Northwest shortly after 3 p.m. carrying a gun.
In the statement, the agency said the man refused numerous orders to drop the weapon and was shot. Two law enforcement officials said he was shot once in the chest and rushed to a hospital in critical condition. Authorities said a firearm was recovered.
Two officials said federal agents with bomb sniffing dogs searched the suspected gunman’s vehicle — a white 4-door sedan — near 17th Street and Constitution Avenue. Authorities found ammunition for a .22 caliber weapon, two law enforcement officials said.
The shooting occurred at an outer perimeter checkpoint, which is accessible to the public, near 17th Street. It prompted a massive police response near the executive mansion, where hundreds of tourists and bystanders were milling about.
The Secret Service placed the White House on lockdown and rushed to secure Vice President Biden “within the complex,” according to a White House official who asked for anonymity to discuss security matters. President Obama was golfing at Joint Base Andrews on Friday afternoon, according to the White House press pool.
Law enforcement officials said that the man did not gain access to the White House complex. After the incident, police blocked streets between 16th and 17th, along with parts of the Mall near the Washington Monument. A helicopter circled overhead.
Jaspreet Singh said a friend, Ranjit Singh, texted him that: “A cop shot a guy.” Jaspreet Singh said his friend told him by text that he had been 10 yards from the guard shack when he heard police yell at man with a gun in his right hand. He texted that the man kept walking toward security before he was shot.
Akil Patterson was near the front of the security line to get in the Executive Office Building when he heard a pop. “I live in Baltimore, I heard gunshots before, but this was a muzzle sound.”
Patterson said he saw an officer come through a side door and overheard radio chatter: “Shots, shots fired, suspect down, suspect down.”
Patterson and others waiting to get in were rushed to the street. “That’s where it was kind of mass confusion,” he said. “There were so many cop cars just flying down trying to shut down traffic.”
Jason Wilson, visiting from Detroit to collect a President’s Volunteer Service Award, said he heard one shot while he and colleagues were standing near 17th Street and F Street.
“We were hoping it was a blown tire, but it wasn’t,” he said. “Within a few seconds, police were rushing down the street, telling us to move away.”
Trabian Shorters, the head of an advocacy group whose members were waiting in line to enter the Executive Office Building, was also among those quickly ushered away from the area.
“They started yelling for everyone to clear the canopy and get to the street,” Shorters said. “They were very emphatic. It was clearly very serious.”
Martin Silva and Joe Vogle, students at George Washington University, said four black SUVs sped from the White House grounds about 3:50 p.m., heading East on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Cheikh Basseme, of Brentwood, Md., had been waiting for more than two hours to retrieve his car on Constitution Avenue after visiting the National Mall to take in the sights on his bike. His Chrysler Sebring is parked two spots in front of a suspect vehicle authorities are searching. He said he worried that he’d miss his UMd online class, which starts at 7 p.m.
“My commute is jammed up now,” he said. “They told me it’ll be at least another hour.”
“I have to go back and do my online classes,” he said. “It’s very frustrating. We’re just waiting and waiting. It’s been two hours now.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser tweeted Friday afternoon: “We are aware of the White House lockdown situation. I’ve been briefed by my public safety team [and] they are coordinating w federal partners.”
Juliet Eilperin, Josh Hicks and Matt Zapotosky contributed to this report.

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

In Chester, CBS' Morley Safer died at age 84

In Chester, CBS' Morley Safer Found A Refuge Among Friends, Neighbors.

In this Oct. 21, 2008 file photo, Morley Safer poses for a picture during the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame Awards in New York. 

 (Seth Wenig / Associated Press)

The veteran reporter died May 19, 2016, at 84.

CHESTER — During a career that took Morley Safer all over the world reporting on war, art, culture, crime and every topic imaginable, Chester was an escape.
While earning far-reaching respect for his reporting that aired Sunday nights on CBS' "60 Minutes," Safer — who died Thursday at age 84 — came to appreciate the charms of Chester's restaurants and art galleries and its setting along the Connecticut River.

He'd take his old pickup truck to the dump with his dog, Dora, on the passenger seat and attended services at Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek.

"When you'd go out to dinner with him you'd never know there was a celebrity there," said Peter Good, an artist who owns the North Main Street graphic design firm Cummings & Good with his wife, Jan Cummings Good. "He loved the simple life in the country."

Safer and his wife, Jane Fearer, hosted friends often at their house in Chester, inviting them over for wine and the French lawn game petanque. He did a significant amount of his writing and drawing at his home in town, Good said.

"He traveled all over the world but when he was in Chester he was a homebody, and such a good cook," Jan Good said.

Safer, who died at his home in New York City, recently retired after 46 years on "60 Minutes," which ran a special report Sunday night on his career. CBS reported that he was declining in health when he announced his retirement last week.

"This is a very sad day for all of us at '60 Minutes' and CBS News," said Jeff Fager, executive producer for "60 Minutes" and Safer's close friend. "Morley was a fixture, one of our pillars, and an inspiration in many ways. He was a master storyteller, a gentleman and a wonderful friend. We will miss him very much."

Safer did 919 stories in his 46 years on "60 Minutes," from his first in 1970 about U.S. sky marshals to his last in March, a profile of Danish architect Bjarke Ingels.

He won a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for his 2001 story on a school in Arizona geared to serve children who are homeless. Other honors include three George Foster Peabody awards, 12 Emmys and two George Polk Awards.

Perhaps his most controversial story was his report showing American soldiers burning the homes of villagers at Cam Ne during the Vietnam War.

Safer and Fearer, who grew up in West Hartford, split time between Chester and New York City since the 1980s. Safer had a talent for blending into the community, but on occasion would lend his notoriety to a good cause or a friend's event.

Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg said she first met Safer on the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest Jewish day, during her first year at Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek.
"I knew he was going to be there and it was a little intimidating," Goldenberg said. "I preached against the death penalty, this was just a few months after the Cheshire home invasion, and afterward he introduced himself to me and he congratulated me and he was so supportive and appreciative that I would go out on a limb and speak that way."

She said Safer's celebrity increased the profile of the synagogue, and that he had a talent for avoiding the spectacle his attendance at an event might bring.

"He was someone who was humble and generous and funny," Goldenberg said. "Folks knowing he was a member here made it a draw, but this was the place he could just be a regular person. One of the last times I saw him was at a birthday party for a member of the congregation, and we were just celebrating at a birthday party. He was so approachable."

In 1970, Safer joined "60 Minutes," then just two years old and not yet the national institution it would become. He took the co-host chair alongside Mike Wallace.

"Morley was one of the most important journalists in any medium, ever," CBS Chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves said. "He broke ground in war reporting and made a name that will forever be synonymous with '60 Minutes.' He was also a gentleman, a scholar, a great raconteur — all of those things and much more to generations of colleagues, his legion of friends, and his family, to whom all of us at CBS offer our sincerest condolences over the loss of one of CBS' and journalism's greatest treasures."

Peter Good said Safer often shared stories about his work as a journalist, but when the Goods and the Safers had dinner at one of their homes or out in Chester, the conversation was typically about their shared love of art. The four of them had dinner together before Thanksgiving last year, and he last talked to Safer about two weeks ago.

"Our conversations just wandered all over the place, from books to politics to art," Good said. "We'll miss that. We'll miss his humor. We just had so many laughs together."
Safer was born in Toronto in 1931, yet insisted he was "stateless" and, as a reporter chasing stories around the globe, claimed, "I have no vested interests." He became an American citizen, holding dual citizenship.

He began his career at news organizations in Canada and England. In 1955, he was offered a correspondent's job in the Canadian Broadcasting Company's London bureau, where he worked nine years before CBS News hired him for its London bureau.

In 1965 he opened CBS' Saigon bureau.

In 1970, he was brought to New York to succeed original co-host Harry Reasoner on an innovative newsmagazine that, in its third season, was still struggling in the ratings, and would rely on Safer and Wallace as its only co-anchors for the next five years.

In 1971, Safer won an Emmy for his "60 Minutes" investigation of the Gulf of Tonkin incident that began America's war in Vietnam.

He became a fixture at "60 Minutes" — and part of that show's rough-and-tumble behind-the-scenes culture. (A former producer for Safer kept on display a framed remnant of the curtain that was the landing place for a cup of coffee Safer once threw at him.)

By 2006 Safer had reduced his output. But he remained with the show after the departures of Wallace — who retired in 2006 at age 88, and died in 2012 — as well as "60 Minutes" creator-producer Don Hewitt — who stepped down in 2004 at 81, and died in 2009.

And as late as 2012, he still held forth daily in his office on West 57th Street, where he banged out "60 Minutes" stories as he had done for more than 40 years.


Source: www.courant.com

Follow up, What we know so far about Egypt Air flight MS-804

Here’s what we know so far about EgyptAir flight MS804, which went missing en route from Paris to Cairo at 2.30am local time Thursday morning.

EgyptAir retracted its claim to have found wreckage belonging to MS804, falling in line with Greek authorities who said that floating debris did not belong to the plane. “We stand corrected,” Airline vice-president Ahmed Adel told CNN, adding that the recovered debris “is not our aircraft”.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi ordered the navy, air force and army to join with Egyptian, French, Greek and US forces searching the Mediterranean for debris. The debris falsely attributed to MS804 was found near the island of Karpathos, east of Crete.

Egypt’s aviation minister Sherif Fathy said terrorism was more likely than technical failure to be the cause of the crash. “The possibility of having a terror attack is higher than the possibility of having a technical [problem],” he told reporters. French president François Holland, Egyptian prime minister Sherif Ismail and the White House said that terrorism could not be ruled out.

No group has claimed responsibility for downing the aircraft, and search teams still have no sign of the Airbus A320 or the 66 people who were on board. The plane is presumed crashed in the Mediterranean, east of Greece and about 10 miles into Egyptian airspace. “Family members of passengers and crew have been already informed and we extend our deepest sympathies to those affected,” EgyptAir said in a statement.

The plane made “sudden swerves” before dropping off radar over the Mediterranean, Greek defense minister Panos Kammeno said. The plane made a 90-degree turn left, and then dropped from 37,000 feet to 15,000 feet before swerving 360 degrees right, he said.


The plane was carrying 56 passengers and 10 crew: two cockpit crew, five cabin crew and three security personnel. The airline said two babies and one child were on board. Among the passengers were 30 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis, and one person each from the UK, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria and Canada.

The plane, on its fifth journey of the day, was traveling at 37,000 feet when it disappeared from radar. It had made a stop in Tunisia before flying to Paris. EgyptAir says the captain has 6,275 flying hours, including 2,101 on the A320; the copilot has 2,766. The plane was manufactured in 2003.


Source: www.theguardian.com

Sia Gives ‘Survivor’ Finalist $100K For Being An Animal Rights Activist

Sia Gives ‘Survivor’ Finalist $100K For Being An Animal Rights Activist.

Sia Gives ‘Survivor’ Finalist $100K For Being An Animal Rights Activist.

Tai Trang is definitely swinging from the chandeliers tonight.

In one of the best moments in “Survivor” history, Sia showed up to the live finale, ran up to the stage and gifted a finalist with a couple thousand bucks. Why? Well, because he’s an animal rights activist who showed his love of the planet during his time on the reality competition show.
Tai Trang, a 51-year-old gardener currently living in San Francisco, was a fan-favorite on Season 32 of “Survivor.” While filming the show in Cambodia, he confessed his adoration for all living things, saved a chicken from slaughter (for the entire game, despite the contestants being very hungry), and outwitted, outplayed and outlasted all but two contestants. Tai made it to the final three, but ultimately 24-year-old Michele Fitzgerald was crowned the Sole Survivor, with 29-year-old Aubry Bracco coming in second place.
During Tai’s chat with host Jeff Probst onstage, a voice could be heard from the audience. Probst soon announced that it was, in fact, hitmaker Sia and that she had something to say. Then, the singer, who’s a fan of the long-running reality series, discussed her feelings toward Tai and his devotion to living things, telling him that she wanted to give him $50,000, as well as another $50,000 for an animal charity of his choice.
“I’m speechless,” Tai said as he hugged Sia, who was, of course, hidden behind one of her famous wigs.

On his “Survivor” bio page, Tai writes that his parents are his biggest inspirations.

They worked so hard to provide for 11 of my siblings. During and after the Vietnam war, we were so poor, we had to eat plain rice with soy sauce for months. Somehow they managed to get us all on a fishing boat to escape Communism and luckily we all survived 11 days on the open ocean. In an Indonesian refugee camp, my mom made and sold one cookie at a time to earn extra money for her children. They are the ones that taught me self-reliance and my mom always reminds me “If you have health and both hands, you can never go to sleep cold or hungry.

Both Tai and Sia are our inspirations. Oh, what a night!



source: www.huffingtonpost.com

EgyptAir flight MS804 disappears from radar between Paris and Cairo

EgyptAir flight MS804 disappears from radar between Paris and Cairo.

                             EgyptAir flight

Airline says plane, which took off from France’s Charles de Gaulle airport late on Wednesday night, has gone missing with 66 people on board.

Airline Egyptair has said one of its planes has disappeared from radar on a flight from Paris to Cairo.
Its official Twitter account said:
An official source said Egypt air that flight MS804, which took off from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport to Cairo airport at 23.09 GMT Paris [with] 59 passengers on board and 10 crew members disappeared from the radar early in the morning.
Information on the missing flight is still sketchy, but Flightradar24 says the plane in question is an Airbus A320-232.
Egyptair says 59 passengers and 10 crew are aboard.
The flight was scheduled to leave Paris at 11.09pm local time – that’s around six hours ago – for a journey time of around 3 hours 45 minutes*.
It’s not clear at what time contact with the plane was lost. The confirmation from Egyptair was made public around half an hour ago.
[*Clarification: the journey time before contact was lost was around 3 hours 45 minutes; the total expected journey time between Paris and Cairo would have been longer.]
Contact lost at 2.45am Cairo time
Some more information now from Egyptair:
It says flight MS804 lost contact with radar at 02:45 Cairo time.
The plane was at 37,000 ft and disappeared 80 miles (around 10 minutes) before entering Egyptian airspace.
Search and rescue teams are being assembled.
Egyptair says the plane disappeared around 130km (80 miles) before entering Egyptian air space.
A clarification from Egyptair, which now says the plane “faded” from contact 10 miles (16km) inside Egyptian airspace
Egyptair was at the centre of another dramatic episode in March, when a plane flying between Alexandria and Cairo, Flight MS181, was hijacked and directed to land in Larnaca, Cyprus.
Initial speculation then that the hijacker was a terrorist was later downplayed, as it became apparent the man’s motives were connected to his estranged wife. He was arrested and all passengers and crew were released unharmed.

What we know Details are still – understandably – sketchy and facts still emerging.

Here is what we know, via EgyptAir’s official statements: 

 Flight MS804, en route from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Cairo, has disappeared from radar
The plane, an Airbus A320, was scheduled to leave Paris at 11.09pm on Wednesday night. The airline said contact was lost around 16km/10 miles into Egyptian airspace at 2.45am local time.
The plane was carrying 59 passengers and 10 crew.
The plane was travelling at 37,000 feet when it disappeared from radar. Search and rescue efforts are underway.
There is no detail yet on possible reasons for the plane’s disappearance.
Egypt’s civil aviation ministry has confirmed that search and rescue teams are looking for the missing plane.
It also confirms that contact with the plane was lost 10miles/16km within Egyptian airspace.

Flight timings

The plane left Paris Charles de Gaulle at 23.09 local time Wednesday (21.09 GMT/22.09 BST/07.09am Thursday AEST).
It lost contact at 02.45am Cairo time (00.45 GMT/01.45 BST/10.45 AEST).
The plane has now been missing for more than three hours.
The plane was around 3 hours and 40 minutes into its journey (that was not, as earlier reported, the total journey time) when contact was lost.
The fact that the plane was inside Egyptian airspace when contact was lost does not necessarily mean it is over land, as this graphic indicates.

The late-night departure from Paris Charles de Gaulle was this plane’s fifth flight of the day, according to this tracker: View image on Twitter

A useful catch-up from Reuters: 

 National carrier EgyptAir said a plane carrying 69 passengers and crew on a flight from Paris to Cairo had gone missing on Thursday, disappearing from radar over the Mediterranean sea.
“An official source at EgyptAir stated that Flight MS804, which departed Paris at 23:09 (CEST), heading to Cairo has disappeared from radar,” the airline said on its official Twitter account.
Later Tweets by EgyptAir said the plane, which was travelling at an altitude of 37,000 feet (11,280m), disappeared soon after entering Egyptian airspace. The aircraft was carrying 59 passengers and 10 crew.
According to flightradar24.com, the plane was an Airbus A320 and its last known position was above the Mediterranean sea.
An Airbus A321 operated by Russia’s Metrojet crashed in the Sinai in 31 October 2015, killing all 224 people on board. Russia and Western governments have said the plane was likely brought down by a bomb, and the Islamic State militant group said it had smuggled an explosive on board.
Reuters reported in January that an EgyptAir mechanic, whose cousin joined Islamic State in Syria, is suspected of planting the bomb, according to sources familiar with the matter.
In March, an EgyptAir plane flying from Alexandria to Cairo was hijacked and forced to land in Cyprus by a man with what authorities said was a fake suicide belt. He was arrested after giving himself up.
France’s aviation authority could not immediately be reached for comment.

'No distress call' 

 Ahmed Abdel, the vice-chairman of EgyptAir holding company, has been speaking to CNN.
He says there was no distress call from the plane.
Search and rescue has been dispatched and are now at the scene … Daylight has just broken around an hour ago, so we should get some information within the next hour.
He says search teams were informed the coordinates of where the aircraft lost contact and a rescue plane has arrived at that area.
This is at the border of the flight information region (FIR) between Athens and Egypt, around 30/40 miles north of the Egyptian coast.

Ahmed Abdel says – and this differs slightly from the numbers given by EgyptAir via Twitter earlier – there were 66 people on board:
56 passengers 3 security personnel 2 cockpit crew 5 cabin crew crew There were “no recorded snags coming out of Cairo” or reported before leaving Charles de Gaulle for Cairo, he says.
The captain on flight has 6,000+ flying hours, including 2,000 on an A320.
Abdel says there was no special cargo on the flight and no notification had been made to the captain of dangerous goods on board.

This graphic from Flightradar24 shows what it believes to be the last satellite communication from the plane, which tallies with the report from EgyptAir’s Ahmed Abdel that the location of last contact was around 30-40 miles north from the Egyptian coast.
Associated Press reports that Ihab Raslan, a spokesman for the Egyptian civil aviation agency, told SkyNews Arabia that the Airbus A320 most likely crashed into the sea.
However, he also said the plane was about to enter Egyptian airspace when it disappeared from radar, contradicting the airline, which said it was 10 miles (16km) inside Egyptian airspace when contact was lost.
It is not uncommon for conflicting information to surface at this stage – the number of those on board has already been adjusted from 69 to 66.

One child, two babies on board

A further update from EgyptAir:
It confirms that 56 passengers were on board, including one child and two babies It says the captain has 6,275 flying hours, including 2,101 on the A320; the copilot has 2,766.
The plane was manufactured in 2003.
Specialist teams and the Egyptian armed forces are still searching for the plane.
Egypt air is following the situation closely with the relevant authorities through the integrated operations centre.
The company also provides free contact numbers: 0800 7777 0000 from any landline in Egypt and + 202 2598 9320 outside Egypt or any mobile in Egypt.

What we know so far 

 As Europe wakes to news of the missing flight, here is what we know at this point, four hours after the plane lost contact: Flight MS804, en route from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Cairo, has disappeared from radar. The plane, an Airbus A320, left Paris at 11.09pm on Wednesday night (21.09 GMT/22.09 BST/07.09am Thursday AEST). The airline said contact was lost around 16km/10 miles inside Egyptian airspace at 2.45am local time (00.45 GMT/01.45 BST/10.45 AEST). The plane was carrying 56 passengers and 10 crew: two cockpit crew, five cabin crew and three security personnel. The airline said two babies and one child were on board. Search and rescue efforts are underway at the site where contact was lost, around 50-65km (30-40 miles) north of Egypt’s coast. The plane, on its fifth journey of the day, was travelling at 37,000 feet when it disappeared from radar. EgyptAir says the captain has 6,275 flying hours, including 2,101 on the A320; the copilot has 2,766. The plane was manufactured in 2003. There is no detail yet on possible reasons for the plane’s disappearance.

Greece has joined the search and rescue operation for the EgyptAir flight, Associated Press reports.
Two aircraft, one C-130 Hercules and one early warning aircraft, have been dispatched, officials at the Hellenic national defence general staff said.
They said one frigate was also heading to the area, and helicopters are on standby on the southern island of Karpathos for potential rescue or recovery operations.

An EgyptAir passenger jet carrying 66 passengers has vanished en route to Cairo.
The flight departed from Paris on Wednesday evening and lost contact with ground crews at 2.45am local time, about 16km (10 miles) inside Egyptian airspace.
The 12-year-old Airbus A320-232 was about 40 minutes from its destination. It was the aircraft’s fifth flight of the day, including journeys to Asmara, Eritrea and Carthage in Tunisia.
The airline’s vice-chairman, Ahmed Abdel, told CNN the plane made no distress call.
There were “no recorded snags coming out of Cairo” or reported before leaving Charles de Gaulle, he said.
The captain had also recorded more than 6,000 flying hours, including 2,000 hours in that model, Abdel said. There had not been any special cargo or notification of dangerous goods on board, he added.

Police take up position at terminal 1. Photograph: Christian Hartmann/Reuters

The New York Times cites Ehab Mohy el-Deen, head of the Egyptian air navigation authority.
He says Greek air traffic controllers notified their Egyptian counterparts that they had lost contact with the plane, the NYT reports.
They did not radio for help or lose altitude. They just vanished.
He said it was too early to speculate on causes and outcomes, “but this is not normal, of course”.

for more updates.
Source: www.theguardian.com

Pfizer Blocks the Use of Its Drugs in Executions

Pfizer Blocks the Use of Its Drugs in Executions

The death chamber of the lethal-injection center at San Quentin State Prison in California.CreditEric Risberg/Associated Press

The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced on Friday that it had imposed sweeping controls on the distribution of its products to ensure that none are used in lethal injections, a step that closes off the last remaining open-market source of drugs used in executions.
More than 20 American and European drug companies have already adopted such restrictions, citing either moral or business reasons. Nonetheless, the decision from one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical manufacturers is seen as a milestone.
“With Pfizer’s announcement, all F.D.A.-approved manufacturers of any potential execution drug have now blocked their sale for this purpose,” said Maya Foa, who tracks drug companies for Reprieve, a London-based human rights advocacy group. “Executing states must now go underground if they want to get hold of medicines for use in lethal injection.”
The obstacles to lethal injection have grown in the last five years as manufacturers, seeking to avoid association with executions, have barred the sale of their products to corrections agencies. Experiments with new drugs, a series of botched executions and covert efforts to obtain lethal chemicals have mired many states in court challenges.
The mounting difficulty in obtaining lethal drugs has already caused states to furtively scramble for supplies.
Some states have used straw buyers or tried to import drugs from abroad that are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, only to see them seized by federal agents. Some have covertly bought supplies from loosely regulated compounding pharmacies while others, including Arizona, Oklahoma and Ohio, have delayed executions for months or longer because of drug shortages or legal issues tied to injection procedures. A few states have adopted the electric chair, firing squad or gas chamber as an alternative if lethal drugs are not available. Since Utah chooses to have a death penalty, “we have to have a means of carrying it out,” said State Representative Paul Ray as he argued last year for authorization of the firing squad.
Lawyers for condemned inmates have challenged the efforts of corrections officials to conceal how the drugs are obtained, saying this makes it impossible to know if they meet quality standards or might cause undue suffering. “States are shrouding in secrecy aspects of what should be the most transparent government activity,” said Ty Alper, associate director of the death penalty clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. Before Missouri put a prisoner to death on Wednesday, for example, it refused to say in court whether the lethal barbiturate it used, pentobarbital, was produced by a compounding pharmacy or a licensed manufacturer. Akorn, the only approved company making that drug, has tried to prevent its use in executions.
Pfizer’s decision follows its acquisition last year of Hospira, a company that has made seven drugs used in executions including barbiturates, sedatives and agents that can cause paralysis or heart failure. Hospira had long tried to prevent diversion of its products to state prisons but had not succeeded; its products were used in a prolonged, apparently agonizing execution in Ohio in 2014, and are stockpiled by Arkansas, according to documents obtained by reporters. Because these drugs are also distributed for normal medical use, there is no way to determine what share of the agents used in recent executions were produced by Hospira, or more recently, Pfizer. Campaigns against the death penalty, and Europe’s strong prohibitions on the export of execution drugs, have raised the stakes for pharmaceutical companies. But many, including Pfizer, say medical principles and business concerns have guided their policies.
“Pfizer makes its products to enhance and save the lives of the patients we serve,” the company said in Friday’s statement, and “strongly objects to the use of its products as lethal injections for capital punishment.” Pfizer said it would restrict the sale to selected wholesalers of seven products that could be used in executions. The distributors must certify that they will not resell the drugs to corrections departments and will be closely monitored.
David B. Muhlhausen, an expert on criminal justice at the Heritage Foundation, accused Pfizer and other drug companies of “caving in to special interest groups.” He said that while the companies have a right to choose how their products are used, their efforts to curb sales for executions “are not actually in the public interest” because research shows, he believes, that the death penalty has a deterrent effect on crime. Pressure on the drug companies has not only come from human rights groups. Trustees of the New York State pension fund, which is a major shareholder in Pfizer and many other producers, have used the threat of shareholder resolutions to push two other companies to impose controls and praised Pfizer for its new policy. “A company in the business of healing people is putting its reputation at risk when it supplies drugs for executions,” Thomas P. DiNapoli, the state comptroller, said in an email. “The company is also risking association with botched executions, which opens it to legal and financial damage.”
Less than a decade ago, lethal injection was generally portrayed as a simple, humane way to put condemned prisoners to death. Virtually all executions used the same three-drug combination: sodium thiopental, a barbiturate, to render the inmate unconscious, followed by a paralytic and a heart-stopping drug.
In 2009, technical production problems, not the efforts of death-penalty opponents, forced the only federally approved factory that made sodium thiopental to close. That, plus more stringent export controls in Europe, set off a cascade of events that have bedeviled state corrections agencies ever since. Many states have experimented with new drug combinations, sometimes with disastrous results, such as the prolonged execution of Joseph R. Wood III in Arizona in 2014, using the sedative midazolam. The state’s executions are delayed as court challenges continue.
Under a new glaring spotlight, deficiencies in execution procedures and medical management have also been exposed. After winning a Supreme Court case last year for the right to execute Richard E. Glossip and others using midazolam, Oklahoma had to impose a stay only hours before Mr. Glossip’s scheduled execution in September. Officials discovered they had obtained the wrong drug, and imposed a moratorium as a grand jury conducts an investigation.
A majority of the 32 states with the death penalty have imposed secrecy around their drug sources, saying that suppliers would face severe reprisals or even violence from death penalty opponents. In a court hearing this week, a Texas official argued that disclosing the identity of its pentobarbital source “creates a substantial threat of physical harm.”
But others, noting the evidence that states are making covert drug purchases, see a different motive. “The secrecy is not designed to protect the manufacturers, it is designed to keep the manufacturers in the dark about misuse of their products,” said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a research group in Washington.
Georgia, Missouri and Texas have obtained pentobarbital from compounding pharmacies, which operate without normal F.D.A. oversight and are intended to help patients meet needs for otherwise unavailable medications.
But other states say they have been unable to find such suppliers.
Texas, too, is apparently hedging its bets. Last fall, shipments of sodium thiopental, ordered by Texas and Arizona from an unapproved source in India, were seized in airports by federal officials.
For a host of legal and political reasons as well as the scarcity of injection drugs, the number of executions has declined, to just 28 in 2015, compared with a recent peak of 98 in 1999, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Source: www.nytimes.com