Helicopter crash
A helicopter crashes in Siberia, killing 19 of the 22 people on board. The crash was likely caused by flight protocol violations. The regional government calls for a day of mourning.
A criminal probe has been launched but investigators suspect the crash could have been caused by a violation of flight safety regulations, a mechanical problem or poor weather conditions. The helicopter was flying from an oil and gas field in the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk to the small settlement of Urengoi.
Russian miltary jet downed by Turkey
A Russian Su-24 jet crashes near the Turkey-Syrian border, after being hit by a Turkish missile. Turkey says its jets shot at the plane after giving 10 warnings that it was violating Turkish airspace. Moscow says the jet never strayed from Syrian airspace. One of the two pilots is killed in the air by fire from the ground. The second pilot’s situation is not known. Two Russian Mi-8 helicopters perform a search-and-rescue operation, but one of them is damaged by small arms fire and makes an emergency landing. A Russian marine is killed during an operation. Turkish President Erdogan:
[The Russian plane was dealt with because it] did not answer our warning.
Russian President Putin says there will be “serious consequences” for Moscow’s relations with Turkey.
[This] represents a stab in the back by the terrorists’ accomplices. I can’t describe what has happened today in any other way. Our plane was downed over Syrian territory by an air-to-air missile from a Turkish F-16 jet. The plane fell on Syrian territory 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) away from the Turkish border. It was flying 1 kilometer away from the Turkish border when it was attacked. In any case, neither our pilots nor our jet posed any threat to Turkey. That is obvious. They were carrying out an operation fighting against ISIL in Northern Latakia.
Plane crashes, 224 dead
Metrojet Flight 9268, an Airbus A321, travelling from Sharm-el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg crashes around 25 minutes into its flight, in a remote area of Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, killing all 224 people on board. Most of the victims are Russian tourists, returning home from vacation. According to the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there were 214 Russian and three Ukrainian passengers aboard. 25 children are among the dead
Debris found
A crew cleaning the beach near Saint-Andre, La Reunion, an island in the western Indian Ocean, finds a flaperon, a wing part of an aircraft. Thinking it might be from MH370 they alert police. Investigators will try to determine whether the debris is from MH370. Australian Deputy Prime Minister Truss:
In the event that the wreckage is identified as being from MH 370 on La Reunion Island, it would be consistent with other analysis and modelling that the resting place of the aircraft is in the southern Indian Ocean.
Passengers survive plane crash
A single-engine Piper Cherokee 6 crashes into a lake in Queensland. All six people including the pilot are alive. One woman has a back injury. The plane hit a downdraft and rapidly lost altitude before crashing on to the lake. Local Resident:
I drove out and I saw a plane in the middle of the lake. It was sitting on the surface. I saw the doors being pushed open. I saw people falling out of the plane into the water. Then within five minutes the plane started to sink nose first.
Plane crash kills three
A small plane crashes in Tokyo. single-engine propeller falls into a row of houses and causes a fire. The pilot, one of the passengers, and one woman from the house die. Resident.
There was kaboom! I ran upstairs, then I saw the house just over there on fire, with a tail of the plane sticking out of it
Suitcase found
The crew cleaning the beach near Saint-Andre, La Reunion, reports to the police that they found a damaged suitcase two-and-a-half meters from the airplane debris. They do not know whether there is any connection between the two.
We set aside all the garbage we had gathered on the beach during the day and today we thought that old suitcase could be related. It could have been thrown into the sea from the beach.
Authorities say that the plane debris and suitcase will be sent to a special lab in Toulouse, France who will examine the evidence.
Iraq drone crash
Factory workers report a U.S. unarmed MQ-1 surveillance and reconnaissance drone crash in the Iraqi desert near Baghdad. U.S. official:
We are working with Iraqi authorities to recover the aircraft.
C-130 crash, 89 killed
Military personnel and their family members, civilians and some students are among the passengers on-board a C-130 Hercules plane that departs from Soewondo Air Force Base in Medan, Indonesia, and crashes into a busy road five miles into the flight, near a residential neighborhood. 86 bodies have been recovered from the crash site. The plane took off with 122 people aboard, 110 passengers and 12 crew members.
Rocket explodes after launch
A SpaceX rocket on a mission to resupply the International Space Station explodes two minutes and thirty seconds into its flight from Cape Canaveral Florida. The Falcon 9 is carrying about 5,000 pounds of cargo for the space station’s astronauts, including a docking port that would allow future crew missions to dock with the station more easily. The launch was planned to be been the third attempt to land the first-stage booster safely on a barge in the Atlantic ocean. Initial reports said the vehicle had an “anomaly on ascent”, with Musk reporting that the craft experienced a problem shortly before first-stage shutdown related to an “over-pressure event in the upper-stage liquid oxygen tank”. NASA:
SpaceX has demonstrated extraordinary capabilities in its first six cargo resupply missions to the station, and we know they can replicate that success. We will work with and support SpaceX to assess what happened, understand the specifics of the failure and correct it to move forward. This is a reminder that spaceflight is an incredible challenge, but we learn from each success and each setback.
James Horner dies in plane crash age 61
Horner dies when the single-engine plane he is piloting crashes in Cuyama, California, north of Santa Barbara. The crash starts a one-acre brush fire. Agency statement:
It is with the deepest regret and sorrow that we mourn the tragic passing of our dear colleague, long-time client and great friend, composer James Horner. Our thoughts and prayers are with James’ family at this difficult time, and also with the millions of people around the world who loved his music. A shining light has been extinguished, which can never be replaced. It has been an honor and a privilege to have worked with James since the inception of our agency. For more than three decades, his unique creative genius made an indelible imprint on each of our lives and on those of the entire Hollywood community. There is not a person in our GSA family who wasn’t touched by the power and reach of his music, and who isn’t diminished by his loss.
Interstate crash kills four
Four people on board a single-engine Piper PA-32 die when it crashes into a major interstate in Atlanta after leaving DeKalb Peachtree Airport. The four on board were headed to the University of Mississippi, where 25-year-old Phillip Byrd — one of the passengers on board — was set to graduate, according to his grandfather, who said the other passengers were his son, grandson and his fiancee. No motorists are injured according to reports. Witness:
I looked into my rear view mirror and saw this mass of flames. Everybody says this, but it really does feel very surreal … to the point of … did I really see that? It’s just horrible. I couldn’t stop shaking.
Visited gay porn and suicide sites
New information in the case is revealed by police: Lubitz visited gay porn websites as well as websites relating to suicide; he had received medical treatment for vision problems, causing him to fear he was losing his eyesight; Lubitz was often the target of gossip about his sexuality and was given the nickname “Tomato Andy”; in the months leading up to the crash, he was being treated by four psychiatrists; a “small mountain” of antidepressants were found at his apartment; and in his diary, Lubitz expressed his fears that he would be “found out” and would then lose his job. He also wrote:
I have too much work and I am not able to do my job properly.
A German police source:
We have a team disassembling his computer, and that of his girlfriend, because the information that we received was that he trawled the dark side of the web visiting, among other things, sites containing gay porn, suicide themes and sexual perversions.
Plane crashes in France
An Airbus A320 operated by Germanwings, the budget carrier of Germany’s Lufthansa crashes in a remote area of the French Alps Tuesday, near the ski resort of Barcelonnette, killing all 150 on board in the worst plane disaster in mainland France for four decades. The Airbus A320 plunged for eight minutes into a snowbound inaccessible mountain area in southeastern France. French officials say no distress signal had been issued. The plane, carrying 144 mainly Spanish and German passengers and six crew, was travelling from Barcelona to the western German city of Duesseldorf when it came down. Civil aviation authorities
The crew did not send a Mayday. It was air traffic control that decided to declare the plane was in distress because there was no contact with the crew of the plane
Lufthansa:
We’ve never had a total loss of aircraft in the company’s history until now.
Towelette found
An unwrapped moist towelette with the Malaysia Airlines logo on it is found by a strolling couple on a beach in West Australia. It is being tested to see if it is the first piece of evidence from MH370.
It is unlikely, however, that such a common item with no unique identifier could be conclusively linked with MH370.
Clips bridge, crashes
TransAsia Airways flight GE235 clips a highway bridge shortly after takeoff then crashes into the Keelung River in Taiwan. Of the 58 passengers aboard the plane, at least 25 are dead, 15 are rescued and 18 are missing. The cause of the accident is unknown. TransAsia director Peter Chen:
Actually this aircraft in the accident was the newest model. It hadn’t been used for even a year.
Warplane not shot down
The U.S. military dismisses a claim that ISIS shot down a jet piloted by a Jordanian airforce pilot, and confirms the group has taken the pilot captive. CentCom statement:
Evidence clearly indicates that ISIL did not down the aircraft as the terrorist organization is claiming. We strongly condemn the actions of ISIL, which has taken captive the downed pilot
We will support efforts to ensure his safe recovery, and will not tolerate ISIL’s attempts to misrepresent or exploit this unfortunate aircraft crash for their own purposes.
The Jordanians are highly respected and valued partners and their pilots and crews have performed exceptionally well over the course of this campaign.