NEW YORK
Controller did not warn plane
He made a personal phone call as other aircraft loomed before deadly collision over Hudson River
An air traffic controller making a personal phone call initially failed to warn a small plane of other aircraft in its path and then tried unsuccessfully to contact the pilot, federal safety officials said Friday. Moments later, the plane collided with a tour helicopter over the Hudson River, killing nine people.
The controller handling the plane, and his supervisor at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey at the time of last Saturday’s accident, have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The National Transportation Safety Board said in a report that the controller — who has not been identified — cleared the single-engine Piper for takeoff at 11:48 a.m., and then made a telephone call. He remained on the phone, including while further instructing the plane’s pilot, until the accident occurred.
After takeoff, the plane flew south until the controller directed it to turn left toward the river, the report said. At 11:52, the controller instructed the plane to contact air traffic control at nearby Newark Liberty International Airport, which monitors low-flying traffic over the river, but doesn’t attempt to separate aircraft.
The pilot apparently did not contact Newark, the report said.
It wasn’t until controllers at the Newark airport alerted the Teterboro controller to the potential collision that he twice tried unsuccessfully to contact the pilot, the report said. The collision occurred at 11:53.
GAZA STRIP
Al Qaeda-inspired militants take on Hamas
Abdel-Latif Moussa (in glasses) is surrounded by armed members of his radical Islamist group, Jund Ansar Allah, in the Gaza Strip on Friday, when Islamic radicals from an Al-Qaeda-inspired group battled Hamas security in shoot-outs that killed at least 13 people. Hamas forces surrounded a mosque in the town of Rafah, where about 100 members of the group were holed up, after Moussa defied Gaza’s Hamas rulers by declaring in a Friday prayer sermon that the territory was an Islamic emirate.
Cape Verde
Clinton touts tough love
SANTA MARIA — Winding up an 11-day African tour, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday she’s optimistic about its future and voiced no regrets about “tough love” messages she gave leaders there.
“I love coming to Africa,” Clinton said at a news conference in Cape Verde.
“I have been overwhelmed,” she said of her visits to Kenya, South Africa, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Liberia, as well as Cape Verde. “I have been filled with hope and I have seen despair. But I come away with an even greater level of commitment than I had before.”
She used the tour to reinforce a message that President Barack Obama brought to Africa earlier this year, a call for leaders to fight corruption, promote democracy, and combat civil strife, disease, violence and squalor.
NIGERIA
Vaccine leads to polio
Polio, the dreaded paralyzing disease stamped out in the industrialized world, is spreading in Nigeria. And health officials say in some cases, it’s caused by the vaccine used to fight it.
In July, the World Health Organization issued a warning that this vaccine-spread virus might extend beyond Africa. So far, 124 Nigerian children have been paralyzed this year — about twice those afflicted in 2008.
The polio problem is just the latest challenge to global health authorities trying to convince wary citizens that vaccines can save them from dreaded disease. For years, myths have abounded about vaccines — that they were the Western world’s plan to sterilize Africans or give them AIDS. The sad polio reality underscores the challenges authorities face using a flawed vaccine.
TAIWAN
Leader urges on rescuers
TAIPEI — Floods and mudslides unleashed by Typhoon Morakot last weekend have killed about 500 people on the island, Taiwan’s president said Friday as he called on rescue crews to step up their efforts.
Morakot destroyed the homes of 7,000 people and caused agricultural and property damage in excess of $1.5 billion, President Ma Ying-jeou said at a national security conference, the first called since he took office 15 months ago.
He called it the most severe damage to the island in more than 50 years.
Morakot dumped more than 80 inches of rain on the island last weekend and stranded thousands in villages in the mountainous south. A total of 15,400 villagers have been ferried to safety, and rescuers are working to save another 1,900 people still stuck.
Georgia
U.S. training may irk Russia
TBILISI — A group of U.S. Marines will arrive in Georgia to help train its troops for a mission alongside coalition forces in Afghanistan, the U.S. Embassy said Friday.
The program starts Sept. 1 and is likely to vex neighboring Russia, which has strongly spoken out against U.S. military assistance to Georgia.
The U.S. Embassy said in a statement that the training will focus on skills necessary for the troops to operate in Afghanistan. It said that a Georgian battalion is set to deploy to Afghanistan next spring.
The Embassy described Georgia’s offer to send troops to Afghanistan as “a vital contribution to the mission of bringing stability and security to Afghanistan.”
