
Thai police plane crashes in the sea, killing all 6 on board
BANGKOK, April 26, (AP): A small police plane crashed into the sea near a popular beach town in Thailand, killing all six people on board, officials said Friday. The plane was conducting a test flight to prepare for parachute training in Hua Hin district before it crashed around 8 a.m., Royal Thai Police spokesperson Archayon Kraithong said.
Officials did not immediately share the model of the propeller plane, but photos from the scene appear to show a Viking DHC-6 Twin Otter. The plane crashed near Hua Hin Airport, said the public relations department of Prachuab Kiri Khan province. The photos show the plane in the sea about 100 meters (330 feet) offshore.
The body of the plane appeared to be broken in two. All six on board were police officers, Archayon said. Five of them died at the scene and one, the pilot, died later at the hospital, he said. The cause of the crash was not immediately known. Archayon said officials are gathering evidence including data from the plane's black box.

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Arab Times
4 hours ago
- Arab Times
Kuwait mourns victims of Air India crash
KUWAIT CITY, June 12, (Agencies): His Highness the Amir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al- Sabah on Thursday sent a cable to Indian President Droupadi Murmu, offering sincere condolences and solace over the victims of the Air India flight crash, which claimed the lives of scores of victims. Similarly, His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al- Hamad Al-Sabah on Thursday sent a cable to Indian President Droupadi Murmu, expressing sincere condolences and solace over the victims of the Air India flight crash, which claimed the lives of scores of victims. His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah also sent a cable to Indian President Murmu, expressing sincere condolences and solace over the victims of the Air India flight crash. Earlier, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday voiced sympathy and solidarity with India over the crash of an Air India flight with 242 passengers on board. In a press release, the ministry expressed sincere condolences and solace to the victims' families, the leadership, government and people of India over this painful tragedy. An Air India passenger plane bound for London with more than 240 people on board crashed into a medical college after takeoff Thursday in the northwestern city of Ahmedabad, officials said, in one of India's worst airline disasters in decades. At least one person survived the crash, Dr. Shriq M with the Ahmedabad hospital told the news agency Press Trust of India. The Associated Press could not independently verify the information. Black smoke billowed from the site where the plane crashed and burst into flames near the airport in Ahmedabad, a city of more than 5 million and the capital of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state. Firefighters doused the smoking wreckage of the plane, which would have been fully loaded with fuel shortly after takeoff, and adjacent multistory buildings with water. Charred bodies lay on the ground and parts of the fuselage were scattered around the site. Indian army teams were assisting civil authorities to clear debris and help treat the injured. A video on social media showed the jet slowly descending as if it were landing. As soon as it disappeared out of view behind rows of houses, a giant fireball filled the sky. The AP was able to verify the video by matching up the flight path of the plane from the runway with the crash site and the nearby residential area. At the crash site, the tail cone of the aircraft with damaged stabilizer fins still attached to it was lodged near the top of one of the buildings. In a social media post, Modi called the crash 'heartbreaking beyond words' and said 'my thoughts are with everyone affected.' City police chief G.S. Malik told the AP that the dead could include both passengers and those on the ground. 'Exact figures on casualties are being ascertained,' he said. Sambit Patra, a lawmaker from Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, said Gujarat's former chief minister, Vijay Rupani, was among the dead. Divyansh Singh, vice president of the Federation of All India Medical Association, said at least five students from the medical college were killed on the ground and 50 others were injured. Singh said some of them were in critical condition and many people are 'feared buried in the debris.' Air India said the flight bound for London Gatwick Airport was carrying 242 passengers and crew, with 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian aboard. The Boeing 787-8 crashed into a residential area called Meghani Nagar five minutes after taking off at 1:38 p.m. (08:08 GMT), Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, the director general of the Directorate of Civil Aviation, told AP. This is the first crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. Boeing said it was 'working to gather more information.' India's aviation regulatory body said the aircraft gave a mayday call, signalling an emergency, but then did not respond to the calls made by the airport traffic control. Aviation consultant John M. Cox, the CEO of Safety Operating Systems, told the AP from Los Angeles that while the first images of the crash were poor, it appeared the aircraft had its nose up and was not climbing, which is one of the things that investigators would look at. 'At this point, it's very, very, very early; we don't know a whole lot,' he said. 'But the 787 has very extensive flight data monitoring - the parameters on the flight data recorder are in the thousands - so once we get that recorder, they'll be able to know pretty quickly what happened.' The wide-body, twin-engine aircraft was introduced in 2009, and more than 1,000 have been delivered to dozens of airlines, according to the flightradar24 website. Air India's chairman, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, said that at the moment, 'our primary focus is on supporting all the affected people and their families.' 'Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of all those affected by this devastating event,' he said. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the crash 'devastating,' and British Cabinet minister Lucy Powell said the government will provide 'all the support that it can' to those affected by the crash. 'This is an unfolding story, and it will undoubtedly be causing a huge amount of worry and concern to the many, many families and communities here and those waiting for the arrival of their loved ones,' she told lawmakers in the House of Commons. 'We send our deepest sympathy and thoughts to all those families, and the government will provide all the support that it can with those in India and those in this country as well,' she added. Britain has very close ties with India. There were nearly 1.9 million people in the country of Indian descent, according to the 2021 U.K. census. Condolences also poured in from King Charles III, who said he and his wife, Queen Camilla, were 'desperately shocked' by the crash. 'Our special prayers and deepest possible sympathy are with the families and friends of all those affected by this appallingly tragic incident across so many nations,' he said in a statement. The last major passenger plane crash in India was in 2020, when an Air India Express Boeing 737 skidded off a hilltop runway in southern India, killing 21 people. The worst air disaster in India was on Nov. 12, 1996, when a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight collided midair with a Kazakhstan Airlines Flight near Charki Dadri in Haryana state, killing all 349 on board the two planes. The crash comes days before the opening of the Paris Air Show, a major aviation expo where Boeing and European rival Airbus will showcase their aircraft and battle for jet orders from airline customers. Boeing has been in recovery mode for more than six years after Lion Air Flight 610, a Boeing 737 Max 8, plunged into the Java Sea off the coast of Indonesia minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board. Five months later, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a Boeing 737 Max 8, crashed after takeoff from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, killing 157 passengers and crew members. Shares of Boeing Co. tumbled nearly 9% before trading opened in the U.S.


Arab Times
12 hours ago
- Arab Times
Gang violence displaced record 1.3 million people in Haiti, UN report finds
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, June 12, (AP): Gang violence has displaced a record 1.3 million people across Haiti as the local government and international community struggle to contain the spiraling crisis, according to a new report released Wednesday. The UN's International Organization for Migration warned of a 24% increase in displaced people since December, with gunmen now having chased 11% of Haiti's nearly 12 million inhabitants from their home. Much of the gang violence remains centered in Port-au-Prince, but more than 230,000 people alone have been left homeless as gunmen continue to lay siege in the two largest regions north of the capital, officials said. "We need to act urgently. The strength of the Haitian people is humbling, but resilience cannot be their only refuge,' Amy Pope, IOM's director general, said in a statement. The number of makeshift shelters also has skyrocketed by more than 70%, from 142 to 246, with much of the increase reported in Haiti's once peaceful central region. The IOM noted that for the first time, regions outside Port-au-Prince have more shelters than the capital, given the ongoing violence in towns like Mirebalais and Petite Rivière. Overall, more than 80% of those displaced are staying with friends or family, although in Port-au-Prince, the majority of those displaced are staying in crowded and unsanitary makeshift shelters that include abandoned government buildings. "Many now face life without access to health care, schools, and clean water, leaving already vulnerable families struggling to survive,' according to the IOM. Hours after the report was released, officials with the UN, the Inter American Development Bank and Haiti's government and civil society gathered behind closed doors to talk about the situation. "The crisis…is only getting worse,' Bob Rae, president of the U.N.'s Economic and Social Council, said ahead of the meeting. He and other officials said it's not enough to only tackle Haiti's security crisis. Gangs that control at least 85% of Port-au-Prince are recruiting a growing number of children in the deeply impoverished country.


Arab Times
13 hours ago
- Arab Times
Third suspect detained on suspicion of planning an attack in northeastern Poland
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