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News.com.au
21 hours ago
- News.com.au
Bride ‘livid' after shocking wedding cake fail
A bride was left horrified after she ordered her wedding cake from a bakery and received something far from what she had requested. Sharing her experience on the Reddit Wedding Shaming forum, the woman said the bakery made matters worse by refusing to refund the cake, which was clearly the wrong colour. 'I'm livid. We pick up our cake ON my wedding day and the colour is so off,' she said. 'We asked for a shade of dusty blue and sent two references for the colour. It's so ugly.' She then posted photos comparing her inspiration images with what she actually received, highlighting the many issues, including the colour mismatch. Not only was the cake a much darker shade of blue, but elements from the ethereal inspiration photo, like being covered in dainty flowers, were missing. Instead, just four randomly placed single flowers adorned the cake. Fortunately, the bride's sister stepped in at the last minute to 'save' the cake, with the bride confirming she did an 'amazing job'. She lightened the icing, added white draping, and placed a 'Mr and Mrs' cake topper on top. She also included more delicate-looking flowers to better match the original brief. Despite getting close to her dream cake in the end, the bride still wanted a refund from the bakery, but they refused. 'The lady on the phone was so rude and condescending,' the poster claimed. 'She told us to take pictures of the cake next to our wedding decor so she could make sure 'it ACTUALLY didn't match'. 'Well, we took pics alright. The first two photos are our reference images. I'll let you guess which picture after that was the 'before' from the bakery and which was the one my sister fixed.' Reddit users quickly sympathised with the bride. 'That dusty blue in the inspo is SO beautiful I'm so sorry they didn't deliver for you. Props to your sister,' said one user. 'Yeah, she's a miracle worker,' added a second. Some others, less impressed, believed the bakery's cake was actually better than what the sister made, even though it was the wrong colour. 'She draped fabric on the cake???' one commenter asked. 'I've never been to a wedding where it looks like the cake is getting married,' quipped another. 'This is a super weird fix. I get the colour was off, and OP should get a discount, but it's otherwise a nice cake. The fixed cake looks a mess and the fabric is a head-scratcher,' wrote another user. 'I'm sorry, but that's just horrendous. The weird, glopped-on frosting and all those flowers are just bad,' someone else added. According to Easy Weddings' 2025 Australian Wedding Industry Report, couples now spend an average of $650 on their wedding cake, a seven per cent rise from 2024. Meanwhile, one of the top five stressors for couples planning a wedding is 'finding reliable suppliers'.
News.com.au
5 days ago
- News.com.au
Sunshine Coast community rallies after petition calls for emu to be removed from wildlife park
An Emu with a substantial social media following is at the centre of simmering tensions on the Sunshine Coast after a petition was created to remove the bird from the conservation park it calls home. Fluffy the emu is something of a celebrity in the Parklands Conservation Park in Nambour, where he's known to pose for selfies, jog alongside runners and even offer willing passers by the occasional hug. Fluffy has lived in the park for eight years after he and his brother Muffy were brought there by a couple who rescued them as chicks. He now has his own Instagram page and has become an attraction of sorts, with people coming from far and wide to meet the native bird. The emu is so loved by the local community that when a petition was recently launched to remove him from the area, a counter-petition immediately sprung up with more than 10 times as many signatures. The petition calling for Fluffy's removal cites multiple incidents 'involving a hand raised emu displaying aggressive and territorial behaviour, particularly towards horses and riders'. It states that 'the emu has shown no fear of humans or animals' and that horse riders 'have expressed concern not only for their own safety but for the well being of their animals and other park users.' Local resident Tania Stickler is one of the 194 people who has thrown their support behind the petition after she was injured when she fell from her horse during an encounter with Fluffy in the park earlier this month. 'It [Fluffy] just came at me, it fluffed itself up and my horse spun. It was a blatant attack,' Ms Stickler told A Current Affair on Thursday night. 'I fell off and I was hurt, I was extensively bruised - that was a result of the fall - but he also came at me pecking before my horse took off.' She claimed that Fluffy, 'might be okay around some people, but it still has seriously hurt other people. People are scared to go there.' The park is signposted with a warning that recommends horse riders consider an alternative location in the period between May and September as 'an emu in this park is active at this time of year, particularly towards horses'. Another sign warns that two hand-raised emus live in the park and 'may approach you'. In response to the claims of aggressive behaviour, wildlife advocate and Sunshine Coast Citizen of the Year, Claire Smith, started the counter petition to protect Fluffy's right to live in the park which since amassed more than 2,700 signatures. Also speaking on ACA, Ms Smith launched into a passionate defence of the emu, calling him 'the most gentle bird'. 'Fluffy is as aggressive as a newborn kitten,' she said. 'He's so gentle that children go on the park runs with Fluffy, old people, people that are disabled, if you're running, he'll trot alongside you. Fluffy is gentle. 'He's just got this real affinity and this real urge to be with human beings.' When asked about Ms Stickler's account of Fluffy's behaviour, Ms Smith exclaimed: 'If Fluffy ever really did that, I would eat my hat, your hat, and everybody else's hats in Nambour because Fluffy is incredibly gentle.' Ms Smith argued that horse riders must be very experienced to ride through a park where wildlife are present. 'Anything can come out on a track when it's a conservation park, it could be a large snake, it could be a wallaby, a paddy melon, or it could even be a drop bear,' she said.
ABC News
6 days ago
- ABC News
Washington DC crash investigation shows chopper flying above altitude limit
Investigators probing the January midair collision of a passenger plane and a US army helicopter over Washington that killed 67 people have found the chopper was flying higher than it should have been and its altitude readings were inaccurate. The details came out of the first day of National Transportation Safety Board hearings, chaired by Jennifer Homendy, in Washington, where investigators aim to uncover insights into what caused the crash between the American Airlines plane from Wichita, Kansas, and the Black Hawk helicopter over Ronald Reagan National Airport. The board opened the three days of hearings by showing an animation and playing audio and video from the night of the collision, as well as questioning witnesses and investigators about how the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the army may have contributed to the nation's deadliest plane crash since November 2001. The board's final report will not be released until sometime next year, but it became clear on Wednesday how small a margin of error there was for helicopters flying the route the Black Hawk took the night of the nation's crash. The January night-time incident was the first in a string of crashes and near misses this year that have alarmed officials and the travelling public, despite statistics that still show flying remains the safest form of transportation. The hearing opened on Wednesday with a video animation showing where the helicopter and airliner were leading up to the collision. It showed how the helicopter flew above the 200 feet (61 metres) altitude limit on the helicopter route along the Potomac River before colliding with the plane. Investigators said the flight data recorder showed the helicopter was actually 80 to 100 feet higher than the barometric altimeter the pilots relied upon showed they were flying. So the NTSB conducted tests on three other helicopters from the same unit in a flight over the same area and found similar discrepancies in their altimeters. Sikorsky Aircraft's Dan Cooper said when the Black Hawk helicopter involved in the crash was designed in the 1970s, it used a style of altimeter that was common at the time. Newer helicopters have air data computers that did not exist back then that helped provide more accurate altitude readings. Chief Warrant Officer Kylene Lewis told the board that she would not find a 80 to 100 feet discrepancy between the different altimeters on a helicopter alarming because at lower altitudes she would be relying more on the radar altimeter than the barometric altimeter. Below 500 feet, Ms Lewis said she would be checking both instruments and cross-referencing them. She said as long as an altimeter registered an altitude within 70 feet of the published altitude before take-off, the altimeter was considered accurate under the checklists. Army officials said a discrepancy of 70 feet to 100 feet between the Black Hawk's altimeters was within the acceptable range because pilots were expected to maintain their altitude plus or minus 100 feet. The greater concern is that the FAA approved routes around Reagan airport that included such small separation distances between helicopters and planes when planes were landing. "The fact that we have less than 500 foot separation is a concern for me," said Scott Rosengren, chief engineer in the office that manages the army's utility helicopters. But Rosengren said that "if he was king for a day" he would immediately retire all the older Black Hawk models like the one involved in this crash and replace them with newer versions of the helicopters. Army officials and the head of a local medevac helicopter company that flies around Washington told the board they believed air traffic controllers would never let them fly the helicopter route involved in the crash anytime a plane was approaching the runway. Chief Warrant Officer David Van Vechten said after the crash, he talked to many of his fellow pilots and everyone had the same assumption that controllers would never allow them to fly across the path of the runway the American plane was approaching before the crash. Citing the numbers for runways, Mr Van Vetchen said that "100 per cent of the time when I was on route four and 33/15 was active" he would be instructed to hold until after the plane landed or took off from that runway. During the two minutes before the crash, one air traffic controller was directing airport traffic and helicopters in the area, a task that involved speaking to or receiving communications from several different aircraft, according to the NTSB's History of Flight Performance Study. The air traffic controller had spoken to or received communications from the Black Hawk helicopter, an airplane that was taking off, an Air Force helicopter, an airplane on the ground, a medical helicopter and an inbound flight that was not the American Airlines plane that would crash. "All aircraft could hear the controller, but helicopters could only hear other helicopters on their frequency and airplanes only other airplanes," the report stated. "This resulted in a number of stepped on transmissions as helicopters and airplanes were not aware when the other was communicating." Stepped on transmissions are those that are unheard or blocked because of other transmissions. The NTSB report provides a list of 29 separate communications between the airport tower and other aircraft during approximately the 1 minute and 57 seconds before the collision. Previously disclosed air traffic control audio had the helicopter pilot telling the controller twice that they saw the airplane and would avoid it. Officials on Wednesday also raised the use of night vision goggles, which limit the wearer's field of view, on the helicopter as a factor. The animation ended with surveillance video showing the helicopter colliding with the plane in a fiery crash. Investigations have already shown the FAA failed to recognise a troubling history of 85 near misses around Ronald Reagan National Airport in the years before the collision, and that the army's helicopters routinely flew around the nation's capital with a key piece of locating equipment, known as ADS-B Out, turned off. US senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, introduced legislation on Tuesday to require all aircraft operators to use both forms of ADS-B, or Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast, the technology to broadcast aircraft location data to other planes and air traffic controllers. Most aircraft today are equipped with ADS-B Out equipment, but the airlines would have to add the more comprehensive ADS-B In technology to their planes. The legislation would revoke an exemption on ADS-B transmission requests for Department of Defense aircrafts. National Transportation Safety Board chair Ms Homendy said her agency had been recommending that move for decades after several other crashes. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that while he would like to discuss "a few tweaks," the legislation was "the right approach." He also suggested that the previous administration "was asleep at the wheel" amid dozens of near-misses in the airspace around Washington's airspace. AP
