Disbelief as cat travels across the world in shipping container
Animal control officers in the Midwest rescued a cat from China that was found inside a shipping container in Oakdale, Minnesota, after a three-week journey across the Pacific Ocean.
Workers unloading the container discovered the emaciated cat hidden beneath a pallet.
Officials believe the cat survived by drinking condensation and possibly eating rodents; it was severely dehydrated and underweight when found.
The cat, named Stowaway by the Northwoods Humane Society, is receiving medical care and will be available for adoption once recovered.
The animal control team described the rescue as a "miracle" and sought name suggestions on Facebook, with followers proposing names like Plum Blossom, Carmen, and Mira.
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The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
UK student missed doomed Air India flight by minutes: ‘It's a miracle'
A student has described the 'miracle' of missing the Air India flight that crashed, killing 241 people on board. Bhoomi Chauhan, 28, said she was angry and frustrated after a traffic jam on the way to the airport meant she missed boarding the flight by just ten minutes. Ms Chauhan, a business administration student who lives in Bristol, said she was turned away by airport staff. She told the BBC: 'We got very angry with our driver and left the airport in frustration. I was very disappointed. We left the airport and stood at a place to drink tea and after a while, before leaving... we were talking to the travel agent about how to get a refund for the ticket. There, I got a call that the plane had gone down'. She said it was 'totally a miracle for me'. The Air India flight crashed on Thursday shortly after taking off for London Gatwick, plummeting into a densely populated residential area near Ahmedabad airport. More than 50 Britons were among those on board, with one British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh is believed to be the only survivor. Ms Chauhan said she arrived at the airport at 12:20pm local time, just ten minutes after people were scheduled to start boarding the flight. She told reporters that she had travelled from Ankleshwar - around 125 miles south of Ahmedabad. She added that she was 'dejected' after missing the flight and was annoyed that she had not started her journey to the airport earlier. Ms Chauhan added that when she found out that the flight had crashed, she was 'totally numb', local media reported. Her mother reportedly attributed Ms Chauhan's survival to the blessings of the Mother Goddess, telling reporters: 'We thank Mother Goddess for protecting my daughter.' India's civil aviation minister has said that a black box has now been found at the site of the Air India plane crash. The flight data recorder will hopefully shed light on why the plane crashed less than 60 seconds after take-off. India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is leading the inquiry, helped by teams from the US and UK. Air India has said that there were 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian on the aircraft. Families in India with concerns can call Air India on 1800 5691 444. Those outside India can call the British Foreign Office on 020 7008 5000.
The Independent
16 hours ago
- The Independent
News that 1 man survived the Air India plane crash weighs on some other sole survivors
News of the sole survivor of an Air India plane crash that killed the other 241 people aboard has led to endless online fascination, but it has also stirred up painful feelings for a handful of others who have had similar fates. Tens of thousands of people have searched for details about Vishwashkumar Ramesh since Thursday's crash, according to Google Trends. People have commented on social media that the idea seems unreal, remarkable, a work of divine intervention, and a miracle. But it has happened more than a dozen times before. George Lamson Jr., who was the lone survivor of a Galaxy Airlines crash more than 40 years ago, said such stories always deeply affect him. Surviving the Air India crash Ramesh told India's national broadcaster that he still can't believe he's alive after his brother and more than 200 others died in the crash. He said the aircraft seemed to become stuck immediately after takeoff. The lights then came on, he said, and right after that it accelerated but seemed unable to gain height before it crashed. He said the side of the plane where he was seated fell onto the ground floor of a building and there was space for him to escape after the door broke open. He unfastened his seat belt and forced himself out of the plane. 'When I opened my eyes, I realized I was alive,' he said. Surviving leaves 'a lasting echo' Lamson, who was a 17-year-old from Plymouth, Minnesota, when he survived the Galaxy crash in Reno in 1985, didn't respond to messages from The Associated Press this week. But he has talked about his feelings on social media and in the 2013 'Sole Survivor' documentary that focused on him and 13 other sole survivors of major airline crashes. Lamson posted Thursday that he stays in touch with other sole survivors and he finds that 'there's an unspoken understanding, and it's been comforting.' 'My heart goes out to the survivor in India and to all the families waking up to loss today,' Lamson wrote. 'There are no right words for moments like this, but I wanted to acknowledge it. These events don't just make headlines. They leave a lasting echo in the lives of those who've lived through something similar.' A pilot with survivor's guilt Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky. When his wife told him that everyone else on the plane died, Polehinke wept. 'My first concern was the passengers that were my responsibility that day,' he said in the 'Sole Survivor' documentary. Adding to the survivor's guilt is the fact that the airline announced in the aftermath of the crash that Polehinke and the pilot violated policy by having an extended personal conversation when they were supposed to be focused on the flight. But one of the investigators of that crash told the filmmakers that the pilots' personal conversation likely had nothing to do with the crash, and everyone told investigators that Polehinke and the pilot were highly competent professionals. But the accident still haunts Polehinke, who now uses a wheelchair to get around. 'I don't think there'll ever by a time that maybe I can forgive myself,' he said. 'I just hope that God can give the family members, some comfort, some peace and some compassion, so their burden gets less as time goes on.' 'The right place at the right time' Cecilia Crocker doesn't just carry the marks of the 1987 crash she survived on her heart and in the scars on her arms, legs and forehead. She also got an airplane tattoo on her wrist. Crocker, who was known as Cecilia Cichan at the time of the crash, said in the documentary that she thought about the crash every day. 'I got this tattoo as a reminder of where I've come from. I see it as — so many scars were put on my body against my will — and I decided to put this on my body for myself,' she said. 'I think that me surviving was random. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.' But Lamson said in the documentary that he doesn't believe in random chance and can't shake the feeling that "my life was spared for a reason either I wanted or something a higher power than me wanted." Crocker was 4 years old when she flew on Northwest Airlines Flight 255 and it crashed in the Detroit suburb of Romulus, killing 154 people on board, including her parents and brother. Two people also died on the ground. The Phoenix-bound McDonnell Douglas MD80 was clearing the runway when it tilted and the left wing clipped a light pole before shearing the top off a rental car building. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded the plane's crew failed to set the wing flaps properly for takeoff. The agency also said a cockpit warning system did not alert the crew to the problem. Aviation experts have said that video of the Air India crash raises questions about whether the flaps were set properly this time. Investigators have recovered the plane's flight data recorder, but they have not yet determined what may have caused the crash.
The Sun
a day ago
- The Sun
Girl left ‘tasting jet fuel' in ocean & horror 2-mile fall – miraculous plane crash survivors…& why guilt haunts victims
SOMETIMES, in the midst of disaster, miracles happen. Just moments after taking off, Air India Flight AI171, bound for Gatwick, came plummeting to the ground in a terrifying fireball killing all on board - save one lone survivor. 13 13 Astonishing footage showed Brit Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who sat in seat 11A, walking away from the crash before rescue workers greeted him in astonishment. He was even able to produce his boarding pass before being whisked off to hospital, where he is being treated for minor injuries to his chest, eyes, and feet. Given the scale of disaster when plane crashes happen, it is very rare only one person makes it out alive. There are only a handful of people who can say they were lucky enough to be the sole survivor. But many are left with scars - both physical and mental - traumatised by memories of plummeting from the sky, and haunted by the sudden loss of their family members. Speaking to the media shortly after his miraculous survival was confirmed, Vishwash said: 'Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. 'It all happened so quickly. When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me. " Dr Marianne Trent, clinical psychologist and author of the Grief Collection, said Vishwash is likely to suffer from survivors guilt. She said: "There's no real sense why that should have been the one seat where the sole survivor sat. "People often swap seats on planes and he might have a sense of 'why me?'" Brit survivor WALKS AWAY unscathed from Air India plane crash after jumping from flaming jet 'America's Orphan' Vishwash isn't the only person to have walked away from a plane crash, losing family members in the process. At just four years old, Cecelia Crocker became the sole survivor when Northwest Airlines flight 225 crashed just moments after taking off from Detroit, in 1987. The other 154 people on board were killed, as were two people on the ground. But Cecelia Crocker survived - becoming known as 'America's Orphan'. "I think about the accident every day," said Crocker, now 42. "It's kind of hard not to think about it when I look in the mirror. I have visual scars, my arms and my legs and I have scars on my forehead." 13 13 13 Though Cecelia doesn't remember the incident herself, her mum, dad, and six-year-old brother David were all killed. It is believed that Cecelia's mum, Paula, shielded her. "When I realised I was the only person to survive that plane crash, I was maybe in middle school, high school maybe," Crocker said. "Being an adolescent and confused, so it was just extra stress for me. I remember feeling angry and survivor's guilt. Why didn't my brother survive? Why didn't anybody? Why me?" Dr Trent added that these feelings can linger on for years and affect every aspect of their lives. "You might not feel worthy of people's good thoughts and sympathy because you're not the one who died,' she said. "People with survivor's guilt withdraw into themselves, their world becomes smaller, there's an impact on their functioning, their ability to get things done.' Clinging for life Back in 2009, a Yemenia Airways flight plummeted into the Indian Ocean with its engines at full throttle. All 152 on board were killed - except 12-year-old Bahia Bakari, who was on the way to her grandfather's wedding. She was left drifting in the water for hours with 'the taste of jet fuel' in her mouth, and only a piece of debris to cling on to. Speaking to a French court, she recalled the moment things started to go wrong. 'I started to feel the turbulence but nobody was reacting much, so I told myself it must be normal,' said Bahia. 'I felt something like an electric shock go through my body. There's a black hole between the moment when I was seated in the plane and the moment I found myself in the water.' 13 13 13 She remembers trying to climb up on to the wreckage, but lacked the strength to do so in the choppy waters. It was only in the hospital that she was told she was the lone survivor. Jungle fall Others who survived found themselves not in the water but in thick jungle - yet just as far from civilisation as anyone stuck in the ocean. Juliane Koepcke was flying over the Peruvian rainforest with her mother in 1971 when her plane was struck by lightning. Aged just 17, she survived not only a two-mile fall to the ground but a ten day trek through the Amazon. After flying into a dark cloud, her plane became engulfed by lightning, she recalled. 'My mother and I held hands but we were unable to speak. Other passengers began to cry and weep and scream,' she told the BBC. 'My mother said very calmly: 'That is the end, it's all over'. Those were the last words I ever heard from her. 'The plane jumped down and went into a nose-dive,' added Juliane. 'It was pitch black and people were screaming, then the deep roaring of the engines filled my head completely. 'Suddenly the noise stopped and I was outside the plane. I was in freefall. I could see the canopy of the jungle spinning towards me.' Alone with a broken collarbone and deep cuts to her legs, and wearing only a short, sleeveless mini-dress and white sandals, she began to walk. 13 Only a small bag of sweets kept her from total starvation. Initially thinking she was hallucinating, Juliane came across a boat and a hut where she spent the night, pulling maggots out of a wound in her upper arm, before finally a group of men found her the next day and took her back to civilisation. Broken bones and collapsed lung Juliane's story has parallels to that of Annette Herfkens, who, aged 31, spent eight days in the Vietnamese jungle by herself awaiting rescue. After Vietnam Airlines flight 474 dropped from the sky in 1992, killing the other 30 people on board, Annette was left with twelve broken bones, her jaw hanging off and a collapsed lung. How miracle Brit may face mental battle THOUGH lucky to be alive, Brit Vishwash Kumar Ramesh may struggle with the mental impact of yesterday's Air India crash for decades, Dr Marianne Trent, clinical psychologist, told The Sun. "Post trauma people often struggle to sleep, have intrusive thoughts and there will be triggers such as noises and smells of the fire, the smoke, booking future holidays," she said. "All those stories of the people he met along the way, or maybe those he didn't take the time to talk to, will be replaying in his mind. He will be second guessing everything he did." Dr Trent said he may even feel guilt that he walked away with minor injuries. She said: "He may just feel grateful to survive and have walked away but it's very strange that only one person survived. "We need to allow him to feel what he's feeling. Survivors of fatal car crashes who escaped with minor injuries might wish they'd broken a leg or had something physical to show for their life changing experience. "They might ask 'why don't I look different.. How can I look like the same person?' It's harder for people to empathise if you look the same way too." Dr Trent added that memories of his brother might be forever entwined with the horror of the crash. "His experience will be overlapped by grief and trauma. "Usually if you think of a brother there are thoughts about songs you might have heard growing up together, or things you did, nice memories. "But when someone dies the whole relationship changes and those thoughts can make you feel really awful and send you right down into the depths again. "The fact this is all being played out on an international stage will also be extremely hard for him and he will need a lot of psychological help to come to terms with what has happened." Her plane had crashed into a mountain ridge and she now lay surrounded by the ripped-apart fuselage, with a dead stranger across her. 'That's where you have fight or flight - I definitely chose flight,' she told the Guardian. 'I stayed in the moment. I trusted that they were going to find me. I didn't think, 'What if a tiger comes?' I thought, 'I'll deal with it when the tiger comes.' I didn't think, 'What if I die?' I thought, 'I will see about it when I die.'' Crawling along by her elbows, she managed to capture water with parts of the plane's insulation until a rescue party carried her down in a hammock. Self-harm pain In all these cases, only one passenger made it out alive. But when the plane's pilot is the sole person spared death, the feelings of survivor's guilt can be even worse. Jim Polehinke was co-pilot aboard Com Air flight 5191, which crashed seconds after takeoff from Lexington, Kentucky in 2006. 'I've cried harder than any man has ever cried, or any man should be able to cry,' he said. 'My wife was there to support me to where I could just put my head on her shoulder and cry. 'It's that constant struggle where my inner voice wants to keep going forward. "The good voice says, 'Yeah, come on, you have the inner strength to do that,' but the bad voice says, 'No, stay here, have another shot of liquor.'' Dr Trent also highlighted how harmful behaviours can become a crutch for people to deal with survivor's guilt. She said: "Sometimes people become a risk to themselves through non intentional self injury, drinking too much, not showing and looking after themselves, taking recreational drugs to cope.'
