Four people killed in plane crash at Algerian airport, state media report
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The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Medical community heartbroken after fatal plane crash on Navajo Nation
Federal investigators on Wednesday were trying to piece together what caused a medical transport plane to crash on the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona, killing the four people on board and leaving the medical community in neighboring New Mexico heartbroken. The two pilots, flight nurse and paramedic who were onboard were based out of Albuquerque and had worked with hospitals throughout the area. While authorities had yet to release their names, colleagues and friends shared condolences and prayers on social media. Many shared details about the crew's dedication to patients and the incredible void left by the tragedy. The crew was on its way to pick up a patient from the federal Indian Health Service hospital in Chinle when the plane crashed near the airport there, Navajo authorities said. The plan was to return to Albuquerque. The Beechcraft King Air 300 was owned by CSI Aviation. The company said in a statement that it was devastated and that the four were more than just colleagues. 'Their courage, care, and dedication will never be forgotten,' the company said. 'Our hearts are with their families, friends, and loved ones.' According to CSI Aviation's website, the nationally accredited carrier never had an accident or incident and never had any FAA sanctions. It provides medical flights in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and South Dakota. Medical transports by air from the Navajo Nation are common because most hospitals are small and do not offer advanced or trauma care. The Chinle airport is one of a handful of airports that the tribe owns and operates on the vast 27,000-square-mile (70,000-square-kilometer) reservation that stretches into Arizona, New Mexico and Utah — the largest land base of any Native American tribe. Aviation safety consultant Jeff Guzzetti, who is a former NTSB and FAA crash investigator, said it's difficult to say what caused this crash in a remote area like Chinle because so few details are readily available. The high altitude of Chinle, which sits just over 5,500 feet above sea level, and the high temperatures Tuesday around 95 degrees can make it harder for a plane to get the lift it needs to fly, but Guzzetti said that is usually more of an issue at takeoff — rather than landing — and this kind of Beechcraft Super King Air plane has plenty of power with its twin turboprop engines. The plane also shouldn't have been overweight because it had already burned off fuel during its flight and hadn't yet picked up the patient. At the time the plane was trying to land, the wind was gusting up to 28 knots, which could have made landing difficult at the Chinle airport, which has a narrow, 60-foot-wide runway. 'Gusting crosswinds to 28 knots can make things a little bit challenging,' Guzzetti said. 'The winds might have been an issue.' Aside from examining the wreckage, NTSB investigators will be reviewing flight data, any air traffic control communications, aircraft maintenance records and weather conditions at the time as they try to determine what caused the crash. ___ AP Transportation Writer Josh Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska.
BBC News
19 hours ago
- BBC News
Oceangate's Titan whistleblower: 'People were sold a lie'
When the Titan submersible went missing during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic in 2023, David Lochridge hoped the five people on board – including his former boss - could be rescued."I always hoped that what happened wouldn't happen. But I just knew if they kept carrying on the way they were going and with that deficient equipment, then there would be an incident," he told the whistleblower had been sacked by the firm behind the sub, Oceangate, after warning about safety issues in June 2023 the sub imploded killing all five people on board – including Oceangate CEO Stockton Rush. A report from the US Coast Guard (USCG) published on Tuesday found that Oceangate's failures over safety, testing and maintenance were the main cause of the disaster."There is so much that could have been done differently. From the initial design, to the build, to the operations - people were sold a lie," Lochridge told the he firmly believes the US authorities could - and should - have done more to stop Oceangate. Lochridge had joined Oceangate seven years earlier as the company's Director of Marine Operations. He moved his family from Scotland to the US, and was full of excitement about the company's was building a new submersible to take paying passengers down to the most famous wreck in the world - the he was going to be involved in the project from the very start, working alongside the team designing the straight-talking Glaswegian has worked at sea for more than 25 years, first with the Royal Navy and later as a submersible pilot. He also led submarine rescue operations, responding to distress calls from people trapped underwater. He knows about the risks involved in deep responsibilities included planning dives and, as chief pilot, he would be the one taking the sub and its passengers 3,800m beneath the waves to see the Titanic. Safety was at the heart of his role."As the director of marine operations, I'm the one responsible for everybody," he told BBC News. "I was responsible for the safety of all Oceangate personnel and all of the passengers that were going to be coming in the sub." A prototype for the new submersible, which would eventually be called Titan, was being developed with the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). The plan was to build its hull - the part where the passengers would sit - out of carbon deep diving sub had been made out of this material before - most have hulls constructed from titanium or steel. But Lochridge had confidence in the APL said he was told by Oceangate's CEO Stockton Rush that the craft would undergo a safety assessment by an independent marine organisation, known as was adamant that this third-party oversight was essential - especially because Titan was to be made of experimental by the summer of 2016 he was starting to have doubts about the stopped working with APL and decided to bring the design and construction of Titan was worried. He didn't have the same confidence in Oceangate's engineers. He told the BBC he didn't think they had experience of building subs able to withstand the immense pressures found at the depth of the Titanic."At that point, I started asking questions… and I felt I had a duty of care to keep asking them," he the parts for Titan began to arrive, and the craft started to take shape, Lochridge said he was spotting problem after problem."When the carbon hull came in, it was an absolute mess," he saw visible gaps in the material, areas where the layers of carbon fibre were coming apart - known as he identified issues with other key components. The carbon fibre hull had titanium domes fitted on each end, but he said the metal had been machined incorrectly. He was also worried that the sub's view port had not been designed to work at extreme concerning, he learnt that Titan was not going to be independently certified for told the BBC that he had always been outspoken on safety issues - so he wasn't going to stay silent."I brought up all the issues that I was seeing… but I was just met with resistance all the way," he January 2018, he outlined his concerns again to Stockton Rush. This time Rush asked him to complete an inspection of the was at a crucial point of its development. Passengers had already paid deposits for dives to the Titanic planned for later that year. Test dives were about to start in the Bahamas before those expeditions got wanted Oceangate to delay these plans."I formulated a report and I sent it out to all the directors in the company."The following day he was summoned to a meeting with Rush and several other Oceangate employees.A transcript from the two-hour-long meeting, where the itemised report was picked over, reveals a heated exchange between Lochridge and the end of the meeting, in response to Lochridge's safety concerns, Rush says: "I have no desire to die. I've got a nice granddaughter. I'm going to be around. I understand this kind of risk, and I'm going into it with eyes open, and I think this is one of the safest things I will ever do."To Lochridge's surprise, immediately after this meeting he was he was so concerned about Titan that he got in touch with the US government's Occupational Safety and Health Administration - told him his case was urgent because it involved public safety and that he would be placed under the whistleblower protection scheme, designed to protect employees from retaliation by employers if they've reported concerns about workplace part of this process, OSHA passed Lochridge's concerns about Titan to the US Coast Guard (USCG) in February Lochridge says after OSHA wrote to Oceangate to tell them it was starting an investigation, everything March, Oceangate asked Lochridge to drop the OSHA complaint - and demanded he pay $10,000 for legal costs. Lochridge in July 2018, Oceangate sued Lochridge - and his wife Carole - for breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets, fraud and theft, amongst other allegations. The following month, Lochridge countersued for unfair maintains that throughout the process OSHA was slow and failed to protect him from the ongoing retaliation he was receiving from Oceangate."I provided all the documentation to OSHA, I was on the phone to OSHA every few weeks." he said. "OSHA did nothing." 'They beat us down' In December 2018, under increasing pressure from Oceangate's lawyers, Lochridge and his wife took the decision to drop the meant the legal proceedings were settled, and as part of this agreement Lochridge withdrew his complaint at OSHA. OSHA stopped its investigation and also notified the US Coast guard that the complaint had been suspended. Lochridge also signed a non-disclosure agreement."Carole and I did everything we physically could, we just got to the point that we were completely burned… We had nothing left to give to it. They beat us down."Oceangate continued at pace with its plans to reach the 2018 and 2019, the prototype sub made its first test dives in the Bahamas - including one, piloted by Stockton Rush, that reached a depth of 3,939m.A crack was later found in the sub's carbon fibre hull, and in 2020 that damaged hull was swapped out for a new one, in what became the second version of Titan. In 2021, the company started taking passengers to the Titanic, and over the next two summers made 13 dives to the famous in June 2023, the sub went missing with five people on board - including Stockton Rush. After days of anxious waiting, the sub's wreckage was found littered across the ocean the US Coast Guard's public hearings held last year, Lochridge criticised OSHA for its lack of action. "I believe that if OSHA had attempted to investigate the seriousness of the concerns I raised on multiple occasions, this tragedy may have been prevented.""It didn't need to happen. It didn't - and it should have been stopped."In response to Mr Lochridge, a spokesperson for OSHA said its whistleblower protection programme was limited to protecting individuals against employer retaliation. They said their investigation had "followed the normal process and timeline for a retaliation case".OSHA said it does not investigate whistleblowers' underlying allegations about public safety… but instead refers those to the appropriate agency - in this case, the US Coast spokesperson said: "The Coast Guard, not OSHA, had jurisdiction to investigate Mr. Lochridge's allegations regarding the safe design and construction of marine vessels."But the US Coast Guard's report into the disaster agrees with Lochridge and says that OSHA's slow handling of the investigation was a missed opportunity for early government report also criticises a lack of effective communication and coordination between OSHA and the USCG. It said action has now been taken to improve this following the disaster. Jason Neubauer, the chair of the USCG's Marine Board of Investigation, told the BBC that the coast guard could have done more. "The system did not work for the whistleblower in this case, and that's why we just need to get better - and we have."Oceangate said that in the wake of the accident, it had permanently wound down operations and directed its resources towards cooperating with the inquiry.
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
Four dead after medical transport plane crashes on Navajo Nation in northern Arizona
A medical transport plane crashed and caught fire Tuesday afternoon on the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona, killing all four passengers, officials said. The crash occurred around 12:40pm, near the Chinle Municipal Airport, as the group was en route to pick up a patient. 'I am heartbroken to learn of the tragic plane crash near the Chinle Airport, which claimed the lives of four medical personnel who were non-local,' Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said in a statement on Facebook. 'These were people who dedicated their lives to saving others, and their loss is felt deeply across the Navajo Nation.' The cause of the crash is unknown. Police have not named the victims, though they were described in a statement as a 'non-local' group on an aircraft from CSI Aviation, based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The company has notified their next of kin, the Navajo Police Department said. CSI Aviation, founded in 1979, conducts flights for medical transport and government clients, according to its website. The Independent has contacted the company for comment. Navajo police, fire, and EMS were on the scene of the crash. Pictures of the incident showed a small, charred plane wreck near a patch of asphalt. The aircraft that crashed was a Beechcraft 300 dual-propeller plane, the Associated Press reports. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating. The crash comes just over a week after three died in a private plane crash on the California coast.
