World News Random, Random

[ti-amie]

Brian Finucane
‪@bcfinucane.bsky.social‬
In addition to annexing Canada, reclaiming the Panama Canal, and invading Mexico, Trump still wants Greenland.

Make Territorial Conquest Great Again!

[skatingfan]

The COUNTRY OF PANAMA has a vested interest in the secure. efficient and reliable operation of the Panama Canal.
Why are these lunatics even bringing this up?

It's racketeering plain and simple. The canal makes money by charging ships for passage, and the US isn't getting that money anymore since handing the canal over to full Panamanian control.

[mmmm8]

The COUNTRY OF PANAMA has a vested interest in the secure. efficient and reliable operation of the Panama Canal.
Why are these lunatics even bringing this up?

He must have just learned like yesterday that the US had any involvement with it. It's also what skatingfan said, but I think it's probably this too.

[ti-amie]

Anger and Agony in South Korea After Plane Crash-Lands, Killing 179
A Jeju Air passenger jet carrying 181 people from Bangkok sped off the runway and burst into flames. Two crew were rescued in what was the country’s worst air disaster in decades.


By Choe Sang-HunJohn Yoon and Jin Yu Young
Choe Sang-Hun and Jin Yu Young reported from Seoul, and John Yoon from Muan International Airport, South Korea.

Dec. 29, 2024
Updated 5:15 p.m. ET

The passenger plane with 181 people onboard skidded on the runway at a high speed and slammed into a wall before exploding into flames.

Two crew members were rescued alive from the tail of the burning plane, but over the ensuing hours on Sunday, grim news trickled out to anxious relatives at Muan International Airport, in southwestern South Korea.

By late Sunday, all of the remaining 179 people onboard were confirmed dead, making the crash of the plane — flown by the popular low-cost carrier Jeju Air — the worst aviation disaster involving a South Korean airline in nearly three decades and the worst ever on South Korean soil.

Sunday’s crash was the deadliest worldwide since that of Lion Air Flight 610 in 2018, when all 189 people on board died as the plane plunged into the Java Sea, according to reports from the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency.

Officials were investigating what caused the Jeju Air flight to crash-land, including why its landing gear appeared to have malfunctioned and whether the plane had been struck by birds.

As speculation swirled about the cause of the crash, hundreds of family members of passengers endured the painful wait for news of their loved ones returning home from a trip abroad. Wails and screams filled the Muan airport on Sunday afternoon. A young woman comforted an older woman weeping about her son. Two crying women embraced each other.

By Sunday evening, only 65 of the dead could be identified through their fingerprints and other means, officials said. A dozen bodies were so badly damaged that officials could not immediately identify their gender. Those who were identified included a 23-year-old flight attendant and a 78-year-old male passenger.


Family members waiting for news at Muan International Airport in South Korea.Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

(...)

The disaster left South Korea in shock at a time when the country was grappling with a political crisis unleashed by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s ill-fated and short-lived declaration of martial law and his subsequent impeachment this month. Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, an unelected official, rushed to the scene to deal with his biggest challenge since he took office as acting president on Friday.

The plane crash was especially shocking for the country because it has had no major aviation disaster after a spate of deadly air accidents in the 1990s and earlier. In the last major aviation accident involving a South Korean airline, a Korean Air jet slammed into a hill in Guam, a U.S. territory in the western Pacific, in 1997, killing 229 of the 254 people on board.

It also appeared to have been the first fatal one for Jeju Air, which was established in 2005 and flies to dozens of countries in Asia. Kim E-bae, the chief executive of Jeju Air, bowed as he publicly apologized for the crash. He said that the exact cause of the crash was unclear.


Emergency responders were still at the scene 10 hours after the plane crashed.Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

The plane, Jeju Air Flight 7C2216, a Boeing 737-800 jet, had taken off from Bangkok with 175 passengers and six crew members. All passengers were South Koreans, except for two Thai nationals. The jet was landing at Muan, in southwestern South Korea, when it ran into trouble.

Footage of the accident showed a white-and-orange plane speeding down a runway on its belly until it rammed into a barrier at the end of the runway, exploding into a fireball. Local news media cited witnesses describing the sound of the explosion and published photographs of large plumes of black smoke over the site.

(Video is at the link if you want to see it)

The plane had broken into so many pieces that only its tail was immediately identifiable, said Lee Jeong-hyeon, an official in charge of search and rescue operations at the scene. The two crew members who survived had been rescued from the tail section.

“We could not recognize the rest of the fuselage,” Mr. Lee said.

As the death toll climbed, details of what happened in the final moments before the crash began to emerge.

As the plane was preparing to land, the airport warned the pilots about a potential bird strike, said Ju Jong-wan, a director of aviation policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Around this time, witnesses heard loud explosion-like sounds, MBC-TV reported. The channel broadcast footage showing flames trailing briefly from one of the plane’s engines.

The plane issued a mayday alert shortly after the warning from the airport, then crash-landed, Mr. Ju said.

The muddy tidal flats near Muan and much of the west coast of the Korean Peninsula are favorite resting places for migrant birds. Photographs in local media showed flocks of birds flying near the airport on Sunday.

Evidence suggested that the aircraft encountered a flock of birds during its approach, leading to suspected bird ingestion into the engines, said Marco Chan, a senior lecturer in aviation operations at the U.K.-based Buckinghamshire New University.

The damage may have caused a hydraulic system failure, which could explain the inability to deploy the landing gear, Mr. Chan said in an analysis emailed by his university.

The plane also did not appear to have activated its wing flaps, said Keith Tonkin, the managing director of Aviation Projects, an aviation consulting company in Brisbane, Australia, who reviewed video of the crash. That meant it was traveling faster than normal landing speed when it belly flopped on the runway, he said.

Aviation experts said investigations into the causes of crashes can take years.

(...)

Six hours after they dashed to the airport, Mr. Jang and his wife were still waiting for their relatives to be identified.

“I’m expecting it to be a long night,” he said.

Reporting was contributed by Yan Zhuang, River Akira Davis, Niraj Chokshi and Sui-Lee Wee.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/29/worl ... -jeju.html

[ponchi101]

I know, I know, I know. Air transportation is the safest of all means of transport.
But the last few incidents have all involved Boeing. I find that odd.

[Owendonovan]

I know, I know, I know. Air transportation is the safest of all means of transport.
But the last few incidents have all involved Boeing. I find that odd.

Or expected, given they've had a few go down as of late. (looking forward to flying tomorrow on a 767 )

[ponchi101]

I said only "odd" because, after all, we are down to only two large airplane manufacturers in the world (Brazil's Embraer is smaller, and I don't know if the Chinese sell planes outside of China). But also, the 737 is the best selling plane in the world, so there are more of them than anything else.
And yes, I will be flying on a series of 737 and 787 in a few weeks. Still safer than taking a bus between Mar Del Plata and BAIres (I guess).

[mmmm8]

I'm surprised there weren't any survivors besides the 2 crew. The Azeri plane that was shot down in the air managed to land with a bunch of survivors!

[ti-amie]

I'm surprised there weren't any survivors besides the 2 crew. The Azeri plane that was shot down in the air managed to land with a bunch of survivors!

The pilot(s) in the Azeri situation worked very hard to slow the descent of their plane. There's video of it where you can see the up and down movement of the plane. The video of the Jeju plane shows it flopped onto the ground at a high rate of speed with no landing gear, never slowed down and ran smack into a concrete wall. I think I can find the Azeri plane video. I didn't want to post either video because seeing it could be triggering for some. If I can I will simply post the links.

[ti-amie]

Jeju/South Korea plane crash.
https://youtu.be/KGiYv20l4x4?si=INOiUxkv1l-MyuMU

[ti-amie]

Early in the video you can see the pilot struggling.
https://youtu.be/BBfuE4OON6o?si=o28sO3kzV3NOXtcq

If birds made those holes in the fuselage...

https://youtu.be/RNxHiZjGc6s?si=rz2MPHXz_uEmC-E3

[ti-amie]

I have no idea why Trudeau resigned but I'm sure it wasn't so that Canada can become part of the US. Why would Canadians give up free health care?

Trudeau said he will stay on as prime minister until his successor is chosen, creating the prospect that Canada will have a lame duck head of government just as its biggest trading partner hits its exports with steep tariffs.

The resignation means there is now very little that Trudeau can do now to stave off Trump's tariff threat, says David MacNaughton, whom Trudeau appointed as Canada's ambassador to the U.S. in 2016.

"The reality is, today you announce you're stepping down, your power, your influence dissipates almost immediately," MacNaughton told CBC News on Monday.

He says Trudeau should have made this move months ago to ensure the government was prepared for Trump's potential return to the White House.

"We're going to have a few months of uncertainty right now ... and in the meantime, Trump is feeling pretty cocky these days."

Trudeau's resignation leaves Canada and its economy vulnerable to whatever Trump plans to impose, says Xavier Delgado, senior program associate with the Wilson Center's Canada Institute in Washington.

"It's a remarkable time for the prime minister to be announcing that he's stepping down," said Delgado. "Within the context of Canada-U.S. relations, it really does not make a lot of sense."

Trump reacted to Trudeau's resignation with a post on his Truth Social platform.

"Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State. The United States can no longer suffer the massive Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. Justin Trudeau knew this, and resigned," Trump said in the post.

"If Canada merged with the U.S.," Trump continued, "there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them. Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!"

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/justin ... -1.7423756

[skatingfan]

Trudeau resigned because after 9 years as Prime Minister his government had lost the support of the public, and now he has lost the support of his party.

[mmmm8]

Trudeau resigned because after 9 years as Prime Minister, his government had lost the support of the public, and now he has lost the support of his party.

Yeah, looks like a lot of in-fighting. Not the best timing.

[Suliso]

Him losing party support might have something to do with him polling at 16% public support.