Update: Five killed in Ukraine helicopter crash

A police helicopter belonging to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry crashed shortly after take-off in the central part of the country, killing five people on board, officials said.

The Mi-8 helicopter slammed into the ground just after taking off from an airport in the city of Alexandria in the Kirovograd region, about 200 miles south east of the capital, Kiev, ministry spokesman Serhiy Burlakov said.

Investigators were working to determine what caused the helicopter to hit the ground as it was gaining speed, Mr Burlakov said.

Three of the dead were crew members, and two were ground staff on board the helicopter.

The Mi-8 is a workhorse helicopter used widely in civilian and military aviation in former Soviet states.

Mi-8 crashes are often blamed on poor maintenance, ageing equipment, a disregard for safety regulations and a cost-cutting mentality.

Wednesday 26 December 2012

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/world/five-killed-in-helicopter-crash-579027.html

Kazakh rescuers find flight recorder after military plane crash

Rescue teams have recovered a flight recorder from a plane which crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday morning, killing all 27 people on board in the country's worst military air disaster since independence.

The twin-engine Antonov An-72 transport jet disappeared from radar screens at about 0200 NZT as it was circling in a raging blizzard, trying to land at the city of Shymkent, the capital of the South Kazakhstan Region.

It crashed into an open-cast mine, littering the area with mangled, burning fragments.

The plane belonged to the border troops of Kazakhstan's KNB security service. Those killed included the commander of the country's border guards, Turganbek Stambekov, and his wife.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered a national day of mourning on Thursday, his press service said.

"Most probably, the black box (flight recorder) will give us a clue about what caused this catastrophe," KNB chief Nurtai Abykayev told a news conference in Shymkent, according to local media.

"Special commissions that are investigating will look into various possible causes. These can include weather conditions, the human factor or the plane's technical condition. Anything."

The Soviet-designed plane, which can take off from rough gravel runways just 800 metres long, is widely considered to be a reliable and sturdy workhorse of the air forces of several former Soviet states.

The one that crashed near Shymkent was made in 1990, and in November it underwent maintenance at the factory in Ukraine that built it, after which it had accumulated just 40 hours of flight time, including 30 take-offs and landings, local media said.

The plane was carrying officers from Kazakhstan's southern border protection district who had attended an annual meeting in the capital Astana.

Oil-producer Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest economy, has seen accidents with smaller military aircraft and helicopters during the 21 years of its independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Kazakhstan is predominantly Muslim and according to Islamic tradition the first funerals of those killed in the crash should have been held on Wednesday. But this was not possible because medical experts still had to identify badly mutilated bodies, Abykayev said.

Several distraught relatives could be seen near the cordoned-off crash site on Wednesday. They did not try to conceal their anger and frustration.

"They should have allowed us to take away the remains and bury them," a middle-aged woman, whose brother was among the killed officers, told Kazakhstan's Channel 7 television.

"My brother left four children. They must know where their father died so they can bring flowers here," she said. "He had great plans which will never be realised. He aspired to rise to the rank of general."

Thursday will be the second time Kazakhstan, a vast nation of 17 million people, will observe a day of national mourning this year. In June, the country mourned 14 border guards and a herder killed by a fellow serviceman at a remote border post near China's border.

In one of the world's worst civilian air disasters, an Ilyushin IL-76 cargo plane from Shymkent collided in midair with a Saudia Boeing 747 near New Delhi in November 1996, killing all 349 aboard both planes.

Wednesday 26 December 2012

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/kazakh-rescuers-find-flight-recorder-after-military-plane-crash-5304768

Remains of veteran killed in 1946 crash identified, laid to rest after decades of searching

Sixty-six years after his plane went down in the French-Italian Alps, the remains of Staff Sgt. Zoltan Dobovich are being brought to Burlington County for final burial.

He’ll be home for the holidays – 66 years after he passed away.

The family of Army staff sergeant Zoltan Joseph Dobovich, who died in a plane crash during the aftermath of World War II, is welcoming home his remains.

Dobovich was one of eight who died on November 1, 1946, when a B-17 Flying Fortress crashed at Aiguille des Glaciers, in the French-Italian Alps. The plane was flying from Naples, Italy, to England, according to Phillyburbs.com.

Dobovich, a 21-year-old from Pennsylvania, was the radio operator that night. He radioed in a successful takeoff. That was the last time anyone heard from the crew.

The plane missed clearing a mountain peak by only a few yards, according to an Air Force report. The explosion that followed scattered remains of the eight soldiers on both French and Italian ground.

The wreckage was found on July 28, 1947. Since the crash site was on a glacier 12,000 feet up in the Alps, it took decades to recover what was left of the bodies. As the glacier retreated over the years, more of the site was uncovered. Remains were found by both the U.S. and Italian military authorities throughout the 1970s and 1980s. All remains were buried together in a single grave at Arlington National Cemetery, unidentified.

But thanks to the work of scientists at the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory in Honolulu, Dobovich’s remains have finally been found. On Christmas eve, an honor escort flew the veteran’s remains from an Air Force base in Hawaii to Philadelphia International Airport.

Several veterans organizations will honor Dobovich as he is laid to rest. The Patriots Guard and Warriors Watch escorted Dobovich’s hearse on the way to the Perinchief funeral home in Mt. Holly, N.J.

At Governor Christopher Christie’s request, flags will fly at half staff at all New Jersey state facilities on Thursday in remembrance of Dobovich’s service to the country, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

Dobovich is survived by his niece Rosalie Baker, and two nephews, Joseph Dobovich and Carlton Dobovich.

According to Carlton Dobovich, his uncle joined the military on Dec. 7, 1943, exactly two years after the Pearl Harbor attack.

Dobovich will be laid to rest in the Brig. Gen. William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Burlington County, New Jersey.

In 2006, Zolton Dobovich’s brother and fellow military vet, Anthony Dobovich, was buried in the same cemetery.

“It really feels good knowing he’s been identified and we’ll have him close so we can visit him,” Carlton Dobovich told the Inquirer.

Wednesday 26 December 2012

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/remains-wwii-vet-finally-identified-laid-rest-article-1.1227230#ixzz2GBOGf8Hh

Aia remembers 2004 tsunami

MUTMAINAH sits quietly with her brother at a mass grave on the outskirts of Banda Aceh on Indonesia's Sumatra island, quietly reading their prayer books.

They lost five members of their family in the December 26, 2004, tsunami, which killed nearly a quarter of a million people.

"We left Aceh after the tsunami," she said in Siron on Wednesday on the eighth anniversary of the disaster. "We didn't reopen our shop in Banda Aceh and moved it to Medan."

The middle-aged siblings joined hundreds of others in mourning at mass graves and local mosques.

Music and prayers were performed throughout the day at a newly built tsunami museum in the hardest-hit region of Aceh, located on the northern tip of Sumatra.

The disaster, triggered by a 9.3-magnitude earthquake off Sumatra, killed an estimated 230,000 people in 13 countries on the Indian Ocean, including 170,000 in Aceh and on Nias Island.

Thousands attended a ceremony to mark the anniversary in the port of Malahayati in Krueng Raya, outside the provincial capital.

Red-and-white Indonesian flags flew at half-staff along the streets leading to the port.

Ogasawara Jun, who was in a group of eight Japanese teachers at the commemorations, said he could relate to what the Acehnese were feeling because both countries had suffered losses and devastation from tsunamis.

Jun - from Miyako in the northeastern prefecture of Iwate, which was hit by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami - said he came to Banda Aceh especially for the eight-year anniversary.

"We both have lost so much from strong quakes and tsunamis," he said. "The sadness and pain may never be lifted, even with the passing of time, but I believe that Indonesia and Japan can help each other to build a bright future."

On Thailand's resort island of Phuket, a multi-faith Buddhist, Christian and Muslim service was held early on Wednesday at the Tsunami Memorial Wall, near Mai Khao village.

The area was used to store thousands of bodies until they could be identified in the aftermath of the tsunami that killed up to 8000 people on the western seaboard of Thailand's southern provinces, about half of them foreign tourists.

"I hope the ceremony will bring encouragement to the victims' relatives and that they will feel better that we have never stopped caring about their lost ones," said Wirat Makaew, deputy chief of Mai Khao village, after laying a wreath at the memorial wall.

A candle-lit memorial service was also planned for sunset on the island's Patong beach.

Music, speeches, prayers and a minute of silence were scheduled to be observed by survivors and mourners.

Wednesday 26 December 2012

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/asia-remembers-2004-tsunami/story-fn3dxix6-1226543766622