Wreckage found in Manhattan was from 9/11 plane: Boeing

Boeing Co. said it was confident that a piece of aircraft, found wedged between two buildings in lower Manhattan recently, came from one of two airplanes that struck the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.

Authorities are still trying to determine which of the two planes the piece of wreckage came from.

A Boeing Co. representative confirmed to the New York Police Department that wreckage discovered last week, in a narrow alleyway behind 51 Park Place and 50 Murray Street in Manhattan's financial district, "is believed to be from one of the two aircraft destroyed on September 11, 2001, but it could not be determined which one," Paul Browne, NYPD's chief spokesman, said on Monday.

The plane part, known as a trailing edge flap actuation support structure, comes from underneath the wing of the plane, not the landing gear, as was initially believed, Browne said in a statement Monday.

The wreckage includes a "clearly visible" Boeing identification number, Browne said last week. It was wedged one story above ground level.

Browne said the discovery of the piece, which measures about 5 feet high and 3 feet wide (0.9 meter), was made on April 24 by a construction crew inspecting the rear of the Park Place building.

Police secured the area between the buildings and treated it as a potential crime scene, Browne said.

Nearly 12 years after two commercial airliners smashed into the two Manhattan skyscrapers, destroying them and killing nearly 3,000 people, city officials continue to turn up debris from the attack and to identify human remains.

The NYPD is working with the New York City medical examiner's office as it prepares to sift the soil around the site where the plane part was found for more evidence.

This month, the medical examiner's office said 39 possible human remains were discovered in 9/11 debris hauled years ago to the New York City borough of Staten Island.

Since 2006, the painstaking work has led to 34 new positive identifications of victims, according to CBS News. Around 1,000 families have never recovered any remains of their lost relatives.

For some 9/11 victims' families, the continuing discoveries of human remains and wreckage debris is a recurring reminder of the trauma they suffered as a result of the World Trade Center attacks.

"It's been a form of torture for these New York families to find out, year after year, that more body parts, more remains have been discovered and identified,'' said Debra Burlingame, a member of the 9/11 Memorial Foundation, whose brother Captain Charles Frank piloted American Airlines Flight 77, which was hijacked and struck the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

"And finding a piece of airplane wreckage makes them wonder, 'Maybe there's a piece of my husband, or my brother, or sister or mom in those buildings that were never recovered.'"

Burlingame said she doesn't fault the construction workers that found the most recent wreckage. Rather, she's simply reminded again of all the grief, she said on Monday.

"They have been haunted by these discoveries, year in and year out," she said.

The land surveyor who made the discovery told the New York Daily News that when he understood what he had stumbled upon, he was stunned.

"I realized later - this is a piece of a murder weapon lying there," surveyor Frank Van Brunt told the paper.

Calls to Van Brunt were not immediately returned.

Monday 29 April 2013

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/29/us-usa-twintowers-landinggear-idUSBRE93S0QL20130429

continue reading

Snake robot teams up with search-and-rescue dog in US

US researchers working on a snake-like robot have tested pairing it with a search-and-rescue dog.

The engineers sent two dogs fitted with harnesses containing the robot into a simulated collapsed building. The dogs then released the equipment, allowing the robot to wriggle free.

The researchers hope the technology will one day be used to locate people trapped in places inaccessible to dogs.

They are working to make the robot faster over rubble and other debris.

A video of the experiment has been posted online by Carnegie Mellon University's biorobotics lab.

Undulating joints

The test used the latest in a series of "modular snake robots" developed at the Pittsburgh-based research centre over the past decade.

The machines are designed to move through their surrounding environment by altering the angles of the links that chain together the different segments of their bodies.

This is designed to mirror the way their natural counterparts move through "lateral undulation", the synchronised muscle contractions used by snakes that allow them to appear to be gliding over the ground.

"Snake robots can use their many internal degrees of freedom to thread through tightly packed volumes, accessing locations that people and machinery otherwise cannot use," the researchers wrote.

"Moreover, these highly articulated devices can co-ordinate their internal degrees of freedom to perform a variety of locomotion capabilities that go beyond the capabilities of conventional wheeled and the recently developed legged robots."

The search-and-rescue test involved sending the dogs through a concrete pipe into the "collapsed building" at the Teex Disaster City emergency-response training centre in Texas.

They had been trained to bark when they found a point of interest. When they did so, the harnessed unlocked and deployed the robots, which then sent back a video feed via an attached wire linking the machine to its operators.

One of the problems faced by the researchers was that as the robot twisted itself about, the video also rotated, making it difficult to navigate the machine.

However, the researchers told the BBC they had since come up with a software-based fix that ensured the video would always appear the right way up, whatever way the robot's camera was angled.

The snake robot was covered in a protective skin to prevent debris falling into its joints.

Previous tests by the team have involved launching one of its snake robots up a tree, which it gripped onto.

The machine was able to do this thanks to accelerometers built into its segments, which detected when it hit the tree's bark. This then triggered a coiling action, wrapping the robot's body around a branch to prevent it falling off.



Earlier robots have successfully navigated their way through the inside of pipes, crawled into storm drains and swum through water while protected by a "waterproof skin".

Sniff and search

Carnegie Mellon University is not the only organisation seeking to equip search-and-rescue dogs with the latest technology.

Berkshire-based firm Wood & Douglas has developed a video camera designed to be strapped onto a rescue dog's head to stream live footage back to base.

"Anything that can help an earthquake or disaster situation should be welcomed," said Chris Bignell, a spokesman for the company.

"We saw such a situation in Bangladesh last week where a building collapsed and a number of levels fell on top of each other.

"Whatever would speed up the process of being able to search everywhere in such an emergency is going to be helpful.

"But the advantage of still using rescue dogs is that they are trained to sniff out victims and locate them even if they can't see them, which you wouldn't get just by using a robot."

Monday 29 April 2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22340218

continue reading

Another body with N.K. photos found in Sea of Japan

The body of a man with a metal tube containing photos of late North Korean leaders was found drifting in the Sea of Japan off Akita Prefecture, the Japan Coast Guard said.

The coast guard believes the corpse, found Sunday, is from North Korea. It was found around 100 meters off the Oga Peninsula wearing what appeared to be a lifesaving suit, the coast guard said.

A tube in the suit was found to contain photos of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, and his son and former leader Kim Jong Il.

The discovery came after the partially decomposed body of a man wearing badges of the two North Korean leaders washed ashore Saturday on the coast of Itoigawa, Niigata Prefecture.

Identical alphabetical characters believed to be the name of a boat were printed on the lifesaving suits on both bodies, the coast guard said.

The dead man found Sunday afternoon was around 162 cm tall and wearing a jacket for cold weather and work clothing, while the body found Saturday was about 150 cm tall and had five U.S. dollar bills totaling $290, according to the coast guard.

Monday 29 April 2013

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/04/30/national/body-with-n-k-photos-found-in-sea/

continue reading

Kisii unclaimed bodies pile up

The Kisii district public health officer has decried the high number of uncollected bodies at a mortuary.

Hezron Omayio said the bodies have been have been at Kisii Level 5 Hospital mortuary for more than three months.

He said the mortuary, which has a capacity for 24 bodies, is congested with more than 40 bodies including 15 still births.

“We are not going to keep the bodies any longer because the mortuary has no space," Omayio said in his office on Friday.

He said most of the bodies were brought in by police and are unidentified

“Some of the bodies have decomposed beyond recognition because they have overstayed in the facility for six to eight months," Omayio said.

He said they have tried to contact relatives in vain.

Omayio urged police from Kilgoris, Manga and Kisii to obtain a court order to bury the bodies in a mass grave.

However, he said the district's public cemetery is full.

“We have been burying and reburying bodies. There is need for a new public cemetery," Omayio said.

Governor James Ongwae said that there is need for land to relocate the cemetery.

He said lack of a cemetery has been "a major headache" for public health officials.

“Lack of a public cemetery where unclaimed bodies will be buried is a major challenge but with concerted efforts a solution will be found,” Ongwae said.

Monday 29 April 2013

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-118687/kisii-unclaimed-bodies-pile

continue reading

Deadly earthquakes strike around the world

A series of deadly earthquakes have struck many countries around the world, including China, Mexico, and Iran, in the last few weeks resulting in hundreds of injuries and deaths.

China is the most recent country to experience an earthquake and also suffered the most damage and deaths of any country. A 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck China at 8:02 a.m. on April 20, 2013 in a remote mountainous region of China’s Sichuan province. The quake killed at least 192 people, injured over 11,000 and destroyed many buildings in the area, according to officials. The Xinhua news agency reported that 6,000 troops were in the area to assist with rescue efforts. The Chinese Red Cross also sent personnel to the area with water, food, medicine and rescue equipment. While the government and Red Cross are assisting rescue efforts by removing bodies and searching for those trapped, locals affected by the disaster say little has been done to distribute aid.

Iran has also suffered a series of deadly quakes in April that have ranged in magnitude from a 5.2 to a 7.8 according to the U.S. Geological Society. At least 40 people were killed in Iran and Pakistan as a result of these quakes. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake was so powerful it was felt in New Delhi, India, where buildings swayed from the tremors. The earthquakes in Iran were located relatively close to one of the country’s nuclear power plants in Bushehr, where Iran plans to build additional reactors. There is a global concern that a future quake could affect the power plants in the region resulting in a catastrophe similar to the Fukushima meltdown in 2011 caused by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake.

Mexico experienced a 5.9 magnitude quake April 21, 2013 in the western part of the country. There were no immediate reports of casualties or injuries and there was only some minor damage in the region. The quake was powerful enough to be felt 200 miles away in Mexico City where buildings were swaying. State oil monopoly, Pemex, reported a loss of power to one of their refineries in the area, but it was unclear if this interruption was caused by the quake.

The Chaparral provided earthquake safety tips in earlier issues such as having non-perishable foods stored somewhere in your home, a supply of fresh drinking water, a “bug out” bag with emergency supplies in case you need to evacuate and a plan in case of disaster. In the next 30 years it is predicted that California has a 99.7% chance of a 6.7 magnitude quake and a 94% chance of a 7.0 magnitude quake, according to The Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast released in 2008.

Monday 29 April 2013

http://thechaparral.com/2013/04/29/deadly-earthquakes-strike-around-the-world/

continue reading

Search the database: Every FEMA-declared disaster since 1953

How many flood disasters have hit Iowa in the past 50 years? Has New York ever suffered a damaging earthquake? Search a database of every FEMA-declared disaster since 1953. Sort by state, county / local area, date and disaster type.

This database was created with information downloaded from fema.gov in April 2013. Records begin with the first disaster declaration in 1953 and feature all three disaster declaration types: major disaster, emergency and fire management assistance. County information is not available before 1964, and fire management records are considered partial due to historical nature of the data.

The database can be consulted here

Monday 29 April 2013

continue reading

Police undecided over jurisdication over mid-sea collision

The collision between the fishing trawler and the Coast Guard vessel that left six persons missing on April 25 has thrown up a rather interesting question over the jurisdictional powers of the police. Four days after the incident, the police are still undecided over whether the incident occurred within 12 nautical miles of the Goa coast or beyond that distance in the high seas - a moot issue that will determine whether the investigations in the case will be done by the Goa police or the Yellow gate police.

According to a notification of the Government of India, anything that happens beyond 12 nautical miles on the west coast comes under the jurisdiction of the Yellow Gate police station, senior police officials informed. The jurisdiction lies in Mumbai as it has an admiralty court.

Senior officials of the Yellow gate police station from Mumbai arrived in Goa on Saturday with a view to determine if the accident occurred within their jurisdictional limits. "If it is established that the incident happened beyond 12 nautical miles off the coast, the case will be handed over to the Yellow gate police for investigations," Dy SP Mohan Naik said.

Speaking to TOI, south Goa SP Shekhar Prabhudessai said that the senior officials of the Yellow gate are conducting preliminary assessment of the situation.

"Nothing has been decided as yet," he said when asked if the investigations will be handed over to the Yellow gate police. Once the Yellow gate police submit their assessment report to the South Goa police, an appropriate decision will be taken, Prabhudessai said.

Meanwhile, three bodies were recovered on Sunday during the search and rescue operations being conducted by the Navy and the Coast Guard thereby taking the total number of bodies recovered so far to four. Search is on for the remaining two missing crew members of the trawler.

Monday 29 April 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Police-undecided-over-jurisdication-over-mid-sea-collision/articleshow/19771759.cms

continue reading

2 dead, 8 missing after freighter sinks off Greece

A cargo ship sank off southern Greece after colliding with another freighter Monday, leaving two Syrian seamen dead and eight others missing and spurring a large rescue operation, officials said.

The accident occurred before 7 am (0400GMT) some 78 miles (125 kilometers) southwest of the southern Peloponnese peninsula, a Merchant Marine Ministry statement said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the collision between the Antigua-flagged Consouth and the Cook Islands-flagged Piri Reis in the Mediterranean Sea.

Weather conditions were good at the time, which facilitated rescue efforts involving coast guard vessels, merchant ships, a rescue helicopter and an airforce C-130 transport plane.

The Piri Reis, which was carrying a cargo of fertilizer to a Ukrainian port, sank, and seven of its crew of 17 Syrian seamen were rescued. Two bodies were pulled out of the sea a few hours after the collision.

The Consouth, sailing without freight from Turkey to Malta, had 16 Russian, Filippino and Polish seamen on board, all who were unhurt, the ministry said.

Monday 29 April 2013

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/10-seamen-missing-ship-sinks-off-greece-19063373

continue reading

Despite rain, finding last body buried in landfill continues

Despite the difficulty brought by sudden heavy rains, rescuers of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) are working round the clock to retrieve the body of the remaining person buried alive in the trash slide in Rodriguez, Rizal sanitary landfill.

Edward Gonzalez, chief of MMDA Road Emergency Group (REG) said the search and retrieval team is hoping to find the body of Pablito Esto. Rain puts a stop in the 24-hour operation, which resumes immediately when the weather improves.

Gonzalez said 20 personnel from the MMDA have been working in shifts so the retrieval operations will not be delayed further.

Esto was among the four people buried alive in the trash slide. The three others have been recovered by the MMDA team last week.

The bodies of Eddie Malano and Rovidico Olod were discovered by the team a day after the first victim identified as Gary Balahibo was found and retrieved from inside a backhoe buried in the trash slide.

The four workers were conducting maintenance work in the sanitary landfill when a 30-meter high trash collapsed and buried them.

Monday 29 April 2013

http://www.mb.com.ph/article.php?aid=9683&sid=1&subid=2#.UX4iRHdbUnQ

continue reading

Search continues after fire, hope dims for Bangladesh survivors

Rescue workers in Bangladesh have given up hopes of finding any more survivors, after a fire delayed their efforts to dig into the rubble of a building that collapsed five days ago.

Officials leading the operation said on Monday they doubt they will save any more lives, after they failed to rescue a young woman named Shahanaz, whom they believe was the last remaining survivor.

"We found a woman alive," Mustafa Kamal, a volunteer rescue operator, told Al Jazeera. "When we went to rescue her, an outsider joined the operation with a metal grinder, and from there it sparked, it led to a fire, and she died”.

The firefighters managed to put out the fire, but the smoke spread to several floors leading them to believe that there are no more survivors. The blaze also injured at least six rescuers.

"There is little hope of finding anyone alive. Our men went inside and saw some dead bodies in the ground floor. But no one was seen alive,'' said Brigadier General Ali Ahmed Khan, the chief of the fire brigade at the scene.

On Monday, rescuers began using heavy machinery to remove the rubble and look for bodies.

Major-General Hasan Suhrawardy, chief of the rescue operation, said the crew was using cranes and other heavy equipment "very carefully with a priority to save the survivors, if any".

Confusion over deaths, missing

Savar police Inspector Aminur Rahman put the count in Wednesday's Rana Plaza collapse at 377 at around 3pm. He earlier had said the figure was 397.

"There was some mistake in the count," the police officer in charge at the Adhar Chandra School – the place where bodies were being kept – said.

He added a total of 320 bodies were handed over to the relatives and 57 more, awaiting recognition, were sent to the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital and Mitford Hospital.

Similar 'confusions' were also looming over the number of people still missing.

Although, authorities earlier said the number is 1168, Sub-Inspector Abdul Alim said they were not being able to count the number properly at this moment due to "lack of time."

Monir Hossain, Savar district’s Assistant Superintendent of Police, however, said they had started making a list on computers from Sunday.

The rescue at the site is being carried out quite loosely.

About 2,500 survivors have been accounted for.

Monday 29 April 2013

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/04/2013428141142643708.html

http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2013/04/28/confusion-over-deaths-missing

continue reading