Two Cathay Pacific pilots die in violent Hong Kong Porsche crash

Police examine the burnt-out remains of the Porsche. Photo: Metro Daily

Two Cathay Pacific pilots were killed in a car accident in Kwai Chung in the early hours of Thursday, Apple Daily reported Friday.

Ian Wong, 27, and Michael Tam, 28, co-pilots for the airline, were going for a late-night drive with three Dragonair pilots of similar age at the Container Port Road South.

Witnesses reported seeing a BMW M3, believed to be driven by Tam, performing “drifting” maneuvers in an open space.
At about 4:35 a.m., Wong was believed to be driving his 2006 Porsche Cayman S, with Tam in the car, at high speed down the Container Port Road.

The high-powered sports coupe, which cost HK$1.13 million (US$150,000) new nine years ago, smashed into a bridge column after hitting a road divider.

The car burst into flames within three minutes as the three Dragonair pilots and workers at the container terminal about 600 hundred meters away looked on helplessly.

The pair could not escape and were burnt to death.

Firefighters removed their charred bodies after putting out the fire.

Inspector Ma Wai-hung of New Territories South police said the location is not a hot spot for car racing and that no alcohol was found at the scene.

Police are investigating the accident to determine whether it was related to speed, driving attitude or medical reasons.

A Cathay Pacific representative said the company is very sorry for the losses suffered by the two employees’ families and will provide them with support and any necessary assistance.

Source: ejinsight

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Chilean's round-the-world record cycling quest ends in death on Thai highway

Guillermo, from Chile, had set off on his world recording breaking bike trip in 2010 with the target of cycling 250,000Km over 5 years.

Juan Francisco Guillermo, who was trying to cycle 250,000km in five years, was killed after being hit by truck in north-east Thailand, police said

A Chilean cyclist’s attempt to set a record for biking around the world has ended with his death in a road accident in northeast Thailand, police said on Sunday.

Juan Francisco Guillermo, 47, was hit by a pickup truck and immediately killed Saturday on a highway in Nakhon Ratchasima province.


According to police and accounts on social media, Guillermo was attempting to set a Guinness world record by cycling 250,000km (155,350 miles) on five continents in five years. His journey started in November 2010 and was scheduled to end in November this year.

Guillermo’s wife was on another bicycle with their two-year-old son and suffered a slight sprain in the accident, said police Col Torsak Thammingmongkol. It was not clear how long they had accompanied Guillermo in his round-the-world cycling odyssey.

The driver of the pickup truck was arrested on a charge of causing death by dangerous driving and released on bail, said Torsak. The offense carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

“It was an accident caused by the driver’s recklessness. The road was straight and the cyclist was in his own lane,” the officer said.

The death comes as Thailand’s government is trying hard to promote bicycling for commuting, sport and tourism.

In February 2013, a British couple on a similar round-the-world quest was killed in a road accident in eastern Thailand.

Source: The Guardian

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At least 20 dead after power line falls on Haiti carnival float

The moment a performer on top of a float at the Haiti Carnival got caught by an overhead power line as the parade passed through the streets of Port-au-Prince in the early hours of the morning

At least 20 people were killed during a Carnival parade in Haiti’s capital early Tuesday when a music group’s float hit a low-hanging power line, causing them to be electrocuted, officials said.

The accident occurred as thousands of people filled the streets of downtown Port-au-Prince for the raucous annual celebration. People at the scene said someone on the float touched an overhead power line with a pole or stick as the float passed underneath it.

    There were conflicting reports on the number of casualties. Nadia Lochard, a coordinator for the Department of Civil Protection, said at least 20 people were killed and 46 were injured.

The float, one of 16 in the downtown Carnival parade, was sponsored by the Haitian hip-hop group Barikad Crew. Some of the victims were instantly electrocuted in a flash of sparks, according to witnesses. Others managed to jump off, causing panic in the crowd.

“I saw the wire falling and sparks and I started running for my life,” said Natacha Saint Fleur, a 22-year-old who was near the float at the time.

Hundreds of people thronged the General Hospital, where many of the victims were taken, some carrying victims and others searching for family members brought by ambulance.

Haitian officials were expected to announce later Tuesday whether they would cancel a second day of Carnival events. Communications Minister Rothchild Francis said the government was working to assist victims.

It is a common practice in Haiti and elsewhere to have someone at the top of a parade float who moves low-hanging power lines. In Brazil, officials said three people were killed when they were electrocuted while standing atop a Carnival float that hit a power line early Tuesday on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.

Source: The Guardian

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WATCH: 9-year-old survives being sucked into flooded storm drain

A nine-year-old boy and his uncle are alive after being sucked through a flooded storm drain in southern Brazil. Neither sustained major injuries. Video: Reuters

A shocking video emerged out of Brazil Thursday (February 5) that showed a 9-year-old boy and his uncle being pulled under water and sucked into a flooded storm drain they were trying to clear of debris.

In the mobile phone video, which went viral in the South American country, the boy and four men are seen playing in a pool of muddy flood water as they try to clear plants and other rubbish from a backed up storm drain. But the boy and his uncle are suddenly dragged underwater as the pipe's passageway clears up.



The boy's aunt, who filmed the potentially deadly scene, screams in horror as the two disappear under the brown water.

Another family member captured the frightening images from a different angle.

But moments after the scary encounter the boy emerges from the other end of the pipe, 6 meters (yards) away, celebrating the harrowing adventure.

His uncle then came out, embracing a more subdued reaction.

Both only suffered minor injuries.

The incident occurred in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.

The family uploaded the video to social media and it was quickly circulating throughout Brazil.

WATCH:

Source: Irish Times

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TransAsia crash: 31 dead, airline providing compensation

Rescuers lift the wreckage of the TransAsia ATR 72-600 out of the Keelung river at New Taipei City on Feb 4, 2015. (Photo: AFP/ Sam Yeh)

TAIPEI: A total of 31 people were confirmed killed on Wednesday (Feb 4) when a passenger plane operated by TransAsia Airways clipped an overpass soon after take-off and plunged into the Keelung river in Taiwan, the airline's second crash in seven months.

In a statement, TransAsia Airways said that as of 9am on Thursday, another 15 people were injured in the incident. Twelve people remain missing from the 58 people on board flight GE235, and the two people in the taxi clipped by the plane are still hospitalised.


The airline has also started giving out emergency relief funds of NT$200,000 (S$8,600) to the families of those affected, including those on board and those who were on the taxi. Nine families have received the funds, and the airline is in the process of giving out the money to the remaining families.

TransAsia has also given out funeral allowance of NT$1.2 million (S$51,000) to the families of the victims who have been identified, it said.

TransAsia President Fred Wu also refuted media reports that said the plane's engines had not gone through the necessary checks before the flight took off on Wednesday.

"With regard to the engines, we are clarifying that there is no issue (with the engine checks)," said Mr Wu. "I can also produce the documents that were signed by the pilots and our crew that day. We will send these original documents to the Civil Aeronautics Administration and they can investigate this."

Source: Channel News Asia

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Gas blast wrecks Mexico children's hospital, killing 3

Rescue workers comb through the rubble of a children's hospital after a gas truck exploded, in Cuajimalpa on the outskirts of Mexico City, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015. The powerful explosion shattered the hospital on the western edge of Mexico's capital, killing at least three adults and one baby and injuring dozens. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Injured and bleeding, mothers grasping infants in their arms fled from a maternity hospital shattered by a powerful gas explosion Thursday, and rescuers began smashing sledgehammers through fallen concrete hunting for others who might be trapped.

A nurse and a baby died in the blast and a second infant died Thursday night, Mexico City authorities said. More than 70 people were injured in the blast that collapsed about three-fourths of the hospital, but by late in the day rescuers determined no one was left trapped in the rubble.

Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said some of the injured were about to be released from area hospitals, including some mothers who suffered injuries while using their bodies to shield their children.

A 25-year-old nurse and a newborn between 2 and 3 weeks old died at the scene and another infant died several hours later at another pediatric hospital, said Armando Ahued, the city's health secretary. He had said earlier that 21 babies in all had been injured, and nine of those and seven adults were in serious condition after being rushed to other hospitals.

Thirty-five-year-old Felicitas Hernandez wept as she frantically questioned people outside the wrecked building, hoping for word of her month-old baby, who had been hospitalized since birth with respiratory problems.

"They wouldn't let me sleep with him," said Hernandez, who had come to the city-run Maternity and Children's Hospital of Cuajimalpa because she had no money. Later, authorities told her to check at another hospital where she reported finding her baby uninjured.

Part of the building collapsed after an explosion in a Mexico City maternity hospital. At least two deaths reported pic.twitter.com/3X6yCGfgzV
— Enrique Acevedo (@Enrique_Acevedo) January 29, 2015

The explosion occurred at 7:05 a.m. when a tanker truck was making a routine delivery of gas to the hospital kitchen and gas started to leak. Witnesses said the tanker workers struggled frantically for 15 or 20 minutes to repair the leak while a large cloud of gas formed.

"The hose broke. The two gas workers tried to stop it, but they were very nervous. They yelled for people to get out," said Laura Diaz Pacheco, a laboratory technician.

"Everyone's initial reaction was to go inside, away from the gas," she added. "Maybe as many as 10 of us were able to get out ... The rest stayed inside."

Workers on the truck yelled: "Call the firefighters, call the firefighters!" said anesthesiologist Agustin Herrera.

People started to evacuate the hospital, and then came a devastating explosion that sent up an enormous fireball and plumes of dust and smoke. Herrera saw injured mothers walking out carrying babies. Officials said 110 people were inside the 35-bed hospital when the truck blew up.

"We avoided a much bigger tragedy because the oxygen tanks right beside (the area) didn't explode," Herrera said.

The worst hit parts of the hospital were the neonatology, reception and emergency reception units, he said.




Margarita Palma of Amexgas, a trade association of Mexico's propane distributors, said 80 percent of Mexicans use propane rather than natural gas delivered by mains. Liquified propane, which is highly explosive, is distributed to homes and businesses either by trucks like the one that exploded or in cylinders, she said.

Homes next to the hospital had broken and cracked windows and fallen shingles from the blast, and many neighbors ran to help evacuate victims from the debris, local resident Carlos Soria Rezendiz said.

Miguel Angel Garcia smoked a cigarette outside Hospital ABC-Santa Fe, trying to calm his nerves while he waited to see his wife and new baby daughter, who had been moved there.

Garcia, 22, had been driving a transit bus when he heard about the explosion at the hospital where his wife had given birth to their second child just the day before. He dropped off his passengers, then his bus and took off for the hospital.

"When I arrived and saw it in pieces, I thought the worst," Garcia said. He waited for an hour before authorities told him his wife and daughter had been taken to the other hospital in the nearby neighborhood of Santa Fe. A nurse there told him both were fine, but he hadn't been allowed to see them yet.

As the day wore on, people arrived at Hospital ABC offering diapers and baby formula. There was an hour-long wait to donate blood.

It was the closest hospital to the explosion and received 31 patients, including 17 children.

There were seven babies with serious injuries in intensive care, said Dr. Moises Zielanowski, the hospital's director of operations, as well as four adults in serious condition. Injuries included burns, fractures and bruises.

He said the hospital was working to identify six of the babies who arrived unaccompanied and without identification.

The gas truck driver and two other employees of the Express Nieto company were hospitalized but were in custody, Mancera said. He said the company has provided gas to all the city's public hospitals since 2007.

The incident prompted tweets from President Enrique Pena Nieto to Pope Francis, who wrote, "We are praying for the victims of the explosion in Cuajimalpa, Mexico."

Source: Yahoo! News

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