Foreign News
Actor Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa died of natural causes one week apart
Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman died of natural causes about a week after his wife Betsy Arakawa, who died after contracting a rare virus, a New Mexico medical investigator has said.
Hackman, 95, died at his Santa Fe home from coronary artery disease, with advanced Alzheimer’s disease a contributing factor.
Ms Arakawa, 65, died in the same house from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), a respiratory illness caused by exposure to infected rodents. Her cause of death was listed as natural.
Authorities believe she passed away about seven days before her husband, to whom she had been married for more than 30 years. During his career, Hackman won two Academy Awards for The French Connection and Unforgiven.
It is likely that Ms Arakawa died first on 11 February, Dr Heather Jarrell of the New Mexico Medical Investigator’s Office told a news conference on Friday. She said it was “reasonable to conclude” that Hackman had died on 18 February.
Ms Arakawa’s last known movements and correspondence were on 11 February, when she was seen going to a grocery store, a CVS pharmacy and a pet store, before returning home in the early evening.
Given that Hackman was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease it is “quite possible that he was not aware that she [his wife] was deceased”, said Dr Jarrell. She told reporters she was “not aware of his normal daily functioning capability”.
Hackman had “significant heart disease, and ultimately that’s what resulted in his death”, Dr Jarrell said, adding that he had had chronic high blood pressure.
He had not eaten anything recently, but had shown no indications of dehydration, she added.
At the news conference, New Mexico Public Health Veterinarian Erin Phipps emphasised that hantavirus infections were extremely rare. HPS is transmitted through contact with rodent droppings, urine or saliva, often when contaminated dust is inhaled.
She noted that 136 cases had been reported in the state over the past 50 years, with 42% resulting in fatalities.
Dr Phipps said evidence of rodent activity had been found in some buildings on the property, though the risk inside the main house was considered “low”.
Investigators are trying to determine how Ms Arakawa contracted the illness. Hackman tested negative for hantavirus.
The couple were found in their home after neighbourhood security conducted a welfare check and saw their bodies on the ground through the window.
The remains were discovered in advanced stages of decomposition.
Hackman’s body was in a sideroom next to the kitchen, with a walking cane and a pair of sunglasses nearby, according to a search warrant affidavit.
Ms Arakawa’s body was in the bathroom, with scattered pills close to her.
Sheriff’s deputies found medication for thyroid and blood pressure treatment, along with pain reliever Tylenol, according to a court-filed inventory.
Citing privacy laws, authorities did not disclose who had been prescribed the drugs.
One of the couple’s three dogs was also found dead inside a crate near Ms Arakawa, while the other two dogs were alive.
The cause of death for the dog is yet to be determined, officials say. Dr Phipps told reporters that dogs did not get sick from hantavirus.
Initial investigations found no signs of forced entry or foul play at the couple’s $3.8m (£3m) home. Tests for carbon monoxide poisoning were negative, and no significant gas leaks were detected.
Hackman is survived by three adult children from his previous marriage
Hackman met Ms Arakawa when she was working part-time at a California gym in the mid-1980s, the New York Times has previously reported.
He won best actor Oscar for his role as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in William Friedkin’s 1971 thriller The French Connection, and another for best supporting actor for playing Little Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood’s Western film Unforgiven in 1992.
A relative latecomer to Hollywood, Hackman saw his breakthrough come in his thirties, when he was nominated for an Oscar for portraying Buck Barrow in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde – opposite Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway – and again for I Never Sang for My Father in 1970.
Both films saw him recognised in the supporting actor category. He was also nominated for best leading actor in 1988 for playing an FBI agent in Mississippi Burning.
He played more than 100 roles during his career, including supervillain Lex Luthor in the Christopher Reeve-starring Superman movies in the 1970s and 1980s.
Hackman featured opposite many other Hollywood heavyweights including Al Pacino in 1973’s Scarecrow and Gene Wilder in 1974’s Young Frankenstein.
His last big-screen appearance came as Monroe Cole in Welcome to Mooseport in 2004, after which he stepped back from Hollywood for a quieter life in New Mexico.
[BBC]
Investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from the crashed Air India flight, a key step in uncovering what caused last week’s deadly accident.
The London-bound Air India aircraft, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed soon after taking off on Thursday from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. At least 270 people have been killed, most of them passengers.
The CVR captures audio from the cockpit, including pilot conversations, alarms and ambient sounds.
The flight data recorder (FDR), which logs crucial flight parameters like altitude, speed and engine performance, had been recovered from the debris on Friday.
Both the CVR and FDR collectively form what is commonly known as the “black box” of a plane. It is a vital tool in air crash investigations, helping experts reconstruct the flight’s final moments and determine the cause of the incident.
The black box, unlike the name suggests, is actually two bright orange devices – one for the CVR and the other for the FDR – painted with reflective strips for easier recovery after a crash. Both these devices are designed to survive a crash.
India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is leading the inquiry into the cause of the crash, helped by teams from the US and the UK.
On Sunday, officials from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) surveyed the site of the plane crash.
“The AAIB has launched a detailed investigation, and the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is conducting a parallel probe under international protocols, since the aircraft is American-made,” a statement released on Sunday said.
Indian media outlets have reported, citing sources, that officials from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) – the US aviation safety agency – also visited the site.
Separately, a high-level committee set up by the Indian government to examine the reasons behind the crash is expected to hold its first meeting on Monday.
The committee will submit a preliminary report within three months, the Air India radio said, and will propose new standard operating procedures (SOPs) to help prevent similar incidents in future.
As the investigation continues, families on the ground are still grappling with disbelief and trauma.
Less than a minute after taking off from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, the AI171 flight crashed into a doctors’ accommodation building at the BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital.
All but one of the 242 passengers and crew members were killed. Officials have also been trying to establish how many people were killed on the ground and continuing the slow process of matching DNA samples to confirm the victims’ identities.
Over the weekend, doctors said 270 bodies had been recovered from the site of the crash.
More than 90 victims have been identified through DNA matching, Dr Rajnish Patel of Ahmedabad’s Civil Hospital said on Monday. He added that 47 of the identified bodies have been sent to their families.
Among the identified victims is Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of Gujarat, whose funeral will be held on Monday. Rupani, whose political career spanned more than 50 years, will be laid to rest with full state honours in Rajkot city.
For many other families, the agonising wait continues.
Officials told the BBC that the identification process has been slow and painstaking, as many of the bodies were badly burned in the crash and are being processed in small batches.
Mistry Jignesh, waiting outside the hospital for updates on his niece, told the BBC on Saturday that officials told him that it might take longer for them to hand over his niece’s remains as the search for bodies is still ongoing. He had earlier been told that the body would be handed over by Sunday, after the 72 hours it normally takes to complete DNA matching.
“When people are still missing, how can they complete the DNA process by tomorrow? What if my niece’s remains haven’t even been found? The wait is killing us,” he said.
(BBC)
Air India Flight AI171 travelling from India to London crashed within moments of take-off on Thursday, killing 241 passengers and crew, and more people on the ground.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which took off from the city of Ahmedabad, in western India, ploughed into a residential area, hitting a hospital complex and medical student hostel.
One passenger survived the disaster – a British national, who was sitting in seat 11A and who later told family he had no idea how he walked away.
It is not yet clear what caused the crash, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described as “heartbreaking beyond words”.
Officials warned the death toll could rise in what was quickly described as one of the deadliest aviation disasters in India’s history.
Air India Flight AI171 departed Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 13:39 local time (08:09 GMT), and was due to touch-down at London’s Gatwick Airport at 18:25 BST.
There were 230 passengers on board, including 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese citizens, one Canadian and 12 crew members.
The local police chief told the BBC that 204 bodies had been recovered so far – but it is not known how many of those victims were on the plane or were on the ground.
Images from the scene show debris scattered across a large crash zone, with parts of the aircraft embedded in buildings.
The extraordinary news that one person had survived the disaster quickly made international headlines, as the British national, Vishwashkumar Ramesh, was filmed limping towards an ambulance, with smoke billowing in the background.
“Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise… it all happened so quickly,” he told local media from hospital.
His cousin, Ajay Valgi, said Ramesh called his family to say he was “fine”, but he does not know the whereabouts of his brother, also called Ajay, who was on the plane with him.
Thursday’s incident was the first fatal crash involving a 787 Dreamliner, first introduced in 2011.
Boeing said in a statement that it “stands ready” to support the investigation, which is being led by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.
“We are in contact with Air India regarding Flight 171 and stand ready to support them. Our thoughts are with the passengers, crew, first responders and all affected,” the bureau said.
US and British investigators will travel to India, with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) saying it will assist Indian authorities.
India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said the aircraft issued a mayday call seconds after take-off.
It lost contact with air traffic control shortly thereafter, crashing just outside the airport’s perimeter.
The crash site lies within a medical campus with 10 specialised centres. The BBC’s Sachin Pithva described scenes of chaos, with rescue workers retrieving the remains of those who perished.
Thick smoke was still billowing from the buildings hours after the crash, and passengers’ passports were strewn around, he reported.
Gujarat’s Additional Chief Secretary for Health confirmed the aircraft struck the students’ hostel and staff quarters of Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College and Civil Hospital.
“It crashed into the hostel mess and then bounced off on to one of the hostel buildings,” the hospital’s dean, Dr Meenkashi Parekh, told the BBC.
The crash happened at lunchtime when many students were in the canteen, she added. Photos show a huge part of the plane stuck in one of the hostel buildings, and a dusty, deserted mess hall with plates of uneaten food still on the tables.
“Most of the students escaped… but the building caught fire and the smoke was extremely thick. So, 10 to 12 students were trapped,” the dean said.
She added it was possible that several students had been killed. Officials said dozens were in hospital.
Tata Group, which owns Air India, has said it would give one crore rupee – the equivalent of about £86,000 – to the families of each person who was killed in the crash.
Prime Minister Modi wrote on X: “The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it.”
Both Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said they are being kept updated as the situation develops, while King Charles expressed his “deepest sympathies” to all those affected by the crash.
Starmer confirmed that a UK team had been dispatched to Gujarat to join the investigation as he urged families and friends of anyone affected to contact the Foreign Office.
[BBC]
The search for schoolchildren swept away in floods in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province has resumed after being halted overnight, officials have said.
The children were on their way to school in the town of Mthatha when their bus was carried away in flood waters as it was crossing a bridge on Tuesday morning.
Officials said three students were later rescued, but it was unclear how many pupils were on the bus, which has since been found on a riverbank with no-one inside.
An unconfirmed report by private TV station Newzroom Afrika says the bodies of 10 children and the driver have now been found further downstream.
Public broadcaster SABC reported that the three children who were rescued on Tuesday were found clinging to trees.
On Wednesday morning, Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane visited the scene to witness rescue efforts, and to meet affected communities.
He told Newzroom Afrika that while the situation was a “difficult one”, he was “quite happy” with the response of the emergency services.
South Africa has been hit by heavy snow, rains and gale force winds that have officially claimed the lives of 14 people, nine from the floods and five in a road accident.
Nearly 500,000 homes were left without electricity on Tuesday – and state-owned power provider Eskom says efforts are being made to restore connections.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has offered his condolences to the families of those who died as he urged citizens to “display caution, care and cooperation as the worst impacts of winter weather take effect across the country”.
The Eastern Cape – the birthplace of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela – has been worst-affected by the icy conditions, along with KwaZulu-Natal province.
The bad weather has forced the closure of some major roads in the two provinces to avoid further casualties.
[BBC]
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