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South Korea plane fire causes mass evacuation

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Photos have emerged showing the burning Air Busan aircraft being doused with water (BBC)

An Airbus plane has caught fire at an airport of South Korea’s city of Busan, forcing the evacuation of all 176 people on board, fire authorities say.

They say four people were injured as they were escaping the Air Busan aircraft on inflatable slides in the south-eastern airport on Tuesday evening.

The blaze is said to have started at the tail of the Hong Kong-bound plane shortly before take-off. Firefighters – who arrived within minutes – were seen trying to put out the fire that spread to the fuselage.

This comes less than a month after the worst air disaster on South Korean soil when a Jeju Air plane crash-landed in the south-western Muan airport, killing 179 people. Two people survived.

The fire on board the Air Busan plane at Gimhae International Airport began at about 22:26 local time (13:26 GMT) on Tuesday, Yonhap news agency said, citing South Korea’s fire authorities.

It said that firefighters arrived at the scene eight minutes later.

Photos later emerged showing the burning aircraft being doused with water.

There were 169 passengers and seven crew on board the plane. The cause of the fire is being investigated.

Air Busan is a budget airline, whose parent company is Asiana Airlines.

Busan’s airport is located about 315km (195 miles) south-east of the capital, Seoul.

(BBC)



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Navy seize two Indian fishing boats poaching in Sri Lankan waters north of Mannar

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The Sri Lanka Navy seized two [02] Indian fishing boats and apprehended 14 Indian fishermen while they were poaching in Sri Lankan waters, during a special operation conducted in the sea area north of Mannar in the dark hours of 08 Feb 25.

The seized boats  together with the fourteen Indian fishermen were brought to the Iranativu Island and they were to be handed over to the Assistant Directorate of Fisheries, Kilinochchi for onward legal proceedings.

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Sam Nujoma, first president of Namibia, dies aged 95

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Sam Nujoma was a co-founder of Swapo when it was formed as a liberation movement in 1960 (BBC)

The first president of independent Namibia, Sam Nujoma, has died at the age of 95 in the capital Windhoek, the country’s current leader has announced.

Nujoma led the long fight for independence from South Africa in 1990 after helping found Namibia’s liberation movement known as the South West Peoples’ Organisation (Swapo) in the 1960s.

After independence, Nujoma became president in 1990 and led the country until 2005.

Nujoma had been hospitalised over the past three weeks with an illness from which he “could not recover”, Namibian President Nangolo Mbumba said in a statement announcing the death with “utmost sorrow and sadness”.

He “inspired us to rise to our feet and to become masters of this vast land of our ancestors,” President Mbumba said.

(BBC)

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All 10 onboard Alaska plane confirmed dead in crash

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Crews are still working to recover the bodies of 10 people killed in a plane crash in Alaska, officials have said.

Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the investigation into the crash was in its “early stages” and it was too soon to tell what caused it.

The Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft, operated by regional operator Bering Air, was travelling from Unalakleet to Nome on Thursday when it lost radar contact.

Nine passengers and a pilot were on board the plane when it came down in Norton Sound about 34 miles (55km) south-east of Nome, a city of about 3,500 on Alaska’s west coast.

Among the dead were Rhone Baumgartner and Kameron Hartvigson, two employees of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.

They had travelled to Unalakleet to carry out maintenance work on a water plant, the non-profit organisation said on Friday.

Ms Homendy said that nine investigators are on the scene, backed up by specialists in Washington DC.  “Recovery efforts are still under way, with the priority being victim recovery,” she said during a news conference in Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city. “I would like to take a moment and expend our deepest condolences to people who lost loved ones in this tragedy,” she said.

Ms Homendy said recovery workers were dealing with deteriorating weather conditions and that the wreckage had landed on an ice floe which is moving at a rate of five miles a day.

In a statement, Bering Air, which operates commercial and charter flights, expressed its condolences and said it would be cooperating with the investigation into the crash.

Alaska State Troopers said it had been notified of an “overdue” aircraft at 16:00 local time on Thursday (01:00 GMT).

The Nome volunteer fire department said the pilot had told air traffic controllers that “he intended to enter a holding pattern while waiting for the runway to be cleared”.

The US Coast Guard later said the plane had experienced a rapid loss in altitude and speed before contact was lost.  Footage showed low visibility in the area around the time of the crash.

Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski shared her condolences following the incident.  “Alaska is a big small town. When tragedy strikes, we’re never far removed from the Alaskans directly impacted,” she wrote online.

Alaska’s Governor, Mike Dunleavy, said he was “heartbroken” by the disappearance of the flight.  “Our prayers are with the passengers, the pilot, and their loved ones during this difficult time,” he said.

Unakleet and Nome are about 150 miles from each other across Norton Sound, an inlet of the Bering Sea on Alaska’s western coast.

Getty Images A closeup of a Cessna turboprop aeroplane
The craft that went missing was a Cessna Grand Caravan craft, similar to the one pictured [BBC][BBC]

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