FBI rules out terrorism in Seattle plane crash
Washington, Aug 12 : The airline employee who stole a plane on Friday in Seattle and crashed soon afterward did not have any links to terrorist organizations and was seeking to commit suicide, the FBI said on Saturday.
The FBI said via Twitter that "the information gathered thus far does NOT suggest a terrorist threat".
The Pierce County Sheriff's Department previously said that preliminary investigations suggested that the 29-year-old man who stole the plane was suicidal and had crashed because he was "doing stunts in air" or because of a "lack of flying skills", Efe reported.
The man, who worked for an airline at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, stole an empty 76-seat plane Friday night belonging to Horizon Air, a subsidiary of Alaska Airlines, and took off without authorization.
Soon afterward, the North American Aerospace Defense Command launched two F-15 fighter jets to pursue the stolen plane, which crashed on Ketron Island, between Tacoma and Olympia, after performing air stunts.
According to White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, US president Donald Trump had been informed on the incident and was monitoring the situation from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
"Federal authorities are assisting with the ongoing investigation which is being led by local authorities. We commend the interagency response effort for their swift action and protection of public safety," Sanders said in a statement.
While the incident was taking place, no plane was allowed to take off from Seattle-Tacoma, which is ranked the ninth busiest airport in the United States, serving 46.9 million passengers in 2017.
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Man arrested with Rs 2.54-crore heroin in Mumbai
Mumbai (PTI): Police have arrested a man and seized over 500 grams of heroin worth Rs 2.54 crore in the illicit market from him in Mumbai, officials said on Friday.
The police's Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) made the drug seizure in Santacruz in the western suburbs. The operation was conducted by the Kandivali unit of the ANC on Thursday as part of a special crackdown against drug trafficking in the area, they said.
Acting on specific inputs, an ANC team conducted a raid in Santacruz (East) and intercepted a man. During a search, the team recovered 508 grams of high-grade heroin from his possession, an official said.
The seized contraband, a highly addictive, opioid drug derived from morphine, is estimated to be worth Rs 2.54 crore in the international market, he informed.
Following the seizure, a case was registered against the man under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, and he was formally placed under arrest in the early hours of Friday.
The police are currently investigating the source of the drug and trying to identify the intended recipients of the consignment, he said.
