9 dead in US military plane crash
Washington, May 3: All nine people on board an aging US cargo plane have been killed when the aircraft making its final military flight nose-dived into a highway in the US state of Georgia, an official said.
They were aboard the C-130 plane when it came down on Wednesday beside the highway intersection near the airport in the coastal city of Savannah.
The plane belonged to Puerto Rico Air National Guard and was on a training flight, the National Guard said. All the airmen were from Puerto Rico, an official said.
Images shared on social media showed wreckage engulfed in flames and black smoke spewing into the sky, the BBC reported.
It was flying from Georgia to Tucson in Arizona, where it was to be decommissioned. The plane was at least 50 years old, according to an official familiar with the aircraft.
"Nine crew members died in the accident, but until their families and relatives are notified, we cannot give their names," Brig. Gen. Isabelo Rivera said. "Our prayers, thoughts and condolences to the families and loved ones of our aviators."
One witness said the plane made a "loud, strange noise" just before the crash. While another said the ground shook as if a bomb went off when it hit.
Video from a business near the crash showed the horrifying final moments of the hulking plane, a version normally outfitted to do weather reconnaissance, the CNN report said.
The jet, with four turboprop engines on its overhead wing, banked left as it came down. The plane then headed straight down behind trees. Seconds later a fireball and thick black smoke appeared.
Puerto Rico's Governor sent his condolences. "While we are waiting for more information regarding this unfortunate accident, my thoughts and those of Beatriz are with the families of the crew..., " Governor Ricardo Rossello said.
President Donald Trump tweeted: "Please join me in thoughts and prayers for the victims, their families and the great men and women of the National Guard."
I have been briefed on the U.S. C-130 “Hercules” cargo plane from the Puerto Rico National Guard that crashed near Savannah Hilton Head International Airport. Please join me in thoughts and prayers for the victims, their families and the great men and women of the National Guard.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2018
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
