Helicopter crashes into remote Alaska lake, no survivors found, officials say
Anchorage (US) (AP): No survivors were found after a helicopter carrying a pilot and three state workers crashed in a shallow lake in Alaska's North Slope region, officials said on Friday.
The helicopter had been chartered by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, the department said in a statement on Friday.
It was carrying three employees from the Division of Geological and Geophysical Survey who had been conducting field work.
"DNR is praying for our employees and the pilot, their families, and the DNR team," the statement said. "We are continuing to await updates from the search and rescue effort."
The helicopter, a Bell 206, was reported overdue Thursday night. A North Slope Borough search and rescue team in a helicopter found debris matching the description of the missing helicopter, but no bodies had been seen or recovered, D.J. Fauske, the borough's director of government and external affairs, said in a text to The Associated Press on Friday.
The wreckage was found in a shallow lake near Wainwright, about 50 miles south to southwest of Utqiagvik, the northernmost city in the US, formerly known as Barrow.
The flight originated in Utqiagvik and was supposed to return there, said Clint Johnson, chief of the National Transportation Safety Board's Alaska region. Johnson said he did not immediately have further information on the flight details.
The helicopter was operated by Maritime Helicopters Inc., according to a statement on the company's website. It confirmed the accident was fatal and said names of the pilot and passengers would be released pending notification of next of kin.
The borough notified the Federal Aviation Administration and state officials as well as NTSB, Fauske said.
"The borough is here to help and we will pray for the missing," he said.
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You cannot compare one generation of cricketers with another, says Kapil Dev
New Delhi, Jan 13: It is needless to compare two generations of players and pass a judgement on who was better, legendary cricketer Kapil Dev said on Monday and refused to get into a debate if BCCI selectors were right in excluding Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant from the T20I squad for the five-match series against England.
Kapil bowled nearly 300 overs during the 1991-92 Test series against Australia and in the same rubber he became the first Indian to take 400 wickets in the traditional format apart from contributing with the bat in the team's cause.
India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah could not bowl in the second innings of the fifth Border-Gavaskar Test recently because of back spasms. India lost the five-match series 1-3. The 31-year-old Bumrah bowled more than 150 overs and emerged the highest wicket-taker on both sides with 32 scalps.
"Please don't compare. You cannot compare one generation with another. That is not required. Today, players are scoring 300 runs in a day. It didn't happen during our time. So don't compare the two (generations)," said Kapil during an event hosted by the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) of which he is the president.
The 1983 World Cup-winning skipper also added that one should not question the judgement of the selectors as they would have arrived at the decision to not play Jaiswal and Pant after giving it a thought.
The two cricketers played all five Tests during the gruelling Australia series, with Jaiswal (391) emerging the second-highest run-getter, second only to Travis Head (448).
Asked if it was the right decision to drop two for the home series, Kapil said, "How can I comment on the judgement of others? I think the selectors would have though about it."
"So, if I say something it would be criticising them. I don't want to criticise them. They (selectors) are a group of people who must have planned and thought about that."
With batting stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli dishing out below-par performances in Australia, and talks of whether it's time for them to retire swirling, Kapil said the decision should be left to them.
"They are very big players. Let's hope when they think it's the right time to play, when they think it's not, they will call it off," said Kapil, in response to a question whether they should be there for the Test series in England later this year.
With Bumrah taking over the captaincy from Rohit in the fifth BGT Test at Sydney and talks on whether he should be given a long stint to prove himself going forward, Kapil said, "If he has been given the opportunity (to lead the side), then give him some time also."
