2 people missing after boat capsizes on Wisconsin River: Police
Ross Harried/NurPhoto via Getty Images
(MADISON, Wis.) — Two people are missing after a boat capsized on the Wisconsin River on Thursday, according to the Wisconsin Dells Police Department.
At approximately 4:24 p.m. on Thursday, police received reports that a “boat had capsized on the Wisconsin River, south of the Kilbourn Dam,” which is an hour north of Madison, police said.
Three people were in the boat at the time of the incident, with one being able to “safely swim to shore,” police said. The recovered boater was met by police and rescue units and handed over to medical services for treatment, officials said.
The two other boaters were not seen after “disappearing under the water, near where the boat had capsized,” police said.
Rescue boats were launched on Thursday to begin searching for the missing individuals, police said. Officials also requested the assistance of dive teams, but “due to the high flow of water from the Kilbourn Dam and the fast-moving currents” divers were not able to commence their search.
Aerial and underwater drones, shoreline searchers and boats with sonar capabilities were also deployed for the search, police said.
Officials suspended the search on Thursday evening due to the “unpredictable flow of the river” but said efforts will continue Friday morning.
The names of the missing individuals are not being released at this time, police said.
(MERRITT ISLAND, FL) — With the successful launch of SpaceX’s Fram2 mission on Monday night, an all-civilian crew is attempting to do what professional astronauts have never tried — orbit the Earth from pole to pole.
Riding on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, a SpaceX Dragon lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida just after 9:46 p.m. and carried the team into a 90-degree polar orbit.
During the three to five-day mission, the autonomous Dragon will repeatedly travel from the North Pole to the South Pole at an altitude of 267 miles, with each orbit taking about 46 minutes.
The privately funded mission is being led by Maltese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Chun Wang. Wang is joined by Jannicke Mikkelsen, a Norwegian film director and cinematographer, Rabea Rogge, a robotics researcher from Berlin and Eric Philips, a self-described professional polar adventurer. This will be the first time in space for the quartet.
After liftoff, the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster landed on a SpaceX droneship in the Atlantic Ocean for reuse in future launches.
Named for the famous Norwegian polar exploration ship Fram, meaning “forward,” the Fram2 website says the team plans to view and photograph Earth’s polar regions from low-Earth orbit and conduct 22 experiments focused on “advancing human health and performance in space, particularly for future long-duration missions” including being the first mission to take x-rays of the human body in space, growing mushrooms in microgravity and studying atmospheric phenomena.
“After extensive training and dedication from our entire crew, we are honored to continue the legacy of the Fram name in an exciting era of commercial space exploration,” Wang said in a press release. “We are thankful for this opportunity, and we are grateful to SpaceX for making this mission a reality – we are excited to be the first crew to view and capture the Earth’s polar regions from low-Earth orbit and support important research to help advance humanity’s capabilities for long-duration space exploration.”
Mikkelsen, the mission’s vehicle commander, is a Norwegian film director and cinematographer specializing in next-generation technology for filming in hazardous and remote environments like the Earth’s poles.
Berlin-born Rogge, a robotics researcher, will serve as Fram2’s pilot, while Eric Philips, a professional polar adventurer and guide from Australia, will serve as Fram2’s mission specialist and medical officer.
The crew will observe Earth’s polar regions over 430 kilometers (267 miles) above the surface, allowing the Crew Dragon Resilience to travel from the North to the South Pole in under an hour. This route provides extensive coverage, enabling observation of areas and phenomena other missions cannot access.
Throughout Fram2’s time in orbit, the crew will take the first x-ray in space, perform exercise studies to maintain muscle and skeletal mass, and grow mushrooms in microgravity.
An exact landing date has not yet been announced, but the mission is expected to last nearly four days.
SpaceX says this will be the first west coast recovery of a Dragon crew. The capsule will splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the southern California coast. This is the fourth flight of this Dragon capsule.
Map of the area around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and the layout of Runway 33, which the regional American Airlines jet was approaching at the time of the collision with the Army Black Hawk helicopter, according to officials. Via ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — The crash involving a regional aircraft and a Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday marks the first major commercial crash in the United States since 2009.
The last crash took place on Feb. 12, 2009, when Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed during landing near Buffalo Niagara International Airport, killing all 49 people onboard.
There have been other deadly incidents in the U.S., such as the Asiana runway crash at San Francisco International Airport in 2013. Three people died when Flight 214 came in to the airport too low and too slow, hit a seawall and sheared the tail section and left engine off the plane as it spun down the runway.
One of the three who was killed was run over by an emergency vehicle responding to the crash.
Nearly 200 people were also injured in that crash, which was blamed on the Asiana Airlines pilots mismanaging the autopilot system, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
The last fatality on a plane in the U.S. came in 2018 when a woman was partially sucked out of a Southwest Airlines window.
Passenger Jennifer Riordan died in that incident, when Flight 1380 suffered engine failure and had to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia.
(MIAMI) — A Florida man has been arrested and charged for shooting 17 times at two men who he mistakenly thought were Palestinian. The victims were actually tourists from Israel, according to police.
Mordechai Brafman, 27, has been charged with two counts of second degree attempted murder, according to state records. The Miami State Attorney’s Office Hate Crimes unit is reviewing the case to see if it meets that statutory requirements for a penalty enhancement.
Florida does not have a hate crime offense, but charges can be enhanced which increases the seriousness of the penalty for a crime if a defendant is convicted, according to the attorney’s office.
Brafman is accused of stopping his truck in a parallel lane, directly in front of the victim’s vehicle before exiting his vehicle on Saturday. As the victims drove past him, Brafman allegedly shot at the vehicle 17 times, “unprovoked,” striking both victims, according to an arrest affidavit.
While in custody, Brafman allegedly said that he saw two Palestinians while driving his truck and he shot and killed both, according to a police report.
One victim sustained a gunshot wound to the left shoulder while the second victim sustained a graze wound to the left forearm, according to the affidavit.
The victims and the defendant do not know each other, according to the affidavit.
Brafman is being held in jail without bond. He is scheduled to be arraigned on March 10.
