Four dead, including student and teacher, in plane crash
Middletown High School released this photo of Delilah Van Ness, a sophomore, and Paul Pelletier, an Aerospace and Manufacturing teacher, Middletown. Vt., Sep. 9, 2024. (Middletown High School)
(NEW YORK) — Four people are dead after a small plane crashed in Vermont on Sunday, police said.
Vermont State Police identified the deceased as Paul Pelletier, 55; Frank Rodriguez, 88; Susan Van Ness, 51; and Delilah Van Ness, 15.
Pelletier was an aerospace and manufacturing teacher at Middletown Public Schools in Connecticut, the school said in a statement. Delilah Van Ness, a sophomore, was one of his students, and Susan Van Ness was her mother.
“This unimaginable loss has left a void in our hearts and our community,” said the district’s superintendent, Alberto Vázquez Matos. “Paul, Delilah, and Susan were special individuals whose absence is already being felt throughout our district and city.”
Officials did not provide information on Rodriguez’s connection to the others in the crash.
According to Connecticut ABC affiliate WTNH-TV, Delilah Van Ness had been taking flight lessons with Pelletier.
Police said the four departed Sunday morning in a privately owned four-seat aircraft from Windham Airport in Connecticut and flew about two hours to Basin Harbor Airport in Ferrisburgh, Vermont. Upon reaching their destination, the occupants had brunch, then left the restaurant shortly after noon to fly back to Connecticut.
A witness said they saw the airplane on the runway at about 12:15 p.m. local time, state police said.
State police said they did not receive any reports of a plane crash or an aircraft in distress, but after the plane did not return to Connecticut, relatives contacted police.
Just after midnight on Monday, investigators found the crashed aircraft in a wooded area east of the airport in Vermont.
All four occupants were found dead.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident.
The cause of the crash has not yet been determined.
Middletown High School will be closed Tuesday, and crisis teams will be made available for members of the school community in need of counseling or other support, the school said.
“As the community grieves, Middletown Public Schools calls for unity and mutual support,” the school said in a statement. “The district aims to honor the memory of Paul, Delilah, and Susan by upholding their legacies of compassion, dedication, and kindness.”
(ORLANDO, Fla.) — At least two people are dead and six others have been injured in a Halloween night shooting in downtown Orlando, police said.
Police in Orlando, Florida, first received reports of a shooting at around 1 a.m. and immediately responded to the scene, the Orland Police said in an early morning press conference on Friday morning.
Authorities confirmed that at least two people were killed and six others have been injured in the shooting and that a 17-year-old suspect was taken into custody.
The victims were taken to hospital and range in age from 19 to 39, according to the Orlando Police Department.
Authorities also said there were approximately 100 officers working the downtown area at the time of the shooting.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, for the first time this cycle, will soon hit the campaign trail with former President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, according to a senior campaign official.
The vice presidential nominee will be out with his party’s former standard bearers this week and next week in an effort to push for early voting in battleground states, ABC News has exclusively learned.
The governor will first rally with Clinton in Durham, North Carolina, on Thursday — the first day of early voting in the critical battleground state. Next Tuesday, Walz will travel to Wisconsin, another battleground, with Obama for the start of early voting in that state.
The joint campaign blitzes come as the Harris-Walz ticket has deployed both former presidents — some of its strongest political assets — headed into the final stretch of the election cycle.
Obama hit the trail for the ticket starting on Oct. 10 and has additional stops planned in the run-up to Election Day, according to the campaign.
His first stop was in battleground Pennsylvania in the Pittsburgh area — a visit where he sternly chided Black men over “excuses” to not vote for Harris, saying he finds them sitting out or voting for former President Donald Trump “not acceptable.”
Obama will also independently hit the campaign trail in the Sun Belt this week, with stops on Friday in Arizona and on Saturday in Nevada — the first days of early voting in the state.
On Sunday and Monday, Clinton made his trail debut with travel across rural communities in Eastern and South Georgia to encourage Georgians to vote early.
Last night, on the eve of early in-person voting in the state, Clinton stumped for the Harris-Walz ticket in battleground Georgia, mounting the stakes of the election and the importance of voting.
“I want you to be happy, and I want you to know that I am here because I believe. I believe, based on my personal knowledge of the job and the candidates, that Kamala Harris will be a fine president,” he said.
“All we gotta do is show up. If we show up, we’ll win,” Clinton added.
The joint principal campaign events also come as Walz himself has made campaign stops related to early voting. The governor campaigned last week in Phoenix and Tucson on the first day of early voting in Arizona.
“I know you’ve started voting here in Arizona. It’s happening across the country. We can make a difference. And I think just the idea of having an administration building on these strong relationships, this is our opportunity to take this to the next level that we need to do,” Walz said at event with tribal leaders in Chandler, Arizona last Wednesday.
ABC News’ Selina Wang, Fritz Farrow, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
In this June 25, 2024, file photo, Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are assembled at the Boeing Renton Factory in Renton, Washington. — Jennifer Buchanan/POOL via AFP via Getty Images, FILE
(NEW YORK) — Tens of thousands of Boeing workers have voted to strike after rejecting the proposed contract from the embattled aerospace company — a move with far-reaching implications for the U.S. economy.
Boeing had reached a tentative agreement earlier this week with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, or IAM, the union representing 33,000 workers at Boeing plants in Washington State, Oregon and California.
However, union members rejected the contract agreement on Thursday night with a vote of 94.6%. IAM’s members will strike at midnight on Friday after 96% voted for the action.
“The message was clear that the tentative agreement we reached with IAM leadership was not acceptable to the members,” Boeing said in a statement following the strike vote. “We remain committed to resetting our relationship with our employees and the union, and we are ready to get back to the table to reach a new agreement.”
A work stoppage would weaken Boeing as it struggles to recover from a years-long stretch of scandals and setbacks, hamstringing the nation’s largest exporter, experts told ABC News. But, they added, workers are frustrated with what they perceive as inadequate compensation and a sense they must sacrifice to make up for the company’s mismanagement.
Here’s what to know about what’s behind the strike and its implications for the U.S. economy:
Why are Boeing workers preparing to strike?
Neither Boeing nor the IAM wants a strike. The workers might carry one out anyway.
The tentative agreement struck this week delivers a 25% raise over the four-year duration of the contract, as well as worker gains on healthcare costs and retirement benefits. The union had sought a 40% pay increase over the life of the deal.
The agreement also features a commitment from Boeing to build its next commercial plane with union labor in Washington state.
Boeing touted the strength of its offer earlier this week. “Simply put, this is the best contract we’ve ever presented,” Stephanie Pope, Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and CEO, wrote in a letter to union members obtained by ABC News.
The union echoed support for the agreement, urging workers to ratify the deal.
“We have achieved everything we could in bargaining, short of a strike. We recommended acceptance because we can’t guarantee we can achieve more in a strike,” IAM District 571 President Jon Holden, who leads the union local involved in negotiations, told members in a public letter.
In response to ABC News’ request for comment, a Boeing spokesperson pointed to a letter sent to union members by CEO Kelly Ortberg.
“I hope you will choose the bright future ahead, but I also know there are employees considering another path — and it’s one where no one wins,” Ortberg said.
“For Boeing, it is no secret that our business is in a difficult period, in part due to our own mistakes in the past. Working together, I know that we can get back on track, but a strike would put our shared recovery in jeopardy, further eroding trust with our customers and hurting our ability to determine our future together,” Ortberg added.
IAM declined to respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Still, the vote indicates that workers are ready to defy the company and the union. For years, West Coast Boeing workers have taken issue with their level of compensation, especially in light of strong company performance and a surge in the cost of living, experts said.
“There are years and years of pent-up frustration among Boeing workers,” Jake Rosenfeld, a professor of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis who studies labor, told ABC News. “This is an expression of being completely fed up.”
Union members also view themselves as being asked to make sacrifices made necessary by the company’s mismanagement, said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at Atmosphere Research Group.
In January, a door plug blew out of the company’s 737 Max 9 aircraft during an Alaska Airlines flight, prompting a federal investigation. The renewed scrutiny arrived roughly five years after Boeing 737 Max aircraft were grounded worldwide following a pair of crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed a combined 346 people.
In 2021, after a two-year ban, Boeing 737 Max aircraft were permitted to fly.
Boeing is carrying nearly $60 billion in debt, Pope noted in her letter to union members. The company’s share price has plummeted almost 40% since the outset of 2024. Ortberg took over as CEO last month.
“The workers cannot and should not be expected to bear all of the burden of the changes needed at Boeing,” Harteveldt said.
“But I don’t think Boeing is asking them or expecting them to do that,” Harteveldt added. “Boeing has extended what appears to be a very generous offer with substantial wage increases.”
What’s at stake in a potential Boeing strike?
Boeing, which employs 145,000 U.S.-based workers, is a major U.S. firm with a sprawling network of suppliers, experts said.
The company estimates that it contributes nearly $80 billion to the U.S. economy each year, and indirectly accounts for 1.6 million jobs.
A prolonged strike would weaken production with the potential to slow output, diminish income and trigger layoffs, Harteveldt said.
“There’s a risk of a downward spiral,” Harteveldt said.
Such a strike would not impact flight activity or down planes, however, since the workers at issue take part in manufacturing new products. That stands in contrast with an averted railroad strike in 2022, which would have halted a sizable share of the nation’s cargo trains.
“This wouldn’t be as devastating,” Rosenfeld said.
Still, he added, a potential strike would hold implications for a signature U.S. firm.
“It would further damage an iconic company that has already had years of setbacks,” Rosenfeld said.
