Emergency landing at JFK after Turkish Airlines pilot dies midflight
(NEW YORK) — A Turkish Airlines flight diverted to New York on Wednesday morning after one of its pilots died.
Flight 204 was traveling from Seattle to Istanbul when it was diverted to John F. Kennedy International Airport for an emergency landing at approximately 6 a.m. after “one of the pilots suffered a medical emergency,” according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Capt. İlçehin Pehlivan “lost consciousness” during the flight, and after initial medical intervention proved ineffective, the co-pilot was rerouted to JFK, where the Airbus A350 safely landed, the airline said in a statement.
Turkish Airlines also confirmed that Pehlivan died before the plane touched ground. Since it was a long-haul international flight, two other pilots were on board at the time.
Upon landing, the aircraft was met by emergency personnel, according to airport authorities.
Pehlivan, 59, had been working for Turkish Airlines since 2009. His last routine health check was performed on March 8, 2024, and no health issues were detected that would have prevented him from carrying out his duties as a pilot, according to the airline.
Yahya Üstün, senior vice president of media relations at Turkish Airlines, expressed his condolences in a post on X, saying, “We deeply feel the loss of our captain and extend our sincerest condolences to his bereaved family, colleagues, and all his loved ones.”
The airline said it is making arrangements to rebook the affected passengers on new flights from New York.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the diverted aircraft as an Airbus A320. It was an Airbus A350.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — The suspect in the murder of four University of Idaho students, Bryan Kohberger, is in court Thursday as the judge weighs whether to change the venue for his trial.
Kohberger’s lawyers hope to move the trial to a different county, arguing the local jury pool in Latah County, which encompasses the college town of Moscow, was tainted by pretrial publicity.
Defense lawyers surveyed Latah County residents and said their results found that the “pressure to convict” Kohberger was shown to be “so severe” the venue couldn’t possibly be impartial.
The defense said one respondent answered they would “burn the courthouse down” if he were not convicted. The same survey, according to the defense, found “much less emotional” responses from people living closer to Boise, where Kohberger’s lawyers suggested the trial be moved.
“The traumatized town of Moscow is understandably filled with deeply held prejudgment opinions of guilt,” defense attorney Elisa Massoth said in a filing this month.
The prosecution has said the case has national and international interest, and that the case has been covered plenty in Boise, so a change of venue would not solve any problem.
Prosecutors argued in a filing this month that the defense “failed to establish that a fair and impartial trial cannot be held in Latah County.”
Moscow Mayor Art Bettge said in a statement last week that, if the case stayed in Latah County, “I firmly believe people would be able to set aside any personal feelings they have … set aside any information they may have read or heard … and make a determination of guilt or not guilty based on the evidence presented in the courtroom and deliberate according to the instructions provided to them.”
The trial is scheduled to start on June 2, 2025, and run until Aug. 29, 2025. Judge John Judge said in June that if the venue changes, the trial date would still hold.
Kohberger is accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death in an off-campus house in the early hours of Nov. 13, 2022. Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, were all brutally murdered during the break-in.
Kohberger, who was a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University at the time of the crime, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.
A not guilty plea was entered on Kohberger’s behalf. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik and Julie Scott contributed to this report.
(MINDEN, La.) — An 11-year-old has allegedly confessed to fatally shooting a former city council member and his daughter, according to officials in Louisiana.
Officers in Minden, about 30 miles east of Shreveport, received a call at 6:30 a.m. Sunday about two bodies inside of a house, Minden Police Chief Jared McIver told ABC News on Tuesday.
Responders found Joe Cornelius Sr., 82, and his daughter, Keisha Miles, 31, dead from multiple gunshot wounds, he said.
The 11-year-old — who is related to the victims — “gave us a story at first that just didn’t add up,” and later the juvenile allegedly confessed to the shootings, McIver said at a news conference Tuesday.
A motive is not known, McIver said.
Investigators were “told at first he was 10 years of age, but is confirmed to be 11 years of age,” the chief said at the news conference.
The child was at the house Sunday morning and allegedly shot the victims between 6 and 6:30 a.m., the chief said.
Two guns that belonged in the house were found hidden on the property, the chief said, and the shell casings at the scene were of the same caliber as the two guns.
The 11-year-old is in custody and is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, McIver said.
“We still got to put some puzzle pieces together,” the chief told ABC News. “The city can rest easy knowing that the suspect is off the street of a double homicide, but there’s also the shock factor.”
“There’s a sigh of relief, there’s a shock, there’s mourning, there’s just different emotions our city is running through right now. Only thing we can do right now is do this case the best we can,” he said.
The 82-year-old victim, Joe Cornelius Sr., was a longtime councilman in Minden and at one point served as the appointed mayor, according to Minden Mayor Nick Cox.
“Joe Cornelius’s years of service to Minden were marked by his commitment and dedication to the betterment of our community. On a personal note, I am grateful for his friendship and the many ways he supported me and others in our city,” Cox said in a statement. “During this incredibly difficult time, I ask that we all keep Joe’s family in our thoughts and prayers. May they find comfort and strength in the midst of this tragedy. Let us come together as a community to honor Joe’s memory and support one another through this time of grief.”
“Joe’s efforts to improve Minden have left a lasting impact that will be remembered for years to come,” Cox said at Tuesday’s news conference.
(LAS VEGAS) — A former Nevada politician was found guilty Wednesday of killing journalist Jeff German in September 2022.
As the jury’s foreperson read out the verdict, Telles stared downward and shook his head.
Prosecutors said former Clark County public administrator Robert Telles, 47, stabbed the Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter to death after German exposed corruption in his office, destroying both his political career and his marriage. German’s story detailed an allegedly hostile work environment in Telles’ office — including bullying, retaliation and an “inappropriate relationship” between Telles and a staffer — all of which Telles denied.
Telles was arrested days after German was found dead outside his Las Vegas home. Police said DNA evidence found in Telles’ home tied him to the crime scene, and a straw hat and sneakers — which the suspect was seen wearing in surveillance footage — were found cut up in his home. His DNA was also found on German’s hands and fingernails, police said.
He pleaded not guilty to murder and could face life in prison.
In her opening statement, Chief Deputy District Attorney Pamela Weckerly walked through the timeline of the murder and how Telles came to be pinpointed as the suspect.
“In the end, this case isn’t about politics,” Weckerly said. “It’s not about alleged inappropriate relationships. It’s not about who’s a good boss or who’s a good supervisor or favoritism at work — it’s just about murder.”
Telles took the stand in his own trial on Aug. 21, “unequivocally” maintaining his innocence and insisting he was “framed” in a sweeping conspiracy by a real estate company that he said he was investigating for alleged bribery.
“Somebody framed me for this, and I believe that it is Compass Realty, and I believe it’s for the work that I’ve done against them,” Telles told the court.
In a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal in January, Compass Realty owner Takumba Britt denied Telles’ conspiracy claims, calling him a “desperate man who has been charged with violently murdering a beloved local journalist” who would “do and say anything to escape answering for this charge.”
When police took Telles into custody, he had what they said were non-life-threatening, self-inflicted stab wounds. His defense attorney, Robert Draskovich, said the suicide attempt was not out of guilt, but because Telles’ “life was coming apart.”
Draskovich echoed Telles’ claims of a conspiracy against him, saying in his opening statement the “old guard” in the public administrator’s office had been upset by Telles’ efforts to root out internal corruption. He also claimed that, because of German’s track record of investigating corrupt figures, there were other people who may have wanted him dead.
“There were others that had far more motive to make it look like [Telles] was the killer, and to conduct this killing because Jeff German was a good reporter — he would ultimately get to what the truth was,” Draskovich said.
German was the only journalist killed in the United States in 2022, with a total of at least 67 journalists killed worldwide that year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo previously described the case against Telles as “unusual,” and said that “the killing of a journalist is particularly troublesome.”
“It is troublesome because it is a journalist. And we expect journalism to be open and transparent and the watchdog for government,” Lombardo said. “And when people take it upon themselves to create harm associated with that profession, I think it’s very important we put all eyes on and address the case appropriately such as we did in this case.”