FAA bans US flights to Haiti for 30 days after planes struck by gunfire
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(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Aviation Administration has banned U.S. flights to Haiti for 30 days in the wake of Monday’s gunfire incidents, according to a Notice to Air Mission issued Tuesday.
“U.S. civil aviation operations in the territory and airspace of Haiti below 10,000 feet” will be prohibited, according to the FAA.
The move comes after a Spirit Airlines plane flying from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Haiti was diverted after it was struck by gunfire while attempting to land in Port-au-Prince, according to the the Haitian National Office of Civil Aviation.
The plane was struck by gunfire four times while attempting to land at Touissant Louverture Airport in the capital city of Port-au-Prince, OFNAC said.
The Spirit Airlines plane “diverted and landed safely in Santiago, Dominican Republic,” Spirit Airlines said in a statement Monday, adding that no passengers reported injuries and one flight attendant onboard the plane reported unspecified “minor injuries” and was undergoing medical evaluation.
The plane came within 550 feet of the runway before aborting its landing and diverting to the Dominican Republic, according to data on FlightRadar24.
The FAA on Monday had confirmed in a statement that the Spirit Airlines flight landed safely in the Dominican Republic “after the plane was reportedly damaged by gunfire while trying to land” at the Port-au-Prince airport.
On Monday, a JetBlue flight from Haiti to New York City was also hit by a bullet, the airline said in a statement to ABC News. JetBlue said it would suspend all flights to and from Haiti through Dec. 2 due to the civil unrest in the country.
ABC News’ Aicha El Hammar Castano contributed to this report.
Debris in Sarasota, Florida. Via Sean Rayford/Getty
(NEW YORK) — Florida authorities began assessing the damage left by Hurricane Milton’s passage across the state early Thursday, as the storm passed into the Atlantic Ocean after a night of high winds, torrential rain and storm surge.
Milton made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast late Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane. It came ashore with winds of 100 mph and spawned dozens of tornadoes. As of early Thursday, more than 3 million Florida energy customers were without power, according to the PowerOutage.us website.
The tornadoes on Florida’s Gulf Coast proved deadly. “We have lost some life,” St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told West Palm Beach ABC News affiliate WPBF News. Pearson did not say how many were killed.
About 125 homes were destroyed before the hurricane came ashore, many of them mobile homes in communities for senior citizens, said Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
The National Hurricane Center said Thursday that the storm produced “significant flooding and damaging winds near its path.” As of 5 a.m. ET, the NHC said the worst conditions shifted to east-central and northeastern Florida.”
Dramatic photos and videos emerged overnight as Milton ripped into Florida. Winds of 90 mph whipped through downtown St. Petersburg, collapsing a crane at a building construction site there, according to city authorities. No injuries were reported, but video from the scene showed damage to nearby buildings.
Wind also tore off a portion of the roof at the Tropicana Field stadium in the city. Capt. Garth Swingle of St. Petersburg Fire Rescue told ABC News they were in contact with the people sheltering inside and that they were safe.
Milton also caused a major water main break, which impacted potable water services across the entire city. The subsequent shutdown is expected to last until necessary repairs can be completed, officials said.
To the north of Tampa, the Pasco Sheriff’s Office said authorities received more than 140 calls regarding roadway obstructions. Responders “are working to remove these hazards as quickly as possible,” the office wrote on X.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office reported significant storm damage to a 7-Eleven store northwest of Tampa, with Sheriff Chad Chronister warning of downed trees and power lines in the county. Chronister urged residents to stay indoors while responders cleared damage.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Victoria Arancio and Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
The 28-year-old whistleblower investigated alleged wrongdoing at an Oklahoma nuclear fuel facility, and was reportedly on her way to meet a New York Times reporter when she died in a fatal car crash (Photo by mark peterson/Corbis via Getty Images).
(CRESCENT, Okla.) — The 28-year-old lab worker investigated alleged wrongdoing at an Oklahoma nuclear fuel facility, and was on her way to meet with a New York Times reporter when she died in a fatal car crash.
Fifty years ago, the death of a 28-year-old plutonium plant worker and whistleblower in Oklahoma — a death many found mysterious and sparked decades of speculation — shocked the nation.
The official story was that Karen Silkwood died in a one-car crash on Nov. 13, 1974. She was on her way to meet a New York Times journalist, reportedly to hand over documents she’d secretly been collecting at her job at a nuclear facility. The Oklahoma State Highway Patrol concluded that Silkwood fell asleep at the wheel — possibly under the influence of prescribed drugs — drove off the highway, crashed into a ditch, and died.
“We’ve never believed it,” Mike Boettcher said of the official narrative. Boettcher and his reporting partner Bob Sands, both veteran Oklahoma journalists, say many in Oklahoma speculate that Karen Silkwood may have died for what she knew.
Silkwood’s story has become widely known, inspiring several books, articles, and a major motion picture.
ABC Audio’s new podcast, “Radioactive: The Karen Silkwood Mystery,” hosted by Boettcher and Sands, explores the secrets Silkwood was uncovering and what some say is the mystery surrounding her death.
Silkwood worked at a nuclear fuel production plant that manufactured plutonium fuel rods to power a new type of nuclear reactor, which was part of a multi-million dollar experiment to enhance nuclear energy. When she noticed what she felt were unsafe working conditions — such as leaks, spills and co-workers frequently getting contaminated with radioactive material — she spoke up and tried to make improvements.
“Karen became nuclear energy’s first whistleblower, though the term whistleblower was just starting to be used,” Boettcher said. “This was at a time when the idea of someone inside of a big corporation exposing alleged misdeeds was shocking.”
Silkwood’s allegations, contamination, and untimely death sparked an investigation by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, an FBI inquiry, a civil lawsuit, several appeals, a congressional hearing and two appearances before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Several news outlets investigated the matter, and Silkwood’s story gained significant attention in 1983 with the release of “Silkwood,” a movie based on her life. In a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination, Meryl Streep portrayed Silkwood in the film.
For fifty years, this story has been one Boettcher and Sands say they can’t get out of their minds. Suspicion of foul play has swirled around it for decades: What had Silkwood uncovered? Who had she upset? Why did her car crash into a concrete wall? Was a second vehicle involved?
“There are fewer and fewer people alive to share what they know from the night Karen died,” Sands said. “Many of the people who worked with Karen in the plant are dead.”
However, Sands and Boettcher have new leads — never-before-heard investigative tapes, a fresh look at a critical piece of physical evidence. Plus, they tracked down people who can illuminate who Karen was and what she was uncovering about her workplace.
The duo first spoke with Michael Meadows, Silkwood’s son. He was only 5 years old when his mother died. “There’s never been a definitive answer,” Meadows said. “Both sides … told a very different story that night of what happened, and as her son, I would like to have a definitive answer of what really took place.”
Instead of cherished memories of his mother, Meadows was left with black-and-white photos, newspaper clippings and police reports. When he tries to picture what his mom was like, the image that comes to mind is Streep’s portrayal.
“The fact that … there’s still so many people afraid to tell what they know or what they’ve heard,” Meadows said. “It’s amazing to me that 50 years later, a company that barely even exists, if it does exist at all …still has that kind of control or that kind of intimidation.”
That company was Kerr-McGee, named after its influential leaders Robert Kerr and Dean McGee. It doesn’t exist anymore. But, in the early ’70s, Kerr-McGee was a giant in Oklahoma and in America’s oil and gas industry.
So, for Silkwood, going against her employer would be a steep hill to climb. The company maintained that allegations of malfeasance were overblown and some claims even made up by overzealous union workers.
Steve Wodka met Karen Silkwood in the early ’70s as a young staff member for the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW), which represented Silkwood and other plant workers.
Wodka recently retired from his career as an attorney advocating for people with work-related cancer. Living in a small New Jersey beach town, he spends his time trying to figure out what happened to Silkwood 50 years ago.
Silkwood had alerted him to possible problems at the plant and the union was concerned about worker safety.
“The belief is that intense radiation that goes on essentially for the rest of the person’s life causes lung cancer,” Wodka said. “So the handling of plutonium is supposed to be very strict… There’s always supposed to be a barrier between the worker and plutonium. And what was going on in this plant was that barrier was being breached on a daily basis.”
Silkwood raised some even bigger concerns about possible wrongdoing at the plant — that important quality control reports were reportedly being falsified. Concerns that, if true, meant the health and safety of a lot more people was at risk, well beyond people who worked at the plant.
The company denied contamination allegations and maintained that Silkwood was involved in a scheme to embarrass the company and improve the bargaining position of the union.
Silkwood never made it to that meeting, but after her death, interest in her story put a spotlight on the claims she was trying to make.
Boettcher, Sands, and others connected with Silkwood’s story, continue to probe for answers in a case that feels unfinished.
“Radioactive: The Karen Silkwood Mystery” is a production by ABC Audio in collaboration with Standing Bear Entertainment. Listen to the four-part podcast series for complete coverage.
(HOUSTON, Texas) — An 18-year-old was arrested and charged in Houston, Texas, after allegedly killing a man during an meetup to purchase a PlayStation 5.
The Houston Police Department charged Zavion Joshua Pabon, 18, with capital murder and aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon in the shooting death of 37-year-old Tyler McGinty, who was selling the video game console.
Patrol officers responded on Nov. 24 to a report of a shooting at a hotel room at 3850 Wilcrest Drive, according to the HPD. The victim was later identified as McGinty.
McGinty was taken to an area hospital in critical condition and was pronounced dead on Nov. 28, the HPD said.
Pabon was later identified as a person of interest in the case and was arrested Thursday and charged with McGinty’s murder, according to the HPD.
According to McGinty’s mother, Tammy Smith, her son was selling a PlayStation 5 online for $350 and went to the hotel to meet with a potential buyer.
“He got his head blown off for a PlayStation 5,” Smith told ABC affiliate station KTRK in Houston.
McGinty had sold several items online, his mother said, adding that she never expected something like this to happen.
“You don’t think like that,” Smith said. “Normal people don’t do this. This isn’t a normal person. This is a very, very bad individual.”
Smith said she finds solace in knowing her son was an organ donor and that his heart continues to beat.
“It just makes me happy, and it comforts me in my time of need as a mom going through grief,” Smith said.
Pabon is currently in jail and has been denied bond, according to the Harris County Clerk’s Office. His next hearing is set for Dec. 12.
