FAA finds no issues with Southwest after safety review
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(NEW YORK) — The Federal Aviation Administration says it has found no safety issues with Southwest Airlines following several monthslong investigations launched in July after multiple close-call incidents.
The most notable incident occurred in April when a Southwest plane came within 400 feet from slamming into the ocean off the coast of Hawaii.
However, several other incidents were investigated, including a flight to Phoenix, Arizona, in May experiencing a “dutch roll,” a Southwest flight from Ohio to Florida that came within 150 feet of the water before performing a go-around and a flight in June when a Southwest plane dropped to 525 feet over Oklahoma.
Southwest, in a statement to ABC about the agency’s completion of the review, said it “appreciates the opportunity to engage with the FAA as part of our mutual dedication to safety. Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of our Customers and Employees.”
The FAA also issued a statement in the aftermath of the investigations, saying they “finished its Certificate Holder Evaluation Program (CHEP) of Southwest Airlines. The review did not identify any significant safety issues.”
(NEW YORK) — In its first note of the day, the jury in Daniel Penny’s manslaughter and negligent homicide trial reported that it is “unable to come to a unanimous vote” on whether Penny committed second-degree manslaughter in the death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man, on the New York City subway.
“We the jury request instructions from Judge Wiley. At this time, we are unable to come to a unanimous vote on court one,” the note said.
Since the jury got the case on Tuesday, they have deliberated for more than 18 hours.
Penny, a 25-year-old former Marine, put Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man, in a six-minute-long chokehold after Neely boarded a subway car acting erratically, according to police. Witnesses described Neely yelling and moving erratically, with Penny’s attorneys calling Neely “insanely threatening” when Penny put Neely in a chokehold.
The city’s medical examiner concluded Penny’s chokehold killed Neely.
Penny pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and negligent homicide charges.
The verdict form asks the jury to decide the first count – second-degree manslaughter – before potentially moving to the second count of criminally negligent homicide. Only if it finds Penny not guilty on the first count, can it consider the second count of criminally negligent homicide.
Judge Maxwell Wiley proposed giving the jury an Allen charge, encouraging them to continue deliberating despite the deadlock. He is giving the lawyers time to consider the next steps.
“It would be a crazy result to have a hung jury just because they can’t move on to the second count?” prosecutor Dafna Yoran said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The jury has requested to receive two readbacks and several pieces of footage as they continue to deliberate in the subway chokehold death trial of Daniel Penny.
Little more than an hour into deliberations on Tuesday, the jury asked for a readback of a portion of the judge’s instructions on the law. The jury is interested in the part about justified use of force.
They also asked for several pieces of video on Wednesday, including police body camera footage, Penny’s interrogation video, and a bystander’s video.
The jury also asked for a readback of the cross-examination of the city medical examiner who concluded that Penny’s chokehold killed Neely.
The medical examiner, the final witness for the prosecution, found that Neely died from compression to the neck and never wavered from her view under intense cross-examination.
The defense countered her conclusion, suggesting public sentiment about the case had influenced her findings and that Neely died of other factors.
The jury — comprised of seven women and five men — is considering whether to convict Penny of manslaughter and negligent homicide in the death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man, on a New York City subway train.
To convict, prosecutors have told the jury that Penny’s use of lethal force must be considered unjustifiable and that Penny acted recklessly and consciously disregarded the substantial risk of putting Neely in the chokehold for so long. Defense attorneys told the jury that Penny was only trying to protect subway passengers.
Defense attorneys also said that Penny never intended to kill Neely, while prosecutors said they do not have to prove Penny intended to kill Neely to have the jury hand down a guilty verdict.
Read the key takeaways presented to the jury during the weekslong trial here.
(WASHINGTON) — Over 100 years after a white mob attacked a then-thriving Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Department of Justice announced the first-ever federal probe into the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
The attack on the Greenwood neighborhood, often referred to as “Black Wall Street,” left up to 300 people killed and homes and businesses in ruin.
Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general for civil rights who announced the review in a statement Monday, referred to the massacre as “one of the deadliest episodes of mass racial violence in this nation’s history.”
The DOJ’s announcement comes after the Oklahoma Supreme Court in June dismissed a reparations case filed by survivors of the massacre without going to trial.
The federal review is being conducted by the Civil Rights Division’s Cold Case Unit, which is investigating the crimes under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act.
In July, survivors Lessie Benningfield Randle, 109, and Viola Ford Fletcher, 110, made a plea to the Biden administration to invoke the 2007 Act, which allows for cold cases of violent crimes against Black people committed before 1970 to be reopened and investigated.
Damario Solomon-Simmons, lead attorney for the Tulsa Race Massacre Survivors, celebrated the decision in a press conference Monday.
“I’m so excited to announce that this morning, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Kristen Clarke announced that the United States Federal Government Department of Justice will open a review and evaluation of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre,” Solomon-Simmons said.
“It is about time! It only took 103 years,” he added.
Solomon-Simmons said that this decision is credited to the multiple meetings with the Department of Justice, both in Washington D.C. and on Zoom, and the continuous fight of the community.
“This community would never stop fighting for reparations. This community would never forget what happened to our people, just for being black, just for being successful,” Solomon-Simmons said.
“So we are excited today. This has been a difficult journey, a lot of obstacles, a lot of odds, a lot of opposition, but today we have a victory,” he added.
Tiffany Crutcher, a descendant of a survivor of the massacre and founder and executive director of the Terence Crutcher Foundation, said the massacre has been “ignored for far too long.”
“Today, my family and community are deeply grateful that the U.S. Department of Justice is finally preparing to review the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. This tragedy has been ignored for far too long,” Crutcher said during the press conference.
“I leave you with this quote from my mentor, our mentor, Bryan Stevenson, this community will continue to stand on hope, and hope is what will get you to stand up when people tell you to sit down, and today, we continue to stand,” she said.
