Gun magazine found on Frontier Airlines flight, passengers forced to deplane
A Frontier Airlines plane lands at San Francisco International Airport on April 15, 2025, in San Francisco, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
(DENVER, Colo.) — Passengers on a Frontier Airlines flight were forced to deplane at the gate Sunday evening in Denver after an ammunition magazine was found on the aircraft as it was preparing for departure, according to the airline.
Frontier says preliminary investigation indicates the magazine belongs to a law enforcement officer who may have left it behind on a previous flight.
There were no injuries, officials said. All passengers were deplaned and rescreened out of precaution, and the plane also went through a security sweep, and nothing additional was recovered from the flight, according to the airline.
Flight 4765 was scheduled to travel from Denver to Phoenix. Due to the delay, the flight crew exceeded their duty time, and passengers were booked on another flight, which departed Monday morning, according to Frontier Airlines.
TSA says it is aware of the incident, and the FBI is leading the investigation.
The entrance to Grand Canyon National Park on Feb. 23, 2025, in Grand Canyon, Arizona. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — Two people are dead and one person remains missing following deadly flash flooding at the Grand Canyon over the weekend, as rescuers brace for more treacherous weather, authorities said.
The current missing-person count is based on permits issued by the park, park officials said, while acknowledging that additional day hikers who did not have permits could also be missing.
Authorities said hundreds of tips have been received but, so far, there is no reason to believe anyone besides the one person already being sought is missing.
A Border Patrol technical search team will search for the remaining missing person. Authorities said they will also use Bluetooth technology and a drone to search the damaged area.
The National Park Service confirmed that two people have been killed in the deadly flash flooding.
On Sunday evening, officials said the body of a 46-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was recovered near Crystal Rapids along the Colorado River. The family of the other recovered victim identified him as Dr. John Giusti, a Texas chiropractor and married father of three daughters.
Flash flooding unfolded about 2:30 p.m. local time Saturday in the Bright Angel Canyon and Phantom Ranch area, both popular destinations for hikers. Authorities said 82 people were rescued from the canyon, most by helicopter. A couple of people were able to hike out, they said.
Flood survivors told ABC News that they ran for their lives when a flood swept through the floor of the Grand Canyon on Saturday afternoon, wiping out campgrounds, structures, hiking trails and vital infrastructure, according to officials.
“The National Park Service is asking anyone who knows of hikers or backpackers who were in the inner canyon along the Bright Angel Creek corridor on August 29, as well as anyone who had a campground reservation in the affected corridor, to provide information to the National Park Service Investigative Services Branch (ISB),” the National Park Service said in a statement.
On Sunday, NPS officials said more than 20 people had initially been reported missing and that 62 individuals were air evacuated from Grand Canyon’s Phantom Ranch and the lower North Kaibab Trail, “which was affected by a significant flash-flood event Saturday afternoon.”
“The flash flood resulted in significant impacts to infrastructure throughout Bright Angel Canyon. Nearly all footbridges spanning Bright Angel Creek were destroyed, eliminating hiker access across the creek,” the Grand Canyon NPS said.
Saturday’s flash-flood event occurred after four rounds of rain swept across parts of the Grand Canyon over a span of about six hours, according to the National Weather Service. The initial three rounds were not very heavy but saturated the soil and left the area much more prone to dangerous flash flooding once the fourth round of torrential rain moved through.
The steepness of the canyon and the burn scar from last year’s Dragon Bravo Fire on the North Rim were likely major contributors, the NWS said.
Videos of the flooding obtained by ABC News show a roaring Colorado River as mudflows and debris from metal structures are seen floating down the river.
Federal authorities are seen outside an aerospace facility in Garden Grove, California, June 10, 2026. (KABC)
(ORANGE COUNTY, Calif.) — Federal authorities are executing a search warrant at a Southern California facility where fears of a catastrophic explosion over a failing chemical tank led to tens of thousands of people being ordered to evacuate last month, according to federal officials.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said the FBI and Environmental Protection Agency are on site Wednesday executing a federal search warrant signed by a judge as part of a federal investigation into the tank incident at GKN Aerospace that prompted a state of emergency in Orange County.
“Obviously, we want to know exactly what happened and determine whether any federal laws were violated, and that’s the purpose of the search today,” Essayli told reporters at the scene of the facility in Garden Grove, about 30 miles south of Los Angeles.
Essayli said chemists and scientists from the EPA have been brought from across the country to collect evidence as part of the probe, including taking soil samples.
“We’re here to get to the bottom of exactly what happened,” he said, declining to discuss the case further due to the active investigation.
Federal authorities are expected to be at the site for most of Wednesday, Essayli said.
The situation began unfolding on May 21 at GKN Aerospace, a manufacturing company that builds engines and landing gear for both commercial and military aircraft. A chemical tank filled with toxic chemicals was showing signs of overheating, which could cause it to overheat or spill, officials said.
The 34,000-gallon tank contained methyl methacrylate, an industrial chemical used in plastic manufacturing, according to the Orange County Fire Authority. The chemical is primarily a respiratory irritant. Short-term exposure can cause skin and eye irritation, as well as breathing problems, according to the EPA.
During the height of the crisis, when officials thought they faced only two options — an explosion or chemical spill — about 50,000 people in the city of Garden Grove and several surrounding communities were under evacuation orders.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a state of emergency in Orange County in response to the incident.
Following a dayslong effort to cool the contents of the tank and stabilize it, officials determined there was no longer a threat of an explosion, fire or chemical leak and no risk to the public, and all remaining evacuation orders were lifted on May 26.
During a Garden Grove City Council meeting on Tuesday, GKN Aerospace Senior Vice President Steve Carlin apologized for the disruptive and “unsettling” incident.
“On behalf of GKN and the Garden Grove plant, I want to say I’m sorry that this event, this incident occurred,” he said.
He said the company is in the early stages of investigating and reviewing what happened on May 21, “so it’d be too early for us to draw any conclusions one way or the other.”
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer launched a criminal probe into the incident last month, ordering the company not to destroy or manipulate any records, his office said.
The probe seeks to determine how a major military and commercial aircraft gear manufacturer could have allowed such a toxic failure to occur, according to the district attorney.
GKN previously declined to comment specifically on the district attorney’s investigation.
(NEW YORK) — A wildfire burning in Utah has grown to more than 31,000 acres, prompting mandatory evacuations of homes and campgrounds and completely closing a highway in the mountainous area.
Fueled by drought conditions and blustery winds, firefighters are waging twin battles against two major blazes, both measuring more than 48 square miles, officials said.
The Cottonwood Fire in Beaver County started Monday afternoon and spread rapidly, fanned by wind gusts of up to 50 mph, according to Utah Fire Info.
Overnight, the Cottonwood fire grew by nearly 7,000 acres “due to high temperatures, gusty winds, and extremely dry fuels,” the U.S. Forest Service said in a statement early Wednesday. The fire remains 0% contained.
The Cottonwood Fire ignited around 3:36 p.m. on Monday, threatening populated areas in Beaver County, according to officials.
Just after 9 p.m. local time on Monday, residents in the Eagle Point and Merchant Valley areas of Beaver County were ordered to evacuate immediately as flames bore down on the area, authorities said.
Evacuation orders remained in effect on Wednesday morning.
Fire officials said on Tuesday that they suspect the Cottonwood Fire is a human-caused blaze, but released no additional details, according to ABC affiliate station KTVX in Salt Lake City.
The Cottonwood Fire is one of 349 wildfires currently burning across Utah consuming more than 105,000 acres combined, according to Utah Fire Info.
The biggest active fire is the Iron Fire burning in Juab County, about 28 miles southwest of Provo. As of Tuesday, the Iron Fire had burned 31,314 acres and was 9% contained, said Al Nash, public information officer for the Great Basin Team 3, a federal agency in charge of the incident.
The fire has prompted numerous evacuations in the area, including the complete evacuation of the town of Eureka, which has a population of just over 600.
Kelly Wicken, a spokesperson for the Utah Division of Forestry, said the blaze started on private land and has now spread across Juab and two other counties, crossing onto federal land and shutting down a highway.
Before the fire, the National Weather Service had issued red flag fire danger warnings for a large part of the state.
Red flag warnings and fire weather watches are in place across southern and central Utah and through much of western and central Colorado, Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. Strong winds and low humidity are expected to fuel the existing fires and enable new fires to spark and spread rapidly.
