Woman stuck upside-down between 2 boulders trying to retrieve her phone freed after 7 hours
Facebook / NSW Ambulance
(LONDON) — A woman in Australia got herself into a tight predicament when she dropped her phone and ended up getting stuck upside-down in between two boulders for seven hours while trying to retrieve it.
The woman got herself into a “spot of bother,” according to a statement from New South Wales Ambulance released on Monday, when she was hiking in the Hunter Valley north of Sydney and dropped her phone which fell into a 10-foot crevice between two boulders when she went in head-first trying to recover it when she got stuck and couldn’t move.
“With no phone reception and unable to call for help herself, her friends called Triple Zero (000) after unsuccessful attempts to free her – the patient was hanging by her feet upside down for over an hour by this point,” authorities said. “NSW Ambulance Specialist Rescue Paramedic Peter Watts worked with a multidisciplinary team to remove several heavy boulders to create a safe access point. With care, a hardwood frame was built to ensure stability while rescuers worked.”
Responders worked for several hours until they were able to access the unnamed woman’s feet, officials said.
“With both feet now accessible, the team faced the challenge of navigating the patient out through a tight “S” bend over the course of an hour. It took teamwork and a specialised Tirfor winch to move a massive 500kg boulder,” NSW Ambulance said.
Finally, after seven hours of being stuck while emergency crews worked to free her, the woman was freed from between the boulders and suffered only minor scratches and bruises during the entire ordeal — though she was, regretfully, unable to retrieve her phone.
“In my 10 years as a rescue paramedic I had never encountered a job quite like this, it was challenging but incredibly rewarding,” Peter Watts said. “Every agency had a role, and we all worked incredibly well together to achieve a good outcome for the patient.”
Yauhen Yerchak/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(LONDON and BELGRADE) — A team of Lithuanian investigators recovered the black boxes from Monday’s deadly cargo plane crash, as they began their probe into what caused the aircraft to go down and worked to clear the crash site.
Investigators from the U.S. were dispatched to aid in the investigation, officials said. German aviation experts had arrived to help, while Spanish investigators were expected to arrive later Tuesday.
The jet crashed on Monday morning less than a mile from the runway at Vilnius International Airport, officials said. One of the four people onboard was killed in the crash, local officials said.
Lithuanian police and prosecutors have opened a “pre-trial” investigation into the crash, according to Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė, whose office held a meeting late Monday on the government response.
The government has ordered an investigation under the country’s criminal code, which calls for probes into “‘Improper maintenance or repair of vehicles or roads, or of equipment thereon,’ which provides for liability in the event of loss of life, serious injury to persons or very serious damage to property,” the prime minister’s office said.
“I urge everyone to have confidence in the investigating authorities’ ability to conduct a thorough and professional investigation within an optimal timeframe,” Šimonytė said in a statement. “Only these investigations will uncover the true causes of the incident—speculation and guesswork will not help establish the truth.”
The investigation will be led by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania Transport Accident and Incident Investigation Division, with aid from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, the board said on Monday.
The results of that investigation are expected to be made public, the NTSB said.
Lithuanian officials said on Tuesday that they expected the inspection of the crashed plane to be mostly completed within three days, at which point the destroyed plane will be removed from the site. Officials told reporters that they were searching for a hanger where they can begin to place aircraft parts.
The DHL cargo plane — a Boeing 737-476 operated by Swiftair — had flown into Lithuania from Germany. It crashed in a residential area in Liepkalnis, on the outskirts of the capital, Vilnius, the Lithuanian airport authority said in a statement posted on social media on Monday.
One of the pilots, who was from Spain, was pronounced dead at the scene and the other was transferred to a local hospital in critical condition, Bozena Jerenkovic, a medical doctor who was part of the emergency team on site, told ABC News on Monday. It appeared that the cockpit had been separated from the plane’s fuselage, she added.
The Lithuanian National Crisis Management Center confirmed to ABC News that the pilot is in critical condition. The other two people who were injured in the crash are doing OK, the center said.
ABC News has reached out to Bonn, Germany-based DHL for comment.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Melissa Gaffney contributed to this report.
(SEOUL, South Korea) — As South Korea navigates a path forward after President Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law order last week, the nation’s political parties are still wrangling over whether to impeach him for the shocking move even as the president maintains it was a “highly political decision.”
Yoon could face a second impeachment vote on Saturday after a first impeachment vote over the weekend ended with lawmakers from the ruling People Power Party walking out before the vote.
The public reaction has been complex and varied, reflecting the deep political, social, and generational divides in South Korea. But overall there is a mass consensus that putting the country under martial law was an inexcusable action, no matter what motivated the president to do so.
“It was an unthinkable, unimaginable situation,” Seo Jungkun, a professor at Kyunghee University in Seoul, told ABC News.
“President Yoon attempted to suspend the functions of the national assembly. He ordered the removal of lawmakers, therefore he could be charged with treason,” Seo explained, referring to a testimony by Lt. Gen. Kwak Jong-geun, who oversaw the special forces dispatched to the National Assembly on the night of the martial law declaration.
Under South Korea’s constitution, if a sitting president is accused of insurrection, the police have the authority to arrest him while he is still in office.
Yoon vowed to “fight until the last moment” in an unexpected speech on Thursday and said that he had never intended to disrupt the “constitutional order” when he ordered hundreds of troops into the National Assembly on Dec. 3.
“My purpose was to inform the public about the colossal group of opposition parties’ heinous anti-state behavior,” Yoon said.
Yoon listed numerous grievances against opposition lawmakers in an effort to justify his actions. He claimed they had slashed funding for initiatives to revitalize the much-needed South Korean nuclear power sector and to combat drug traffickers, criminals, and foreign spies, including North Korea-led provocations.
The opposition Democratic Party stripped the National Intelligence Service of its decades long anti-espionage investigative power early this year, handing over that authority to the police which many agree are not capable of investigating North Korean provocations.
Yoon’s government has been at a deadlock since assuming power in 2022 due to the opposition’s continuous impeachment attempts targeting key members of his administration.
The Democratic Party has also impeached numerous prosecutors and judges involved in legal cases in which their party leader, Lee Jae-myung, had been personally accused while he served as mayor and governor. Lee is currently undergoing five trials for criminal charges such as corruption and bribery, subornation, and the illegal transfer of funds to North Korea.
“Yes, the opposition put pressure on the government in an unprecedented manner. But it was within the bounds of law and authority,” Professor Kang Won-taek of Seoul National University said, saying the measures were simply politics.
Many analysts in Seoul agree that Lee’s time had been ticking because if he were to be sentenced with any of these charges, he would be losing eligibility to run for presidency, which is why the opposition is pressing hard at full speed now. Once elected president, Lee would be immune from criminal prosecution by law.
The majority Democratic Party introduced a second motion to impeach the president on Thursday, following up on their warning that they will push for impeachment every week until it passes. Lawmaker Kim Min-seok of the Democratic Party referred to President Yoon’s speech as a “declaration of war against the nation,” saying he is delusional.
Yoon faces a deeply divided faction even within his own ruling party. The leader of the People Power Party, Han Dong-Hoon, is now in favor of impeachment.
“There is no other way,” Han said as other ruling party lawmakers shouted angrily that impeachment is only a personal opinion of Han’s and that “it is too early to define it as insurrection.” All except three ruling party lawmakers shunned the impeachment vote last Saturday by refusing to vote, but the upcoming vote is expected to be a close call.
If Yoon is impeached on Saturday he will be immediately suspended, but the Constitutional Court could take up to six months to decide whether to reinstate or remove the president.
Impeachment requires the presence of at least seven judges to hear the case and the agreement of two-thirds of the Constitutional Court judges. Currently, the Constitutional Court has only six members.
“Realistically I believe the case will be dismissed if the Constitutional Court remains as is with six judges,” Dr. Lee Junhan of Incheon National University told ABC News. Based on past cases, the judges are likely to rule that there were problematic actions but not precisely unconstitutional, which will lead to no impeachment, he said. “And this is what the president is aiming for.”
(PORTLAND, Or.) — A teenager who was seriously injured in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war has arrived in the United States for treatment.
Diaa Al-Haqq, 15, was injured when an alleged Israeli missile attack hit a café in Gaza, the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) — the nongovernmental organization that arranged his evacuation — told Portland, Oregon, ABC affiliate KATU. Diaa’s arms were severely injured and he had amputations on both arms below his elbows.
Diaa and his sister, Aya, arrived at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Saturday, the local PCRF chapter in Portland said in a post on Instagram. After a brief layover, Diaa arrived in Portland, where he will be receiving medical care, on Sunday, according to the chapter.
Videos shared to social media showed Diaa, sitting in a wheelchair, arrive to a cheering crowd waving Palestinian flags.
“We’re really excited that he’s able to come here for treatment and be safely hosted within the Portland community in the coming months,” Niyyah Ruschaer-Haqq, a nurse practitioner in Portland, told KATU.
The PCRF said it worked with several organizations — including the World Health Organization and the nonprofits Human Concern International and FAJR Scientific — to evacuate eight critically injured children, including Diaa, and their companions from Gaza to Jordan. The children were then taken to the U.S. for medical care.
Diaa is one of two children whose medical care will be supported by the PCRF, while the remaining six children will have their medical care supported by other organizations, the PCRF said.
The organization said Diaa dreamed of becoming a professional photographer and loved documenting nature, according to KATU. It’s unclear how long Diaa will remain in the U.S. receiving care.
The PCRF did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, 2023, at least 12,000 children have been injured, equating to almost 70 every day, according to UNICEF. They are “disproportionately wearing the scars of the war in Gaza,” according to the humanitarian aid organization.
Last month, UNICEF said that between Jan. 1 and May 7 of this year, an average of 296 children were being medically evacuated from Gaza each month. However, since the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt was closed on May 7 after Israeli forces launched a ground operation, just 22 children have been medically evacuated every month.
“As a result, children in Gaza are dying — not just from the bombs, bullets and shells that strike them — but because, even when ‘miracles happen,’ even when the bombs go off and the homes collapse and the casualties mount, but the children survive, they are then prevented from leaving Gaza to receive the urgent care that would save their lives,” UNICEF said in an October press release.
Since Hamas launched its surprise terrorist attack on Israel, and Israel responded by declaring war, at least 43,800 people have been killed in Gaza and at least 103,700 have been injured, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. About 1,700 Israelis have been killed and about 8,700 have been injured, according to Israeli officials.
