November 29, 2017

Bali’s international airport, Ngurah Rai (Denpasar), reopened today after closing Monday because of the eruption of Mount Agung volcano. The volcano is still erupting, but ash, reaching 25,000 feet, has not been detected at the airport yet.

Reuters reports:

The airport on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali reopened on Wednesday as wind blew away ash spewed out by a volcano, giving airlines a window to get tourists out while authorities stepped up efforts to get thousands of villagers to move to safety.

Operations at the airport – the second-busiest in Indonesia – have been disrupted since the weekend when Mount Agung, in east Bali, began belching out huge clouds of smoke and ash, and authorities warned of an “imminent threat” of a major eruption.

“Bali’s international airport started operating normally,” air traffic control provider AirNav said in a statement, adding that operations resumed at 2:28 p.m. (0628 GMT).

The reopening of the airport, which is about 60 km (37 miles) away from Mount Agung, followed a downgrade in an aviation warning to one level below the most serious, with the arrival of more favorable winds

CBS News reports:

Bali’s international airport was reopened on Wednesday, although a volcano on the island is still erupting. Indonesia’s president has urged anyone still within the exclusion zone to get out “for the sake of their safety.”

Airport spokesman Arie Ahsannurohim said ash from the Mount Agung volcano had drifted south and southeast, leaving clean space above the airport for planes to land and take off. The reopening came Wednesday afternoon in Indonesia.

The airport had been closed since Monday morning, disrupting travel for tens of thousands of people.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo ordered all concerned ministries and agencies, as well as the military and police, to help the Bali government cope.

Authorities on Monday told 100,000 people to leave an area extending up to six miles from the volcano. Some though have stayed.

Airport spokesman Ari Ahsanurrohim said more than 440 flights were canceled Tuesday, affecting nearly 60,000 passengers, about the same as Monday. Without aircraft, getting in or out of Bali requires traveling hours by land and taking a boat to another island, enduring choppy seas in Bali’s rainy season.

Ahsanurrohim said Wednesday morning that volcanic ash had not been detected at the airport yet, but observations from the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Center showed the ash had reached an altitude of 25,000 feet.

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November 27, 2017

A volcano in Bali has erupted, leading to a closure of Bali’s main airport and the stranding of nearly 60,000 travelers.

Business Insider writes:

An ash cloud forced the main airport on the Indonesian island of Bali to close on Monday. International flights at Denpasar Airport were canceled following a volcanic eruption by Mount Agung on Saturday evening and a further three eruptions on Sunday.

Fifty-nine thousand passengers on 445 canceled flights — including 196 international flights — have been affected, the airport said in a statement.

Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency said that Denpasar Airport was closed for 24 hours and that authorities would consider reopening it Tuesday morning after evaluating the situation.

The BBC reported that there is concern this could affect tourism in the country:

Tourism numbers have been down since the volcano began rumbling in September.

“We are very well prepared but we do need to worry about the long-term impact on the lives of the evacuees and the impact on tourism to Bali. That’s the more serious issue,” said Bali’s Governor, Made Pastika.

The Bali Tourism Board has set up a crisis centre to respond to the eruption. It is co-ordinating free accommodation for 2,315 stranded travellers, and it has set up consular and immigration desks at the airport to help tourists to make arrangements to stay longer.

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November 27, 2017

Yesterday, two United Airlines flights from Germany to the United States had incidents on board. One flight (United flight 31) was diverted to London due to passengers complaining of illness, and one flight (United flight 961) landed in Newark with what was described as tire issues.

The Evening Standard reported on the diversion to London:

The plane, flying from Munich to Newark on Sunday, made an unscheduled landing at Heathrow after a number of passengers said they felt unwell. The cause of the passengers’ illness is under investigation and the plane has been taken out of service. According to the Aviation Herald, the flight was around 180 nautical miles from London when multiple people complained they felt sick and dizzy. Staff decided to turn the plane around and divert to Heathrow, where passengers received medical attention.

According to ABC News:

Passengers had a rough landing when their flight from Germany arrived in New Jersey, and the plane’s tires blew out.

A spokesman for United Airlines says the Boeing 777-222 from Frankfurt was landing around 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Newark Liberty airport when it “experienced tire issues.” Passengers say some of the plane’s tires blew out on landing.

No one was reported injured, but a passenger tells WNBC-TV many on board were shaken up. Another passenger says it felt like the plane hit two large potholes moments after landing. Passengers were bused to the terminal after being stuck on the tarmac for several hours.

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November 24, 2017

There was a terrorist attack on a mosque in Egypt Friday killing at least 235 people and injuring over 100 others:

CNN reports:

At least 235 people were killed and another 109 injured in an attack on a mosque in Egypt’s North Sinai region on Friday, Egyptian state-run Nile TV reported, making it one of the deadliest attacks ever carried out against civilians in the province.

After at least two explosions, gunmen who were waiting outside the mosque opened fire at worshipers as they fled Friday prayers, state-owned Ahram Online said.

The BBC states:

Witnesses say the al-Rawda mosque in the town of Bir al-Abed, near al-Arish, was targeted during Friday prayers.

It is the deadliest attack of its kind since an Islamist insurgency in the peninsula was stepped up in 2013.

Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has held emergency talks with security officials to decide how to respond.

The New York Times states:

CAIRO — Islamist militants detonated explosives and sprayed gunfire at a crowded Sufi mosque near Egypt’s Sinai coast on Friday, killing at least 235 people and wounding 109 more, in one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in the country’s modern history.

Attacks on mosques are rare in Egypt, where the Islamic State has targeted Coptic Christian churches and security officials in recent years. So the devastating attack on the mosque in Beer al-Abd, 125 miles northeast of Cairo, sent shock waves across the country.

The State Department travel warning regarding Egypt was last updated on July 19, 2017:

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November 8, 2017

Today, the Trump administration tightened travel restrictions to Cuba. Effective Thursday, American tourists will no longer be able to travel to Cuba on individual people-to-people exchange programs. They must travel now with a sponsoring organization or educational program. Americans are also restricted from access to hotels, stores and other businesses tied to the Cuban military. The new regulations would not affect existing transactions.

ASTA issued a statement calling on policymakers to enact legislation to do away with the statutory Cuba travel ban.

The Washington Post reported:

The Trump administration announced tight new restrictions Wednesday on American travel and trade with Cuba, implementing policy changes President Trump announced five months ago to reverse Obama administration normalization with the Communist-ruled island.

Under the new rules, most individual visits to Cuba will no longer be allowed, and U.S. citizens will again have to travel as part of groups licensed by the Treasury Department for specific purposes, accompanied by a group representative. Americans also will be barred from staying at a long list of hotels, and from patronizing restaurants, stores and other enterprises that the State Department has determined are owned by or benefit members of the Cuban government, specifically its security services.

The new rules “are intended to steer economic activities away from the Cuban military, intelligence and security services . . . and encourage the government to move toward greater economic freedom” for the Cuban people, said a senior administration official, one of several authorized by the White House to brief reporters on the changes on the condition of anonymity.

[Five things you need to know about Trump’s Cuba policy]

Commercial relations with Cuba are to be similarly restricted to prevent any exchanges with the 180 entities on the State Department’s list.

Administration officials said the new regulations, which will take effect Thursday, would not affect certain existing transactions. For visitors, that means anyone who has “completed at least one travel-related transaction (such as purchasing a flight or reserving accommodations) prior to” publication of the new regulations in the Federal Register on Thursday.

For businesses, all those who have signed contracts before publication may proceed with them, officials said. That presumably would include both John Deere and Caterpillar, both of which reportedly signed recent distribution contacts with Cuba.

The most significant change under the new regulations is the elimination of the individual “people-to-people” category of educational travel. As before the Obama opening, visitors to Cuba will again have to travel in licensed groups. They are additionally prohibited from staying at many hotels throughout the country that the State Department has said are connected to various holding companies said to be all or partly owned by the security services.

Instead, the new regulations encourage Americans to stay in rooms rented by private citizens, and to eat in private restaurants that have been allowed for a number of years as part of a growing Cuban private sector.

President Barack Obama restored diplomatic ties with Havana in 2015 and issued regulatory changes that allowed increased commercial relations and expanded travel to Cuba.

The ASTA statement says:

Alexandria, VA, November 8, 2017 – Eben Peck, Executive Vice President, Advocacy at the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), issues the following statement in response to the newly issued regulations governing trade and travel between the U.S. and Cuba: “We believe in the fundamental principle of travel freedom, and that our government should not be in the business of telling Americans where to travel or not to travel. The American people are the best ambassadors of U.S. values abroad, and should be allowed to freely promulgate those values and travel to any destination they wish without restriction from their own government. “Rather than shutting the door to this market 90 miles off our shores, we call on policymakers to enact legislation to do away with the statutory Cuba travel ban once and for all. While helping our members and their clients comply with the rules announced today, we will continue to advocate toward Cuba travel freedom and look forward to the day it becomes reality. “While these regulations move us in the opposite direction of the full opening of the Cuba market ASTA has long pushed for, they did incorporate several items we did push for and, perhaps most importantly, the rules of the road are now set. We are confident that our cruise and tour partners and other travel industry stakeholders will adjust quickly to the new rules with an eye toward keeping Cuba as viable a destination for U.S. travelers (and travel agents) as possible. ASTA will continue to monitor implementation and respond to member queries as the situation unfolds.”

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November 8, 2017

Restrictions have been lifted at Terminal 4 at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona, after police investigated a suspicious item as a precaution.

According to ABC15:

An American Airlines spokesperson said that they were holding flights departing for Phoenix while police took a look at the item in question.

Ticket counters for Southwest Airlines and American Airlines were also shut down for more than an hour.

Airport officials say flight delays are expected; travelers are advised to check their flight status with their airline before arriving at the airport.

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October 31, 2017

The driver of a rental truck drove the wrong way down a busy bicycle path in Manhattan near the World Trade Center, killing up to eight people and striking numerous others, a New York Police official said. The incident is being investigated as an act of terrorism.

The New York Post reported:

A man in a pickup truck killed eight people when he drove onto the West Side bike path in lower Manhattan Tuesday afternoon — and then shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he got out of the car with fake guns, police sources said.

The suspected terror attack happened around 3:15 p.m., when a man in a flatbed pickup truck from Home Depot veered onto the bike path at West St., a few blocks north of Chambers St., police said.

The suspect, who was shot by police, then plowed his car into up to 23 people on the path, killing eight and injuring more than a dozen others, according to cops.

He continued driving south and hit another car, then got out and displayed “imitation firearms,” police said.

The man then shouted, “Allahu Akbar,” according to police sources.

Witnesses described a scene of terror, as people fled for safety.

“Jesus! A car just ran over 2 people and then crashed into a school bus. I see two dead bodies and citibikes on the floor destroyed,” a Twitter user wrote.

“What happened was there was a car crash… he came out of one of the cars. He had two guns,” a 14-year-old Stuyvesant HS student said. “We thought it was a Halloween thing. He started running around the highway. There was another guy in a green shirt that was chasing him around.”

“I heard four to six gunshots — everybody starts running,” she added.

Video of the scene shows at least two people lying limp on the street. Photos show a smashed-up Home Depot rental truck and two mangled Citi Bikes.

Counter-terror police were searching the truck for explosives. NYPD investigating downtown carnage as possible terror attack 

The truck driver who plowed into several people along the West Side bike path shouted “Allahu Akbar” after getting out of his vehicle, according to sources.

He also displayed “imitation firearms” that panicked witnesses thought were real.

Six people were killed on the bike path before the driver was shot by police. He is expected to survive.

According to CNN:

The suspect, driving in a Home Depot rental truck, hopped a curb at West Houston Street and drove south on the bike path on the west side of West Side Highway in Lower Manhattan for several blocks, an NYPD official said.

After striking multiple people, the suspect hit a school bus and wrecked his truck, the official said. Four people were removed from the bus and they had minor injuries, the official said.

The driver then exited the vehicle while displaying imitation firearms and was shot by police, according to the NYPD. The suspect is in police custody and was taken to a hospital for treatment, sources at the NYPD said.

The incident is being investigated as terrorism, according to multiple law enforcement sources. Witnesses reported the suspect was yelling “Allahu Akbar,” according to four law enforcement sources. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is taking over the lead of the investigation.

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October 30, 2017

Yesterday afternoon, a United Airlines flight departing from Munich made an emergency landing in Boston. There were no injuries.

According to WCVB 5 News:

A small fire in the galley forced a plane to land at Boston’s Logan Airport on Sunday afternoon, officials said.

United Airlines flight 107 from Munich to Washington Dulles was diverted to Boston, according to FlightAware. The Boeing 777-200 was seen on the tarmac surrounded by fire vehicles.

“The flight landed safely and customers deplaned normally after the aircraft arrived at the gate,” United Airlines said. “Our maintenance team will inspect the aircraft to determine the cause.”

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October 24, 2017

On Sunday, a Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to Cleveland made an emergency landing in Knoxville, TN. There were no injuries or fatalities.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reported:

Delta flight 1474 left Atlanta just before 9 a.m. and was scheduled to reach Cleveland by 10:30 a.m. The plane was carrying 139 passengers and six crew members, according to Delta Air Lines spokesperson Anthony Black. The crew received a system notification that one of the engines was experiencing trouble, Black said, and elected to shut the engine down and land in Knoxville at about 20 minutes after 9 a.m.

McGhee Tyson Airport spokesperson Caitlin Barraf said that the plane landed safely and that the airport’s Public Safety crew was there to assist the plane’s crew and passengers after it landed. No injuries were reported and a response team from Delta is handling the situation.

WKYC 3 noted:

A recovery flight was sent to pick up the passengers.

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October 15, 2017

An 8-year-old girl has died after falling from a Carnival cruise ship. The ship was docked in Miami at the time of the incident on Saturday.

The Miami Herald reports:

After Carnival Cruise Lines ship Glory docked at PortMiami Saturday morning, an 8-year-old passenger fell several floors, sustaining fatal injuries, according to Miami-Dade police.

The girl, whose identity has yet to be released, fell to the lower deck of the ship’s interior atrium. The distance she fell was undetermined, Miami Fire Rescue Captain Ignatius Carroll said, but could have been 25 to 50 feet.

Carroll said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue originally received the call after 8 a.m. and Miami Fire Rescue responded to help. When Miami Fire Rescue arrived, Carroll said, Miami-Dade rescue workers were performing CPR on the girl. Miami Fire Rescue took the girl to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where she died.

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