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Officials in Colombia called it a “miracle” that the plane crash on a Colombian island early Monday morning resulted in just one death.

Even as authorities work to determine what caused the Boeing 737 to go down, deft piloting is being pointed to as a key factor in saving the lives of the 130 other people aboard, including at least five American citizens.

“The pilot’s professionalism prevented the plane from going off the runway,” Gen. Orlando Paez of Colombia’s national police told Caracol Radio.

Officials are investigating whether the plane, which belonged to Colombian carrier Aires and was on its way from the capital, Bogotá, had been hit by lightning as it neared San Andres, a Caribbean resort island off the east coast of Nicaragua. A downdraft could have also caused the crash, officials speculated.

Colombian national police, in a statement, said the plane broke into three parts as it landed. There were at least 121 passengers aboard, including four children, plus six crew members.

The state government sent an e-mail to the Associated Press that said passengers included eight US citizens and four Brazilians. An airline representative later told the Associated Press that only five US citizens were aboard.

The sole death could have been caused by a heart attack, a doctor treating the patients has said.

The damage could have been far worse, according to Robert Sanchez, director of the hospital Amor de Patria, which was treating many of the injured. “It’s incredible. For the dimension [of the accident], there should be more,” he told the Associated Press.

Colombian Air Force Col. David Barrero told the wire service by telephone that “the skill of the pilot kept the plane from colliding with the airport.”

The incident called to mind the US Airways flight that landed in the Hudson River in 2009, dubbed the “Miracle on the Hudson.” Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger was credited then with saving the lives of all 150 passengers when the plane made an emergency landing on the river.

There are many more examples, says Robert Mann, president of R.W. Mann & Company, an aviation consultancy in Port Washington, N.Y. He says skilled pilots have managed to safely land despite structural failures on takeoff, malfunctioning controls, and cargo door failure. (Another example he cites is the 1989 crash in Honolulu that killed nine people, of 355 aboard.)

“Obviously skill goes into it, experience goes into it,” he says.

The experience of past crashes teaches pilots and the industry overall ways to deal with problems in the future. PBS has looked back at the lessons learned from some of the worst air accidents in history.

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The 2010 Russian wildfires are a series of hundreds of wildfires that broke out across Russia, primarily in the west, from late July 2010 to present, due to record temperatures (hottest summer in Russian history) and drought in the region. The President of Russia has declared a state of emergency in seven regions for the fires, while 28 other regions were under a state of emergency due to crop failures caused by the Russian drought.

Overview

During the year 2010, Russia experienced generally dry and hot weather starting around late May – early June. Temperatures of 35 °C (95 °F) first occurred after 12 June, which alone was an abnormality for the country (average mid-June temperatures seldom rise above 30 °C (86 °F)). In the second half of June, distant Russian regions (such as Sakha Republic), located mostly in Asia, as well as areas of partial taiga, had temperatures of 38–40 °C (100–104 °F) degrees. The warm ridging pattern then slowly moved westward to the Ural Mountains, and by July settled in European Russia.

On 25 June a new temperature record was set in the Asian portion of Russia, at Belogorsk, Amur Oblast, at 42.3 °C (108.1 °F). The previous record in the Asian portion was 41.7 °C (107.1 °F) at Aksha (village) on 21 July 2004. A new record for the highest nationwide temperature in Russia was set on 11 July, at 44 °C (111 °F), in Yashkul, Kalmykia (in the European portion), beating the previous record of 43.8 °C (110.8 °F) set on 6 August 1940, also in Kalmykia.

Average temperatures in the region increased to over 35 °C (95 °F). Citizens of Moscow endured nights of 36 °C (97 °F), a record for nighttime temperatures since the year 1947. The mean high for European Russia recorded on 26 July reached 40 °C (104 °F) during the day, and 34 °C (93 °F) at night. During the month of July, a large portion of European Russia was more than 7 °C (12.6 °F) warmer than normal.

Other Information

• Location : Russia
• Date : Late July 2010 – present
• Land use : Villages, farmland, woodlands
• Buildings destroyed : 2,000
• Fatalities : Minimum 53, possibly fifteen thousand

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Continue reading »]]> A natural disaster is the effect of a natural hazard (e.g. flood, tornado, hurricane, volcanic eruption, earthquake, or landslide) that affects the environment, and leads to financial, environmental and/or human losses. The resulting loss depends on the capacity of the population to support or resist the disaster, and their resilience. This understanding is concentrated in the formulation: “disasters occur when hazards meet vulnerability.” A natural hazard will hence never result in a natural disaster in areas without vulnerability, e.g. strong earthquakes in uninhabited areas. The term natural has consequently been disputed because the events simply are not hazards or disasters without human involvement.

Rank	Event	Location	Date
1.	1931 China floods	China	July, November, 1931
2.	1887 Yellow River flood	China	September, October, 1887
3.	1556 Shaanxi earthquake	Shaanxi Province, China	January 23, 1556
4.	1970 Bhola cyclone	East Pakistan (now Bangladesh)	November 13, 1970
5.	1839 India Cyclone	India	November 25, 1839
6.	526 Antioch earthquake	Antioch, Turkey	05 May 526
7.	1976 Tangshan earthquake	Tangshan, Hebei, China	July 28, 1976
8.	1920 Haiyuan earthquake	Haiyuan, Ningxia-Gansu, China	December 16, 1920
9.	2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami	Sumatra, Indonesia	December 26, 2004
10.	2010 Haiti earthquake	Port-au-Prince, Haiti	January 12, 2010

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Continue reading »]]> An oil spill is a release of a liquid petroleum stuff into the environment due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term often refers to marine oil spills, where oil is released into the ocean or coastal waters. Oil spills include releases of crude oil from tankers, offshore platforms, drilling rigs and wells, as well as spills of refined petroleum products (such as gasoline, diesel) and their by-products, and heavier fuels used by large ships such as bunker fuel, or the spill of any oily refuse or waste oil. Spills may take months or even years to clean up.

Spill / Tanker	Location	Date
Lakeview Gusher	United States, Kern County, California	May 14, 1910 – September, 1911
Deepwater Horizon	United States, Gulf of Mexico	April 20, 2010 – current
Gulf War oil spill	Iraq, Persian Gulf and Kuwait	January 23, 1991
Ixtoc I	Mexico, Gulf of Mexico	June 3, 1979 – March 23, 1980
Atlantic Empress / Aegean Captain	Trinidad and Tobago	July 19, 1979
Fergana Valley	Uzbekistan	March 2, 1992
Nowruz Field Platform	Iran, Persian Gulf	February 4, 1983
ABT Summer	Angola, 700 nmi (1,300 km; 810 mi) offshore	May 28, 1991
Castillo de Bellver	South Africa, Saldanha Bay	August 6, 1983
Amoco Cadiz	France, Brittany	March 16, 1978
MT Haven	Italy, Mediterranean Sea near Genoa	April 11, 1991
Odyssey	Canada, 700 nmi (1,300 km; 810 mi) off Nova Scotia	November 10, 1988
Sea Star	Iran, Gulf of Oman	December 19, 1972
Irenes Serenade	Greece, Pylos	February 23, 1980
Urquiola	Spain, A Coruña	May 12, 1976
Torrey Canyon	United Kingdom, Isles of Scilly	March 18, 1967
Greenpoint Oil Spill	United States, Brooklyn, New York City	1940–1950s

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Continue reading »]]> Nearly five million barrels of oil have gushed from the BP’s well since the Deepwater Horizon spill began on April 20, federal scientists said on Monday in announcing the most precise estimates yet of the well’s flow rate. The estimates would make this spill far bigger than the 3.3 million barrels spilled by the Mexican rig Ixtoc I in 1979, previously believed to be the world’s largest accidental release of oil.

Federal science and engineering teams estimated that 53,000 barrels of oil per day were pouring from the well just before BP was able to cap it on July 15. They also estimated that the daily flow rate had lessened over time, starting at around 62,000 barrels a day and decreasing as the reservoir of hydrocarbons feeding the gusher was gradually depleted.

The teams believe that the estimates are accurate to within 10 percent. They also reported that of the roughly 4.9 million barrels that had been released from the well, about 800,000 had been captured by BP’s previous containment efforts. That leaves over four million barrels that gushed into the Gulf of Mexico between April 20 and July 15.

The amount of oil estimated to be pouring from the well has been a matter of dispute from the earliest days of the BP spill. Federal and BP officials initially announced that no oil appeared to be leaking, then 1,000 barrels a day, then 5,000 a day, frequently repeating that spill estimates are rough at best and that the main goal was to stop the well. But criticism mounted that no effort was being made to measure the leak with more certainty.

The Obama administration announced the creation of a scientific group dedicated to analyzing the flow rate, which came up with a new estimate of 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day in late May, a figure that was almost immediately met with skepticism. That, too, was later revised upwards several times before Monday’s announcement. Previous estimates came from analysis of videos from remote controlled vehicles at the wellhead, modeling of the reservoir and measurements of the oil that was collected by surface ships in the response effort.

After BP capped the well, these measurements could be reinforced by pressure readings within the well. Those pressure readings were compared with pressure estimates when the well was first drilled to determine if the rate had changed over time, which it apparently did.

The government is continuing to study the data and may refine the estimate.

Officials also postponed until Tuesday the "static kill" method of capping the well indefinitely. The plan involves pumping heavy drilling mud, and possibly cement, into the runaway Macondo well, with the aim of sealing it by the end of the week.

Source

Continue reading »]]> After a morning of rushed evacuations, the tsunami that reached Hawaii midday Saturday was smaller than officials had feared, causing no reported damage and never rising more than about three feet above sea levels, authorities said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center lifted its warning for Hawaii about two hours after the series of waves hit Hawaiian shores, and later for most of the rest of the Pacific.

"It’s a big relief," said Jenifer Rhoades, the National Weather Service’s tsunami program coordinator. "It was pretty scary. We’re glad it turned out to be an event where there wasn’t tremendous impacts in terms of loss of life."

The cancellation means residents who evacuated could begin returning to their homes. More than 144,000 people lived in the evacuation zone.

The biggest waves were reported at Kahului Bay in Maui, but even there no flooding or damage was reported, said Shelly Ichishita, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Defense Civil Defense Division.

"All the evidence indicated it would be larger," said Barry Hirshorn, a geophysicist at the Tsunami warning center. "This was a very large earthquake in a part of the world that tends to produce very large tsunamis. We need to walk a line between a false alarm and missing something that’s dangerous and could kill people. Since the science is not exact, we chose to err on the side of not killing people by missing something."

A tsunami warning remained in effect for Russia and Japan.

As the tsunami neared Hawaii, triggered by a massive earthquake in Chile, Hilo International Airport on the big island of Hawaii, which is near the southern coast , was closed, and all crews aboard vessels and on the ground in state ports were ordered to evacuate. A warning siren sounded at 6 a.m. local time, alerting residents to tune into their local television and radio stations for instructions.

"We are counting on the public to follow all the instructions of our emergency personnel," said Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle. "Anyone who is ordering you to evacuate you need to take it seriously. We need you to evacuate in an orderly fashion.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano had been briefed and was monitoring developments from Vancouver, where she is leading a U.S. delegation for the Olympics.

Four Hawaii-based U.S. Coast Guard cutters prepared to get underway to ride out the tsunami at sea, and the service planned to reposition aircraft at low-lying Air Station Barbers Point near Honolulu to be able to respond if big waves hit, officials said.

Lingle declared a state of emergency, a step aimed at making needed resources available, including the National Guard. Several water pumping stations that are in low-lying areas were shut down to prevent equipment from being damaged by flooding.

washingtonpost.com

Continue reading »]]> A huge 8.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Chile early on Saturday killing at least 78 people, toppling buildings and triggering a tsunami threatening the Pacific rim of fire, officials said.

The massive quake plunged much of the Chilean capital, Santiago, into darkness as it snapped power lines and severed communications.

AFP journalists spoke of walls and masonry collapsing while people in pyjamas fled onto the streets.

Television images showed destroyed or heavily damaged buildings and debris-strewn streets.

Residents in the south of the city, which appeared to have borne the brunt of the quake, said roads had crumpled and a bridge had been damaged, as an AFP correspondent said buildings "shook like jelly."

The US Pacific Tsunami warning center issued a "widespread" tsunami warning for all Pacific nations. Related article: Pacific nations on tsunami alert

A partial evacuation of Easter Island has been ordered in Chile in the face of possible big tidal waves, President Michelle Bachelet announced.

She also said two ships with aid had been dispatched to Robinson Crusoe Island, part of the Juan Fernandez Archipelago, which has been affected by a big tidal wave.

Japan’s meteorological agency warned of a tsunami risk across large areas of the Pacific including as far away as the Antarctic, as the Philippines warned low-lying coastal areas to prepare for possible evacuation.

Australia and New Zealand issued tsunami alerts while Russia said it was monitoring the risk.

The tremor struck at 3:34 am local time (0634 GMT) when many Chileans were still in nightclubs partying at the start of the weekend.

It was swiftly followed by a series of aftershocks ranging from 5.6 to 6.9 on the Moment Magnitude Scale.

Bachelet and her officials rushed to their offices to coordinate disaster relief, state television said, as the powerful aftershocks panicked the quake-prone Latin American country.

"With the quake of this magnitude and given its timing, we cannot rule out other casualties," Bachelet said as first reports came in of deaths.

Santiago lies 325 kilometers (200 miles) northeast of the epicenter of the quake, which hit at a depth of 35 kilometers (21.7 miles).

It struck 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of the Chilean town of Chillan, the US Geological Survey said, and 115 kilometers (70 miles) northeast of Concepcion, a city of about a million people.

"Sea level readings confirm that a tsunami has been generated which could cause widespread damage," the US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

Authorities should take "appropriate action," it added, but said the warning did not apply to the west coast of the United States.

"There is a possibility that tsunami will widely occur in the Pacific Ocean," an official for the Japanese meteorological agency said as Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines also issued warnings.

Asian nations have been on heightened alert ever since a massive 2004 tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people around the Indian Ocean.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama ordered his government to be prepared to offer support for victims if necessary, Jiji Press reported.

"Swift action should be required," Hatoyama told reporters. "It appears to be fairly sizable. I told ministries concerned to be ready to take measures in case relief assistance is needed."

The European Union said it stood ready to provide immediate and coordinated aid for victims.

US seismologists had initially put the magnitude of the tremor at 8.5 but later adjusted it upwards to 8.8.

Earthquake-prone Chile lies along the Pacific rim of fire and is regularly rocked by quakes, but damage is often limited as they mostly hit in desert regions which are sparsely populated.

In May 1960 the country was ravaged what is now known as Valdivia or Great Chilean Earthquake, which was rated 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale.

The resulting tsunami affected southern Chile, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, reaching as far as eastern New Zealand and southeast Australia.

The estimated death toll from that disaster ranged from over 2,200 to 5,700.

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Vehicles that were driving along a highway that collapsed during the earthquake near Santiago are seen overturned on the asphalt Saturday Feb. 27, 1010 after an 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck central Chile early Saturday. The quake hit 200 miles (325 kilometers) southwest of the capital and the epicenter was just 70 miles (115 kilometers) from Concepcion, Chile’s second-largest city.

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A tsunami advisory announced shortly after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Japan’s Ryukyu Islands early Saturday has been canceled, Japan’s Meteorological Agency reported.

There was no tsunami damage "though there may be slight sea level changes from now on," it said, referring to the areas affected by the advisory — the Okinawa Islands, the Amami Islands and the Tokara Islands.

The quake was centered 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) deep and struck at 5:31 a.m. (3:31 p.m. ET Friday) about 85 kilometers (53 miles) from Okinawa.

The quake was felt on Okinawa, with shaking that lasted about 15 seconds, said Lt. Col. Daniel King of the U.S. Pacific Command. He told CNN that commanders in Japan and Hawaii were trying to get damage and casualty reports from U.S. military stations on Okinawa, but had heard nothing in the immediate aftermath.

About 20,000 U.S. troops — mostly Marines, along with Navy and Air Force personnel — are stationed on eight bases on Okinawa, he said.

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A massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake rocked Chile early Saturday, killing at least 78 people and triggering tsunami warnings for the entire Pacific basin.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said she expected the death toll to rise.

Numerous aftershocks — including one of magnitude 6.9 — were felt within hours of the initial quake, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake’s epicenter was located off the coast of Maule, about 200 miles southwest of the capital of Santiago. It struck at 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. ET), when most people were sleeping.

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