Alaskan plane crash kills 9
Associated Press
DILLINGHAM, Alaska - A commuter plane with 10 people aboard crashed in the tundra shortly after takeoff yesterday, killing nine people and critically injuring one, state police said.
The plane, a single-engine Cessna 208 Caravan operated by PenAir, Alaska's biggest commuter airline, went down in calm, clear weather about two miles from the end of the runway, authorities said.
It was on its way to King Salmon, a community about 75 miles away, with nine passengers and a pilot.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known. The National Transportation Safety Board planned to send investigators.
Richard Harding, PenAir vice president of operations, said the crew had given no indication the plane was in trouble.
The injured passenger was hospitalized in critical condition.
Dillingham is on Bristol Bay, 330 miles southwest of Anchorage.
The Cessna 208 Caravan can carry up to 14 people.
Charter flight to Algeria disappears with eight Americans; two Spanish crew
Associated Press
MADRID, Spain - A chartered plane bound for Algeria with 10 people on board - eight of them Americans - disappeared off the eastern coast of Spain on Wednesday, officials said.
The plane carried eight Americans and two Spanish crew members, said Deborah Glasmann, press attache of the U.S. consulate in Barcelona. She declined to provide identities and hometowns.
The plane, which belonged to the company Flight Line, vanished on its way from the northeastern city of Barcelona to the Algerian city of Oran, said a spokeswoman for Spain's Ministry of Development, which is in charge of transportation.
The plane dropped off radar screens around 10:40 a.m. near the Columbretes Islands off the eastern Spanish coastal city of Castellon. In the last contact, the pilot asked for a change of route because of bad weather, the ministry spokeswoman said.
Spanish air force rescue teams called off their search for the plane because of darkness and were set to resume the search this morning.
Mormons urge Utah to continue ban on booze advertising
Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY - The Mormon church urged Utah yesterday to continue its ban on liquor advertising despite a federal court ruling declaring the law unconstitutional, arguing that the First Amendment rights of alcohol vendors should be curbed.
The church said that a majority of Utah residents want to keep the ban on advertising wine and liquor and urged the state to fund studies to determine the advertisements' "impact on vulnerable youth."
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which urges members to abstain from drinking alcohol, claims 70 percent of Utah's residents as followers. A majority of the alcohol commission members also belong to the church.
"The church believes the purveyors of alcohol should not be accorded the same First Amendment protections to promote use of their products to youth as those who speak out on political, social, religious and other issues of human discourse," the church statement said.
This statement comes while emergency rules allowing the ads are in place for 120 days.
The temporary guidelines were adopted Aug. 7 by the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission. They allow Utah's private clubs, taverns and restaurants to advertise the sale of liquor and wine. This includes the ability of waiters to offer wine lists to patrons without first being asked.
Before, the businesses could only advertise beer with an alcohol content of 3.2 percent or less.
The commission was acting in response to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that Utah's law was irrational and violated commercial free speech. Attorney Brian Barnard said the commission will either comply with the Constitution, or "I know where the courthouse is and I'll be back there."
Barnard said the majority of residents cannot override constitutional rights.
"The fact that a segment of Utah's population is offended by the use or advertising of alcohol is not a basis for squelching the First Amendment right to advertise that legal product," he said.
