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Delta Air Lines employees work up a sweat at boot camp, learning how to de-ice planes

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:22:53 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Delta Air Lines has learned that summer is a good time to prepare for winter — and how to de-ice planes so they can keep flying safely in freezing temperatures.Every summer, Delta brings about 400 workers to Minneapolis to a three-day summer de-ice “boot camp.” They go through computer-based training, watch demonstrations by instructors, and then practice spraying down a plane — using water instead of the chemicals found in de-icing fluid.The boot campers, who rotate through in groups of 10 or so, return to their home bases and train 6,000 co-workers before October, says Jeannine Ashworth, vice president of airport operations for the Atlanta-based airline.Here’s how the de-icing process works: Big trucks with tanks of deicing mixture pull up alongside a plane, and an operator in a bucket at the top of a long boom sprays hot fluid that melts ice but doesn’t refreeze because of the chemicals it contains, mainly propylene glycol.It takes anywhere fr...

SIU investigating after man, 19, dies in Niagara Falls

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:22:53 GMT

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is looking into the circumstances of the death of a 19-year-old man who jumped into the Niagara Falls Gorge.Ontario’s police watchdog said Niagara Parks Police officers were attempting to look for a man in distress around 7 p.m. on Saturday. They located the 19-year-old in the River Road and Hiram Street area.The SIU reported the man jumped over the barrier and fell into the Niagara Gorge. His body was found a short time later.The SIU said one subject official and three witness officials have been designated.Authorities are urging members of the public with information to come forward.The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of officials that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault and or the discharge of a firearm at a person.

Explosives drop steel trestle Missouri River bridge into the water along I-70 while onlookers watch

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:22:53 GMT

ROCHEPORT, Mo. (AP) — Onlookers online and on the banks of the Missouri River had to wait more than an hour to watch officials use explosives to drop a historic steel trestle bridge into the river that for years carried cars across the waterway along I-70.The blast just southeast of Rocheport, Missouri, which is is about 115 miles (185.07 kilometers) east of Kansas City, was delayed by fog Sunday morning. The demolition that was scheduled for 7:30 a.m. finally happened shortly before 9 a.m. after the view was clear.A small crowd of onlookers gathered along the banks of the river to watch the destruction with some of their heads temporarily blocking the livestream the Missouri Department of Transportation operated. Many others logged on from across the country to watch online. The feed switched to a wide shot that showed the entire bridge before the explosives were triggered.The state said crews will work to remove the roughly 1,100-foot-long (335-meter-long) bridge from the river wi...

Aftershock rattles Morocco as rescuers seek survivors from the earthquake that killed over 2,000

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:22:53 GMT

AMIZMIZ, Morocco (AP) — An aftershock rattled Moroccans on Sunday as they prayed for victims of the nation’s strongest earthquake in more than a century and toiled to rescue survivors while soldiers and workers brought water and supplies to desperate mountain villages in ruins. The disaster killed more than 2,000 people — a number that is expected to rise.The United Nations estimated that 300,000 people were affected by Friday night’s magnitude 6.8 quake and some Moroccans complained on social networks that the government wasn’t allowing more help from outside. International aid crews were prepared to deploy, but waited for the Morocco government to request their assistance.“We know there is a great urgency to save people and dig under the remains of buildings,” said Arnaud Fraisse, founder of Rescuers Without Borders, who had a team stuck in Paris waiting for the green light. “There are people dying under the rubble, and we cannot do anything to save them.”Help was slow to ar...

Motorcyclist critically injured, lost control and struck vehicle in city’s west end

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:22:53 GMT

A male motorcyclist is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after they lost control of their bike and struck a vehicle in the city’s west end.Toronto police were called to the Bloor Street West and Kipling Avenue area in Etobicoke at around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday for reports of a collision.Police said a 29-year-old man was operating a 2022 Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle southwest on Dundas Street West near Jerry Howarth Drive when he lost control and travelled through an enclosed grass area before striking a Kia near the intersection.A 47-year-old woman was operating the 2014 Kia Forte westbound on Bloor Street West at the time.The male motorcyclist was rushed to a trauma centre with life-threatening injuries. Police said the woman was not seriously injured in the crash.The investigation is ongoing.

North Macedonia police say a migrant was electrocuted as he descended from freight train roof

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:22:53 GMT

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — Authorities in North Macedonia say a migrant was electrocuted as he tried to descend from the roof of a train carriage.The man in his 30s died instantly early Sunday when he touched a cable during an attempt to descend from the roof of a freight train container near the central town of Gradsko.Police said in a statement the accident was reported by the National Crisis Center. They did not provide details about the migrant’s origin.The police told The Associated Press that, in the first six months of 2023, a total of 5,280 attempts at illegal crossing were prevented, the vast majority of them at the southern border with Greece. That is a reduction of 43% on the same period last year.Most of the migrants attempting to cross into North Macedonia are Syrians, police said. Konstantin Testorides, The Associated Press

These are the major players among Canadian airlines in an increasingly crowded market

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:22:53 GMT

Air Canada has been the dominant player since it acquired rival Canadian Airlines in 2001, and now accounts for nearly half of the country’s domestic air travel market, flying by far the most planes internationally as well.WestJet, founded as a regional upstart in Calgary in 1996, has grown to serve nearly a third of the domestic market. It completed its purchase of Sunwing earlier this year but is facing a growing raft of rivals out of its home base in Alberta.Porter Airlines, which launched in 2006 out of the Billy Bishop regional airport near downtown Toronto, is tracing a rapid expansion as it seeks to nearly double its fleet by 2025 in direct competition with Air Canada. It now flies out of the larger Toronto Pearson airport as well.Air Transat, co-founded by current Quebec Premier François Legault in 1986, has struggled to market its tour packages since the COVID-19 pandemic. It has also failed to turn a quarterly profit for three-and-a-half years straight while shoulder...

Airline competition ramps up, setting stage for showdown and reducing (some) fares

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:22:53 GMT

MONTREAL — Passengers aren’t the only ones feeling cramped these days.Though Canadian flights have long been dominated by Air Canada and WestJet, the emergence of newer carriers including Flair Airlines and Lynx Air has shaken up the sector, injecting fresh competition to a once-complacent market.Most airlines are setting plans in motion to ramp up growth over the next year, adding more planes to an already crowded field — and cheaper fares on the busiest routes. “Whenever you’ve got players trying to establish themselves in these markets, it is a boon for consumers,” said former Air Canada chief operating officer Duncan Dee.Key domestic arteries such as Toronto-Vancouver, Vancouver-Calgary and Montreal-Toronto host more airlines than ever — up to six now versus as few as two several years ago — with fares dragged down by a pair of budget carriers.The cost of a domestic round-trip plane ticket fell to $289 on average this fall, a drop of 24 per cent from 2019 levels and 11 per...

A US Navy vet got unexpected help while jailed in Iran. Once released, he repaid the favor

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:22:53 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michael White had only recently arrived in a grim Iranian jail when a curious fellow prisoner, an English-speaking Iranian, approached him in the courtyard for a conversation.The American did not reveal much at first, but it was the beginning of an unlikely friendship between White, a Navy veteran imprisoned on spying charges he says were unfounded, and Mahdi Vatankhah, a young Iranian political activist whose positions on social issues had drawn his government's ire.As the men connected behind bars over a shared interest in politics and human rights, they developed a bond that proved vital for both.Vatankhah, while in custody and after his release, helped White by providing White's mother with crucial, firsthand accounts about her son's status in prison and by passing along letters White had written while he was locked up. Once freed, White did not forget. He pushed successfully this year for Vatankhah’s admission to the United States, allowing the men t...

'Maryment' CEO joins Weekend Morning News to share more on wedding budgeting

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:22:53 GMT

It is still wedding season and we know the cost of saying 'I Do' adds up. Laura Panozzo, CEO of 'Maryment' shares more on how it doesn't have to be that way.Love the WGN Morning News? We love you, too. And you can have all the hijinks delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign up and subscribe to our WGN Morning News newsletter.