Taxiing 747 clips jetliner under tow
A plane leaving a terminal at a major New York-area airport clipped wings with another plane being towed to a hangar for service on a taxiway Tuesday night, an air traffic controllers union official said.
The incident at Newark Liberty International Airport comes as federal officials examine how a jetliner carrying more than 160 people landed on a taxiway instead of an adjacent runway at the same airport Saturday night.
In the Tuesday accident, an outbound Lufthansa Boeing 747 clipped the right wing of a Continental Boeing 757, said Russ Halleran, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association local at the airport.
None of the Lufthansa flight’s 291 passengers and 17 crew members was injured, according to Lufthansa spokeswoman Jennifer Urbaniak. The flight was bound for Frankfurt, Germany. The Lufthansa plane returned to the gate and the airline was making arrangements for the passengers to take another flight, Urbaniak said.
There also were no injuries Saturday when the Continental flight from Orlando, Fla., landed in the wrong place.
West Palm Beach, Fla.
Alligators may lose protected status
Florida wildlife officials are considering removing alligators from a list of protected imperiled species and letting homeowners deal with nuisance gators themselves.
Officials estimate the state has as many as 2 million alligators.
The proposed regulation changes were posted Monday on the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Web site and will be considered at the commission’s December meeting.
The changes would downgrade gators from a species of special concern to a game animal within five years and then remove them altogether from the state’s list of imperiled animals.
That could lift restrictions that now make it illegal for homeowners to kill nuisance alligators on their property. Currently, they must contact the commission, which contracts with trappers to remove the gators.
Madison, Wis.
FBI will review drowning deaths
The FBI said Tuesday it will review evidence in the drowning deaths of eight young men in La Crosse-area rivers over the past nine years.
All eight disappeared after nights of drinking in the southwestern Wisconsin college town, and police have said for years that they believed all eight were drunk and simply fell in.
Autopsy reports have found no signs of foul play, but rumors have persisted about a possible serial killer prowling bars and taverns.
The most recent victim was University of Wisconsin-La Crosse basketball player Luke Homan, whose body was found in the Mississippi River on Oct. 2.
Linda Krieg, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Milwaukee office, said La Crosse police contacted her office on Friday and asked for analysts to review their work.
“They still believe these are drownings and they’re accidental,” Krieg said. “They just asked if there’s anything else they could be looking at. … We’ll look over whatever they have.”