In brief: Plane crash kills four on aid flight

TIJUANA, Mexico – A light plane carrying four U.S. citizens on a medical aid flight crashed in Baja California, killing all four aboard, Mexican authorities said Sunday.

The Beechcraft A36 was on a flight from Ensenada to San Quintin when it disappeared Friday. Searchers found the plane Saturday in rough terrain about 30 miles south of Ensenada, said Victor Jones, president of the Flying Samaritans organization.

Baja California state’s civil protection director, Alfredo Escobedo, said the plane apparently hit a 3,900-foot hill and then slid down to a mesa.

Those aboard were all from California – pilot Roger Lyon, of Cayucos, Drs. Graciela Sarmiento and James Thornton, of Arroyo Grande, and medic Andrew Thiel, a student in San Luis Obispo.

The San Luis Obispo Tribune reported that Lyon was a leading attorney for the Hearst newspaper family. Thornton was a plastic surgeon who had been with the Flying Samaritans for 20 years, making two trips annually to treat people with such conditions as cleft palates, disfiguring burns or clubbed hands. Sarmiento practiced medicine at a community health center, and Thiel was a biology student who hoped to attend medical school.

Super typhoon hits Philippines

MANILA, Philippines – Super Typhoon Megi became the strongest cyclone in years to lash the northern Philippines today with huge waves, strong rains and ferocious winds that toppled electricity poles, drowned one man and triggered massive emergency preparations.

Thousands of people have sought shelter while authorities warned millions of residents and rice farmers along the typhoon’s path to look out for damage to crops, homes and power lines. Flood-ravaged areas of China and Vietnam were also bracing for more rains.

Megi packed sustained winds of 140 miles per hour and gusts of 162 mph as it made landfall midday today at Palanan Bay in northeastern Isabela province, and was losing some of its power while crossing the mountains of the island of Luzon.