In brief: Sept. 11 plane part was portion of wing

NEW YORK – The rusted metal aircraft part believed to be from one of the hijacked jetliners that slammed into the World Trade Center on 9/11 came from a wing, not landing gear, police said Monday.

The 5-foot piece is a trailing edge flap support structure, police said. It is located closer to the body of the plane and helps secure wing flaps that move in and out and aid in regulating plane speed. Investigators initially thought it was part of the landing gear because both pieces have similar-looking hydraulics.

Boeing officials told police the part came from one of its 767 airliners, but it isn’t possible to determine which flight. Both hijacked planes that struck the towers were Boeing 767s. Workers discovered the part Wednesday on the ground in a sliver of space between a luxury loft rental building and a mosque.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Monday tapped rising Democratic politician Anthony Foxx to lead the Department of Transportation, an agency at the center of Washington’s fiscal fights.

Foxx, the mayor of Charlotte, N.C., is the first black nominee among the president’s picks for open spots in his second-term Cabinet. The president had faced questions, including from the Congressional Black Caucus, about a lack of diversity in his first round of nominations after winning re-election.

Obama said that, as a mayor, Foxx knows how to use infrastructure spending to create jobs and boost economic growth.

Planes collide in air, killing one pilot

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. – Two small airplanes collided in midair over the Southern California mountains Monday, sending one crashing into a rocky ridge and killing its pilot while the second was able to maneuver a belly-flop landing on a nearby golf course, officials said.

Rescuers searched through the wreckage of the plane that crashed and sparked a fire in rocky terrain in Calabasas and found the body of one person believed to be the only one aboard, Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

Firefighters responding to a report of a small wildfire at about 2 p.m. spotted the aircraft debris, put out the fire and began a search for survivors, county Fire Inspector Quvondo Johnson said.

Three people on the plane that landed on a fairway while stunned golfers looked on had minor injuries.