In brief: Helicopter wreckage located, recovery delayed by weather

NAVARRE, Fla. – Divers have found the wreckage of a military helicopter in just 25 feet of water after it crashed in dense fog during a Florida training mission, killing seven Marines and four soldiers. But more bad weather Thursday delayed the recovery of bodies and the flight recorder.

The mission changed from rescue to recovery after divers inspected the shattered core of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, said Col. Monte Cannon, vice commander of the 96th Test Wing at Eglin Air Force Base.

“It was certainly a high-impact crash,” said Eglin Fire Chief Mark Giuliano, and “very, very, very dense fog” was complicating the response.

The helicopter went down Tuesday night in fog so thick that another helicopter turned back.

U.S. health worker flown to NIH for Ebola treatment

BETHESDA, Md. – An American health worker who contracted Ebola while volunteering in Africa will be admitted to a hospital at the National Institutes of Health, the agency announced Thursday.

The patient was expected to arrive today at the NIH research hospital in Bethesda after being transported to the United States in isolation on a chartered plane. The patient’s name, age and gender have not been released.

The patient had been volunteering at an Ebola treatment center in Sierra Leone. The NIH did not release any further details about the patient.

The patient will be the 11th person with Ebola to be treated in the U.S.

Killer in Pamela Smart case paroled after 25 years

CONCORD, N.H. – The triggerman in the Pamela Smart murder trial was granted parole Thursday, nearly 25 years after he killed his school instructor’s husband and launched a global spectacle packed with lurid details of sex and manipulation.

William Flynn was 16-year-old “Billy” in 1990 when he and three teenage friends carried out what prosecutors said was Pamela Smart’s plot to murder Gregg Smart. Flynn pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 28 years to life in prison, minus time served before trial. A judge in 2008 reduced his sentence by three years to credit him for good behavior in prison.

The trial was a media circus and one of the first high-profile cases about a sexual affair between an instructor and student. It inspired the Joyce Maynard novel “To Die For,” which in turn was made into a movie starring Nicole Kidman.

Pamela Smart, who was 22 when her husband was killed, was convicted of being an accomplice to first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole.