Skydiving plane crashes, kills six
A small plane carrying skydivers crashed shortly after takeoff Saturday, killing six people on board and injuring two others, authorities and witnesses said.
Early reports indicated the plane may have struck a telephone pole before hitting a tree, Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke said. It crashed about 10 feet from a house.
Four people were dead at the scene and two more died at St. John’s Mercy Hospital in Creve Couer, hospital spokesman David Downs said. One of the injured was in critical condition and one was in serious condition, Downs said.
The victims had not been identified.
The plane was making a skydiving flight for Quantum Leap Skydiving Inc., said Mark Lacy, safety and training adviser for the company, which is located in Sullivan. There were eight people aboard, he said.
PORT CANAVERAL, Fla.
Illness strikes 230 aboard cruise ship
Nearly 230 people aboard a cruise ship fell ill with a gastrointestinal illness during a weeklong Caribbean voyage, the company said Saturday.
The illness, believed to be a norovirus brought onto the Mariner of the Seas by a passenger, struck 221 of the ship’s 3,660 passengers and six of its 1,202 crew members, said Royal Caribbean spokesman Michael Sheehan.
Sick passengers started complaining of vomiting and diarrhea Wednesday and were treated with over-the-counter medication, he said.
Most would likely be recovered by the time the ship docked this morning in Port Canaveral as scheduled, Sheehan said.
This is the second outbreak aboard the Mariner of the Seas this year. In January, the ship reported a norovirus that sickened 276 passengers and 27 crew members.
NEW YORK
Amid clash, Astor leaves hospital
Millionaire philanthropist and high-society queen Brooke Astor was released from a hospital Saturday, several days after being admitted amid a family dispute over whether she was being neglected by her son.
Astor, 104, left the Lennox Hill Hospital shortly after 1 p.m., said Fraser Seitel, a spokesman for Annette de la Renta, Astor’s close friend.
De la Renta, the wife of designer Oscar de la Renta, was appointed as Astor’s temporary legal guardian while a court decides who will be her permanent caregiver.
Astor’s grandson, Philip Marshall, filed court papers asking that his father, Anthony Marshall, be removed as her guardian. The younger Marshall said his father had denied Astor her high-end lifestyle while using his role as legal guardian to take “millions of dollars.”
Anthony Marshall dismissed the neglect allegations this week, saying: “I love my mother, and no one cares more about her than I do.”