Week4-TransAsia Pilots May Have Shutdown Wrong Engine Before Plane Crash

Originally posted on Feb. 4, 2015, at 11:00 a.m.Updated on Feb. 7, 2015, at 10:38 a.m.

According to Taiwan’s Aviation Safety Council, seconds after the twin-propeller plane took off, a master warning sounded in the cockpit associated with right engine “flame out.”

But during the apparent confusion, the pilots shutoff fuel to the left engine a short time later, resulting in a shutdown of both engines, officials reported. With nothing powering the plane, it plummeted, clipping a bridge and plunging into a river near Taipei Songshan Airport.

At least 35 of the 58 people aboard Flight 235 were killed in the crash, including both pilots. Eight people were unaccounted for as of Friday afternoon.

The preliminary findings released Friday were based on cockpit voice and flight data recorders, but officials cautioned that it could take more than a year for the investigation to be completed.

The lead investigator of the crash also emphasized that the preliminary release of the findings was not meant to assign blame or liability.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jasonwells/transasia-airways-flight-crashes-into-taipei-river#.mnR0l4yE3

Structure of the Lead:Who: TransAsia pilotsWhen : Before plane crashWhat:May have shutdown wrong engineWhy:Not givenHow:Not given

Key words:1.propeller :推進器2.cockpit :駕駛員座艙3.unaccounted :未說明的4.preliminary;初步行動5.liability:責任

week3-36 dead, 47 injured in New Year’s stampede in Shanhai

December 31, 2014

At least 36 people are dead, and 47 injured during a New Year’s celebration on the Bund, a waterfront area in central Shanghai.

Emergency teams and police tried to save as many people as they could during a deadly stampede that begat at 11:35 p.m. local time. Police rushed to the scene and began to take the injured to nearby hospitals and formed a human chain to create a room for the injured to receive treatment.

According to Shanghai Rescue authorities, many of those at the Bund were young students, as were many of the dead.

Distraught relatives waited in the hospital lobbies for news of their loved ones.

Sina News reported that masses of crowds in Chen Yi Square on the Bund led to the stampede. The cause of the accident is still under investigation, but the Eastday news portal in Shanghai interviewed an eyewitness to the stampede named Wu Tao, from neighboring Anhui province, who said that the stampede began when some people threw fake promotional money from the windows of luxury club called Bund No. 18 in Shanghai.

However after watching videos, Shanghai Police deny that the stampede was caused by “coupon-throwing.”

After the accident, local hospitals sent ambulances to the scene and transported the injured people to emergency rooms.

Officials of the Shanghai Municipal Commission held their first press conference at the Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, reporting the latest development of the medical treatment given to patients injured during the stampede.

“By 11:00 Thursday, 36 people were reported to have died and 47 other people were injured. Seven people who were slightly injured have already left the hospital. The remaining 40 people are accepting medical treatment in hospital. Of the injured, 33 people have been identified. The patients are mainly young people, with 12 males and 28 females. Of the 40 injured, 27 have minor injuries and the 13 others were severely injured and are in critical condition,” said Wu.

CCTV News reporter Xu Zhaoqun reported this story from Shanghai.

http://www.cctv-america.com/2014/12/31/stampede-in-shanghai-during-new-years-celebration

Structure of the Lead:
Who:36 people are dead, and 47 injured 
When:A New Year’s celebration on the Bund
What: A deadly stampede
Why:Too many people
Where:In Chen Yi Square on the Bund 
How:Not given 

Keywords:
1.stampede:蜂擁
2.distraught :心痛的

Week2-Pakistan massacre: Student played dead to Taliban militant attack on Peshawar school

Updated 17 Dec 2014, 11:51 am

A teenage survivor of Tuesday's Taliban attack on a Pakistan school has described how he played dead after being shot in both legs by insurgents hunting down students to kill.

Taliban militants stormed the army public school on Tuesday night (local time), opening fire and killing 141 people, mostly students.

Speaking from his bed in the trauma ward of the city's Lady Reading Hospital, Shahrukh Khan, 16, said he and his classmates were in a careers guidance session in the school auditorium when four gunmen wearing paramilitary uniforms burst in.

"Someone screamed at us to get down and hide below the desks," he said, adding that the gunmen shouted "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) before opening fire.

"Then one of them shouted 'there are so many children beneath the benches, go and get them'," the student said.

"I saw a pair of big black boots coming towards me, this guy was probably hunting for students hiding beneath the benches."

He said he felt searing pain after being shot in both his legs just below the knee.

He decided to play dead, adding: "I folded my tie and pushed it into my mouth so that I wouldn't scream."

"The man with big boots kept on looking for students and pumping bullets into their bodies. I lay as still as I could and closed my eyes, waiting to get shot again.

"My body was shivering. I saw death so close and I will never forget the black boots approaching me - I felt as though it was death that was approaching me."

As his father, a shopkeeper, comforted him in his blood-soaked bed, Shahrukh recalled: "The men left after some time and I stayed there for a few minutes."

"Then I tried to get up but fell to the ground because of my wounds.

"When I crawled to the next room, it was horrible. I saw the dead body of our office assistant on fire.

"She was sitting on the chair with blood dripping from her body as she burned."

It was not immediately clear how the female employee's body caught fire, though her remains were also later seen by an AFP reporter in a hospital mortuary.

The student, who said he also saw the body of a soldier who worked at the school, crawled behind a door to hide and then lost consciousness.

"When I woke up I was lying on the hospital bed," he said.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the attack as retaliation for a major military offensive in the region, saying its militants had been ordered to shoot older students.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-17/pakistani-student-played-dead-to-survive-taliban-attack/5971910

Structure of the lead:

Who:A teenager survivor of Tuesday's Taliban attack on a Pakistan school.
When:In a careers guidance session.

What:Four gunman burst in.
Why:Not given

Where:
How:In the school auditorium.

Keywords:

1.insurgents :叛亂的

2.paramilitary ;軍事組織成員

3.crawled ;爬行

4.retaliation ;報復

Week1-Pilots Turned Off Important Computers Ahead of AirAsia 8501 Crash, Source Says

By    Rebecca Bellecci30 JANUARY, 2015

  As the investigation into the downed Air Asia Flight 8501 continues, sources say pilots of the aircraft disabled computers shortly before the plane crashed into the Java Sea.

   Sources close to the investigation say the pilots disabled an important computer meant to prevent the plane from going out of control moments before the commercial aircraft, travelling from Indonesia to Singapore, crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 162 people on board.

  After recovering the black boxes from the crash site, investigators have determined that the plane took an impossibly-steep climb, causing the plan to lose control and subsequently plummet into the sea.

  According to Bloomberg, the pilots reportedly turned off the computer systems to bypass the alerts on the plane's flight augmentation computers. Although sources say it would be possible to fly the plane manually without the computers, it remains a mystery why the aircraft would have taken a steep climb of more than 5,000 feet in less than 30 seconds.

  Indonesian authorities have been careful to neither confirm nor deny that the pilots turned off key computers before the crash on December 28.

  "About the flight augmentation computer, I can't deny, nor confirm it," Ertata Lananggalih, who is investigating the crash with Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee, said during a press conference this week.

  "It's technical and it's in investigation territory. Currently, flight augmentation computer is still being further investigated."

   Investigators have also determined that the plane's copilot was flying the aircraft when it crashed.

  The "second in command, the co-pilot, was [...] flying the plane," Indonesia National Transportation Safety Committee Investigator Mardjono Siswosuwarno said during a press conference, adding "The captain, sitting on the left, was the monitoring pilot."

http://www.christiantimes.com/article/pilots.turned.off.important.computers.ahead.of.airasia.8501.crash.source.says/50734.htm

Structure of the Lead:

Who:Pilots in Air Asia 8501

When:not given

What:Turned offt he important computers ahead of Air Asia 8501 crash

Why:Meant to prevent the plane from going out of control 

Where:Air Asia 8501

How:not given

Keywords:

1. plummet :垂直落下

2.augmentation :增加

week7-At Least 20 Trekkers Die In Blizzard, Avalanche In Nepal's Himalayas

OCTOBER 15, 201410:56 AM ET

At least a dozen trekkers have been killed in unseasonable blizzards and an avalanche in the foothills of Nepal's Himalayan mountain range.
NPR's Julie McCarthy, reporting from New Delhi, says locals and international tourists are among the dead. Rescuers say those killed include four Canadians, two Poles, an Israeli, an Indian and a Nepali.

Julie says the bad weather has been linked to cyclone Hudhud.

The trekkers were descending from Mount Annapurna, the world's 10th-highest peak and one of the most popular high-altitude treks in Nepal, Julie says.

She reminds us that in April an avalanche above base camp on Mount Everest killed 16 Nepalese guides. It was the deadliest single day for climbers on the world's tallest peak.

Update, 12:20 a.m. ET Thursday: The Associated Press reports that Nepalese authorities in helicopters have spotted at least eight more bodies in the area of the avalanche; five more hikers still are missing on another mountain.

Structure of the Lead：

Who-trekkers

When-not given

What-have been killed in unreasonable blizzards

Why-bad weather

Where-Nepal's Himalayan mountain range

How- not given

Keywords：

1.blizzards :大風雪

2.avalanche :雪崩

week6-Japan Mount Ontake volcano: Death toll reaches 47

1 October 2014 Last updated at 19:59

Rescue workers in Japan have recovered more bodies from Mount Ontake, bringing to 47 the number of those killed by Saturday's volcanic eruption.

The search resumed despite fears of toxic gases and another eruption.

The number of those unaccounted for is unknown but estimates say hundreds were at the summit at the time. Dozens were injured by falling debris.

Since then, volcanic tremors have been continuously detected with smoke still coming out of the volcano.

Police had earlier put the latest death toll at 48 but then revised it down by one.

The majority of bodies found near the summit on Wednesday were hikers, according to local police.

Helicopters have been used to bring the dead down from Mount Ontake.

Around 1,000 troops, police and fire fighters are involved in rescue operations.

The relatives of the dead and missing are waiting for news in a town hall in the nearby area of Kiso.

Danger continues

Experts have warned that the eruption is ongoing.

Seismologists had noticed increased seismic activity on Mount Ontake ahead of the eruption, but were still unprepared for what ensued.

The mountain, which is about 200km (125 miles) west of Tokyo, is one of Japan's 110 active volcanoes.

Its eruption on Saturday is the worst volcanic disaster in Japan for 90 years.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-29440982

Structure of the Lead：

who- hikers died from volcano eruption

when-not given

what- Death toll reaches 47

why-not given

where-Ontake

how-not given

Keywords：

1.summit :頂點

2.Seismologists :地震學家

3.ensued:接著發生

week5-Still no trace of 200 kidnapped girls in Nigeria

November 3, 2014, 7:51 PM

JOHANNESBURG -- Hope of finding the 200 schoolgirls who were kidnapped by Islamic militants in Nigeria diminished even further today. Back in April their plight was a sensation with pleas for their rescue from all over the world. First Lady Michelle Obama and Hollywood celebrities joined that chorus.

What became of all of that?

There has been no trace of the kidnapped schoolgirls for nearly seven months now, despite Nigeria's assurances a rescue operation was underway.

Boko Haram leader Abubaker Shekau has released a new video mocking any attempts to find them.

"We have married them off," he said, speaking in Hausa. "They are all in their marital homes."

The girls were abducted from their school on the eve of their final exams. It sparked a world wide campaign for their release. Under immense pressure, the Nigerian government made a suprise announcement more than two weeks ago that a truce had been reached -- an end to Boko Haram's reign of violence, and a return of the girls to their desperate families.

But Shekau emphatically states there never was a truce.

"Only battle," he said. "Hitting, striking and kiling with a gun."

In July, a former negotiator told CBS News "imagine the worst and it has happened." He said there were reports that many of the girls had been repeatedly raped, and others were sent across the border to neighboring Chad and Cameroon. It appears this may have been right.

So why did the government announce they had a truce?

It looks like Nigerian government has been scammed. CBS News spoke to a man who had direct knowledge of the rescue talks. He told us the authorities paid millions of dollars to a person fraudulently representing Boko Haram but actually had no power to secure the release of the kidnapped girls.

CBS News made repeated calls to the government, which kept promising to respond, but they all went unanswered today.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/still-no-trace-of-200-kidnapped-girls-in-nigeria/

Structure of the Lead：

who- 200 kidnapped girls in Nigeria

what-were kidnapped

when-April

why-not given 

where-Nigeria

how-There has been no trace of the kidnapped schoolgirls for nearly seven months now

key words:

1.diminished:減少了的

2.chorus:齊聲說道

3.martial:婚姻的

4.abducted:誘拐

5.scammed:騙局