Sleepy Air Canada pilot thought Venus was a plane

Sleepy Air Canada pilot thought Venus was a plane - A sleepy Air Canada pilot first mistook the planet Venus for an aircraft, and then sent his airliner diving toward the Atlantic to prevent an imaginary collision with another plane, an official report said on Monday.

Sixteen passengers and crew were hurt in the January 2011 incident, when the first officer rammed the control stick forward to avoid a U.S. plane he wrongly thought was heading straight toward him.

"Under the effects of significant sleep inertia (when performance and situational awareness are degraded immediately after waking up), the first officer perceived the oncoming aircraft as being on a collision course and began a descent to avoid it," Canada's Transportation Safety Board said.

"This occurrence underscores the challenge of managing fatigue on the flight deck," said chief investigator Jon Lee.

The incident occurred at night on board a Boeing 767 twin engine passenger plane flying from Toronto to Zurich in Switzerland with 95 passengers and eight crew.

The report said the first officer had just woken up, disoriented, from a long nap, when he learned from the pilot that a U.S. cargo plane was flying toward them.

"The FO (First Officer) initially mistook the planet Venus for an aircraft but the captain advised again that the target was at the 12 o'clock position (straight ahead) and 1,000 feet below," said the report.

"When the FO saw the oncoming aircraft, the FO interpreted its position as being above and descending towards them. The FO reacted to the perceived imminent collision by pushing forward on the control column," the report continued.

The airliner dropped about 400 feet before the captain pulled back on the control column. Fourteen passengers and two crew were hurt, and seven needed hospital treatment. None were wearing seat belts, even though the seat-belt sign was on.

The safety board said the crew did not fully understand the risks of tiredness during night flights.

The first officer, whose young children often interrupted his sleep at home, had napped for 75 minutes rather than the 40-minute maximum laid down by airline regulations. This meant he fell into a deep sleep and was disoriented when he woke up.

The report is yet another problem for Canada's largest airline, which has faced prolonged labor unrest.

Air Canada, expressing regret that passengers were injured, said it had taken steps to prevent a recurrence, reminding pilots to follow the rules for napping during flights and increasing efforts to heighten crews' awareness of fatigue and its effects.

"Air Canada has developed a special fatigue report form for use in its safety reporting system ... this enhanced system should be in place in summer of 2012," said spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick.

The Air Canada Pilots Association has long pressured authorities to take the stresses of night flying into account when setting the maximum hours a pilot can work. Canada's regulations were last changed in 1996, when the longest duty day was cut to 14 hours from 15 hours.

"The current regulations are not sensitive at all to the time of day ... (North Atlantic flights) are certainly fatiguing in comparison to most other flying," said association president Paul Strachan.

He also said Air Canada operated trans-Atlantic flights with two pilots whereas U.S. carriers used three to share the load.

"The regulator will have done a risk assessment and obviously is satisfied ... that the risk was acceptable, but obviously it is an increase, there is no two ways about it," he said. ( Reuters )

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UN Soldiers Brought Deadly Superbug to Americas

UN Soldiers Brought Deadly Superbug to Americas - Compelling new scientific evidence suggests United Nations peacekeepers have carried a virulent strain of cholera -- a super bug -- into the Western Hemisphere for the first time.

The vicious form of cholera has already killed 7,000 people in Haiti, where it surfaced in a remote village in October 2010. Leading researchers from Harvard Medical School and elsewhere told ABC News that, despite UN denials, there is now a mountain of evidence suggesting the strain originated in Nepal, and was carried to Haiti by Nepalese soldiers who came to Haiti to serve as UN peacekeepers after the earthquake that ravaged the country on Jan. 12, 2010 -- two years ago today. Haiti had never seen a case of cholera until the arrival of the peacekeepers, who allegedly failed to maintain sanitary conditions at their base.

"What scares me is that the strain from South Asia has been recognized as more virulent, more capable of causing severe disease, and more transmissible," said John Mekalanos, who chairs the Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology at Harvard Medical School. "These strains are nasty. So far there has been no secondary outbreak. But Haiti now represents a foothold for a particularly dangerous variety of this deadly disease."

More than 500,000 Haitians have been infected, and Mekalanos said a handful of victims who contracted cholera in Haiti have now turned up in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and in Boston, Miami and New York, but only in isolated cases.

UN Soldiers Brought Deadly Superbug to Americas

How cholera landed in Haiti has been a politically charged topic for more than a year now, with the United Nations repeatedly refusing to acknowledge any role in the outbreak despite mounting evidence that international peacekeepers were the most likely culprits. The UN has already faced hostility from Haitians who believe peacekeeping troops have abused local residents without consequence. They now face legal action from relatives of victims who have petitioned the UN for restitution. And the cholera charge could further hamper the UN's ability to work effectively there, two years after the country was hobbled by the earthquake.

Over the summer, Assistant Secretary General Anthony Banbury told ABC News that the UN sincerely wanted to know if it played a part in the outbreak, but independent efforts to answer that question had not succeeded. He said the disease could have just as easily been carried by a backpacker or civilian aid worker.

Banbury said the UN, through both its peacekeeping mission and its civilian organizations "are working very hard ... to combat the spread of the disease and bring assistance to the people. And that's what's important now."

"The scientists say it can't be determined for certainty where it came from," Banbury said. "So we don't know if it was the U.N. troops or not. That's the bottom line."

A UN spokeswoman repeated the answer when asked again last week: "The [scientists] determined it was not possible to be conclusive about how cholera was introduced into Haiti," said the UN's Anayansi Lopez.

Scientists Trace Cholera Superbug to UN Peacekeepers

But ABC News has interviewed several top scientists involved in researching the origins of the cholera outbreak, and each expressed little doubt that the UN troop was responsible. The reason: A genetic analysis of the strain found in Haiti matches identically the one involved in an outbreak in Nepal in August and September of 2010; The Nepalese peacekeeping troops deployed for Haiti at precisely that time; Two weeks before the outbreak, Haitians had reported sanitary breakdowns at the Nepalese encampment set along a tributary to the Artibonite River, about 60 miles north of the capital Port Au Prince. The next month, the earliest cases of cholera surfaced in the same remote area, from Haitians who had been drinking and bathing in the river.

"The scientific debate on the origin of cholera in Haiti existed, but it has been resolved by the accumulation of evidence that unfortunately leave no doubt about the implication of the Nepalese contingent of the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti," said French epidemiologist Renaud Piarroux, whose research on the outbreak was published by a U.S. Centers for Disease Control journal.

Mekalanos agreed, saying the single strongest piece of evidence came from the genetic analysis of the strain, which he said was virtually identical to strains that caused cholera in Nepal around the time that the troops shipped out. Taken in concert with sanitation problems at the Nepalese base, which was located near the epicenter of the outbreak, he said "almost any other explanation I can think of is well behind in confidence to the likelihood that that strain was introduced by UN troops," he said.

"It's outrageous for the UN to try to deny responsibility for bringing cholera to Haiti," said Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research, whose group has been monitoring relief efforts in Haiti. "Was it gross negligence on their part? This is one of the questions they won't have to answer if they can sweep this whole thing under the rug."

Experts said understanding the origin of the outbreak is important. Louise C. Ivers, an infectious disease specialist and professor of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School, published a paper this week that traced spread of cholera back to the first victim, a mentally ill man who ingested contaminated river water. She witnessed firsthand the destruction it caused as hundreds of villagers started dying from an unfamiliar malady.

"It was overwhelming," she said. "There were no reported cases in Haiti before 2010, ever. Really people had no idea what was happening. To hear the fear and the suspicions and the lack of understanding about how this was happening is very, very sad. The outbreak put a huge stress on what was already a very fragile health system. I'm afraid it will be a problem for the foreseeable future."

She said what has made Haiti so vulnerable was a lack of latrines and clean potable water. She said there have been small outbreaks in the Dominican Republic, but nothing on the scale of what hit Haiti because conditions are more modern and sanitary.

Mekalanos said there are steps that the UN and other aid organizations can and should be taking if they are sending workers from an area where cholera is active into a region where it has long been absent. In the future, he said, the UN might consider giving troops a prophylactic dose of antibiotic before deploying. Or they could do more to insure proper sanitary conditions at UN encampments.

With the likelihood that cholera will be part of the landscape in Haiti for decades to come, though, Mekalanos said his hope is that the missteps that brought the ugly strain of the disease from Asia to the west will not repeat and lead to its further spread.

"Cholera is a disease of the impoverished," he said. "When the standards of living are already at the lowest levels, cholera is a killer of historic proportions. If it spreads to other parts of the world, in those kinds of settings, I fear there will be a very high rate of death."

UN officials said Banbury is currently in Haiti, "actively discussing with the Mission what more the UN can do to help Haiti deal with the outbreak." ( ABC News )

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River in China turns red

River in China turns red -- Earlier this week, the Jian River that runs through the city of Luoyang, Henan province in northern China, turned bloody red.

Local media started receiving panicky phone calls from citizens on Tuesday morning saying that the water of the Jian River near their neighborhood has become blood-like overnight.

The eerie sheen on the river lasted for nearly two days before local government officials managed to track down the source of pollutant: an illegal workshop dumping red dye into the city's storm water pipe network connecting the river.

The Jian River flows red after being polluted with dye from an illegal workshop

Luoyang Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau cut off the workshop's power supply immediately and conducted a thorough examination, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Workers said on December 12 they had been rinsing a batch of red plastic bags for recycle but did not expect the consequences, Xinhua said.

The bags then were further traced back to nearby Mengjin County to a small chemical plant.The plant was accused of illegally producing red dye for firework wrappers preparing for the upcoming Chinese New Year.

Lab results from the Environmental Protection Bureau showed that despite the gruesome color, the "bloody water" contained no heavy metal or organic, poisonous elements.

The river has turned back to normal color on Thursday night, according to the Xinhua report.

But Luoyang residents said the Jian River changes color often because of the various pollutants and domestic garbage being dumped in or along the river. Some said they say it turn dark green in the past. ( cnn.com )

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Smooth Desert Boulders May Be Quakes’ Work

Smooth Desert Boulders May Be Quakes’ Work - Across the Atacama Desert in Chile are thousands of peculiar boulders that look as if they were rubbed smooth across their midsections.

How did it happen? Normally rocks become smooth by rubbing against one another in a body of water, but the Atacama is one of the driest places on the planet. Now a team led by Jay Quade, a University of Arizona geologist, has suggested an answer.

At the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Minneapolis, Dr. Quade and his colleagues Peter Reiners and Kendra Murray reported that the boulders rolled down from the hills above, dislodged by earthquakes.

Boulders in a Chilean desert appear to be rubbed smooth.

Over millions of years, the large boulders, each up to 10 tons, accumulated across the desert and began rubbing against one another during earthquakes, resulting in the smooth midsections.

Around the world, earthquakes typically result in water damage, in the form of floods and tsunamis, Dr. Quade said. But because the Atacama is so dry, water does not enter the picture.

“This provides a snapshot into a process we geologists don’t normally recognize — the role of seismicity,” he said.

The researchers estimate that since about two earthquakes occur in the region every year, it took about a million years for the boulders to gain their smooth belts.

Dr. Quade added that with some searching, similar boulders might be found on the Moon and on Mars and other planets where water is scarce. ( nytimes.com )

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Are You Prepared for a Natural Disaster?

Are You Prepared for a Natural Disaster? - No matter where you live, we are all susceptible to a natural disaster. It could be a fire, a tornado, a blizzard or even something more treacherous like a tsunami or hurricane. No matter what the disaster is there is nothing that you or I can do to stop it. All we can do is be prepared.

When preparing for any natural disaster, its best to keep it to the basics. Make sure you have enough food, water, and supplies for at least three to five days. When I made my survival kit for myself and my family, I did three separate kits. The first is a large kit that is in a rubber tote. Then I made two backpacks, one for the kids and another for me and my husband. I also made one to keep in the back of my van, because you never know where you will be when disaster strikes.

In each kit I have basically the same things just on different scales. In the tote there is water, canned food, rice, beans and a few other nonperishable foods. There is a flashlight for each member of the family as well as extra batteries. There is a large first-aid kit, blankets, and a change of clothes for everyone. I also have a few garbage bags, gloves, small tool kit. A knife, can opener, waterproof matches, fire extinguisher and copies of any important documents, like birth certificates and social security cards. And to top it off I have hand sanitizer, bleach and soap. I keep this kit in our hallway closet.

Deputy Eddy Mathews - Deputy Eddy Mathews of the Mayes County, Okla., Sheriff's Department hands off a dog to volunteer Mike Hughey of Ozark, Mo., after rescuers found a pair of dogs in the rubble of a destroyed home near the St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., Monday, May 23, 2011. A destructive tornado moved through the city on Sunday evening, killing at least 89 people and injuring hundreds more

Now in the back packs there are similar things like copy of important documents first aid kits flashlights change of clothes and soap. But instead of having a large amount of food and water, there are a few energy bars and a couple of bottles of water. This kit would most likely be used if a fire or tornado broke out and you had to get away quickly but had the possibility of coming back home.

Now the one I keep in my car has a little of both of the other kits in it. Food water clothes first aid kit tool kit. But I also have a roadside car kit pillows blankets local maps and a bag with books and games for the kids. You never know where you will be when you might not be able to return home. So it's best to be prepared.

www.ready.gov says it's best to have a kit and to make a plan. Planning for the unknown insures you are ready for whatever disaster may come your way. Make sure you keep the kits up to date. Rotate out food. Change the size of clothes as needed. And most importantly make sure it is done. ( yahoo.com )

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