January 8 top stories
It is January 8. Hope your weekend was good. Here are today’s top stories.
Scary accident on Alaska Airlines Boeing plane
On Friday, an Alaska Airlines Boeing passenger plane with 171 passengers on it had a scary incident when a panel and window blew out at 16,000 feet in the air. This happened not long after the plane took off from Portland, Oregon.
Passengers told CNN that it sounded like an explosion and there was a rush of air and screams. Fortunately, the plane was able to make an emergency landing about 20 minutes later. Several passengers were injured but all are expected to be okay. Also, fortunately, nobody was sitting on the two plane seats right next to the hole. These seats were damaged.
Images of the plane and the hole showed that it had a clean outline as if a jet door had popped off. News reports explained that this is a "plug door.” When the manufacturer built this plane, they cut out certain parts to have it serve as an emergency exit door if needed, but if the airline buying the plane wants a different configuration, then that “hole” would be covered up and it’d look like a normal part of the fuselage.
The FAA said it is grounding planes with this same model, the Boeing 737-9 Max, that is being used by various airlines. There is now a federal investigation. The move has impacted over 170 planes around the world. Many flights were forced to be canceled.
Federal officials said it is fortunate that the door plug fell out at 16,000 feet because if it happened at a cruising altitude of 30,000 feet, it could have been much worse because people would have been unbuckled and walking around. They could have been pulled towards the hole.
On Sunday, a person found the plug that fell out of the plane in their backyard in Portland. That piece will help investigators understand how it could have come undone.
Another person found an iPhone from the flight that landed on the side of a road. It was mostly undamaged and showed an email of a receipt for checked baggage.
It is very fortunate that the broken plug and the iPhone didn’t hit anyone below.
Defense Austin hospitalized; controversy
NBC News reported that the U.S. Defense Secretary Austin was hospitalized last Monday night and spent four days in the ICU. This was not known to the public until Friday. A military spokesperson said Austin had complications after undergoing an elective medical procedure. It is unknown what it was for.
There is a controversy because the U.S. Defense Department did not let the White House know about this until last Thursday. There are questions on whether the U.S. military was prepared if there was something big that happened that required immediate leadership. Austin said in a statement that he takes full responsibility for his decisions about disclosure, saying he recognizes he could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed.
Japan mourns 168 dead from earthquake
The earthquake that hit western Japan on New Year’s Day is blamed for at least 168 deaths. Over 300 people are missing. AP News said there have been thousands of first responders picking through collapsed buildings hoping to find survivors and it’s more difficult now because there was just a heavy snowfall and concerns about landslides. There are thousands of people who have lost their homes and many are in mourning. There have been daily aftershocks, which are smaller earthquakes that happen after a large earthquake. One of the hardest-hit towns is Wajima, which was a tourist town known for its seafood and crafts.
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Moon lander mission runs into problems
A spacecraft company launched a moon lander this morning on a rocket but it ran into problems after the lander separated from the rocket. The problem is that the lander is not able to orient itself to move in a stable direction. The spacecraft company is Astrobotic, the lander is called Peregrine, and the rocket is a United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket. It is the first U.S. lunar lander mission in 50 years and unfortunately, it seems like it’s having serious problems. The Astrobotic company said they expected that it would be a very challenging mission and if they failed, they would gather data to learn and improve for the next mission.
One week until Iowa Republican caucuses
There is only one week left before the first voting happens for the 2024 presidential election season. The Iowa Republican caucuses will take place on Monday, January 15 at 7:00 pm CST. Registered Republicans will gather at certain locations and select their preferred candidate in a secret-ballot vote.
This Republican process is different from the Democratic caucuses, which have voters walk from one corner of a room to another to pick candidates. The Democratic Party had changed their primary calendar to make South Carolina hold the first contest, but Iowa Democrats can still vote by mail and the results will be released on March 5. It is likely that Biden will be the preferred Democrat as there are no serious challengers.
But for Republicans, the Iowa caucuses will be an important race to see where Donald Trump’s popularity stands and which one of his challengers — such as Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, or Chris Christie — has a chance for the Republican nomination. We’ll see next week.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/07/business/boeing-737-max-alaska-airlines/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/06/us/passengers-alaska-airlines/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/07/us/alaska-airlines-faa-plug-door-blown-off-sunday/index.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/astrobotic-moon-lander-anomaly-after-launch/