Thirty people were killed and at least 90 others were injured when the Hazara Express train derailed in Pakistan on Sunday, August 6, near the town of Multan. The train departed Karachi in the southern part of the country and was traveling to Havelian in the northern part of the country. Local workers, paramilitary troops and railway workers teamed up to pull the injured passengers from the wreckage. Bodies of the deceased were pulled out as well and taken to a hospital. The derailment caused the tracks from Karachi, both inbound and outbound, to be closed. A relief train was sent to assist, according to railways minister, Khawaja Saad Rafique.
Category: Transport Watch
26 July Brussels, Belgium
The Brussels Airport bombers were found guilty of terrorist murder seven years after suicide bomb attacks that killed 32 people at the airport and also at a metro station. The attacks occurred in March 2016 and were perpetrated by a group of six men, several of whom were already convicted of taking part in the earlier Paris terror attacks. Salah Abdeslam was found guilty in a French trial of the Paris bomb and gun attacks that happened in November 2015. Although he denied involvement in the Brussels airport attack, he has now been convicted of murder and attempted murder in Belgium, too. Mohamed Abrini was also found guilty of both bombings. Abrini confessed to participating in the attacks as well as to preparing explosives for the bombings. In addition, four others were found guilty of terrorist murder: Oussama Atar, Osama Krayem, Ali El Haddad Asufi and Bilal El Makhoukhi. The attacks happened on March 22, 2016 when two bombs went off just before 8:00 a.m. at opposite ends of the departures hall at Zaventem airport. Sixteen people died from the attack. About an hour later, an additional bombing occurred on a train at Maelbeek metro station in Brussels. Hundreds were wounded and 16 others perished.
24 June Stillwater County, Montana
A train derailed into the Yellowstone River in Montana on June 24 leading state agencies to warn people not to eat fish caught in the Yellowstone River in the area where the train, which was carrying chemicals, went off the tracks, according to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The department’s staff collected five mountain whitefish and five rainbow trout below the derailment site for contaminant testing as a follow-up to the incident. The derailment caused a bridge over the Yellowstone River to collapse, sending several cars into the water, Stillwater County officials said at the time. Phenanthrene was one of the chemicals in question and is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH). PAHs are found in products such as oil, gas, plastics, and pesticides.
1 May New York City
A New York City subway rider allegedly put another man in a chokehold which ultimately resulted in the man’s death. Daniel J. Penny, 24, a U.S. Marine veteran said he was acting to protect himself and other riders and never intended harm. Jordan Neely began acting strangely according to passengers and Penny put him in a chokehold. An altercation allegedly took place prior to the move. The incident occurred Monday, May 1, on a northbound F train, according to two law enforcement officials. “When Mr. Neely began aggressively threatening Daniel Penny and the other passengers, Daniel, with the help of others, acted to protect themselves, until help arrived,” lawyers for Penny said in a statement Friday evening. “Daniel never intended to harm Mr. Neely and could not have foreseen his untimely death.” Neely, 30, was unconscious when police arrived at the Broadway and East Houston Street subway station, and pronounced dead at a hospital, New York police said. He died from “compression of neck (chokehold)” and the manner was homicide, the city chief medical examiner’s office said. Penny was taken into custody Monday, questioned by police and released. No charges have been filed against him.
14 September Alpefjord, Greenland
The cruise ship MV Ocean Explorer was pulled free three days after running aground in Greenland. The cruise ship ran aground above the Arctic Circle in Alpefjord in Northeast Greenland National Park, the northernmost national park in the world. The ship had 206 people on board at the time of the incident, according to authorities and the ship’s owner. A fisheries research was able to pull the vessel at high tide, pulling it free, said SunStone Ships, the Copenhagen-based owner of the cruise ship. The Joint Arctic Command coordinated the operation. “There have not been any injuries to anybody on board, no pollution of the environment and no breach of the hull,” SunStone Ships said in a statement. The research vessel which pulled the cruise ship belongs to the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, a government agency, it said. Those aboard were taken to a location and were flown home. The Danish Maritime Authority asked police in Greenland to investigate the reason the ship ran aground and whether any laws had been violated, a police statement said. No one has been charged or arrested. An officer has been on board the ship to carry out “initial investigative steps, which, among other things, involve questioning the crew and other relevant persons on board,” the statement said.
12 September Lampedusa, Italy
Early on September 12, a group of unseaworthy, overcrowded iron boats came into Italian island Lampedusa, a fishing and tourist hub south of Sicily. 6,800 migrants came in about 24 hours, more people than the full-time population of Lampedusa. The boats and migrants launched from Tunisia. The flotilla taxed the Italian coast guard’s ability to intercept the smugglers’ vessels and testing Premier Giorgia Meloni’s commitment to end irregular migration.
7 September Loiza, Puerto Rico
Marine interdiction agents of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations (AMO) intercepted a vessel with three men from the Dominican Republic transporting 723 pounds (328 kilos) of cocaine, north of Loiza, Puerto Rico. The estimated value of the seized narcotics is approximately $7.9 million. A CAMB Multi-role Enforcement Aircraft (MEA) crew detected a Yola-type vessel with two outboard engines travelling south towards Puerto Rico, with visible bales and three occupants on board. The MEA maintained surveillance of the vessel coordinating with the crews of two Coastal Interceptor vessels to intercept. The marine interdiction agents stopped a gray and blue, 24’ Eduardoño-type homemade yola, with three occupants on board. The agents boarded the vessel approximately 10 nautical miles north of Loiza, arresting three adult males, who claimed to be from the Dominican Republic, and found ten (10) bales of suspected cocaine. The tested contraband was positive to the properties of cocaine.
27 August Mallorca, Spain
A P&O Cruise vessel broke free from moorings in a storm in Mallorca and collided with another ship. Inspections showed one of the lifeboats was damaged and could not be repaired on board, according to the cruise company. Some passengers were told they’d have to fly home. A total of 321 passengers were told they’d have to return to Southampton, or their starting point, by flight and transfer. A technical assessment was carried out on the cruise ship in Palma, where experts found “structural issues” with one of the lifeboats. P&O said the ship was “close to capacity” at the time of the collision and asked guests to “kindly volunteer to disembark.” The ship, named the Britannia, can carry 3,647 passengers.
11 August Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri
An investigation ensued after a boat exploded at a marina at Lake of the Ozarks. It is thought that the explosion was caused by a buildup of gas fumes in the engine area and a spark that set off the explosion. A group of 16 people were injured (15 on the boat and one on the dock).
3 August
Two U.S. Navy sailors were indicted and arrested for allegedly sending sensitive U.S. military information to Chinese intelligence officers. Jinchao Wei was arrested as he arrived for work at Naval Base San Diego, according to a statement released Thursday by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California. The other sailor, Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, who was arrested, worked at Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme in California. Wei appeared in federal court, where federal defenders submitted a not guilty plea on his behalf, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California said in a statement. “The charges demonstrate the (People’s Republic of China’s) determination to obtain information that is critical to our national defense by any means, so it can be used to their advantage,” Matt Olson, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for national security, said at a news conference.