Plane makes emergency landing at Newark Airport

NEWARK, New Jersey (AP) — Newark Liberty Airport has reopened after a United Express flight from Atlanta made an emergency landing, forcing an hour-long shutdown.

There were no reports of injuries among the 71 people aboard.

Authorities say Flight 5124 landed around 6:20 p.m. Monday, shortly after the pilot was approaching the airport to land as scheduled and noticed a landing gear problem.

Newark firefighters were called to the scene, but found no smoke or fire aboard the plane.

A spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says the airport was closed shortly after the landing. Two of the airport's three runways reopened about an hour later.

Additional details were not immediately available.

View the original article here

Video: Airport closed after 'rogue vehicle' drives on runway

Kenneth Mazik. Philadelphia Police Department/AP Photo

Philadelphia International Airport was closed briefly today after a drunken man drove his SUV through a fence and onto two runways, leading police on a high speed chase, sparking a terrorism scare and forcing an air traffic controller to order a passenger plane to abort its landing, authorities said.

The suspect, Kenneth Richard Mazik, 24, of Chadds Ford, Pa., has been arrested and charged with driving under the influence, simple and aggravated assault, and several counts of reckless endangerment, defiant trespass and criminal mischief.

Witnesses say Mazik drove his Jeep Cherokee through an airport construction gate only a few yards from the runway at about 10 a.m. The man headed directly for the landing area just as U.S. Airways Flight 3137, a commuter jet, was about to land, they added. At the last minute, a controller ordered the pilot to pull up.

"We've got a rogue vehicle driving around on the airport," one controller said, advising other aircraft of the incident and a likely delay. "We got to catch him. We're not moving anybody until we find this guy."

All runways were re-opened by 4 p.m.

Witnesses say it seemed as though Mazik attempted to time it so that the Jeep would meet the plane as it landed, according to a report from ABC affiliate WPVI-TV in Philadelphia. Police say Mazik never made it to the runway; officers were able to stop him first.

"The ground radar kicked in; the tower was alerted immediately and they made sure to divert flights coming in and then quickly shut the airport down," Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Joseph Sullivan said, according to WPVI.

Mazik appeared to be intoxicated when he was finally apprehended, police said.

The incident has raised questions about security at the airport, but the facility's deputy director, Keith Prune, said security was good.

"We do have security perimeter checks on a regular basis, multiple times, every shift throughout the entire day, so we're fairly confident with our security," Prune said.

Police checked the Jeep for explosives or other suspect material. The reported they did not find anything.

View the original article here

Video: Airport closed after 'rogue vehicle' drives on runway

Kenneth Mazik. Philadelphia Police Department/AP Photo

Philadelphia International Airport was closed briefly today after a drunken man drove his SUV through a fence and onto two runways, leading police on a high speed chase, sparking a terrorism scare and forcing an air traffic controller to order a passenger plane to abort its landing, authorities said.

The suspect, Kenneth Richard Mazik, 24, of Chadds Ford, Pa., has been arrested and charged with driving under the influence, simple and aggravated assault, and several counts of reckless endangerment, defiant trespass and criminal mischief.

Witnesses say Mazik drove his Jeep Cherokee through an airport construction gate only a few yards from the runway at about 10 a.m. The man headed directly for the landing area just as U.S. Airways Flight 3137, a commuter jet, was about to land, they added. At the last minute, a controller ordered the pilot to pull up.

"We've got a rogue vehicle driving around on the airport," one controller said, advising other aircraft of the incident and a likely delay. "We got to catch him. We're not moving anybody until we find this guy."

All runways were re-opened by 4 p.m.

Witnesses say it seemed as though Mazik attempted to time it so that the Jeep would meet the plane as it landed, according to a report from ABC affiliate WPVI-TV in Philadelphia. Police say Mazik never made it to the runway; officers were able to stop him first.

"The ground radar kicked in; the tower was alerted immediately and they made sure to divert flights coming in and then quickly shut the airport down," Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Joseph Sullivan said, according to WPVI.

Mazik appeared to be intoxicated when he was finally apprehended, police said.

The incident has raised questions about security at the airport, but the facility's deputy director, Keith Prune, said security was good.

"We do have security perimeter checks on a regular basis, multiple times, every shift throughout the entire day, so we're fairly confident with our security," Prune said.

Police checked the Jeep for explosives or other suspect material. The reported they did not find anything.

View the original article here

Suicide blast kills six at Afghan airport: police

At least six people were killed and seven wounded on Monday in a suicide car bomb attack at Jalalabad airport in eastern Afghanistan where NATO forces have a base, police said.

"Six people are dead," Nangarhar provincial police spokesman Hazrat Mohammad told AFP. NATO troops sealed off the area, Nangarhar provincial spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdul Zai told AFP.

There were no reports of NATO casualties in the attack, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force said.

"According to initial information the ISAF installation was not reached by the explosion," he said.

The Taliban, who are waging a 10-year insurgency against the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai, claimed responsibility for the blast.

The attack comes after at least 30 people were killed in six days of violent anti-US demonstrations across the country in protest over the burning of Korans at a US military airbase.

On Sunday, seven US soldiers were wounded in a grenade attack on their base in northern Kunduz province, police said.

President Hamid Karzai went on television Sunday to appeal for calm.

Karzai "condemned with the strongest words" the treatment of Islam's holy book and said the perpetrators should be punished, but told his countrymen: "Now that we have shown our feelings it is time to be calm and peaceful."

He said he respected the emotions of Afghans upset by the Koran burning in an incinerator pit at Bagram base north of Kabul, but urged them not to let "the enemies of Afghanistan misuse their feelings".

Taliban insurgents have called on Afghans to kill foreign troops in revenge for the incident, and claimed to have been behind the shooting deaths of the two US advisers in the interior ministry in Kabul on Saturday.

View the original article here