(NEW YORK) — Susan Zimmerman was in the middle of dinner service aboard Lufthansa Flight 469 when turbulence hit.
“It was all of a sudden we lifted up, and then we started dropping down really fast. It felt like about five seconds of freefall,” she said.
The Germany-bound flight to Frankfurt landed at Virginia’s Dulles International Airport at 9:10 p.m. after the Airbus A330 experienced “severe turbulence” 37,000 feet above Tennessee, according to Ian Gregor of the Federal Aviation Administration. Seven people aboard the flight were sent to the hospital after the incident.
“While it was happening, the plates were up, and the ceiling glass was up in the ceiling,” Zimmerman said. “My bag was flown back behind me, and it was kind of like you’re in slow motion.”
According to Flight Aware, the flight descended roughly 10,000 feet over 10 minutes, including a one-minute, 1,000-foot drop at one point.
Zimmerman, who is pregnant, said in those intense moments, her mind went towards her unborn daughter and husband, thinking, “God, just let me out of this.”
“I’m five months pregnant, so I was honestly thinking I’m never going to meet my daughter,” she said. “I was trying to just keep myself calm so as to not put any further undue stress on her.”
After the sudden turbulence, she described the scene as if “a food fight had erupted in the plane,” with broken glassware, trays, and food everywhere following the disrupted dinner service.
She added that passengers toward the back of the plane appeared to be impacted by the turbulence more severely, as well as the flight crew who were in the middle of serving dinner.
She said the flight experienced intermittent turbulence after the main drop before stabilizing and eventually landing at Dulles.
“Once we were passed the storm, there was nothing else that we had to really worry about,” she said.
Once the turbulence subsided, the flight crew checked on the passengers multiple times, eventually carrying one injured woman to the front of the plane before landing, according to Zimmerman.
Roughly 15 paramedics were waiting at the jet bridge, according to Zimmerman. About six boarded the plane to assist the injured passengers before the passengers fully deplaned.
Wednesday’s incident follows a string of injuries related to flights that have hit severe turbulence.
On Dec. 18, 20 passengers were injured on a Hawaiian Airlines flight about 30 minutes from Honolulu. Seven suffered serious injuries. Five passengers were hospitalized the next day when a United Airlines flight to Houston hit turbulence. At least three passengers were injured on Feb. 9 when a United Airlines flight from Newark, New Jersey to Tampa, Florida hit turbulence.
“You think you’re never going to be in a quote-unquote ‘Final Destination’ situation,” Zimmerman said. “And then here you are.”
(CAIRO) — A nine-meter long hidden passageway was discovered inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Egyptian tourism and antiquities minister announced on Thursday.
The function of corridor inside the Pyramid of Khufu, the largest of the Great Pyramids of Giza, was not immediately known but officials said it could lead to further discoveries.
The finding was made by researchers from the Scan Pyramid project, an international mission that since 2015 has been using modern methods — including scanners and infrared thermography — to probe the internal structure of the pyramid.
The gabled ceiling of the secret tunnel suggests it was built to lighten the load on the structure, Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities told reporters at the pyramid site.
“But a big question mark hangs over whether this corridor was created to relieve the weight on the [main] entrance or lighten the load on a space yet to be discovered,” he added. “Scanning work will continue to uncover more secrets.”
The Great Pyramid is the last surviving wonder of the ancient world. It was built as a royal tomb some 4,500 years ago during the reign of Pharaoh Khufu.
Egypt aims to tap into new ancient discoveries to draw in tourists, a major source of foreign currency and jobs that has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as political instability following the 2011 revolution.
Jay Leno made an appearance on Wednesday’s installment of The Kelly Clarkson Show and talked about his recovery from that fiery garage accident in November of last year that left him with serious burns to his face, and body.
“You look great, though,” Kelly said, to which the 72-year-old comic replied, “Well, this is a brand new face.”
Leno explained, “I was working on a car and I got a face full of gasoline. It caught fire,” Leno explained, recalling the November, 2022 freak accident. “I had been eating a Flamin’ Hot Dorito, and when I bit into it, it set my face [on fire],” the former Doritos pitchman joked.
“It was all third-degree burns, it was pretty bad. It was pretty bad,” Leno said, getting serious for a moment, to which Clarkson added that “you can’t even tell” anything had happened.
“Yeah, you’d think there’d be a zipper here or something, but no,” Leno said, pointing to his famously large chin.
“Only for the second time in my career am I the new face of comedy,” Leno said, cracking Kelly up. “I got in once in the ’80s and now I get it again,” before pointing to the left side of his head and his “brand-new ear.”
Jay underwent skin graft surgery and other therapies during a 10-day stay at the Grossman Burn Center after the accident, which occurred when he was working on a vintage car in his collection.
In January, the former Tonight Show host suffered multiple broken bones in a motorcycle accident, to boot.
(LANSING, Mich.) — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says she was the target of a plot to kill Jewish state officials, she tweeted Wednesday.
“The FBI has confirmed I was a target of the heavily armed defendant in this matter. It is my sincere hope that the federal authorities take this offense just as seriously as my Hate Crimes & Domestic Terrorism Unit takes plots to murder elected officials,” Nessel said in the tweet.
Court documents allege that Jack Carpenter III used the Twitter handle @TemperedReason to lodge his threats against Michigan state officials who are Jewish.
The FBI did not identify who else was the target in court documents unsealed Wednesday.
“I’m heading back to Michigan now threatening to carry out the punishment of death to anyone that is jewish in the Michigan govt if they don’t leave, or confess, and now that kind of problem,” Carpenter allegedly wrote on Twitter on Feb. 17. “Because I can Legally do that, right?”
He also claimed that “new Israel” was located in a nine-mile radius of Tipton, Michigan, where he lived, court documents said.
The FBI said it had uncovered that Carpenter is being investigated for the theft in December 2022 of a firearm, which, according to the Justice Department, he currently had in his possession.
According to a complaint, at the time he allegedly made the threats, Carpenter was in Texas and requested money from his mother to return to Michigan but became angry that she wouldn’t give it to him and she then she called police.
His mother told police, “CARPENTER has three handguns, a 12 gauge shotgun, and two hunting rifles, one of which is an MIA, military style weapon,” the complaint said.
He also allegedly wrote that anyone who tried to stop him would be “met with deadly self-defense.”
Carpenter is charged with making interstate threats and a lawyer for Carpenter did not respond to ABC News request for comment.
Javed Ali, the former senior director of counterterrorism at the National Security Council, told ABC News, the alleged threats “underscore the persistent threat from racially-motivated extremists in the United States.”
“As the ADL and other organizations have recently noted, there remains a high level of threats from individuals with white supremacist and neo-Nazi views against Jewish communities across the United States,” Ali, who is now an associate professor at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy, said. “Twitter and other online social media platforms also continue to confront challenges with removing extremist content and identifying radicalized individuals capable of taking violent action.”
(ATHENS, Ga.) — University of Georgia football player Jalen Carter, a projected top pick in the NFL draft, has surrendered to police on charges of reckless driving and racing tied to a crash that killed a player and staff member in January, according to the Athens-Clarke County Police Department.
An investigation found that Chandler LeCroy, a member of the team’s recruiting staff, and Carter were racing shortly after leaving downtown Athens and that alcohol impairment, racing, reckless driving and speed were contributing factors to the crash that killed LeCroy and Devin Willock, an offensive lineman, hours after celebrating UGA’s championship win.
Carter was booked into jail at 11:33 p.m. Wednesday and was released on his own recognizance shortly after at 11:49 p.m., according to jail records. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance April 18.
In his first statement since the charges were announced, Carter said in a statement, “It is my intention to return to Athens to answer the misdemeanor charges against me and to make certain that the complete and accurate truth is presented. There is no question in my mind that when all of the facts are known that I will be fully exonerated of any criminal wrongdoing.”
Carter is the No. 1 overall prospect in this year’s draft, according to ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. He is not participating in the workout portion of this week’s NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis but was scheduled to conduct interviews with teams, undergo a physical and was scheduled to address reporters Wednesday.
LeCroy, who was driving a 2021 Ford Expedition at the time of the crash, had a blood alcohol concentration of .197, according to police. The Expedition was driving at 104 mph just before the fatal crash, police said.
“The evidence demonstrated that both vehicles switched between lanes, drove in the center turn lane, drove in opposite lanes of travel, overtook other motorists, and drove at high rates of speed, in an apparent attempt to outdistance each other,” Athens-Clarke County Police Department said in a press release.
Willock, 20, was pronounced dead at the scene. LeCroy, 24, was transported to a local hospital, where she died from her injuries, according to Athens police.
“The charges announced today are deeply concerning, especially as we are still struggling to cope with the devastating loss of two beloved members of our community,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said Wednesday. “We will continue to cooperate fully with the authorities while supporting these families and assessing what we can learn from this horrible tragedy.”
Body camera footage obtained by ABC News shows Carter was also pulled over for speeding, driving nearly 90 mph in a 45 mph zone, on Sept. 22, 2022.
The Athens-Clarke County police officer told Carter he had recently pulled over two of his teammates for speeding, including one “just a minute ago.”
“You guys need to slow down, dude,” the officer is heard saying in the footage.
“Your break is you’re not going to jail,” he later told Carter. “Because that would make all kinds of news, right?”
Carter, who is listed at 6-foot-3 and 300 pounds, has been a top defensive lineman for several years. He was a key part of the defense that led the Bulldogs to back-to-back national championships.
The 21-year-old from Apopka, Florida, had six sacks and two forced fumbles in his three years with Georgia.
Nolan Smith, a linebacker for Georgia, spoke about losing Willock Wednesday morning at the combine prior to the news breaking about Carter’s involvement.
“No one should deserve to die like that,” Smith, also a top prospect, told reporters. “This is my first time talking about it. … Those are my brothers … it’s more than a game.”
(NEW YORK) — The deep blue waters, shimmering cliffs and palm tree-lined beaches of Easter Island face a growing threat: plastic.
“So now there are some things that belonged to this beach. For example, the rock belonged to this beach. The shell belonged to this beach. But the plastic, no,” said Rapa Nui native Ludo Tuki Burns.
Burns has spent most of his life preserving the island.
He organizes regular beach clean-ups at places suc as Anakena Beach, where he took ABC News’ Good Morning America to get a closer look.
“The plastic is going to float and then with this tool you are going to take [it out of the water],” said Burns. “And so you will take only the plastic.”
Ivan Hinojosa is a marine biologist who is studying plastic pollution on Easter Island. He estimates a ton of plastic washes ashore each month.
Below the surface Hinojosa hunts for microplastics — plastic that has since degraded in the ocean and carried by strong currents from all over the world.
“I can distinguish at least five different types of plastic here just with my eye, but in the microscope we’re going to find more,” said Hinojosa.
Degrading plastics also release greenhouse gasses that can interfere with the ocean’s ability to store carbon. It’s estimated that degrading plastic in the ocean releases 76 metric tons of methane per year, contributing to climate change, according to a study.
Although barely noticeable by the human eye, microplastics can take their toll through food. A study found that 80% of bait fish used to catch local tuna contain microplastics in their stomachs.
“For example, the plastic attracts all the chemicals that are in the water. So you have a higher concentration of toxins in the plastics,” said Hinojosa. “So that when the animals eat them, they’re also [eating] plastic and some poison chemicals.”
Despite the deluge, the local community is determined to fight back on behalf of future generations. Burns said when things are thrown away, they don’t just disappear. All trash ends up somewhere.
“Well, my message is that we are here in the middle of the Pacific and we receive all the things you think don’t matter. We receive it,” he said. “I believe that we can make a change.”
(NEW YORK) — Growing recession alarm at the outset of this year warned of a coming business slowdown and significant job losses — until a government report last month showed that unemployment stands at its lowest level in more than 50 years.
A couple weeks later, in mid-February, fresh retail sales data blew past economist expectations, suggesting resilient consumer spending, the lifeblood of the U.S. economy.
The blockbuster economic performance boosted hopes that the economy would avoid a recession altogether.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, speaking to ABC News’ Good Morning America last month, rejected concern about a downturn, saying the economy remains “strong and resilient.” Goldman Sachs cut its odds of a recession in the next 12 months to 25%.
The U.S. economy is humming, at least in some key metrics, but most economists say that the nation remains on a crash course toward a likely recession within the next year. A survey conducted last month by the National Association for Business Economics found that 58% of economists expect a recession in 2023.
An aggressive series of interest rate hikes at the Federal Reserve is expected to continue cooling the economy, economists told ABC News, noting the decline of personal savings that previously fueled the pandemic recovery.
To be sure, economists often err in their forecasts and some told ABC News that the path of averting a downturn is still possible.
Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial, called the coexistence of strong economic data and persistent recession fears a “conundrum.”
“There’s so much flux in the market,” he added, acknowledging the mixed signals sent by the economy in recent weeks. “The economy is still in this massive retooling from the pandemic.”
The high prices that weigh on the economy trace back to the pandemic-induced supply bottlenecks that made it harder to access a slew of goods, including essentials like gas and food.
Meanwhile, COVID forced billions worldwide indoors, shifting demand away from concert tickets and restaurant meals and toward the exact goods in short supply. The Russia-Ukraine war has exacerbated the shortages and sent prices even higher.
The Federal Reserve has imposed a string of aggressive rate hikes since last year that aim to lower inflation by cooling the economy and choking off demand. The approach, however, risks tipping the U.S. into a recession and putting millions out of work.
The Fed’s rate hikes have helped bring inflation down significantly from a summer peak. However, the policy has failed to slow the overall economy, as evidenced by the recent strong economic data, economists told ABC News.
The combination of easing inflation and sustained economic growth have driven hope among some of a “soft landing,” in which the Fed slows the economy and brings down inflation, while preventing the U.S. from entering a recession.
But a slowdown brought about by the Fed typically lags months behind a given rate hike, Nancy Lazar, chief global economist at Piper Sandler, told ABC News.
“Just because the economy is doing OK today doesn’t mean the economy won’t go into recession,” she said. “It’s happening slowly.”
Some parts of the economy have shown signs of a slowdown. Home sales fell for the 12th consecutive month in January, reaching their lowest rate since November 2010, according to the National Association of Realtors.
The personal savings rate fell to an all-time low in December, suggesting that U.S. consumers have spent down much of their pandemic reserves.
Tina Quigley, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance, a group tasked with attracting and boosting economic activity, said the city thrived last year as leisure and travel bounced back from a pandemic lull.
By the end of last year, the average nightly rate for a hotel room in Las Vegas stood at $165, well above the pre-pandemic high of $127, she said. The Las Vegas airport saw 52.6 million passengers pass through its doors last year; a jump from 51.5 million in 2019.
“I don’t want to paint a picture of everything being sunshine and rainbows but certainly 2022 was a very good year,” she said.
Still, the organization assisted far fewer companies in establishing locations in Las Vegas last year compared to the year prior, suggesting recession fears had curtailed business plans and may foretell a further slowdown, Quigley said. The group helped 11 companies locate in Las Vegas last year, a sharp decline from 39 a year prior, it said.
“That pipeline has slowed down,” Quigley said. “We’re preparing for a recession, but not overreacting to it.”
Roach, of LPL Financial, said he expects a recession but recent strong economic indicators raise the likelihood of a mild downturn.
“Recessions are often necessary to break the back of inflation,” Roach said. “But given the fact that there’s so much fundamental stability in the economy, that recession won’t be as bad as your average recession.”
Zweli’s, a chain of three Zimbabwean restaurants in Durham, North Carolina, has enjoyed an uptick in business in recent months, said co-owner Leonardo Willliams, who runs the company with his wife.
Whereas last year a restaurant had about one or two tables occupied at a given time; now it’s four or five, he said. The company plans to hire 10 workers over the next month, increasing its workforce by 40%, he added.
“Business is slowly creeping back up,” he said.
However, rising costs have eaten away at the company’s profits, since major food purveyors charge twice as much for some products as they did before the pandemic, he said. And he fears that a recession would force corporate clients to cut back on catering, which accounts for 70% of the company’s revenue.
“It’s scary,” he said. “As small businesses, we’re equipped to be problem solvers but how much can one take?”
Deadline reports Daisy Ridley, best known for playing Rey in the J.J. AbramsStar Wars trilogy, has been tapped to star in The Better Liar, a drama series based on Tanen Jones‘ book of the same name, in development at Amazon. Ridley will also executive-produce the adaptation, along with True Blood writer Raelle Tucker, who will script the show as well. The Better Liar, per Amazon, follows “a woman who hires a lookalike in an effort to conceal her sister’s death and claim their shared inheritance,” but “her deception exposes a web of dangerous secrets”…
She’s a cool mom: Girls5eva star Busy Phillips is the latest addition to the cast of Tina Fey‘s movie adaptation of her hit Broadway musical Mean Girls, according to Entertainment Tonight. Philipps will play the mother of Plastics leader Regina George, the role originated in the first Mean Girls film by Amy Poehler. Phillips joins previously announced cast members Jenna Fischer, Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auli’i Cravalho, Jaquel Spivey, Fey, Tim Meadows, Avantika, Christopher Briney and Bebe Wood. The first Mean Girls film in 2004 grossed over $130 million worldwide…
Kristen Bell is set to star in a new comedy series headed to Netflix from Modern Family creator Steve Levitan and Erin Foster, co-creator and star of VH-1’s Barely Famous, according to Variety. The as-yet untitled series is said to center on “the unlikely relationship between an irreverent, outspoken, agnostic woman — played by Bell — and an unconventional rabbi,” per the streamer…
Fox has given a third season renewal to Rick & Morty co-creator Dan Harmon’s upcoming animated comedy Krapopolis, according to Deadline. Additionally, the premiere of the show — most recently set for May — has now been pushed to the 2023-2024 season. Billed as the first-ever animated series curated entirely on the Blockchain, Krapopolis, which features the voices of Ted Lasso Emmy winner Hannah Waddingham and What We Do in the Shadows star Matt Berry, will center on “a flawed family of humans, gods and monsters that tries to run one of the world’s first cities without killing each other.” Susan Sarandon, Will Forte, Michael Urie, Jane Lynch, Amber Stevens West, Yvette Nicole Brown and Dave Franco are set to guest star…
When it comes to Kim Petras‘ dream collaboration, the answer is simple — Madonna.
The “Unholy” singer attended the the Billboard Women in Music on Wednesday, and when asked if the icon would make an appearance on her upcoming album, she told Entertainment Tonight, “I would die to.”
“I would die to have Madonna on anything, or be on anything Madonna, so yeah, absolutely,” she added.
Whether or not a collaboration comes to pass, Petras confessed that she’s “such a huge fan” of the Queen of Pop and is thankful for her support.
“I don’t know how good of a friend I can be to her because I’m just like, ‘Confession[s]: Ray of Light changed my life,'” she shared. “Every time I see her, I just talk about her music and how much it means to me, but it’s just been the most incredible thing for me to get respected by Madonna, and for her to even know anything about me is just…”
(NEW YORK) — Two survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre became Ghanaian citizens, the Justice for Greenwood Foundation, Inc. announced on Tuesday.
Viola Ford Fletcher, 108, and Hughes Van Ellis, 102, are the oldest African Americans to be granted citizenship in Ghana.
“The Justice for Greenwood Foundation was proud to stand in solidarity with the survivors, celebrating their resilience and their contribution to the history of Black Oklahoma,” the organization wrote on Facebook.
A mob of white vigilantes destroyed Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood, known at the time as “Black Wall Street” due to its wealth and successful business enterprises, in 1921. The racist violence killed at least 300 people, wounded thousands and destroyed some 35 acres of commercial and residential property.
Fletcher and Ellis are two of three living survivors, with Fletcher being the oldest living survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre.
Ellis and Fletcher, alongside the third survivor Lessie Benningfield Randle, sued Tulsa and the local government in 2021 for a reparations fund.
In May, an Oklahoma judge ruled that the lawsuit could move forward.
Some officials are hesitant to pay monetary reparations to the victims and their families seeking restitution.
“I am not opposed to cash payments to descendants and the victims. It’s where the money comes from that for me is important,” Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum, who led the effort to help find missing Tulsa victims, told ABC News last year, before adding that he is ”opposed to levying a tax on this generation of Tulsans who are at no fault.”
Fletcher told ABC News last year that she and her family never returned to Tulsa after they fled the night of May 31, 1921. Her home had been ravaged by fire, leaving her and hundreds of others without any of their possessions and livelihoods.
“There wasn’t anything to come back to,” she told ABC News last year.
