Engine cover falls off Boeing plane and strikes wing flap – minutes after take-off
An engine cover has fallen off a Boeing plane and struck the wing flap – shortly after take-off in the US.
Passengers filmed videos from their window seats as part of the 737-800 was ripped off.
The safety scare happened shortly after the Southwest Airlines flight left Denver on Sunday.
About 135 passengers and six crew members were on board the aircraft, which hit an altitude of 3,140m (10,300ft) before making an abrupt U-turn just 25 minutes later.
The plane landed safely and was towed back to the gate, with passengers reaching their destination of Houston in Texas on a different aircraft… about four hours late.
No one was injured – but the Federal Aviation Administration has now launched an investigation into what happened.
“We apologise for the inconvenience of their delay, but place our highest priority on ultimate safety for our customers and employees. Our maintenance teams are reviewing the aircraft,” Southwest Airlines said in a statement.
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Records show the plane had entered service in 2015, but the company declined to say when its engine last had maintenance.
Several engine issues on 737-800s belonging to Southwest have been reported recently – and this was the second incident in under a week.
Three days earlier, one of these planes aborted take-off from Texas after an engine fire, and the service was abruptly cancelled.
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On 22 and 25 March, two other flights turned back after the crew reported engine problems.
The Boeing 737-800 is from an earlier range than the 737 MAX, which has also suffered a slew of embarrassing, high-profile issues.
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Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
Back in January, a window and a chunk of fuselage blew out of a 737 MAX 9 jet in mid-air, and six crew members were injured during a terrifying descent back to safety.
That Alaska Airlines plane had been in service for just eight weeks, with US regulators subsequently grounding dozens of aircraft for urgent safety checks.
Last month, Boeing announced that its embattled chairman and chief executive were both leaving their roles – with the plane manufacturer vowing to “fix” the crisis.
A SWAT team has raided the rented Florida mansion of singer Sean Kingston and arrested his mother on fraud and theft linked to the installation of a gigantic TV.
Detectives detained his mother, Janice Turner, 61, at the property in a Fort Lauderdale suburb, popular with celebrities and professional athletes, including Dwayne Johnson and Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill, on Thursday.
Kingston was thought to be out of town and not present during the raid. Pic: AP
The sheriff’s office said the investigation is ongoing and declined to release specific details about the charges against Turner or whether her 34-year-old son is also being sought.
Local media reported Kingston was out of town and was not present during the raid, in which items were removed and loaded into a van by the authorities.
The Jamaican-American performer is best known for his 2007 single Beautiful Girls, Fire Burning and his collaboration with Justin Bieber on Eenie Meenie.
Federal court records show his mother pleaded guilty in 2006 to bank fraud for stealing more than $160,000 (£126,088) and served nearly a year and a half in prison.
The sheriff’s office says the investigation is ongoing. Pic: AP
Kingston wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday, which was later removed: “People love negative energy!
“I am good, and so is my mother!… My lawyers are handling everything as we speak.”
Robert Rosenblatt, a lawyer representing the rapper and his mother, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel: “These are fine people, and I’d be surprised if the allegations were true.”
Florida Department of Corrections records show Kingston is on two-year probation for trafficking stolen property.
Items were removed from the property by the authorities. Pic: AP
‘Promise of commercials with Justin Bieber’
Lawyer Dennis Card, who was present at the arrest, said it is partly related to a lawsuit he filed against Kingston in February, accusing him of defrauding a Florida company that installed a 232-inch television.
In the case, Ver Ver Entertainment says Kingston contacted the company in September about buying the television, sold under the brand name Colossal TV, and having it installed at his home. The system costs $150,000 (£118,000).
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Kingston allegedly told the owners that if they agreed to a lower down payment and gave him credit, he and Bieber would do commercials for them.
In November, Kingston paid the company $30,000 (£23,631) and the TV was installed, according to the lawsuit, but no commercials or further payments were made.
Justin Bieber and his wife Hailey. Pic: Reuters
“He is 100% not involved in this,” Mr Card said of Bieber.
“He had the misfortune of doing some work in the past with Sean, and Sean drops his name like crazy.”
Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Anderson, has not had a major label release in more than a decade.
In 2011, he suffered life-threatening injuries in a jet ski accident.
The US Justice Department (DOJ) is suing Live Nation, arguing the big concert promoter and its subsidiary, Ticketmaster, have been “monopolising” the live events industry.
The antitrust lawsuit was launched on Thursday by the DOJ, 30 US states, and the District of Columbia, with US Attorney General Merrick Garland saying: “It is time to break up Live Nation.”
The entertainment company merged with Ticketmaster back in 2010. Through Ticketmaster, Live Nation now controls roughly 80% or more of big venues’ primary ticketing for concerts, the suit says.
A Live Nation spokesperson said the company would defend itself “against these baseless allegations” and said the DOJ would lose in court because the case “ignores the basic economics of live entertainment”.
Ticketmaster, which overwhelmingly dominates the ticketing industry, has for years left fans and artists frustrated by hidden fees, rising costs, and limited ticket availability due to presales.
Its dominance in the industry came under scrutiny by US politicians in 2022, when Ticketmaster was forced to cancel its general sale of tickets to Taylor Swift’s much-anticipated Eras tour due to “extraordinarily high demands”.
At the time, the superstar criticised Ticketmaster on social media, saying it was “excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse” after Swift’s fans reported long wait times and site outages during the presales.
The star said 2.4 million fans had been able to purchase tickets, which was “truly amazing… but it really p***** me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them”.
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Thursday’s legal action underscores the aggressive approach President Joe Biden’s antitrust enforcers have adopted as they seek to create more competition in a wide range of industries, from “big tech”, to healthcare, and groceries.
In March, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Apple alleging that the tech giant has monopoly power in the smartphone market.
“Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry
in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and venue operators,” Mr Garland said.
He added that, as a result, fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to perform, and smaller promoters get squeezed out.
The lawsuit says Live Nation directly manages more than 400 musical artists and controls around 60% of concert promotions at major venues.
It also owns or controls more than 265 concert venues in North America.
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In 2010, the Justice Department approved Ticketmaster’s controversial merger with Live Nation, with conditions intended
to stop the combined company from harming competition.
In 2020, a court extended most of the DOJ’s oversight of the merger to 2025 because, the department said, Ticketmaster
retaliated against stadiums and arenas that opted to use other ticketing companies.
Live Nation has said in the past that it was confident its business practices were legal, and that the probe had been prompted by complaints from rivals, including re-sellers.
A spokesperson for the company said on Thursday that the lawsuit “won’t solve the issues fans care about relating to ticket prices, service fees, and access to in-demand shows”.
Live Nation added that “calling Ticketmaster a monopoly may be a PR win for the DOJ in the short term, but it will lose in court because it ignores the basic economics of live entertainment” – stating that most service fees go to venues.
A judge has blocked the auction of Elvis Presley’s former home, by a company that claimed his estate failed to repay a loan which used the property as collateral.
Shelby County Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins issued a temporary injunction against the proposed auction of Graceland that had been scheduled for Thursday.
Mr Jenkins’ injunction essentially keeps in place a previous restraining order he had issued after the singer’s granddaughter Riley Keough filed a lawsuit to fight what she claimed was a fraudulent scheme.
A public notice for a foreclosure sale of the 13-acre estate in Memphis, Tennessee, posted earlier in May said Promenade Trust, which controls the Graceland museum, owes $3.8m (£3m) after failing to repay a loan taken out in 2018.
Elvis Presley
Keough, an actor, inherited the trust and ownership of the home following the death of her mother, Lisa Marie Presley, last year.
Naussany Investments and Private Lending said Lisa Marie Presley had used Graceland as collateral for the loan, according to the foreclosure sale notice.
Keough alleged that Naussany presented fraudulent documents regarding the loan in September 2023.
Neither Keough nor lawyers for Nassauny Investments were in court.
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Riley Keough Pic: AP
“Lisa Maria Presley never borrowed money from Naussany Investments and never gave a deed of trust to Naussany Investments,” Keough’s lawyer submitted in the lawsuit.
Kimberly Philbrick, the notary is listed on Nassauny’s documents, indicated that she never met Lisa Marie Presley nor notarised any documents for her, the court filing said.
Graceland opened as a museum and tourist attraction in 1982 as a tribute to Elvis, five years after the King of Rock n Roll died in aged 42 in 1977.
He purchased Graceland Mansion in 1957 and lived there until his death.
It now draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, and a large Elvis-themed entertainment complex across the road from the museum is owned by Elvis Presley Enterprises.
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