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Passenger plane crashes in Brazil, killing all 61 on board

Video shared on social media showed the ATR-72 aircraft spinning out of control as it plunged down behind a cluster of trees near houses, followed by a large plume of black smoke.

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A regional turboprop plane fell into what aviation experts called a flat spin before crashing in a residential neighborhood near Sao Paulo in Brazil on Friday, killing all 61 people on board.

Regional carrier Voepass said the plane, bound for Sao Paulo's international airport, took off from Cascavel, in the state of Parana, and crashed at around 1:30 p.m. (1630 GMT) in the town of Vinhedo, some 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Sao Paulo, Reuters reported.

Video shared on social media showed the ATR-72 aircraft spinning out of control as it plunged down behind a cluster of trees near houses, followed by a large plume of black smoke.

Nearby resident Daniel de Lima said he heard a loud noise before looking outside his condominium in Vinhedo and seeing the plane in a horizontal spiral.

"It was rotating, but it wasn't moving forward," he told Reuters. "Soon after it fell out of the sky and exploded."

City officials at Valinhos, near Vinhedo, said a home in the local condominium complex had been damaged after the plane crashed into its backyard. None of the residents were hurt.

"I almost believe the pilot tried to avoid a nearby neighborhood, which is densely populated," de Lima said.

The plane's unusual final circling motion before hitting the ground triggered widespread curiosity among aviation experts, leading some to speculate that ice had built up on the plane or it had experienced engine failure, but investigators said it was too early to determine the cause of the crash.

"Today ice was predicted (at the altitudes the plane was flying at), but within the acceptable range," Voepass Chief Operations Officer Marcel Moura told a press conference.

"But the plane is sensitive to ice, that could be a starting point," Moura said, adding the plane's de-icing system, along with all other systems, had been deemed operational before takeoff.

Brazilian aviation engineer and crash investigator Celso Faria de Souza told Reuters that a buildup of ice could have caused the plane to stall and spiral in the way that it did.

An ATR-72 crashed in 1994 in Indiana, killing 68, after the plane was unable to bank due to ice accretion. Another ATR-72 stalled out in 2016 in Norway after ice built up on the plane, but the pilot was able to regain control of the aircraft.

An ATR-27 also crashed in Nepal in 2023, with the final report attributing pilot error.

The head of Brazilian aviation accident investigation center Cenipa said the plane's so-called "black box" containing voice recordings and flight data had been recovered from the site.

U.S. aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse said investigators would look at things like weather and whether the engines and controls were functioning properly ahead of the crash.

"From what I've seen, it was definitely what we would call loss of control," he said.

Flightradar data showed significant gyrations in speed before the crash, U.S. aviation safety consultant and former commercial pilot John Cox said, cautioning that he would want to verify the data but that something "really significant" happened to cause the plane to spin when it came down.

"It appears that there may have been some catastrophic event before that loss of control," he said.

Cenipa head Marcelo Moreno told a press conference that initial reports indicated the aircraft had not reached out to traffic control to report an emergency.

Voepass, Brazil's fourth-largest airline by market share, had originally reported 62 people aboard the aircraft. Local outlet Globo News interviewed two men who said they had missed the flight.

In total, the plane was carrying 57 passengers and four crew, Voepass said. All were carrying Brazilian-issued documents, the carrier reported.

Some of the passengers were doctors from Parana heading to a seminar, Governor Ratinho Junior told journalists.

"These were people who were used to saving lives, and now they've lost theirs in such tragic circumstances," he said.

Franco-Italian ATR, jointly owned by Airbus (AIR.PA), opens new tab and Leonardo (LDOF.MI), opens new tab, is the dominant producer of regional turboprop planes seating 40 to 70 people.

ATR told Reuters that its specialists were "fully engaged" with the investigation into the crash and its customers.

The motor on the plane was a PW 127 produced by Pratt & Whitney Canada, its parent company RTX Corp (RTX.N), opens new tab confirmed to Reuters. RTX said that it had offered assistance in the investigation.

Both French and Canadian investigators will participate in the investigation, Moreno said. Europe's safety regulator also said it would offer technical assistance.

The crash is Brazil's deadliest since 199 people were killed in 2007 on a flight operated by TAM, which later joined LAN to become what is now LATAM Airlines.

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NATO’s Stoltenberg says each country must decide if Ukraine can use its long-range missiles on Russia

Some U.S. officials are deeply skeptical that allowing the use of such missiles would make a significant difference in Kyiv’s battle against Russian invaders.

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The outgoing head of NATO Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday he welcomed talks on Ukraine's use of long-range missiles to strike inside Russian territory, but any decision on the issue would have to be made by individual allies, Reuters reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been pleading with allies for months to let Ukraine fire Western missiles including long-range U.S. ATACMS and British Storm Shadows deep into Russia to limit Moscow's ability to launch attacks.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and U.S. President Joe Biden held talks in Washington on Friday on whether to allow Kyiv to use the long-range missiles against targets in Russia. No decision was announced.

"I welcome these developments and these decisions but its for individual allies to make the final decisions," Stoltenberg told LBC radio. "Allies have different policies on this."

Some U.S. officials are deeply skeptical that allowing the use of such missiles would make a significant difference in Kyiv's battle against Russian invaders, read the report.

President Vladimir Putin has said the West would be directly fighting Russia if it allowed Ukraine to strike with Western-made long-range missiles.

Asked about possible Russian retaliation, Stoltenberg said there were "no risk-free options in the war".

"But I continue to believe that the biggest risk for us, for United Kingdom, for NATO, will be if President Putin wins in Ukraine," he added.

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Trump safe after assassination attempt thwarted at Florida golf course

The suspect left an AK-47-style assault rifle and other items at the scene and fled in a vehicle and was later arrested

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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was safe on Sunday after the Secret Service foiled what the FBI called an apparent assassination attempt while he was golfing on his course in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Several Secret Service agents fired on a gunman in bushes near the property line of the golf course after he was spotted a few hundred yards from where Trump was playing, law enforcement officials said.

The suspect left an AK-47-style assault rifle and other items at the scene and fled in a vehicle and was later arrested, Reuters reported.

The apparent attempt on Trump's life came just two months after he was shot at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, sustaining a minor injury to his right ear.

Both incidents highlight the challenges of keeping presidential candidates safe in a hotly contested and polarized campaign with just over seven weeks to go before the Nov. 5 election.

"I would like to thank everyone for your concern and well wishes - It was certainly an interesting day!," Trump said on social media late on Sunday, thanking Secret Service and police for keeping him safe.

CNN, Fox News and The New York Times identified the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Hawaii, citing unidentified law enforcement officials. The FBI declined to comment and Reuters could not independently verify his identity.

It was not clear if or how the suspect knew Trump was playing golf at the time, or what his motive was, but the attempted attack was sure to raise new questions about the level of protection he is given.

 

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Houthi missile reaches central Israel for first time, no injuries reported

At a weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the Houthis should have known that Israel would exact a “heavy price” for attacks on Israel.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would inflict a "heavy price" on the Iran-aligned Houthis who control northern Yemen, after they reached central Israel with a missile on Sunday for the first time, Reuters reported.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the group struck with a new hypersonic ballistic missile that travelled 2,040 km (1270 miles) in just 11 1/2 minutes.

An Israeli military official said the missile was hit by an interceptor and fragmented in the air, rather than being completely destroyed.

Air raid sirens had sounded in Tel Aviv and across central Israel moments before the impact at around 6:35 a.m. local time (0335 GMT), sending residents running for shelter. Loud booms were heard, read the report.

Missile pieces landed in fields and near a railway station. There were no direct casualties, but nine people were lightly hurt while seeking cover. Reuters saw smoke billowing in an open field in central Israel.

At a weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the Houthis should have known that Israel would exact a "heavy price" for attacks on Israel.

"Whoever needs a reminder of that is invited to visit the Hodeida port," Netanyahu said, referring to an Israeli retaliatory air strike against Yemen in July for a Houthi drone that hit Tel Aviv.

The Houthis have fired missiles and drones at Israel repeatedly in what they say is solidarity with the Palestinians, since the Gaza war began with a Hamas attack on Israel in October, Reuters reported.

The drone that hit Tel Aviv for the first time in July killed a man and wounded four people. Israeli air strikes in response on Houthi military targets near the port of Hodeidah killed six and wounded 80.

Previously, Houthi missiles have not penetrated deep into Israeli air space, with the only one reported to have hit Israeli territory falling in an open area near the Red Sea port of Eilat in March.

Israel should expect more strikes in the future "as we approach the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 operation, including responding to its aggression on the city of Hodeidah," Houthis spokesperson Sarea said.

The deputy head of the Houthi's media office, Nasruddin Amer, said in a post on X on Sunday that the missile had reached Israel after "20 missiles failed to intercept" it, describing it as the "beginning".

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