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Landing a spot at the inauguration

25 Jan 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday's second reading Saint Paul alerts the church at Corinth that "time is running out." U.S. Airways Pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger sent a similar message to air traffic controllers last Thursday before bringing an Airbus A320 down for an emergency landing in the Hudson River. President Obama spoke with the California pilot on Monday, and Sullenberger told him, "Me and my crew, we were just doing our job.' " Said Obama on Monday, "And it made me think, if everybody did their job-whatever that job was-as well as that pilot did his job, we'd be in pretty good shape." Obama invited Sullenberger and his crew and family to attend Tuesday's inauguration. The probe into the crash landing of the jetliner may take a year, but the lessons learned from the spectacular accident will last much longer, a senior investigator said this week. "I think this one is going to be studied for decades," said Robert Benzon, chief investigator on the case for the National Transportation Safety Board. Benzon said the fact that all 155 people aboard the plane survived removes the guilt and finger-pointing that sometimes accompany aviation accidents. He said lessons learned from the successful ditching into the Hudson River could improve air safety. "In one like this, I think there's potential for a lot of good to come out of it, long-term good," he said. Source: An article by Larry Neumeister for the Associated Press

new york city chesley sullenberger us airways hudson river robert benzon national transportation safety board crashes aviation accidents
Tragic end to schoolchildren’s Alpine ski outing

18 Mar 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

During their exile the Jewish people “sat and wept” by the streams of Babylon when they remembered Zion. Parents in Belgium wept at the news that a tour bus carrying schoolchildren home from a class ski trip slammed head-on into a tunnel wall in the Swiss Alps, killing 22 Belgian students and six adults late Tuesday night. As authorities tried to piece together what happened, parents, classmates, and rescue workers struggled to grasp the awful turn of events. Only days earlier the children had updated a lively blog about the highlights of their adventure: ravioli and meatball dinners, cable-car rides, and sing-a-longs. Police said the bus was not speeding and everyone aboard had been wearing seat belts when it crashed inside the 1.5-mile Tunnel de Geronde on a highway near the southern Swiss tourist town of Sierre. No other vehicles were involved. Belgian authorities flew anxious parents and relatives to the site and called for a day of mourning. Investigators were still trying to determine how a modern bus, a rested driver, and a seemingly safe tunnel could produce one of the deadliest highway crashes in Swiss history. Dr. Jean-Pierre Deslarzes, medical director of the local Swiss rescue service OCVS, said first-responders were traumatized because so many of the victims were children around 12 years old. The accident virtually shredded the front end of the bus, leaving only small, barely recognizable pieces in place. Passengers were trapped inside. “We found an apocalyptic situation when we arrived,” said police commander Christian Varone. Sources: An article by Frank Jordans, Raf Casert, and Robert Wielaard for the Associated Press

Children switzerland alps tunnel de geronde sierre bus crashes belgium accidents
Hundreds die in Pakistan factory fires

16 Sep 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The servant of the Lord suffers for his service, we learn from this Sunday’s first reading. Factory workers in impoverished Pakistan suffer in dangerous, exploitative conditions to try to make a living. Early Wednesday, over 300 workers lost their lives in fires in textile and shoe factories. Many were trapped behind locked doors, raising questions about the woeful lack of regulation in a vital sector of Pakistan’s faltering economy.The textile factory fire, which killed at least 285 workers, was the worst industrial accident in Pakistan’s history, officials said, and it came just hours after another fire at a shoe factory in the eastern city of Lahore had killed over 20 workers.Flames and smoke swept through the cramped textile factory in Baldia Town, a northwestern industrial suburb, creating panic among the hundreds of poorly paid workers who had been making undergarments and plastic tools. They had few options of escape—every exit but one had been locked, officials said, and the windows were mostly barred.In desperation some flung themselves from the top floors of the four-story building, sustaining serious injuries or worse, witnesses said. But many others failed to make it that far, trapped by an inferno that advanced mercilessly through a building that officials later described as a death trap.The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called on the government to mount an immediate investigation. “The head of the firefighting operations in Karachi has noted that the factory was dangerous, flimsily built, and had no emergency exits,” said Zohra Yusuf, chairwoman of the rights group. “Why did all of that escape official attention earlier?”Workplace safety is guaranteed under Pakistan’s constitution, but labor leaders say that government oversight has crumbled rapidly in recent years along with a general decline in governance. Sources: Articles by Zia Ur-Rehman, Declan Walsh, and SalmanMasood for the New York Times and Imtiaz Shah for Reuters

pakistan fires human rights commission of pakistan workplace safety zohra yusuf lahore baldia town industrial accidents
Tragedy strikes near Spanish pilgrimage site

28 Jul 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Believers are “buried” with the Lord in baptism, the second reading informs us, but faith in the power of God also raises up the believer. In the region of Galicia in northwestern Spain, the loved ones of those who died in a horrific train derailment are beginning to bury their dead on the eve of a major religious festival.At least 80 people were killed and scores injured when a train derailed on the outskirts of the pilgrimage city of Santiago de Compostela in one of Europe's worst rail disasters. Bodies covered in blankets lay next to the 13 overturned carriages as smoke billowed from the wreckage.The government said it was working on the hypothesis the derailment was an accident—although some nearby residents claimed they heard an explosion—and the scene stirs memories of 2004's Madrid train bombing, carried out by Islamist extremists, which killed 191 people.The train derailed just before the ancient city's main festival in honor of Saint James the apostle when thousands of Christian pilgrims from all over the world would pack the streets. This year, however, Galicia Day celebrations have been cancelled, local media report.The disaster happened when Spain is struggling to emerge from a long-running recession marked by government-driven austerity to bring its finances into order. Firefighters called off a strike to help with the disaster, while hospital staff, many operating on reduced salaries because of spending cuts, worked overtime to tend the injured.Homily hint: Faith may be shaken by a tragic event occurring on the eve of a religious festival at one of Christendom’s most revered spots—Santiago de Compostela, the end point of the Way of St. James, a leading Catholic pilgrimage route which originated in the 9th century. Prayers go out for those who perished, their loved ones, and all the pilgrims gathered in the city. Sources: Articles by George Mills for The Local (Spain), Miguel Vidal for Reuters, and Tom Burridge for BBC News

santiago de compostela spain train accidents derailments