Asheville, N.C.: The New, Hip Destination in the South?

I had no idea about Asheville when I visited a couple of years back, but I liked it.

And now here's this at WSJ, "Asheville: The South’s Insider Destination":

HENRY JAMES WASN’T much taken with Asheville, the small mountain town in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina. The novelist spent a week there in 1905 as a guest at Biltmore, George Vanderbilt’s 250-room French Renaissance home. “It is a strange gorgeous colossus,” he wrote to Edith Wharton, “in a vast void of desolation.”

But Mr. James is one of the few who’ve had an unkind word to say about Asheville, one of America’s oldest holiday towns. It was a favorite of the Gilded Age glitterati, including Ms. Wharton, who arrived at Biltmore not long after Mr. James and dispatched a more enthusiastic letter (referencing a popular painting of the day) about the “divine landscape, ‘under a roof of blue Ionian weather.’ ”

Staring out the window of my friend Hap Endler’s snug Cessna on an impromptu aerial tour of Asheville and the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains, I found myself siding with Ms. Wharton. It was a pale blue September afternoon and we were flying over wave after wave of mountain tops covered in oak, maple and pine trees, a deep-green sea dappled in gold and red.

When we flew over Asheville, set squarely in the middle of the French Broad River Valley, I could see just a few tall buildings, most dating to the 1920s, sprout from the compact downtown. I could even make out the small, leafy squares where young buskers play their guitars and washboards on one corner, while a group of young homeless men panhandle for coffee on another. We were up too high to see the sign outside the Indian restaurant, Chai Pani, that reads “Namaste, Y’all,” but I knew that it was there: I’d seen it that morning on my way to the Early Girl Eatery, where a tattooed waiter in a cowboy shirt served me fried-green tomatoes over grits.

Hap and his wife, Julia Weatherford, live just outside of Asheville, in the town of Black Mountain. They’ve entertained me for years with stories about their colorful corner of Appalachia (where Julia, eager to dye her own yarn, bought a flock of sheep), but I had yet to see it for myself. Then, in September, Hap called to give me the latest. “Asheville is hopping. New breweries and restaurants are popping up like crazy and a bunch of hotels are under construction,” he said. Come on down. I’ll take you to President Obama’s favorite barbecue place.” How could I refuse?

Though the city and surrounding mountains have long been a top vacation destination for Southerners and have drawn luminaries from Albert Einstein to Willem de Kooning over the years, it’s only now starting to catch on with travelers outside of the South. A growing number of East and West Coasters are flying in to hike, fly fish and kayak and to lap up the beer (Asheville has 18 breweries and counting). They’re also coming for the restaurants, galleries and the music, all found in surprising abundance for a town smaller than Nantucket...

Hmm, maybe I'll plan a vacation out there with my wife. I stayed at the Grove Park Inn, which is quite famous, apparently.

Keep reading, in any case.

Plane Debris Confirmed as MH370

I can only hope this brings the beginning of some semblance of closure to the families of those lost.

It's been too long. Much too long waiting for word. Waiting for answers.

At Foreign Policy, "Malaysia Confirms Debris Comes from Missing Airliner."

At the Wall Street Journal, "MH370 Search: Plane Debris on Réunion Island Is From Vanished Malaysia Flight":

The plane debris that washed ashore on an island in the Indian Ocean last week was confirmed to be part of the Malaysia Airlines jet that went missing over a year ago, Malaysia’s prime minister said, making it the first concrete evidence of the plane that disappeared 17 months ago but leaving unanswered why it crashed.

“An international team of experts have conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris found on Réunion Island is indeed from MH370,” Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said in Kuala Lumpur.

French authorities, who took possession of the part because Réunion is a French territory, were more cautious about its origin. Experts examining it at a French military lab near Toulouse in southwest France have determined there is a “very strong presumption” that the part comes from the missing plane, Deputy Paris Prosecutor Serge Mackowiak said Wednesday.

Mr. Mackowiak also said that the analysis of a tattered bag found near the wing part on the beach of Réunion was also underway, but didn’t announce findings.

The Malaysian announcement offered few details about the Flight 370 probe. Without taking questions, the Prime Minister vowed to “do everything within our means to determine what happened” to the Boeing 777.

French, Malaysian, Australian, Chinese and U.S. officials were present for the analysis that began Wednesday at a high-tech military lab near Toulouse in the southwest of France.

Examination of the debris now moves into a new stage, according to safety experts, as the French military technical team tries to extract clues from the part about how the plane may have crashed...

Read more.

Deborah Hersman on Missing AirAsia Flight 8501

Via CBS This Morning:



FLASHBACK: "Hey, Check Out NTSB's Smokin' Hottie Deborah Hersman."

Search Resumes for AirAsia Flight 8501

At the Wall Street Journal, "Search for Missing AirAsia Flight 8501 Resumes: Disappearance of Plane Rekindles Fears After Flight From Indonesia to Singapore Goes Missing":

JAKARTA, Indonesia—Search teams scoured waters off Indonesia’s coast Monday after an AirAsia jetliner with 162 people on board vanished in a thicket of storm clouds the day before, kindling much of the same fear and anguish as the disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370 months earlier.

The plane, which had been bound for Singapore, lost contact with air-traffic control less than an hour after takeoff from Surabaya, Indonesia, early Sunday shortly after requesting to climb to a higher altitude to avoid bad weather, officials said.

Ships and aircraft were deployed from across Southeast Asia to hunt for the plane. But as night fell more than 10 hours later, Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said that no trace had been found. The search resumed at dawn Monday after Indonesian officials suspended it overnight.

As distraught family members of passengers gathered at airports in Surabaya and Singapore to await any information about loved ones, the scenes of grief were reminiscent of those just over nine months ago, when a Malaysia Airlines plane vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. The fate of that plane remains a mystery...

Continue reading.

And at the New York Times, "Two Flights Missing, but Their Stories Are Not the Same."

'Cajon Crawl'

Good thing I had no plans to take the family to Vegas this weekend.

Via CBS News Los Angeles:

Investigators Say Malaysia Flight 370 Crashed in 'Suicide Mission'

At Telegraph UK, "Malaysia Airlines crash: Suicide mission theory of MH370 investigators":

Sources close to investigation tell Telegraph that team working on MH370 mystery believe it was crashed deliberately.

Flight MH370 crashed into the Indian Ocean in an apparent suicide mission, well-placed sources revealed have revealed, as Malaysia’s prime minister announced that everyone on the missing aircraft had died.

The team investigating the Boeing 777’s disappearance believe no malfunction or fire was capable of causing the aircraft’s unusual flight or the disabling of its communications system before it veered wildly off course on a seven-hour silent flight into the sea. An analysis of the flight’s routing, signalling and communications shows that it was flown “in a rational way”.

An official source told The Telegraph that investigators believe “this has been a deliberate act by someone on board who had to have had the detailed knowledge to do what was done ... Nothing is emerging that points to motive.”

Asked about the possibility of a plane malfunction or an on-board fire, the source said: “It just does not hinge together... [The investigators] have gone through processes you do to get the plane where it flew to for eight hours. They point to it being flown in a rational way.”

Yesterday the worst fears of the families of the 239 people on board were realised when Najib Razak, Malaysia’s prime minister, announced that no one could have survived.

The UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch and the British satellite firm Inmarsat provided information that led to his conclusions, but Britain was also caught in the middle of an international blame game over delays in the right search area being pinpointed.

Relatives of the missing passengers are angry that Inmarsat worked out within 24 hours that MH370 was likely to have crashed where the search is now concentrated, but it took a further 10 days for rescue teams to act on the information.

Despite no confirmed sightings of wreckage, Mr Razak revealed that new analysis by the AAIB and Inmarsat showed the plane ended its eight-hour flight on March 8 in the deep, remote waters of the Indian Ocean, about 1,500 miles west of Perth, with no survivors.

“This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites,” he said.
“It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”

How Satellite Analysts Found Route of Missing Jetliner

At LAT, "British company analyzes satellite data for Malaysia Flight 370":

The British company whose satellite data helped direct search efforts for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 toward the south Indian Ocean said about two weeks ago that it had received “routine” and “automated” signals from the missing Boeing 777.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who announced Monday that the plane carrying 239 people "ended in the southern Indian Ocean" with no hope of survivors, said the company, Inmarsat, has been performing additional calculations on satellite data. Flight 370 disappeared March 8.

"Using a type of analysis never before used in an investigation of this sort, they have been able to shed more light on MH370’s flight path."

While the Boeing 777's transponders and communications systems were disabled, the airplane's satellite terminal was still on, "pinging" to try to maintain a connection with a satellite.

Tim Farrar, president of the consulting and research firm Telecom, Media & Finance Associates Inc. in Menlo Park, Calif., who is familiar with Inmarsat satellites, said the company looked at the Doppler effect to understand the speed of the plane relative to the satellite. This gave them two probable arcs of possible flight paths: One to the north and one to the south.

"The arcs were based on time shift --how long the ping took to reach the satellite -- which gave a distance and thus an arc," Farrar said. "By looking at speed -- and comparing to other planes at the same distance from the satellite -- it was possible to determine the plane was not in the Northern Hemisphere and pin down the track with a high probability."

More.

No Hope for Flight 370, Says Malaysia Prime Minister

At the Los Angeles Times, "Malaysia prime minister: Flight 'ended in the southern Indian Ocean'."

And a live blog at Telegraph UK, "Malaysia Airlines MH370: live."



BONUS: At the Other McCain, "Malaysian Prime Minister Gives Press Conference in Perfect English."

Chinese Satellite Spots Possible Debris from Flight MH370

At BCF, "Chinese satellite spots possible plane debris in southern Indian Ocean - again."

And at Telegraph UK, "MH370: Chinese satellite detects 'floating object'."

Still more at London's Daily Mail, "MH370 LATEST: China says satellite has located 72ft object in Southern Indian Ocean 75 miles from where previous possible wreckage was located as Australian pilots spot small objects."

Mysterious Lack of Cellphone Calls from Missing Flight MH370

One of my biggest questions this whole time, since the plane went missing. How come we haven't heard from any of the passengers?

At the New York Times, "Questions Over Absence of Cellphone Calls From Missing Flight’s Passengers":

SEPANG, Malaysia — When hijackers took control of four airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001, and sent them hurtling low across the countryside toward New York and Washington, frantic passengers and flight attendants turned on cellphones and air phones and began making calls to loved ones, airline managers and the authorities.

But when Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 did a wide U-turn in the middle of the night over the Gulf of Thailand and then spent nearly half an hour swooping over two large Malaysian cities and various towns and villages, there was apparently silence. As far as investigators have been able to determine, there have been no phone calls, Twitter or Weibo postings, Instagram photos or any other communication from anyone aboard the aircraft since it was diverted.

There has been no evidence “of any number they’re trying to contact, but anyway they are still checking and there are millions of records for them to process,” said Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, the chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, at a news conference on Monday.

The apparent absence of any word from the aircraft in an era of nearly ubiquitous mobile communications has prompted considerable debate among pilots, telecommunications specialists and others. Most of the people aboard the plane were from Malaysia or China, two countries where mobile phone use is extremely prevalent, especially among affluent citizens who take international flights.

Some theorize the silence signifies that the plane was flying too high for personal electronic devices to be used. Others wonder whether people aboard the flight even tried to make calls or send messages.

According to military radar, the aircraft was flying extremely high shortly after its turn — as much as 45,000 feet, above the certified maximum altitude of 43,100 feet for the Boeing 777-200. It then descended as it crossed Peninsular Malaysia, flying as low as 23,000 feet before moving up to 29,500 feet and cruising there.

Vincent Lau, an electronics professor specializing in wireless communications at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said that the altitude might have prevented passengers’ cellphones from connecting to base stations on the ground even if the phones were turned on during the flight or had been left on since departure.

The hijacked planes on Sept. 11 were flying very low toward urban targets when passengers and flight attendants made calls from those aircraft, he said.

Base station signals spread out considerably over distance. So cellphones in a plane a few miles up, like Flight 370, would receive little if any signal, he said...

And another thing: Terrorists usually claim responsibility, make demands on target nations, and crow about how they brought death and destruction to hated enemies, blah blah. Where are the claims and crowing? Terrorism's pretty pointless if no one's able to make political hay out of it.

Search for Malaysia Flight 370 Enters Daunting New Phase

At the Wall Street Journal, "Search for Flight 370 Enters Daunting New Phase: Search Moves to Two Huge New Areas Spanning Bay of Bengal":

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—The search for Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU -4.17%  Flight 370 expanded by thousands of miles in an operation of unprecedented scale, marked by a series of twists that have made the least likely scenarios the most credible.

The number of countries searching for the flight, which fell off radar March 8 en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, doubled to roughly two dozen over the weekend. Searchers are now looking for debris more than 3,200 miles away from the point at which they believe the plane's transponders and another signaling system were deliberately turned off about an hour into the flight.

Malaysian authorities now say they believe foul play was behind the plane's vanishing, and police are investigating all crew and passengers on the flight as well as engineers who may have had contact with the aircraft before takeoff. Police searched the pilots' homes over the weekend, but Malaysia's transport ministry said there was no evidence so far linking the pilots to the plane's disappearance.

However, on Sunday, Malaysia's transport minister said key communication equipment that keeps the ground updated about the health of a flying aircraft and its engines was disabled on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 before the last recorded conversation with the cockpit.

"Yes, it was before," Hishammuddin Hussein said at a news conference Sunday in response to a reporter's question about whether the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS, of Flight 370 was disabled before someone said, "All right, good night" from the cockpit.

The ACARS system being disabled before the last voice message from the cockpit backs up thinking by experts that somebody with intricate understanding of the Boeing 777-200 jet and its systems tampered with communication equipment on board. The system apparently could only have been disabled by someone in the cockpit, according to an executive of Rockwell Collins, which bought ARINC, the firm that invented the ACARS system. The executive spoke to The Wall Street Journal on condition of anonymity.

On Thursday, Mr. Hishammuddin said the last automated message was sent out by the ACARS system at 1:07 a.m. Malaysia time. But he didn't say then whether the system was disabled before or after the last comment from the cockpit.

The identity of the person making the last statement— " All right, good night"—hasn't been confirmed. Pilots are expected to read back important information, such as frequency change instructions, given to them by air-traffic controllers to ensure they've received the correct message, though these rules aren't always strictly followed.

The transponder signal from Flight 370 was lost at 1:21 a.m. All radar contact with the aircraft was lost a few minutes afterwards, according to Malaysian investigators. Transponders are another set of communication devices on aircraft that help identify individual flights to controllers on the ground.

Also at Telegraph UK, "Co-pilot spoke final words - 'All right, good night'."

Malaysia to Investigate Flight MH370 Transponders

At the Wall Street Journal, "Investigators Probe Why Transponders on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Went Off" (via Google):

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—Malaysian authorities are looking into why the transponders on Flight 370 stopped transmitting data, including the possibility they were deliberately switched off, amid new information that showed the plane continued flying for hours after it fell off civilian radar a week ago.

The missing jet transmitted its location repeatedly to satellites over the course of five hours after it disappeared from radar, people briefed on the matter told The Wall Street Journal. The satellites also received speed and altitude information about the plane from its intermittent "pings," the people said. The final ping was sent from over water, at what one of these people called a normal cruising altitude. They added that it was unclear why the pings stopped. One of the people, an industry official, said it was possible that the system sending them had been disabled by someone on board.

If the plane remained airborne for the entire five hours, it could have flown more than 2,200 nautical miles from its last confirmed position over the Gulf of Thailand, the people said

Defense and Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein declined to confirm those details "at the moment," but he said investigators will probe why the plane's transponders, which send signals about the aircraft to identify it to radar, went off.

Hong Lei, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, chided Malaysia for not sharing information just three days after Beijing asked the country to accelerate its probe and speed up its search efforts on behalf of the families of passengers on the flight. Of the 239 passengers on the plane, more than 150 were Chinese.

"China urgently appeals to Malaysia for all information they have regarding the search," said Mr. Hong. "That will not only help China with its search but also help all sides in the search to make their search more effective and accurately targeted."

Malaysian authorities said they are working with experts from the U.S. and will receive help from a British team, composed of the country's Air Accidents Investigation Branch and engine maker Rolls-Royce, said Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director-general of Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation.

"They also have indicated that they are studying the possibility of satellite communication," Mr. Azharuddin said at a briefing at Kuala Lumpur International Airport...

More.

ADDED: "Satellite Data Reveal Route of Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane: Jetliner 'Pinged' Satellites With Location, Altitude for Hours After Disappearance":

Malaysia Airlines' missing jet transmitted its location repeatedly to satellites over the course of five hours after it disappeared from radar, people briefed on the matter said, as searchers zeroed in on new target areas hundreds of miles west of the plane's original course.

The satellites also received speed and altitude information about the plane from its intermittent "pings," the people said. The final ping was sent from over water, at what one of these people called a normal cruising altitude. They added that it was unclear why the pings stopped. One of the people, an industry official, said it was possible that the system sending them had been disabled by someone on board.

The people, who included a military official, the industry official and others, declined to say what specific path the transmissions revealed. But the U.S. planned to move surveillance planes into an area of the Indian Ocean 1,000 miles or more west of the Malay peninsula where the plane took off, said Cmdr. William Marks, the spokesman for the U.S. Seventh Fleet.

He said the destroyer USS Kidd would move through the Strait of Malacca, on Malaysia's west coast, and stay at its northwest entrance. Malaysia, which is overseeing the search effort, directed Indian forces to a specific set of coordinates in the Andaman Sea, northwest of the Malay peninsula, an Indian official said Thursday. "There was no specified rationale behind looking in those areas, but a detailed list was provided late Wednesday evening," the Indian official said.

The automatic pings, or attempts to link up with satellites operated by Inmarsat PLC, occurred a number of times after Flight 370's last verified position, the people briefed on the situation said, indicating that at least through those five hours, the Boeing Co. BA +1.00%  777 carrying 239 people remained intact and hadn't been destroyed in a crash, act of sabotage or explosion.

Malaysia Airlines said it hadn't received any such data. According to Boeing, the plane's manufacturer, the airline didn't purchase a package through Boeing to monitor its airplanes' data through the satellite system.

Malaysia Airlines said Friday that it has the required maintenance program in place for its Boeing 777, without elaborating.

If the plane remained airborne for the entire five hours, it could have flown more than 2,200 nautical miles from its last confirmed position over the Gulf of Thailand, the people said.

U.S. aviation investigators said they were analyzing the satellite transmissions to determine whether they can glean information about the plane's ultimate location or status. The transmissions were sent via onboard technology designed to send routine maintenance and system-monitoring data back to the ground via satellite links, according to the people familiar with the matter.

Among the possible scenarios investigators said they are now considering is whether the jet may have landed at any point during the five-hour period under scrutiny, or whether it ultimately crashed.

The people said aviation investigators are exploring the possibility that someone on the plane may have intentionally disabled two other automated communication systems in an attempt to avoid detection. One system is the transponders, which transmit to ground radar stations information on the plane's identity, location and altitude, and another system that collects and transmits data about several of the plane's key systems.

The widebody jet was scheduled to fly overnight to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur in the predawn hours of March 8. Its transponders last communicated with Malaysian civilian radar about an hour after takeoff.

Satellite Images May Show Missing Malaysia Flight MH370

At the Los Angeles Times, "China releases satellite images of possible Malaysia jet crash site":

A Chinese military agency on Wednesday released satellite imagery of large pieces of debris floating in the South China Sea along the planned flight path of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet with 239 on board, news agencies in Beijing reported.

The images were captured early Sunday, a day after Malaysia Airlines flight 370 was last heard from on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, China's State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense said, the Associated Press quoted the New China News Agency as reporting. Bloomberg and CNN also carried reports citing the Chinese government.

The Chinese military agency described the site as "a suspected crash area," based on its location along the jet's flight path and the size of three, light-colored debris pieces spotted on the water's surface, the largest estimated to measure more than 70 feet in length and width.

RELATED: At Wired, "Inside the Nearly Impossible Task of Finding an Airplane in the Ocean."

Stolen Passports Deepen Mystery Surrounding Missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370

At LAT, "Malaysian flight leaves trail of anguish, mystery":

Despite the efforts of some 40 boats and three dozen planes, the three-day search for the missing Boeing 777 off the southern coast of Vietnam has yielded nothing but dashed hopes for the friends and family members of the 239 people aboard. By Monday evening, Malaysian and Vietnamese authorities said they had yet to find anything linked to the airliner and that the search area was being expanded and the operation “intensified.”

With no material evidence from the aircraft, however, attention was focused on the fact that two passengers had used stolen passports, one Italian, one Austrian, to board the plane.

Malaysian authorities, who said earlier that they had closed-circuit video recordings of the passengers, revealed Monday that they had identified one of the two men who used the passports.

“I can confirm that he is not a Malaysian, but cannot divulge which country he is from yet,” Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar told the Star, a major Malaysian newspaper. He added that the man is also not from Xinjiang, China -- a northwestern province of the mainland that is home to minority Uighurs.

Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, Malaysia's civil aviation chief, said the two men were “not Asian-looking men.”

That dampened speculation that Uighur separatists might have been behind the jet’s disappearance. Uighur separatists have been blamed for a knifing rampage in southwestern China this month that left 29 dead.

Security authorities have cautioned that use of stolen or forged passports is more frequent than commonly assumed and does not necessarily indicate that terrorist forces might have been involved in the plane’s disappearance.

Also at NYT, "Use of Stolen Passports on Missing Malaysian Airliner Highlights Air Security Flaw." And at CBS News, "No evidence of terrorism in Malaysia Airlines plane's disappearance."

Race for Clues in Malaysia Airlines Jet's Fate

At WSJ, "Air-Safety and Antiterror Authorities Appeared Stumped on Investigation's Direction":

As a search for clues to the fate of Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU -8.00%  Flight 370 resumed in the waters off Vietnam on Monday, air-safety and antiterror authorities on two continents appeared equally stumped about what direction the probe should take.

The Boeing BA -0.25%  777 was cruising over the Gulf of Thailand with 239 people on board when it suddenly dropped off air-traffic radar screens less than an hour after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur early Saturday morning. None of the Beijing-bound plane's transmitters appeared to signal distress before shutting down.

In a massive international investigation, no early theory has emerged about what transpired on the airplane traveling at a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet in good weather. The known sequence of events includes elements that seem different from anything in the annals of recent jetliner accidents.

"For now, it seems simply inexplicable," said Paul Hayes, director of safety and insurance at Ascend Worldwide, a British advisory and aviation data firm. "There's no leading theory," he noted, but jetliners "simply don't vanish or disintegrate" and fall out of the sky without warning, unless there is sabotage or some catastrophic structural failure. So far, investigators haven't hinted that they have firm leads on either front.

More.

Possible Terrorist Attack on Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370

Well, no one has a bloody clue what happened to that plane, so wtf?

At LAT, "Terrorism not ruled out in disappearance of Malaysia Airlines jet."

And at CBS News, "Malaysia Airlines plane vanishes with 239 aboard: Search intensifies for missing."

Malaysia Airlines Flight Goes Missing

It's the big news on television this evening.

At LAT, "Search and rescue effort launched for missing Malaysia Airlines plane," and the Sydney Morning Herald, "Australians among 227 passengers feared dead after plane goes missing."

And at AP, "Raw: Malaysia Airlines Loses Contact With Plane," and CNN, "Malaysia Airlines' VP: Plane would have run out of fuel."

Severe Turbulance on United Airlines Flight Causes Injuries

At USA Today, "Passengers recount fears after turbulent United flight":

One woman hit the ceiling so hard it cracked the panel above her, passenger said.

Kerri Mullins had just taken a picture of the clear blue skies over Montana moments before she says she experienced the scariest 25 seconds of her life.

Mullins, from Arvada, Colo., was aboard United Airlines Flight 1676 from Denver to Billings when it hit turbulence so severe that people were tossed from their seats. Three flight attendants and two passengers were injured.

"I thought 'Wow! Yeah, this is it,' " Mullins said. "It's the most helpless feeling ever — to just be sitting there and not have any control over anything."

Mullins said the plane turned sharply to the right and started plunging.

"Everything flew out of everybody's hands," she said. "It was quite surreal."

More.

Worst of all is a woman lost hold of her baby, which flew into another seat but was unharmed. At London's Daily Mail, "Extreme turbulence throws child from mother's arms and woman hits plane roof as five are hospitalized in United landing."

Missing Texas Woman Leanne Bearden May Not Be Missing: 'There is evidence that Leanne may have voluntarily left the area, and we understand this is a strong possibility...'

She and her husband travelled the world for two years, and damn, it's not farfetched to suggest she'd say "f-k this" after getting back into the daily humdrum.

I feel terrible for the dude, though. In seeking more adventure, she abandoned him, and that's pretty terrible and selfish.

At CNN, "Family: 'Strong possibility' missing woman meant to leave."

And at London's Daily Mail, "Revealed: Woman who went missing after two-year trip around the world may have run away over stress at returning to 'normal' life in U.S."

And at the family's Facebook page:

The Garden Ridge Police, Comal County Sheriff’s office, the Texas Rangers, and other agencies as well as a private investigator have conducted an extensive investigation including talking with many of Leanne’s family members and friends as well as many other people living in this area. They also examined Leanne’s computer and telephone, including emails, text messages, and phone records and contacts. The pressure of transitioning from her two year trip back into what we consider “normal” life seems to have left her very anxious and stressed. As a result of this investigation there is evidence that Leanne may have voluntarily left the area, and we understand this is a strong possibility.

If Leanne has indeed fled this area, she is extremely vulnerable. She left with only a few assets and is traveling very light. Although she is athletic, she is small in stature. Her mental and physical status is uncertain. We fear for her greatly. We urge anyone who might have any information about Leanne to contact the Garden Ridge Police department at 210-651-6441 or Private Investigator Charles Parker at 210-826-4052.

Please remember Leanne, the Bearden and Hecht families, and all of Leanne’s friends in your thoughts and prayers.

Video Shows Massive Sparks Flying as Southwest Jet Makes Emergency Landing at LaGuardia

Late night news broadcasts had the clip, but no major video available yet.

This is pretty wild nevertheless:



A local report is here, "#LaGuardia Landing Gear Collapse On Southwest Airlines Flight NYC."

PREVIOUSLY: "Southwest Plane's Landing Gear Collapsed Upon Landing at LaGuardia."