WhiteKnightTwo plane damaged in test

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Aug 20 (Reuters) - An aircraft designed to launch Virgin Galactic's suborbital passenger spaceship was damaged in an accident on a California runway, manufacturer Scaled Composites said.

In a statement on its website, Scaled, a wholly owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman (NOC.N), called Thursday's incident "minor" and noted that SpaceShipTwo was not attached to the carrier aircraft, known as WhiteKnightTwo, at the time.

Aviation Week & Space Technology, an industry trade publication, is reporting that WhiteKnightTwo's left main landing gear collapsed on the runway. It was not known if the plane was taking off or landing at the time.

Scaled said no one was injured in the accident at a Mojave, California, airport. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.

WhiteKnightTwo began flying in 2008 and was making its 37th test flight on Thursday. The aircraft is designed to carry SpaceShipTwo to an altitude of about 45,000 feet (13,650 metres).

The six-passenger, two-pilot spaceship would then be released so it can fire its rocket engine to punch through Earth's atmosphere, experience a few minutes of weightlessness in suborbital space and then land on a runway.

Virgin Galactic, which is selling tickets to ride SpaceShipTwo for $200,000 a seat, has signed up about 340 customers so far. The company is an offshoot of Richard Branson's London-based Virgin Group and hopes to begin commercial space operations in late 2011 or 2012.

SpaceShipTwo is based on a prototype known as SpaceShipOne, which made a trio of suborbital piloted spaceflights in 2004 to clinch a $10 million contest for private human spaceflight.

Scaled did not say how the damage to WhiteKnightTwo will affect the testing program for SpaceShipTwo and pilot training.

North Korean Jet Fighter Crash May Have Been Defection

A North Korean aircraft, which may be a fighter jet, has crashed in China near the country's shared border, say Chinese and South Korean reports.

It is believed the pilot, who was killed, may have been trying to defect to Russia, according to unnamed intelligence sources cited by Yonhap.

The crash happened on Tuesday afternoon in Fushun county, Liaoning province.

Defections are common but an attempt by plane is highly unusual and would be a source of embarrassment for Pyongyang.

China has a repatriation agreement with North Korea, which could explain why the pilot may have been trying to reach Russia, the report added.

North Korea has a military airbase in Sinuiju, near the border with China.

China's state media confirmed an unidentified small plane had crashed and that it may belong to North Korea.

An investigation into the cause of the crash was under way, Xinhua reported.

Soviet-era jet
Photographs of the wreckage reportedly taken by a local resident and posted on the internet showed a North Korean flag on the plane's tail.


Military experts said the plane appeared to be a Soviet-era fighter jet, which were used during the 1950-53 Korean War.

A report in Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper said that a second pilot had bailed out but gave no information on his whereabouts. It conflicts with the South Korean report of only one pilot on board.

Technically, North and South Korea remain at war although a ceasefire agreement ended fighting in 1953.

Their border is the most heavily militarised zone in the world.

Russia is doing something extremely stupid ...

Moscow, Russia (CNN) -- Russia will start loading a nuclear reactor in Iran with fuel next week, moving the project closer to being complete, both nations said Friday.
The August 21 arrival of fuel at the Bushehr facility, which Iran says will create atomic energy but other nations fear could be used for nuclear weapons, marks a key step toward its completion, Russia said.

"This event will symbolize that the period of testing is over and the stage of physical start-up has begun," said Sergei Novikov, spokesman for Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency.
The head of that agency will visit Iran next week, said the semi-official Fars News Agency. A Russian group is already in Iran to make the necessary arrangements for his arrival.
The reactor in the western Iranian port city of Bushehr will be operational by the third week of September, Fars said, though Novikov said the plant will not be ready to produce energy for another six months.

"All the installations and tests are now complete and the plant is now headed for launch," said Mahmoud Jafari, head of the Bushehr plant workshop.
Russia's state-sponsored nuclear corporation has been under contract for several years to help Iran build the Bushehr reactor site.

The United States has urged Russia to wait, saying more evidence is needed that Iran doesn't plan to use the site to make weapons.
Novikov said the fuel's arrival and loading into the plant will be monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"The IAEA inspectors will remove seals from containers with nuclear fuel, examine it," he said. "The fuel will be then transferred into a special storage facility. And when the Iranian nuclear watchdog agency gives its permission, the fuel will be loaded into the reactor."

Western corporations began the Bushehr facility in the 1970s but after the Iranian revolutions, the Islamic regime looked to Russia to complete the $800 million nuclear facility.
Iran has maintained all along that the site will produce energy, but the United States and other international observers remain unconvinced.

Earlier this month, the United States extended sanctions against Iran, saying it was targeting a number of Iranian businesses and groups accused of helping organizations such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Taliban.

In June, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions targeting the country's nuclear and missile programs -- identifying more than 20 companies and several individuals allegedly involved with those programs.

Piper Flips For Air Force 2

WASHINGTON — Air Force Two with Vice President Joe Biden aboard was involved in a minor accident with no injuries Wednesday morning at a Long Island airport.

A small private plane parked nearby was lifted a few feet into the air by the jet wash from Biden's plane as it taxied to take off from Francis S. Gabreski Airport, said Air Force spokeswoman Maj. Michelle Lai.

The left wing of the Piper Cub was damaged but no one was on board, Lai said. Biden's 757 took off with those on board apparently unaware of what had happened.
Biden was returning to Washington from vacation, his office said. The airport is in Westhampton Beach, N.Y.

An investigation will be conducted, including determining the cost of the damage to the Piper and whose responsibility it will be to pay, Lai said. The damaged light craft belongs to an aerial media company.

Last week, two New York City police motorcycles got into a minor accident while escorting Biden to Kennedy Airport, but Biden's vehicle was not involved and no officers were seriously hurt.

Former U.S. senator killed in Alaska plane crash

CNN) -- Former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens has died in a plane crash near Dillingham, Alaska, and his family has been notified, the senator's former chief of staff, Mitch Rose, confirmed to CNN Tuesday.
The private plane carrying Stevens and a former head of NASA crashed Monday night in a rugged stretch of southern Alaska. The crash left at least five people dead, but at least three people survived, authorities said.

EADS North America said its chief executive officer, Sean O'Keefe, who formerly headed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was a passenger on the aircraft.
Maj. Guy Hayes, a spokesman for the Alaska Air National Guard, said rescue crews were working to get at least three injured people away from the scene. He said it's possible there may be more survivors.

"They have definitely worked on two people. They're working on a third person to get him out of there right now," said Hayes, who noted that rough terrain has complicated rescue efforts.
"It's been pretty difficult to get into the area," Hayes said. "It took them roughly about 12 hours, I think, from when the plane was spotted by good samaritans until we got there on scene."

The Stevens family issued a statement earlier Tuesday.
"The Ted Stevens family offers their prayers for all those on board and for their families. We thank the brave men and women who are working to reach the site," said the statement, read on CNN by Rose.

Because of its vast size, air travel is common in Alaska, often through perilous weather. Stevens expressed his own fears after a 1978 crash that killed his first wife and four others.
"Plane crashes are the occupational hazard of Alaska politics," Stevens told the Washington Post in 1979. The Post added, "He said he often felt as if one's number had to come up eventually, and even though he had been a fighter pilot in World War II, the prospect of flying around in his campaign frightened him."

In 1972, House Majority Leader Hale Boggs and U.S. Rep. Nick Begich were traveling in a plane that is thought to have crashed in Alaska. It was never found. Nick Begich was the father of one of Alaska's current U.S. senators, Mark Begich.
News of the crash reverberated across the state and country. Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, sent out a Twitter message saying: "Heartbreaking Bristol Bay plane crash. Alaska's heart surrounds loved ones. More info coming in; pls pray for Dillingham rescue this morning."

The White House also cited the loss. "Our hearts and our thoughts and prayers go out to all the families who suffered a loss today," said deputy press secretary Bill Burton.
Federal Aviation Administration reports said eight or nine people were on the plane. The reports said five people died and others were injured.

The agency's Alaska office said the flight was from GCI Lodge on Lake Nerka to Dillingham. Matthew Felling, an anchor and a reporter for KTVA, told CNN the people on the flight were headed to a fishing trip.

Inclement weather was reported in the area at the time of the crash, said Hayes, the Coast Guard spokesman.

The Dillingham region, near the Bering Sea southwest of Anchorage, is rugged terrain surrounded by mountains. Storms there don't move quickly during this time of year but aren't as strong as those in winter, said Rob Marciano, CNN meteorologist.

"We haven't seen visibility improve much, so fog is an issue, and we haven't seen much in the way of that clearing," he said.
Megan Peters, a state police spokeswoman, said the crash area is a remote location that's hard to reach.

"We have the best of the best in the search-and-rescue field in this state ... and when they have trouble getting into an area, I know it's bad," she said.
The NTSB said the plane crashed 10 miles northwest of Aleknagik about 8 p.m. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Paul Takemoto said that the plane was a DeHavilland DHC-3 Otter. He said its tail number was N455A and it was registered to GCI Communications Corp., based in Anchorage. Bush pilots commonly use such planes.

Col. Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, said three rescue squadrons of the Alaska Air National Guard had been asked by the coordination center to respond to the scene. They fly both helicopters and fixed wing-aircraft. The Alaska Air National Guard and U.S. Coast Guard said they had personnel on the crash site, which was about 17 miles north of Dillingham, according to Alaska's Department of Military and Veteran Affairs.

An Alaska Air National Guard HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter carrying rescue crews landed Tuesday morning and gave "medical support to the crash victims," it said.
O'Keefe had a long career in the government and higher education, most recently serving as NASA administrator from December 2001 until his resignation in February 2005.

Before heading NASA, O'Keefe served for 11 months as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, overseeing the preparation, management and administration of the federal budget.
Stevens served more time in the U.S. Senate than any Republican in history.
He earned the nickname "Uncle Ted" and a reputation as one of the most effective of all pork-barrel lawmakers, a senator who funneled billions of federal dollars to his home state.

Born November 18, 1923, Stevens graduated from UCLA and Harvard Law School and moved to Alaska in the 1950s to work as a lawyer. He was elected to the state's House of Representatives in 1964 and 1966.

In July 2008, a federal grand jury indicted Stevens for making false statements on financial disclosure forms. He was convicted on October 27, 2008.

The next month, Stevens lost a bid for re-election to Democratic challenger Begich, then the mayor of Anchorage. Citing prosecutorial misconduct, a federal judge later dismissed Stevens' conviction.