Pilot and reporter Bob Martin killed after the KRQE news helicopter Bell 206 N213TV owned by LIN Television Corp crashed in New Mexico

KRQE Helicopter Crash

By KRQE News 13
September 17, 2017, 7:01 am


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a fatal helicopter crash in New Mexico.

State Police have confirmed that it is our KRQE news helicopter and our pilot and friend Bob Martin.

The crash occurred north of Carrizozo around 4:30 p.m., Saturday.

Here at KRQE we all had great respect for Bob and cherished his friendship.

Our thoughts are with Bob’s family.









Date: 16-SEP-2017
Time: c 16:30 LT
Type:
Bell 206L-3 LongRanger III
Owner/operator: LIN Television Corp
Registration: N213TV
C/n / msn: 51298
Fatalities: Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Other fatalities: 0
Airplane damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location: N of Carrizozo, NM - United States of America
Phase: En route
Nature: Photo/air-to-air
Departure airport:

Destination airport:

Narrative:
A helicopter crashed north of Carrizozo, New Mexico (about 150 miles SE of Albuquerque. State Police have confirmed that is the KRQE news helicopter. KRQE operate "Sky News 13", a Bell 206 N213TV owned by LIN Television Corp.

Sources:
http://krqe.com/2017/09/16/krqe-helicopter-crash/
http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=213tv
http://krqe.com/author/bob-martin/

Pilot killed after a gyrocopter crashed at El Mirage Dry Lake located in Victor Valley

EL MIRAGE, CA
A man was killed in a plane crash Saturday morning on El Mirage Lake, a dry lake bed located in Victor Valley.

Deputies and fire officials discovered a Gyrocopter, a single engine, experimental aircraft at the scene, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department's Victor Valley station.

A man died at the scene and has not yet been identified.

Sheriff’s Aviation 40K and the National Transportation and Safety board were investigating the crash.


====================




EL MIRAGE — One man has died after a single engine aircraft crashed at the dry lake bed here Saturday morning, authorities said.

According to San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Jodi Miller, a gyrocopter crashed at El Mirage Dry Lake just before 9 a.m. Saturday.

Deputies from the Victor Valley Sheriff’s Station responded to the call about “a possible plane down” at 8:51 a.m. and upon arrival, located the single occupant aircraft at the location.

The victim, a male adult, was pronounced dead at the scene. His name is being withheld pending positive identification and notification of next of kin, Miller said.

The Sheriff’s Aviation 40K has responded to the incident and is currently investigating along with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

No additional information was immediately available Saturday.



Date: 16-SEP-2017
Time:

Type: gyrocopter
Owner/operator: Private
Registration:

C/n / msn:

Fatalities: Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Other fatalities: 0
Airplane damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location: El Mirage Lake - United States of America
Phase: En route
Nature: Private
Departure airport:

Destination airport:

Narrative:
The gyrocopter plane crashed under unknown circumstances. The pilot died in the crash.

Sources:
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/El-Mirage-Lake-plane-crash-444892693.html

California OSHA issued five citations and $51,160 in penalties to Aero Pacific Corp. in Placenta for safety violations after a worker was struck and killed by a moving spindle.

California Cites Two Companies in Separate Incidents that Led to Worker Fatalities





California OSHA issued five citations and $51,160 in penalties to Aero Pacific Corp. in Placenta for safety violations after a worker was struck and killed by a moving spindle. Inspectors determined that, among other violations, the company failed to identify and correct machinery hazards in the workplace, and train workers on the control of hazardous energy.

In a separate investigation, Cal/OSHA issued five citations and $68,435 in penalties to RWC Building Products in San Marcos following the death of a worker who fell from a truck-mounted conveyor belt. Inspectors concluded that the company failed to ensure that workers were wearing approved personal fall protection equipment while unloading material onto a roof, did not perform periodic inspections to identify unsafe conditions and work practices at different job delivery sites, and failed to provide effective training for supervisors to recognize safety and health hazards.

Hometown Foods USA – a commercial bakery doing business as Bagelmania Inc. – faces $129,145 in proposed penalties from OSHA after investigators found workers at its Medley facility exposed to amputation, fire, and noise hazards.

Sept. 7, 2017

OSHA Finds Machine-Guarding, Noise Violations at Florida Bakery
Hometown Foods USA Faces $129,000 in Proposed Penalties

MEDLEY, FL – Hometown Foods USA – a commercial bakery doing business as Bagelmania Inc. – faces $129,145 in proposed penalties from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) after investigators found workers at its Medley facility exposed to amputation, fire, and noise hazards.
OSHA cited the employer for 16 serious and other-than-serious safety and health violations after receiving a complaint alleging machine-guarding, forklift, and noise hazards.
“Our inspection identified hazards that pose a serious threat to employees’ safety and health if not immediately corrected,” said OSHA Area Director Condell Eastmond. “Hometown Foods USA needs to establish and implement an effective safety and health management system to protect its workers.”
The agency issued serious citations due to the company’s failure to:

• Ensure proper machine guarding on several pieces of equipment;
• Develop and implement an emergency action plan;
• Provide personal protective equipment such as thermal protection and safety glasses to each employee as required;
• Develop and implement a hazardous energy control program – lockout/tagout – to prevent machines from starting up during maintenance and service;
• Ensure all safety devices on the ovens were inspected at least twice a month; and
• Develop and implement a hearing conservation program for employees exposed to 85 decibels or more.

The company also was cited for not providing employees’ formal training on operating a powered industrial truck, failing to inspect powered industrial trucks for defects prior to putting them into service, and improper use of electrical cables.
Read more about the recent citations that OSHA issued to Hometown Foods USA.
Based in Miami, Hometown Foods USA provides private label and branded bagels and cakes to in-store bakeries, club stores, and foodservice distributors and operators.
The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
To ask questions; obtain compliance assistance; file a complaint or report amputations, eye loss, workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA’s toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency’s Fort Lauderdale Area Office at 954-424-0242.

U.S. Labor Department to Provide Immediate Grants and Assistance for Hurricane Irma Recovery Efforts

U.S. Labor Department to Provide Immediate Grants and Assistance for Hurricane Irma Recovery Efforts

 

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor, in cooperation with state and local partners, is setting aside funding and will be making grants to assess workforce needs in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Florida, and other states in response to Hurricane Irma. The Department will continue to work cooperatively with states and territories to assess needs as they develop and respond accordingly. U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta has directed the Department to assist the residents and businesses in affected areas. The Department has taken the steps set forth below. 

"My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by Hurricane Irma," Secretary Acosta said.  "The Department of Labor is deploying resources to support cleanup and recovery efforts. As Americans, we are strong and will come together to help our friends and neighbors."

Labor Department activities to assist states and territories include:

• The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) will provide Disaster Dislocated Worker Grants to assess workforce needs. The disbursement of funding will be determined as needs are assessed by state and local partners.
• ETA is assisting in administering Disaster Unemployment Assistance for Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This assistance may also become available to other states impacted by Hurricane Irma if additional disaster declarations are made.
• ETA and the Department's Office of Disability Employment Policy will make funding available from Disability Employment Initiative grants to provide services, medical equipment, and other resources to individuals with disabilities who are affected by the hurricane.
• As it did in response to Hurricane Harvey, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) is temporarily waiving certain requirements and deadlines related to retirement plans and group health plans, and is coordinating with other federal agencies that regulate employee benefit plans on relief for employers, other plan sponsors, and plan participants and beneficiaries affected by the hurricanes. For example, EBSA is working with the Internal Revenue Service to make it easier for workers to get loans and distributions from 401(k) and other retirement plans and to give employers more time to file the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report for their employee benefit plans. 
• The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs is temporarily suspending select federal contractor requirements, allowing businesses involved in hurricane relief the ability to prioritize recovery efforts.
• The Mine Safety and Health Administration is preparing to send personnel and equipment to assist FEMA in recovery efforts.
• The Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS) is working with its grantees to identify flexibilities and additional funding needs for its programs, including the Departments of Labor for Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Florida (which administer the Jobs for Veterans State Grants programs); affected Homeless Veterans' Reintegration Program grantees; and the affected military bases where the Transition Assistance Program's Employment Workshops are provided. VETS' staff stands ready to offer assistance to employers, members of the National Guard and Reserves, and members of the National Disaster Medical System and Urban Search and Rescue service who may be deployed in support of rescue and recovery operations.
• The Wage and Hour Division will be triaging all calls in the affected areas to continue to provide uninterrupted service to workers and employers.
• The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) plans to issue a special enforcement advisory that would temporarily ease reporting and other regulatory burdens on labor organizations, labor relations consultants, and employers affected by Hurricane Irma. Advisories will be sent by email to OLMS and Department stakeholders.
• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is helping employers keep their workers safe during cleanup and recovery operations by providing a number of hurricane and flood resources.
• Most OSHA programmed enforcement actions will cease in the affected areas to avoid disrupting recovery operations. An OSHA Emergency Response Team will provide compliance assistance.
• OSHA is actively engaged with the National Response Team and the interagency response to the hurricane and flooding. It is working with the Federal Emergency Management Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, and other federal agencies to coordinate strategies for the recovery.
• Public Service Announcements emphasizing the need to work safely in English and Spanish will be broadcast in affected areas during recovery efforts.

As the severity and geographical extent of the damage becomes known, the Department will monitor activities and take additional actions as necessary.

FEMA: 25% of the homes in the Keys were destroyed and 65% sustained major damage

Hurricane Irma Destroyed 25% of Homes in Florida Keys, FEMA Estimates
Millions in the Southeast remain without power as some evacuated residents return




Damaged houses in the Florida Keys are shown Monday in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. Photo: Pool/Getty Images

By
Valerie Bauerlein,
Scott Calvert and
Jon Kamp 
Updated Sept. 12, 2017 6:55 p.m. ET
 


Hurricane Irma destroyed a quarter of the homes in the Florida Keys and badly damaged many more, federal officials said Tuesday, as millions of people in the nation’s Southeast remained without power in the storm’s wake.

“Basically every house in the Keys was impacted in some way or another,” Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long said at a news conference. “This is why we ask people to leave.”

Meantime, Jacksonville, Florida’s largest city, was in recovery mode after the St. Johns River that flows through downtown experienced record levels Monday.

Mayor Lenny Curry said Irma hit the city with a storm surge like a Category 3 hurricane, even though its winds were at tropical-storm level when it reached northeast Florida. More than 350 people had to be rescued, he said. On Tuesday, he lifted an evacuation order but warned returning residents would have to navigate serious flooding and road blockages.





August and September mark peak hurricane season in the Atlantic basin. Here's why the conditions in these months make them more likely to form there. Photos: NASA/NOAA

The state of 20.6 million people has begun the difficult task of assessing damage and rebuilding from Irma, which first made landfall in the Keys Sunday morning as a Category 4 hurricane. The storm’s winds, heavy rain and surging seas have crippled the state after 6.5 million people were ordered to evacuate to other areas.

Many places including Miami Beach were just beginning to reopen, highways leading into the state from Georgia had bumper-to-bumper traffic, and long lines at gasoline stations remained a major frustration in cities like Fort Myers.

Residents and business owners in the Upper Keys were allowed back into the area Tuesday morning as far south as Islamorada. But Monroe County officials urged people to stay away. “Fuel, water, power & medical super limited,” the county said on Twitter.

The county has about 53,000 housing units, census figures show. Nearly all are on the Keys, a 110-mile ribbon of low-lying islands linked by bridges. Monroe County is home to 79,000 people, the vast majority of whom live on the archipelago.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday said transportation authorities were inspecting those bridges to make sure they can bear significant weight.



Local residents walked along a destroyed trailer park in Plantation Key in the Florida Keys on Tuesday. Photo: carlos barria/Reuters

For a third day, friends and relatives of Keys residents who rode out the hurricane on the islands scrambled for news on the well-being of holdouts, while evacuees searched for information on their homes and boats.

Alex Chennault, who lives in Los Angeles, was relieved Tuesday to finally get a 30-second voice mail from her mother in Key West, who was fine. Her mother’s ex-husband on Summerland Key “lost everything,” Ms. Chennault said, but was at least unharmed.

“Stuff is stuff,” Ms. Chennault said. “As long as he’s OK and well, there’s always more stuff available.”

Tammy Berard, the daughter of Key West Mayor Craig Cates, used Facebook to relay an update from her isolated father. The city’s sewer plant is down and needs a generator, she wrote. With numerous leaks in local water pipes, residents have had access to water only from 10 a.m. to noon and must boil it.

But she also reported that Naval Air Station Key West had received a food shipment, and a mobile hospital had been flown in for first responders.


There were some signs of hope. Florida Keys Electric Cooperative, which serves the Upper and Middle Keys, said Tuesday “the backbone of our power system withstood Irma’s impact well.”

While mobile home parks in the area are “pretty much destroyed,” Key West sustained far less structural damage than many other parts of the Keys closer to the mainland, Ms. Berard said.

Throughout Florida, power outages remained a major problem Tuesday. A state tally late Tuesday showed more than 4.7 million outages about 45% of the electrical accounts, were still offline.

Roughly three-quarters-of-a-million customers were still without power in Georgia and the Carolinas by late Tuesday, according to local utilities.

Power outages remained widespread in Jacksonville. In the city’s downtown Tuesday afternoon, downed tree limbs and debris littered some areas of a city still drying out from flooding a day earlier.

In the San Marco neighborhood, Worth Turner and colleagues were ripping out Sheetrock, discarding light fixtures and trying to mop, squeegee and vacuum up brown water that the St. Johns River poured into his year-old plumbing and lighting showroom.




Photos: Florida Begins Long Road to Recovery
Hurricane Irma rolled over Florida, leaving floods, downed power lines and collapsed buildings in its wake.




















Jose Orosz walks his dog, Karen, on Wednesday by a home in Vilano Beach, Fla., that was destroyed by Hurricane Irma.
Sean Rayford/Getty Images
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“It’s devastating,” Mr. Turner said. “This was my pride and joy.”

When he heard Monday morning that the river was rising fast, he came to the tree-lined streets to find them rapidly filling with floodwater.

Swimming to his 8,000-square-foot showroom, he said he found 4 feet of water. He estimates he lost $500,000 in merchandise, which he doesn’t expect to be covered by flood insurance, as the building was.

The recovery could take longer in the Keys, where the pleasures of island life in the subtropics have long come mixed with danger. One of the worst hurricanes ever to hit the U.S. slammed into the Keys on Labor Day in 1935 at Category 5 strength, killing 408 people, according to the National Hurricane Center.

A monument honoring the dead stands at mile marker 81.5 in Islamorada, near the farthest point on U.S. 1 that residents and business owners were allowed to travel Tuesday.

Cheryl Meads, a member of the Islamorada village council who took refuge in Orlando from Irma, said she was relieved to learn her property survived.

The risk of hurricanes is “part of our lives,” the 58-year-old said, but “it’s worth it to us.”
==================

Irma destroys or damages majority of homes in the Florida Keys

Sep 13, 2017 | By Jayleen R. Heft, PropertyCasualty360.com

Damaged homes sit in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017, in Key West, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

The Florida Keys, home to about 70,000 people, is one of the areas of the U.S. hardest hit by Hurricane Irma. 

Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Brock Long said that preliminary estimates suggested that 25% of the homes in the Keys were destroyed and 65% sustained major damage, according to the Associated Press.

"Basically every house in the Keys was impacted," Long said.

Search & rescue still underway

On Monday, the U.S. Navy dispatched the USS Iwo Jima, USS New York and the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln to help with search and rescue in the Florida Keys.

Much of the Keys remain without power and water Tuesday, and all three of the county's hospitals are closed, including emergency rooms, according to Keys News. The supply of gas was extremely limited.

The power of 130 mph winds

Two days after Irma roared into the island chain with 130 mph winds, residents were allowed to return to the parts of the Keys closest to Florida's mainland.
But the full extent of the death and destruction there remained a question mark because cellphone service was disrupted and some places were inaccessible.

Homes in the Florida Keys have been torn open and debris is scattered everywhere, according to the latest reports. Check out photos of the widespread damage to homes in the area:

A damaged home sits in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017, in Key West, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Damaged house boats are shown in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, Monday, Sept. 11, 2017, in the Florida Keys. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)

A sign outside a home where a family rode out Hurricane Irma is shown, Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017, in Key Largo, Fla., in the Florida Keys. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Roofs in a mobile home park are damaged from Hurricane Irma Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017, in Key West, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara) 

Homes damaged in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, Monday, Sept. 11, 2017, are seen in the Florida Keys. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)

This image released by the Monroe County Board of County Commissioners shows debris along the Overseas Highway in the Florida Keys, Fla., Monday, Sept. 11, 2017. Recovery along the island chain continues after Hurricane Irma made landfall on Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane then. (Sammy Clark/Monroe County Board of County Commission via AP)

Floodwaters cover streets in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, Monday, Sept. 11, 2017, in Key Largo, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Floodwaters surround Gilbert's Resort in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, Monday, Sept. 11, 2017, in Key Largo, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Overturned trailer homes are shown in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, Monday, Sept. 11, 2017, in the Florida Keys. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)

Donald Garner, 57, surveys the wreckage of another houseboat from the roof of his in Lower Matecumbe Key, Fla., Tuesday Sept. 12, 2017. Garner had tied his boat, which he lives on, to the mangroves to help gird it against Hurricane Irma's wrath. The boat survived sustaining minor damage, but some others in his small community didn't fare as well. (AP Photo)