Tag: Crashes

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Philippine Navy Airplane Crashes With 96 Folks Aboard

Philippine Military Plane Crashes With 96 People Aboard

MANILA – A Philippine Air Force aircraft with 96 soldiers and crew on board crashed on the southern island of Jolo on Sunday, officials said. At least 31 people were killed, including two civilians on the ground, and it was feared that the number would rise.

The chief of the Philippine Armed Forces, General Cirilito Sobejana, said the plane missed a runway while attempting to land and crashed near a village called Bangkal in the city of Patikul, a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf militant group.

Major General William Gonzales, the commander of Joint Task Force Sulu, said 50 people have been hospitalized and that “29 bodies have already been recovered from the scene of the accident.”

“We remain confident that we can find more survivors,” General Gonzales said in a statement. “Our search and rescue operations are still ongoing, 17 people are not known.”

Military officials said that in addition to the two civilians killed on the ground, four others were injured.

In addition to the 96 people on board the aircraft, a C-130 Hercules, there were also five military vehicles, officials said. The C-130, a US-built turboprop, is used by the military around the world and is sometimes kept in service for decades.

Defense Minister Delfin Lorenzana said he had “ordered a full investigation to get to the bottom of the incident once the rescue and recovery operation is complete”.

The plane, which crashed on Sunday, first flew in 1988 and was used by the United States Air Force until it was sold to the Philippines in January, according to the Philippine Air Force and a website that tracks C-130s around the world.

The Filipino military has tried to modernize its aging fleet. Last month, a newly acquired Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a night training flight, killing six people on board.

This crash occurred about two months after another helicopter, an MG-520 attack helicopter, crashed in the central Philippines, killing its pilot. And in January, a refurbished Vietnam War-era UH-1H helicopter crashed in the south, killing seven soldiers.

In 2008, a Philippine Air Force C-130 crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from Davao City on the southern island of Mindanao, killing nine crew members and two passengers on board.

The soldiers on the plane that crashed on Sunday were flown to Jolo to support the military’s operations against Abu Sayyaf, a small Islamist group that the Philippine government regards as a terrorist organization.

A faction of Abu Sayyaf sworn allegiance to the Islamic State has been blamed for the January 2019 bombing of a cathedral on Jolo, carried out by an Indonesian couple that killed at least 23 people. Filipino authorities believe a similar attack near the cathedral in 2020, killing 14, was carried out by the same Abu Sayyaf faction. Its leader, Hatib Hajan Zavadjaan, has reportedly been killed since then, and the military has stepped up operations against the group in hopes of eliminating them.

Austin Ramzy contributed the coverage from Hong Kong.

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Business

The Week in Enterprise: Crypto’s Crashes

The Week in Business: Crypto’s Crashes

Good morning and happy Sunday. Here’s what you need to know in business and tech news for the week ahead. — Charlotte Cowles

The crypto market had a rough week. Digital currencies saw several ugly crashes, with Bitcoin ending Friday nearly 30 percent below its price a week before. The plunge followed an announcement from China that effectively banned its financial institutions from providing services related to cryptocurrency transactions. (Elon Musk’s sudden about-face on Bitcoin probably didn’t help, either.) The volatility shook some investors’ confidence in crypto, which has ridden a seemingly unstoppable wave of popularity — and gained traction with mainstream investors — over the past year.

Texas, Oklahoma and Indiana joined more than a dozen other states that are ending federal pandemic unemployment benefits early, citing the need to incentivize people to get back to work. The decision will get rid of the $300-a-week supplement that unemployment recipients have been getting since March and were scheduled to receive through September. It will also end all benefits for freelancers, part-timers and those who have been out of work for more than six months. Some lawmakers believe that cutting off benefits will encourage more people to apply for jobs, but that’s not always the case — a persistent lack of child care has also prevented many parents from returning to work.

That bad habit of letting work emails dribble into your nights and weekends? It could actually kill you. Working more than 55 hours a week can cause premature death, according to a new study by the World Health Organization. Long hours — also known as overwork — are on the rise and are associated with an estimated 35 percent higher risk of stroke and 17 percent higher risk of heart disease compared with working 35 to 40 hours per week, researchers said.

In a push to boost federal tax revenue to fund infrastructure, the Biden administration is planning to give the Internal Revenue Service more money to chase down wealthy individuals and companies who cheat on their taxes. As part of the same effort to close tax loopholes, the U.S. Treasury Department is trying to convince other countries to back a 15 percent global minimum tax rate on big companies. The policy is meant to deter corporations from sheltering their operations in tax havens such as Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands. But a number of governments have been hesitant to sign on for fear that they’ll scare off businesses.

Congress wants to bolster the United States’ ability to compete with China and is willing to throw money at the problem. The senate is working on a bill that would invest $120 billion in the nation’s development of cutting-edge technology and manufacturing. Known as the Endless Frontier Act, the legislation would fund new research on a scale that its proponents say has not been seen since the Cold War. In related news, the European Union blocked an investment deal with China on Thursday, citing concerns with the country’s abysmal human rights record.

Executives from the largest U.S. banks, including JPMorgan, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, will testify before lawmakers this week about their actions (or lack thereof) to help struggling Americans and small businesses during the pandemic. Democrats on the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees organized the hearings to scrutinize the banks’ role in lending money to alleviate the financial pressures of the past 15 months. The testimony could affect how lawmakers seek to regulate Wall Street in the coming years.

The biggest trend on Wall Street right now? Milk made from oats. Shares of Oatly, a company that makes plant-based dairy alternatives, soared 30 percent in its initial public offering on Wednesday. Amazon indefinitely extended its ban on police usage of its facial recognition software, which has faced ethical criticism. And New York City lifted nearly all of its pandemic restrictions, allowing businesses to welcome customers back at full capacity.

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Business

Lobbyists urge updates to federal automobile security guidelines after Tesla crashes

Lobbyists urge updates to federal car safety rules after Tesla crashes

Two major US auto industry lobby groups are pushing for updates to federal vehicle safety regulations following major accidents involving Tesla vehicles.

During a Senate subcommittee hearing Tuesday, executives from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation and the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association said the U.S. needed better standards and protocols to sell automated driving systems like Tesla’s under the Autopilot and Full Self-Driving brand names to address.

Tesla has been critical of the development, testing, and marketing of these systems, including the failure to prevent drivers from misusing or overestimating the capabilities of the autopilot and FSD.

There are questions about whether autopilot or FSD were in any way to blame for the recent Tesla accidents that the National Transportation Safety Board and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are investigating. To date, the NHTSA has initiated around 28 investigations into Tesla vehicle accidents, of which around 24 are active. NTSB has launched 8 such investigations.

Automated driving systems, also known as driver assistance systems, can control some functions of a vehicle. However, automakers continue to require drivers to remain alert and drive even when the systems are in use.

In general, driver assistance is based on a mixture of cameras and sensors. Some automakers use advanced maps along with sensors to restrict the use of their systems to specific streets.

Despite their commercial availability, the United States does not regulate precise federal regulations or performance standards for automated driving systems.

“The US is at risk of losing our competitive advantage because of a lack of clear national guidelines,” said Ann Wilson, senior vice president of government affairs for the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association, during the hearing on Tuesday. She later added, “NHTSA can and should do more.”

John Bozzella, CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, said a “more strategic and robust approach” is needed for the government’s New Car Assessment program. He also said any modernization of the government’s Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS), which set requirements for the design, construction, performance and durability of vehicles, should also be analyzed in relation to highly automated and autonomous vehicles.

“We need a national strategy, a framework that accommodates a new kind of regulation,” he said.

The comments came Tuesday afternoon during a Senate Land Transport, Shipping, Freight and Ports subcommittee on how automotive innovations will affect the future of vehicle safety, mobility and technology in a global economy.

It came a day after three Democratic U.S. Senators on Monday introduced laws mandating performance standards for driver monitoring systems and requiring those systems to be installed in new vehicles.

Tesla is not a member of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation or the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association. The company did not respond to a comment.

A steering wheel light bar and cluster icons indicate the status of Super Cruise ™ and prompt the driver to return their attention to the road if the system detects that the driver’s attention has been turned away from the road for too long.

Source: General Motors

Driver monitoring

Prior to the hearing, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents automotive suppliers and manufacturers who produce nearly 99% of new cars and light trucks sold in the US, published several safety principles related to driver monitoring in vehicles with driver assistance systems such as Tesla Autopilot.

Among other things, the guidelines call on car manufacturers to introduce camera-based driver monitoring systems for vehicles with automated driving or driver assistance systems. These are intended to recognize whether the drivers are attentive and ready to drive manually in situations in which the automated program is insufficient.

General Motors, Subaru, and BMW already have camera-based driver monitoring systems, and others like Ford Motor have announced similar plans. Tesla vehicles have cabin cameras, but according to the company’s operating instructions, they are not used for driver monitoring. With Tesla’s systems, the driver has to “check in” by touching the steering wheel.

“This issue that we are now debating – and I agree with you – is a consumer awareness and confidence issue. That is why we have set out these driver monitoring principles today,” Bozzella said during the hearing, without any company or specific company To mention system. “Driver monitoring is an important element in this.”

Tesla research

Last week consumer reports found that a 2020 Tesla Model Y “can easily get the car to drive even if no one is in the driver’s seat.”

The test included upgrading the Tesla steering wheel to bypass the vehicle’s safety features that otherwise might have disabled the autopilot. The test followed a fatal spring 2019 Model S crash in Texas in April that sparked two federal investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

After a preliminary investigation, a Harris County police officer named Mark Herman told television that his investigators were “sure” that no one was in the driver’s seat of the Tesla at the time of the crash.

Extensive investigations have not been completed, and authorities have not disclosed whether the autopilot or Tesla’s premium automatic driving system FSD was in use before or at the time of the collision. Tesla advises in its owner’s manual that the autopilot and FSD require active monitoring.

The remains of a Tesla vehicle can be seen in this still from a video captured via social media after the crash in The Woodlands, Texas on April 17, 2021. Video recorded on April 17, 2021.

Scott J. Engle | via Reuters

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, said in a tweet earlier this month, “Data logs recovered so far show that autopilot was not activated and this car did not purchase an FSD. Also, the standard autopilot would require turning on lane lines that this road does not would have. “”

In a first quarter earnings call on Monday, Musk said journalists should be “ashamed” of their coverage of the crash. Tesla’s vice president of automotive technology, Lars Moravy, also shared additional details Tesla learned from helping with the local and state investigation to date.

Among other things, Moravy said that in the spring incident in Texas, “Autosteer couldn’t and couldn’t get into the road condition as it was designed.” He added that the car “only accelerated to 30 mph” before hitting a tree, and that a steering wheel deformity indicated to Tesla a “likelihood that someone was in the driver’s seat at the time of the accident”.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, unveils a new all-wheel drive version of the Model S on October 9, 2014 in Hawthorne, California.

Lucy Nicholson | Reuters

During Tuesday’s government hearing, Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. Criticized Tesla and Musk for speaking about the crash while the federal investigation was ongoing.

“I was very disappointed that Tesla took to Twitter through its CEO to downplay the involvement of the company’s advanced driver assistance system before both the NTSB and NTHSA completed their ongoing investigations into the fatal accident,” he said.

The NTSB emailed CNBC, “Our investigation is ongoing and we are focused on the operation of the vehicle and the post-accident fire.”

The NHTSA and Spring, Texas police were not immediately available for comment.

Blumenthal said he agrees with some auto lobbyists that federal safety standards and new regulations are required.

He said, “Tesla’s crash shows that there are many unanswered questions about the technology that is supposed to be automated. Unfortunately, there are no current regulations that give the public much convenience that more automation is the answer without much improved consumer protection.”

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Business

SpaceX launches Starship SN11 however crashes on touchdown try

SpaceX launches Starship SN11 but crashes on landing attempt

The latest SpaceX prototype of its Starship rocket was destroyed on Tuesday while attempting to land after a clean launch.

The company’s livestream of the flight test froze as the rocket landed, and thick fog around SpaceX’s Texas facility made it difficult for witnesses to see what had happened.

The spaceship prototype Serial Number 11 or SN11 reached its target altitude of approximately 10 kilometers. The rocket is made of stainless steel and represents the early versions introduced in 2019. Elon Musk’s company develops Starship with the aim of bringing cargo and people on missions to the moon and Mars.

The Starship prototypes are about 150 feet tall, or about the size of a 15-story building, and are each powered by three Raptor rocket engines.

Starship’s SN11 prototype rocket is on the launchpad at the company’s Boca Chica, Texas facility.

SpaceX

Musk tweeted about half an hour after the test that “at least the crater is in the right place!”

“Something significant happened just after we landed. Should know what it was when we can examine the parts later today,” Musk said.

SpaceX’s chief integration engineer, John Insprucker, noted that the thick fog in the area prevented the company from showing camera views beyond those of the rocket.

“The frozen view we saw on the camera doesn’t mean we’re waiting for the signal. Starship 11 isn’t coming back. Don’t wait for the landing,” Insprucker said. “We seem to have lost all the data on the vehicle and of course the team is not on the landing pad, so we’ll be out there and see what we had.”

A spectator holds a piece of debris near 5 miles from where the SpaceX SN11 test rocket exploded on landing, in Boca Chica, Texas on March 30, 2021.

Gene Blevins | Reuters

SpaceX has successfully launched four Starship prototypes for high altitude flight tests, starting with the SN8 in December, then SN9 in February, and SN10 and now SN11. While the takeoffs went largely according to plan, the landing attempts ended with a large number of explosions. SpaceX is the only major rocket builder trying to land its vehicles after launch. Traditionally, large rocket amplifiers are discarded after launch.

Musk’s goal is for Starship to be fully reusable and envision a missile that resembles an airliner and that can launch between flights with little maintenance and fuel. While SpaceX didn’t successfully land the prototype SN10 until after a high-altitude flight test – although the rocket exploded a few minutes later – the company landed earlier prototypes after short flights to an altitude of around 500 feet.

The SN10 spacecraft prototype returns for a soft landing on a concrete slab at the company’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX

Musk said Tuesday that SpaceX’s next prototype, Starship SN15, will hit the Launchpad “in a few days”.

“It has hundreds of design improvements in terms of structure, avionics / software, and engine,” said Musk.

Starship is one of two “Manhattan projects” that SpaceX is developing at the same time. The other is the Starlink satellite internet program. Musk previously estimated that Starship would cost around $ 5 billion to fully develop, although SpaceX has not disclosed how much it spent on the program. The company raised $ 850 million in its most recent capital raise, valued at $ 74 billion, last month.

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Tiger Woods crashes automotive, golf star recovering after emergency surgical procedure

Tiger Woods crashes car, golf star recovering after emergency surgery

A luxury SUV driven by Tiger Woods crashed and rolled over in Southern California on Tuesday morning. The golf superstar was seriously injured, the authorities and his agent said.

According to a statement posted on his Twitter account, Woods is “awake, reacting and recovering in his hospital room” after an emergency operation.

Dr. Anish Mahajan, chief medical officer and interim CEO of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, said Woods sustained “significant orthopedic injuries” to his right lower leg.

A rod was introduced to stabilize his tibia and femoral bones, while a “combination of screws and pins” was used to stabilize injuries to the bones of his foot and ankle, the statement said on Woods’ Twitter account.

Woods, who was the only person in the Genesis GV80 SUV, was trapped in the wreckage that occurred after hitting a mean mean on the road and then crashed into a paintbrush just before 7:12 a.m. PT. A neighbor of the crash scene named 911.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Woods was “traveling at a relatively higher speed than normal”.

Woods was freed from the vehicle by firefighters and then taken to Harbor UCLA, a major trauma center.

Villanueva said at a press conference that MPs responding to the scene saw “no sign of impairment” on Woods.

Since there was no sign of impairment, Villaneuva said, “There was no effort to draw blood in the hospital.”

Woods was conscious and able to communicate with MPs.

“I spoke to him. I asked his name. He told me his name was Tiger and that was when I recognized him straight away,” deputy Carlos Gonzalez told reporters.

“It is very lucky that Mr. Woods got out alive,” said Gonzalez.

The scene of the accident on the border between Rolling Hills Estates and Rancho Palos Verdes is known to the police due to the frequency of the accidents and the tendency of drivers to exceed the speed limit.

The front end of the SUV was destroyed. Woods likely survived the single car accident because the interior of the SUV was left intact, an official said. The Genesis has 10 airbags.

Woods was wearing a seat belt during the crash, officials said.

They also said there were no skid marks on the scene and “no signs of braking”.

LA County Sheriff’s officers are investigating an accident involving golfer Tiger Woods on Hawthorne Blvd. in Rancho Palos Verdes, February 23, 2021.

Wally Skalij | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

Woods, 45, was at Rolling Hills Resort last week after hosting the Genesis Invitational tournament. He shot under a contract with Golf Digest and the Discovery Channel.

His agent, Mark Steinberg, said in a statement, “Tiger Woods was in a car accident in California this morning in which he sustained multiple leg injuries.”

“He is currently in surgery and we thank you for your privacy and assistance,” Steinberg said.

Last month Woods announced that he had “recently” had a fifth microdisectomy on his back to remove a pressurized disc fragment that caused him pain during the PNC championship in Orlando, Florida in December, the last competition prepared.

He played in this tournament with his 11 year old son Charlie. The duo came in seventh.

“I’m looking forward to starting training and focusing on getting back on tour,” Woods said in a January statement.

Tiger Woods watches from the 18th hole during the final round of the Genesis Invitational golf tournament at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California on February 21, 2021.

Brian Rothmüller | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

The resident of Jupiter, Florida has won 82 PGA titles, most of which were related to Sam Snead. He has won 15 major championships, including five Masters tournaments.

PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan said in a statement: “”We were made aware of the Tiger Woods car accident today. We are waiting for more information when he comes out of the operation. “

“On behalf of the PGA TOUR and our players, Tiger is in our prayers and will have our full support when he recovers,” said Monahan.

Sportswear giant Nike, which sponsors Woods, said in a statement: “We follow the news all around Tiger and our thoughts and hearts are with him and his family at this time.”

Woods Equipment and Club Sponsor TaylorMade Gold said: “We are shocked at the news of Tiger Woods’ accident this morning and send our thoughts and prayers to him, his family and his team as they assist him through his operation recovery . “

Wood’s stellar career was shaken in November 2009 when he crashed an SUV into a fire hydrant one morning outside his then home in Windermere, Florida.

Woods was knocked unconscious for more than five minutes in that accident, and his then-wife, Elin Nordegren, reportedly used a golf club to smash a window in the vehicle and pull it out.

After this mysterious crash, Woods is said to have had numerous extramarital affairs. Soon after, he entered a Mississippi clinic for treatment.

In May 2017, Woods was accused of driving under the Florida influence after police discovered him sleeping in a damaged car. He later apologized and issued a statement to several reporters saying that he assumed full responsibility for the arrest, which he attributed to “an unexpected reaction” to a mixture of prescribed drugs.

“I want the public to know it’s not alcohol,” Woods said at the time.

“I would like to wholeheartedly apologize to my family, friends and fans. I also expect more from myself,” said Woods. “I will do everything in my power to make sure this never happens again.”

A month after this arrest, Woods entered a clinic for treatment for problems with prescription pain medication and a sleep disorder.

Steinberg said at the time that Woods used pain medication to get up and move around while he was recovering from four back surgeries.

Senior golfer Justin Thomas choked on Tuesday speaking about Woods at a press conference.

“I have a stomach problem. It hurts to see that one of my closest friends is in an accident and I just hope he’s okay,” Thomas told reporters. “I’m just worried about his children. I’m sure they are fighting.”

Woods was spotted on social media on a golf course with former Miami Heat basketball star Dwyane Wade on Monday.

Actor David Spade also tweeted a photo of himself with Woods on the course on Monday.

On Sunday, during an interview with CBS Sports, Woods was asked if he would play at the Georgia Masters tournament in August.

“God I hope so,” said Woods.

“I have to get there first. Much of it is based on my surgeons, my doctors and my therapists, and getting it right because this is the only back I have, so I don’t have much wiggle room here.”

– CNBC’s Jessica Golden, Amanda Macias and Christine Wang contributed to this report.

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Business

GameStop Crashes Once more, Dropping 42 P.c

GameStop Crashes Again, Dropping 42 Percent

Stocks of GameStop – the company at the center of an online shopping frenzy that caught the imagination of the world last week – plunged another 42 percent on Thursday, to a tiny fraction of what it was just a few days ago.

It was the third jump in four trading sessions for the stock that had become the symbolic heart of an online crusade against some of Wall Street’s most discerning investors.

GameStop’s shares closed at $ 53.50, down nearly 90 percent from their high of $ 483 Thursday morning last week.

GameStop versus Wall Street

Let us understand you

The video game retailer’s inventory is down 84 percent this week, and the router has convinced many who favored inventory that the ride is over.

“GME is dead,” wrote one user, BoBo_HUST, on Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum using the GameStop ticker. Then the commentator wondered aloud about the prospect of one of the other so-called meme stocks, BlackBerry. “Can BB save us?”

BlackBerry, the once-dominant mobile device maker, rose 1.3 percent, a bleak ray of hope for those embroiled in a retail frenzy that had spread to other once sleepy stocks. AMC Entertainment, the pandemic-hit cinema chain that has also caught the attention of amateur investors, fell 21 percent on Thursday and is down around 47 percent for the week.

GameStop’s explosive surge – it rose over 600 percent in just a few days – was driven by a remarkable online campaign. Retail investors gathering on Reddit and other social media sites sought to “squeeze” short-selling hedge funds to take advantage of a decline in the ailing retailer’s share price.

The plan worked, and improved the long-standing balance of power on Wall Street as retailers hedge funds hurt painfully and amassed enormous profits. But those wins were largely transacted this week.

“The incredible increase in volatility has shown you that this is unsustainable,” said Julian Emanuel, chief strategist for stocks and derivatives at brokerage firm BTIG. “We’re back to your regular bull market that’s already going on.”

The broader market returned to climbing, a march that stalled after investors were annoyed by the rise in headstrong stocks over the past week. The S&P 500 rose 1.1 percent and closed at a new high.

As retailers flooded into GameStop’s stocks and other short selling, the surge forced the bottlenecked hedge funds to sell stocks they would otherwise have held to raise funds. That momentum helped drive the broader stock market down last week, bringing the S&P 500 down 1.1 percent in January.

The short squeeze was very profitable for some investors who bought these once-beleaguered stocks if they sold early enough to lock in profits. The drop in the price of GameStop stock since its intraday peak Thursday last week – just before brokerage firms began restricting trading in some of the highest-traded meme stocks – has destroyed roughly $ 30 billion in market value.

Any investor who got into the stock during the height of the excitement will face huge losses.

“It was clear to many in the market that this had gone so far and so quickly that people had to take profits when they had them,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers in Greenwich, Conn. “When two-thirds of a company’s market capitalization is up in a few days, it won’t be comfortable for many owners.”

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How Wealthy Hospitals Revenue From Sufferers in Automobile Crashes

How Rich Hospitals Profit From Patients in Car Crashes

As part of the check-in process, an Oklahoma Catholic hospital is offering some accident victims a waiver of signing that they do not want their health plan to be billed for care. One patient received the waiver shortly after a car accident in which her head hit the windshield. She said she had no reminder of signing the document but had a pledge of $ 34,106.

“The way they turn it, you don’t want to get your health insurance because someone else caused it,” said Loren Toombs, an Oklahoma trial attorney who represented the patient. “It’s clearly a business tactic and a major problem, but it’s not always illegal.”

Hospitals have been scrutinized in recent years as they increasingly turned to the courts to get back patient bills even amid the coronavirus pandemic. Hospitals, many of which have received substantial bailouts over the past year, have used these court rulings to garnish patients’ wages and move into their homes.

However, less attention was paid to hospital lien laws, which many states passed early in the 20th century when less than 10 percent of Americans had health insurance. Laws should protect hospitals from the burden of caring for uninsured patients and give them an incentive to treat those who could not prepay.

A century later, hospital liens are most commonly used to track debts of victims of car accidents. The practice can be as lucrative as documents and interviews show that some hospitals use outside debt collection companies to search police records for recent accidents to make sure they determine which of their patients may have been in a wreck to pursue can mortgage liens.

Some laws limit the amount of a patient’s agreement that a hospital can claim, and others only allow nonprofit hospitals to collect debts in this way. Certain states require hospitals to bill accident victims for health plans instead of using a lien. This approach is seen as more consumer friendly as patients benefit from the discounts health plans negotiated on their behalf.

“If there is a patient who has viable coverage from multiple sources, it would be a reasonable position to require payment from anyone who will pay more,” said Joe Fifer, executive director of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, a trading group of Hospitals tax officials.

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World News

Indonesia Boeing Aircraft Crashes Into Sea: The Newest Updates

Indonesia Boeing Plane Crashes Into Sea: The Latest Updates

BANGKOK – A passenger plane carrying more than 60 people crashed into the Java Sea a few minutes after taking off from the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Saturday, Indonesian officials said, again drawing attention to a nation long cursed by air disasters.

The fate of the plane, a Boeing 737-500, also had the potential to drag the troubled American aviation giant into a worse public spot, although the cause of the crash was not yet clear.

The Indonesian Ministry of Transportation announced that the last contact with the plane, Sriwijaya Air Flight 182, was at 2:40 p.m. local time. The plane flew to the city of Pontianak on the island of Borneo. According to the Ministry of Transport, there were 62 people on board. Four minutes after taking off in heavy rain in the monsoon season, the 26-year-old aircraft lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than 60 seconds after a delay in bad weather, according to Flightradar24, the flight tracking service.

The Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency said it found debris in waters northwest of Jakarta that it believed could have come from the wreckage of the aircraft, but that darkness and bad weather hampered the search. The area where the debris was found is known as the Thousand Islands.

“Tomorrow we will investigate the place,” said Soerjanto Tjahjono, the head of the National Road Safety Committee in Indonesia, on Saturday evening, clouding hopes that survivors could be found.

Boeing confirmed the crash on Saturday and said on Twitter: “Our thoughts are with the crew, passengers and their families. We are in contact with our airline customers and are ready to support them in these difficult times. “

The aviation sector in Indonesia, a developing country with thousands of inhabited islands, has been plagued by crashes and security vulnerabilities for years. As Indonesian airlines, especially low-cost airlines, have grown rapidly to cover a vast archipelago, the domestic aviation industry has been undermined by poor aircraft maintenance and careless adherence to safety standards.

For years, the leading Indonesian air carriers were banned from flying to the US and Europe by the regulators of these countries. Low cost airlines would go into business only to file for bankruptcy after fatal crashes.

However, Sriwijaya Air, Indonesia’s third largest airline, which opened in 2003, has never suffered a fatal crash.

And the Sriwijaya Air plane, which disappeared from radar screens on Saturday, was part of Boeing’s 737 500 series, which is considered a workhorse model with years of safe flying.

Whatever the cause, the crash comes at a terrible time for Boeing, whose reputation and profits were shattered two years ago by two crashes aboard its 737 Max aircraft.

In 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea with 189 people on board after the anti-stall system of the 737 Max jetliner malfunctioned. Another 737 Max crashed in Ethiopia in March 2019 after a similar faulty activation of the antistall system.

A total of 346 people died in these crashes that led to the creation of the Max fleet worldwide, sparked criminal investigations, scrutinized governments around the world and resulted in the overthrow of the Boeing CEO. In November, the Federal Aviation Administration became the first major aviation authority to lift its flight ban after requiring software updates, rewiring and retraining of pilots. At the end of December, American Airlines became the first US airline to resume scheduled flights on board the 737 Max.

Boeing estimated last year that grounding would cost more than $ 18 billion. But that was before the coronavirus pandemic brought travel to a standstill and messed up the aviation industry. In 2020, Boeing lost more than 1,000 aircraft orders, mostly for the Max, although there are still more than 4,000 left. The share price has fallen by about a third compared to two years ago.

On Thursday, the company announced it would pay more than $ 2.5 billion in an agreement with the Justice Department related to the antistall software used in the 737 Max. This includes $ 500 million for the families of those killed in the accidents and $ 1.77 billion in compensation for customers. In a statement announcing the deal, a senior Justice Department official accused Boeing staff of “choosing the path of gain over openness by hiding essential information from the FAA”.

Whistleblowers have accused Indonesian transportation officials of ignoring danger signs as domestic airlines, including Lion Air, expanded rapidly to cater to a growing middle class in a nation of 270 million people.

The Lion Air Group, which belongs to Indonesia’s largest airline, signed the two largest air transport agreements in history at the time, one with Boeing and one with Airbus. Boeing had targeted airlines in developing countries like Lion Air with its 737 Max model. eager to pack their fleets with new jets designed for short money-making.

However, aviation experts warned that selling aircraft to airlines, which are growing rapidly in unregulated environments, could be a recipe for disaster.

Jefferson Irwin Jauwena, the executive director of Sriwijaya Air, said Saturday night that they are “very concerned about this incident”.

“We hope your prayers will help the search process go well and smoothly,” he added. “We will also offer the families the best possible help.”

Rapin Akbar, the uncle of Rizki Wahyudi, one of the passengers on Flight 182, said his nephew called him on Saturday to tell him the flight from Jakarta to Pontianak was delayed. Mr Rapin reminded his nephew, a national park employee, to keep his face mask at the airport to avoid contracting the coronavirus. Mr. Rizki’s wife, child, mother and cousin were also on the plane.

While waiting for search and rescue boats to report, Mr Rapin said he was hoping for his family members. “There will be a miracle from Allah,” he said.

Indonesian aviation analysts said this crash could jeopardize the viability of Sriwijaya Air, especially as the coronavirus has emptied the Indonesian skies of many planes.

“Sriwijaya is trying hard to survive and the pandemic is making it harder,” said Gerry Soejatman, an Indonesian aviation expert. “This crash could mean the end.”

Indonesian pilots have also complained that the coronavirus has reduced their opportunities to practice their skills and brush up on their training. At one point during the pandemic, Sriwijaya only operated five planes, Soejatman said, which lowered crew morale.

At the Indonesian National Road Safety Committee, investigators were preparing for the very familiar task of finding out what went wrong in the country’s skies.

“Whenever we hear this kind of news, we get ready,” said Ony Suryo Wibowo, a committee investigator, on Saturday. “We collect all the information we can get.”

Niraj Chokshi contributed to the coverage from New York.