Random News and Notes 23 March
There was a fatal incident at LaGuardia Airport in New York City last night. The pilot and co-pilot were killed and dozens of people were injured when an arriving plane and a firetruck collided on a runway. Air Canada Express flight 8646 was inbound from Montreal when the accident occurred.
The FAA and NTSB will investigate. The NTSB is in charge of the investigation and will provide all updates.
LaGuardia is closed to all traffic until further notice.
There is more aviation news this morning, this time across the Hudson river in America’s Armpit, New Jersey, where the FAA issued a ground stop halting all flight operations this morning. The cause was said to be a burning smell in the control tower.
The controllers relocated to an alternate location and flight ops restarted after 90 minutes.
Bad day for commercial aviation in the NYC metroplex. A total of 550 flights have been cancelled just in the three NYC area airports. No telling how many other flights will be delayed or cancelled.
Early this morning, an arson attack, in Golders Green, North London, targeted four ambulances belonging to Hatzola Northwest, a Jewish volunteer emergency medical service. The arsonists set them ablaze and caused explosions from onboard gas cylinders. Thankfully no one was injured, but the incident shattered windows in nearby buildings. Any guess about the ‘suspects’ in this incident?
The Metropolitan Police are treating it as an antisemitic hate crime, with counter-terrorism officers leading the investigation and a manhunt underway for three suspects seen on CCTV approaching the vehicles before the fires started. Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned it as a “deeply shocking antisemitic arson attack.”
It looks like an IRGC terror group in the UK, called Ashab al-Yamin has taken responsibility for the attack. All 4 of the suspects are still on the loose, and the Met Police are a bunch of incompetent boobs.
Epic Fury News
A couple of days ago, I brought a B-52 loadout to your attention. That loadout – the AGM-158 JASSM – was new to the BUFF. Today I bring you a different loadout, one that is not new. Photos out of RAF Fairford show the strategic bomber with direct attack GBU-31 JDAMs – 2000lb bunker busters – rather than the standoff JASSM.
What does the change in loadout mean? It could be a couple of things. First, it could indicate the US is running low on JASSM munitions. I doubt that one. Second – and most likely IMO – the target profile has changed significantly. I also expect this is kind of a flex on Iran. The BUFF is big – really big – and slow. That makes it a target for whatever remains of the Iranian air defense network. By flying directly over a target and dropping bombs on it instead of hitting it from 100 miles away, well. . .
Someone, and I’m not sure if it was the US or Israel, took out the Iranian Naval depot in Sirjan. The city is located in Southern Iran.
The explosion you see and eventually hear is a secondary explosion. And a big one.