OCALA Memorial held for migrant bus crash victims A memorial was held in Ocala Friday night after a bus crash left eight people dead and 45 injured this past Tuesday.
IMMOKALEE ROAD 3 injured in deadly crash on Immokalee road The Florida Highway Patrol is currently investigating a deadly crash on Immokalee road.
NAPLES Collier deputies investigating car submerged in water The Collier County Sheriffs Office is investigating the scene of a submerged vehicle in Naples.
GAINESVILLE FGCU softball reflects on season and team’s legacy FGCU softball reflects on the historic season following their elimination doubleheader Saturday as well as what made this team special.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA The Weather Authority: Scattered storms in the forecast for your Sunday Expect sun and clouds throughout the day, along with scattered rain. Some of the storms have the potential to become severe.
CAPE CORAL Do we need a federal gun database for mental illness? One family says yes One family is on a mission to create a new national gun database. It would require medical professionals to enter mental health information.
ALVA Three dead in triple drowning near the Franklin Lock in Olga The Lee County Sheriff’s Office is responding to a scene of a water rescue where three people were recovered.
PUNTA GORDA The Weather Authority helps you prepare for the hurricane season at the 2024 Charlotte County Hurricane Expo With hurricane season less than two weeks away, it’s important to start preparing.
GAINESVILLE FGCU softball senior balances EMT training and Regional play Ahead of NCAA Regional play, FGCU senior outfielder Riley Oakes started EMT training as she works toward being a trauma surgeon.
PUNTA GORDA Homes For Our Troops grants veteran new home Through all the cheers and a community-wide escort, it’s a ‘welcome to your forever home for army sergeant veteran Brandon Rethmel and his family.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA Beat the Heat: Stay safe during extreme weather The Weather Authority has issued a heat advisory for portions of South, Southeast, and Southwest Florida from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday.
FORT MYERS Leaders discuss possibility of shutting down Caloosahatchee Bridge Should residents endure two years of partial lane closures, or fully shut the Caloosahatchee bridge down for 10 weeks?
GAINESVILLE FGCU softball parents cherish NCAA Tournament experience The parents of the FGCU softball team are relishing seeing their daughters play in the NCAA Tournament.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA The Weather Authority: Hot, hot, hot Heat advisory in place for Saturday until 8 p.m.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers teen finds dead body in bed of his truck A 16-year-old in Fort Myers drove to school, drove home, drove to the barbershop and back home again. Then, he noticed a swarm of flies in the back of his truck.
OCALA Memorial held for migrant bus crash victims A memorial was held in Ocala Friday night after a bus crash left eight people dead and 45 injured this past Tuesday.
IMMOKALEE ROAD 3 injured in deadly crash on Immokalee road The Florida Highway Patrol is currently investigating a deadly crash on Immokalee road.
NAPLES Collier deputies investigating car submerged in water The Collier County Sheriffs Office is investigating the scene of a submerged vehicle in Naples.
GAINESVILLE FGCU softball reflects on season and team’s legacy FGCU softball reflects on the historic season following their elimination doubleheader Saturday as well as what made this team special.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA The Weather Authority: Scattered storms in the forecast for your Sunday Expect sun and clouds throughout the day, along with scattered rain. Some of the storms have the potential to become severe.
CAPE CORAL Do we need a federal gun database for mental illness? One family says yes One family is on a mission to create a new national gun database. It would require medical professionals to enter mental health information.
ALVA Three dead in triple drowning near the Franklin Lock in Olga The Lee County Sheriff’s Office is responding to a scene of a water rescue where three people were recovered.
PUNTA GORDA The Weather Authority helps you prepare for the hurricane season at the 2024 Charlotte County Hurricane Expo With hurricane season less than two weeks away, it’s important to start preparing.
GAINESVILLE FGCU softball senior balances EMT training and Regional play Ahead of NCAA Regional play, FGCU senior outfielder Riley Oakes started EMT training as she works toward being a trauma surgeon.
PUNTA GORDA Homes For Our Troops grants veteran new home Through all the cheers and a community-wide escort, it’s a ‘welcome to your forever home for army sergeant veteran Brandon Rethmel and his family.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA Beat the Heat: Stay safe during extreme weather The Weather Authority has issued a heat advisory for portions of South, Southeast, and Southwest Florida from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday.
FORT MYERS Leaders discuss possibility of shutting down Caloosahatchee Bridge Should residents endure two years of partial lane closures, or fully shut the Caloosahatchee bridge down for 10 weeks?
GAINESVILLE FGCU softball parents cherish NCAA Tournament experience The parents of the FGCU softball team are relishing seeing their daughters play in the NCAA Tournament.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA The Weather Authority: Hot, hot, hot Heat advisory in place for Saturday until 8 p.m.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers teen finds dead body in bed of his truck A 16-year-old in Fort Myers drove to school, drove home, drove to the barbershop and back home again. Then, he noticed a swarm of flies in the back of his truck.
MGN TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – One of the two engines on TransAsia Airways Flight 235 went idle 37 seconds after takeoff, and the pilots apparently shut off the other before making a futile attempt to restart it, Taiwan’s top aviation safety official said Friday. It was unclear why the second engine was shut down, since the plane was capable of flying with one engine. Taiwan’s official China News Agency said investigators were looking into the possibility of “professional error.” The details on the engines were presented at a news conference in Taipei by Aviation Safety Council Executive Director Thomas Wang as preliminary findings from the flight data recorder. Wednesday’s crash into a river in Taipei minutes after takeoff killed at least 35 people and left eight missing. Fifteen people were rescued with injuries after the accident, which was captured in a dramatic dashboard camera video that showed the ATR 72 propjet banking steeply and scraping a highway overpass before it hurtled into the Keelung River. Wang said the plane’s right engine triggered an alarm 37 seconds after takeoff. However, he said the data showed it had not shut down, or “flamed out” as the pilot told the control tower, but rather moved into idle mode, with no change in the oil pressure. Then, 46 seconds later, the left engine was shut down, apparently by one of the pilots, so that neither engine was producing any power. A restart was attempted, but the plane crashed just 72 seconds later. Wang said it was too early to draw firm conclusions about the reasons why the first engine ceased producing power. “It’s only the third day so we can’t say too much,” Wang said. “We haven’t ruled anything out.” Several Internet aviation sites, including Flightradar24, questioned whether the pilots may have mistakenly turned off the wrong engine in an attempt to restart the idled one. The China News Agency quoted a spokeswoman for the local prosecutors’ office as saying “the whole case will be investigated in the direction of professional error.” TransAsia said in a statement that all 71 of its ATR pilots would retake proficiency examinations as requested by the Civil Aeronautics Administration. The pilot had 4,900 hours of flying experience, said Lin Chih-ming of the Civil Aeronautics Administration. Taiwanese Vice President Wu Den-yih, mindful of the island’s reputation as a tourist destination and its tense relations with China where most of the flight’s passengers were from, went to a Taipei funeral parlor for prayer sessions to pay respects. At the parlor, where bodies are being stored, Wu expressed condolences and praised pilot Liao Chien-chung, who died in the crash. The pilots may have deliberately steered the plane away from buildings and into the river in the final moments. “When it came to when it was clear his life would end, (the pilot) meticulously grasped the flight operating system and in the final moments he still wanted to control the plane to avoid harming residents in the housing communities,” Wu said. “To the plane’s crew, the victims … I here express condolences.” Divers with a local fire agency found one female and three male bodies Friday along the muddy Keelung River bottom about 50 meters (yards) from the crash site, a Taipei City Fire Department official surnamed Chen said. The agency suspects the eight bodies that are still missing may be in equally murky areas and has sent 190 divers to look for them. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense dispatched three S-70C rescue helicopters to search along a river system that runs into the ocean off Taiwan’s northwest coast. More than 30 relatives of victims cried wildly, prayed or were comforted by Buddhist volunteers at the riverside crash site as divers in black wetsuits brought back the four bodies. Some divers came ashore with their hands joined in prayer for the people they brought back. The pilot’s and co-pilot’s bodies were found earlier with their hands still on the controls, Taiwan’s ETToday online news service said. Wang said the cockpit flight recorder was still being analyzed and a transcript would be provided as soon as possible. Investigators are to issue a preliminary report on the crash within 30 days and a fuller report within 3-4 months. A final draft will be submitted within 8 months and the full investigation concluded in about a year, Wang said. He said the engines had shown no problems before the flight and repeatedly stated that the plane would have been able to take off and fly even with only one engine working. Earl Chapman of Canada’s Transportation Safety Bureau told the news conference that the plane’s Pratt & Whitney engines were known for their reliability. “This engine type has millions of flight hours behind it with a very good safety record. So it’s fairly unremarkable in that respect,” said Chapman, who was participating in the investigation because the engines were made by Pratt & Whitney’s Canadian division. The same airline operated another ATR 72 propjet that crashed on an outlying Taiwanese-controlled island last July 23, killing 48. Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou’s office said Thursday it was worried that air crashes would damage the island’s reputation as a tourist destination. Thirty-one of the passengers on Flight 235 were from China. Tourists from the mainland to Taiwan rose from a trickle before mid-2008 to a cumulative total of 9.7 million as of last year. China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since a civil war in the 1940s, chilling relations until Ma took office in 2008 and opened dialogue that led to an agreement allowing tourist visits. Tourists from China have also died in a construction site accident. A bus crash three years ago in eastern Taiwan injured 34. The vice president’s visit to the funeral home may be a “gesture to keep up benign relations,” said Alexander Huang, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan.