Praying Pilot Gets 10 Years for Fatal Crash

'Schettino had left his reading glasses in the cabin ': first officer's attorney

(NEWSER) - The Costa Concordia's captain wasn't wearing his glasses and told the first officer to handle radar duties for him on the night disaster struck off the coast of Italy, according to the first officer's lawyer. Speaking at a pretrial hearing today in the Tuscan city of Grosseto, the lawyer also said his client, Ciro Ambrosio, was the only officer on the bridge to order an evacuation. "He ordered the lifeboats to be put to sea from deck number four," the lawyer said. More»

Group met six days before L'Aquila quake, but raised no alarm

(USER SUBMITTED) - Predicting earthquakes is shaky business at best, but that detail isn't stopping Italian officials from prosecuting a group of prominent scientists over their failure to do exactly that. Six scientists and one government official face charges of manslaughter for allegedly failing to provide adequate warning of imminent disaster to locals after the region was struck by more than 400 low-magnitude tremors in the months preceding a major quake. The group of experts met in 2009 to analyze the risk posed by the seismic activity, but didn't find cause to raise alarm. Six days later, a major quake devastated the central Italian city of L'Aquila and killed 309 people, reports the AFP . More»

Airline, mechanic fined for manslaughter

(AP) - A French court found Continental Airlines and one of its mechanics guilty of manslaughter today in the crash of a supersonic Concorde jet outside Paris a decade ago that killed 113 people. The court ruled the Houston-based airline must pay a $265,000 fine; the mechanic, John Taylor, must pay $2,650. Taylor was also handed a 15-month suspended prison sentence. More»

(NEWSER) - An Italian mom too frightened to take a helicopter tour of Manhattan saved her life—but lost most of her family as the copter collided with a plane over the Hudson River, reports the New York Daily News. Silvia Rigamonti got cold feet at the last minute. The tour was supposed to be part of her 25th wedding anniversary celebration. Soon after she chickened out, her teenage son, husband, and a family of three who had traveled to New York with Rigamonti's family were dead. More»

(NEWSER) - A wedding bouquet in Italy failed to predict the next bride-to-be, but it did succeed in downing a small plane, the Guardian reports. Hoping to spice up the proceedings, the wedding party entrusted the bouquet to a man who flew overhead in an ultra-light aircraft. When he attempted to cast the flowers down to waiting unwed women, they fouled the propeller instead and sent the plane spiraling to the ground. Luckily, no fatalities resulted. More»