H ere are important updates to two stories of articles which have been recently posted here at The Gate:
Boy Found Dead in Disney Lagoon
The intact body of Lane Graves was recovered from the Seven Seas Lagoon at the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa at Walt Disney World in Florida. The boy — who was two years old — was with his father at the beach of the lagoon at when a large alligator snatched him and dragged him into the water. The father and others attempted to rescue the boy but were unsuccessful.
Several puncture wounds from the teeth of the alligator were found on the otherwise intact body. Drowning is presumed to be the cause of death.
Additional information pertaining to this story can be found at multiple Internet web sites — including this article written by Brian McBride, Morgan Winsor and Julia Jacobo for Good Morning America and Yahoo! Here is a disclaimer: Good Morning America is a television program of the American Broadcasting Corporation, which is owned by the Disney–ABC Television Group, which is a subsidiary of the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company.
EgyptAir Flight 804 Aircraft Possibly Found
Wreckage thought to be that of an Airbus A320-232 aircraft which operated as EgyptAir flight 804 from Paris was found in several locations at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea by a deep sea search vessel.
The aircraft was traveling at an altitude of approximately 37,000 feet over the Mediterranean Sea when it suddenly disappeared from radar at approximately 2:45 in the morning on Thursday, May 19, 2016 on approach to its destination in Cairo.
Signals from the aircraft indicated that smoke was detected in both the toilet area and in the avionics area below the cockpit, according to this article written by Nicola Clark and Rick Gladstone of The New York Times. “Besides the radar tracks now confirmed by both the Greek and Egyptian authorities, the only confirmed data received from the plane were a series of seven automated messages sent to an EgyptAir maintenance base. Those messages included two smoke alerts — one in a bathroom, and another in an electronics bay near the cockpit and close to many of the plane’s computerized control systems. But while the alerts indicate that there was an emergency on board, experts have said they are not sufficient to explain the disaster.”
“Hello, Hello, EgyptAir 804 flight level 370, squawk number 7624,” were amongst the last words said by the pilot, according to a recording of the communications of the flight deck with the air traffic control tower. “Thank you so much. Good day, have a goodnight.”
The flight recorder boxes containing information as to what was the cause of the incident have yet to be recovered; and time is running out to find them, as the batteries which power the beacons — or “pingers” — of the so-called “black” boxes might last one more week at best.
None of the 56 passengers and 10 members of the flight crew survived.
Summary
I personally am saddened by the outcomes of both of these stories — both of which were worst-case scenarios — as I had hoped that there would be a better ending in both incidents.
My thoughts and prayers are with those family members and friends of the victims.
Graphic ©2016 by Brian Cohen.
