After a YouTube video showed panicked New Yorkers scrambling as a Boeing 747 flew frighteningly close to the lower Manhattan skyline, a former Homeland Security adviser questioned whether the man who approved the flyby should remain in his White House office. Fran Townsend, who advised President George W. Bush for more than three years, labeled the decision as "crass insensitivity" in the wake of 9/11. "I'd call this felony stupidity. This is probably not the right job for ...

A White House official apologized Monday after a low-flying Boeing 747 spotted above the Manhattan skyline frightened workers and residents into evacuating buildings. The aircraft was a White House plane taking part in a classified, government-sanctioned photo shoot, the Federal Aviation Administration said. "Last week, I approved a mission over New York. I take responsibility for that decision," said Louis Caldera, director of the White House Military Office. "While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local ...

Like so many politicians I have known, the man we elected president wants to be loved. He wants to be loved passionately and daily by the 69 million who voted for him and even some of the 60 million who voted for John McCain. NEW YORK (CNN) -- Like so many politicians I have known, the man we elected president wants to be loved. He wants to be loved passionately and daily by the 69 million who voted for him ...

A man who landed a plane with the assistance of air traffic controllers after the pilot fell unconscious and died said Monday he was "still in a daze of adrenaline." "I'm grateful, thankful to be alive," Doug White of Archibald, Louisiana, told CNN affiliate WINK. "I'm glad my family is safe, but let's don't lose sight of the fact that a man died, and I don't want people to forget that." White, his wife and two daughters were flying from ...

The transport helicopter that crashed into the North Sea this month suffered a "catastrophic failure" of its main rotor gearbox that caused the blades to separate from the aircraft and slice off the tail, accident investigators said. The rotor blades detached from the helicopter and then struck the tail, causing the tail boom and pylon -- which holds the tail rotor -- to become severed from the fuselage, the Air Accidents Investigations Branch (AAIB) said. The findings came in an ...

His name was Phillip A. Myers. A staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, he was killed in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan on Saturday. The return of his body to the United States aboard a charter aircraft Sunday marked a solemn moment that has been repeated more than 5,000 times at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware since the start of the war in Afghanistan in late 2001. Much of this night was like so many of the others: ...

A small military plane on a training flight in heavy fog crashed Thursday into a populated area of Quito, the capital city of Ecuador. On Monday, two Russian Ilyushin IL-38 maritime patrol aircraft, known as "Mays," overflew the U.S. aircraft carrier Stennis while it was in international waters in the Sea of Japan. The Russian aircraft flew about 500 feet over the ship, lower than other flights the Russians have made over U.S. ships in the past year. The USS ...

Brazil is no stranger to economic crises. In the 1970s and '80s, Latin America's economic giant turned financial mismanagement into an art form. The current global turmoil has not left Brazil unscathed: stock prices, exports and growth are all down. But something interesting is at work this time around, and the best place to see it is in one of Brazil's favelas, the vast urban slums that are desperate even in the best of times. Walk through São Paulo's sprawling ...

A "faulty" flight instrument contributed to the crash of a Turkish plane last month in the Netherlands, an accident that killed nine people and injured more than 60 others, Dutch safety authorities said on Wednesday. On February 25, Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 from Istanbul to Amsterdam dropped from the sky on approach to the landing strip at Schiphol Airport, shattering into three pieces in a muddy field. Pieter van Vollenhoven, head of the Dutch Safety Board, said the instrument was ...

The crash of a Turkish airliner in the Netherlands and the recent landing of a jet in the Hudson River in New York demonstrate how safe modern aircraft have become, according to safety experts. The Boeing 737-800, which originated from Istanbul, Turkey, was trying to land at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol when it went down. At least nine people were killed in the crash and 50 injured, 25 of them seriously, the airport's director said Wednesday. The plane was carrying 127 ...