Russia will allow the United States to ship weapons across its territory to Afghanistan, Kremlin spokesman Alex Pavlov said Friday. Most of what we heard from Thursday's briefing by the investigating team only serves to deepen the mystery behind the loss of the Airbus A330. Lead investigator Alain Bouillard sums matters up when he says: "As of today we are far from having any real idea of the causes of this accident."" Consider what we now know. The aircraft was ...

If there was ever any question over the importance of finding the black boxes from Air France flight 447 then there is certainly none now. Most of what we heard from Thursday's briefing by the investigating team only serves to deepen the mystery behind the loss of the Airbus A330. Lead investigator Alain Bouillard sums matters up when he says: "As of today we are far from having any real idea of the causes of this accident."" Consider what we ...

A New Mexico police officer was rescued Wednesday after surviving a helicopter crash in the snowy Santa Fe National Forest, but the fate of the pilot remained unknown. The simple fact is that the blizzard of airworthiness directives, company memos, weather reports, technical specifications and diverse other documents that have surfaced since last week constitute entirely circumstantial evidence. Aviation history is replete with accidents with causes utterly unrelated to what first seemed the obvious explanation. For the investigators, the challenge ...

A crew member on a U.S.-flagged cargo ship captured by pirates off the coast of Somalia is suing his employers, claiming they sent him into pirate-infested waters without adequate protection, his attorney said Monday. Richard Hicks of Royal Palm Beach, Florida, a crew member on the Maersk Alabama, was set to file suit Monday against Waterman Steamship Corp. and Maersk Line Limited, according to the attorney, Terry Bryant. A spokeswoman for Mobile, Alabama-based Waterman Steamship Corp. said she did not ...

The crew of the Maersk Alabama, the U.S.-flagged cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates last week, arrived in the United States early Thursday. Crew members touched down at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland just before 1 a.m. ET in a chartered Airbus A319. With broad smiles across their faces and some pumping their fists in the air, the men walked down the steps to the tarmac and were engulfed by family and friends. Husbands and wives walked hand in ...

Two low-flying helicopters drifted over a suspected pirate base in northeast Somalia on Sunday morning, sending residents into a panic, a local journalist source told CNN. Residents believed the helicopters were planning an air raid over the port of Harardhere, according to the journalist. "The fishermen decided not to fish in the morning because of the helicopters, they are scared," the journalist said. The reported sighting comes a day after the FBI announced it is launching a criminal ...

The U.S. ship whose crew overcame a band of pirates off the coast of Somalia docked in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa on Saturday, its sailors relieved to be safe but distraught over the fate of their captain, who remains captive in a lifeboat at sea. Soon after tugboats pushed the Maersk Alabama into port, crew members appeared at the stern of the ship to praise Capt. Richard Phillips. "He saved our lives!" said one man, identified by The ...

The battle for control of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama began with a bold move by some crew members to jump the pirates, crewmembers say. A scuffle ensued and one of the sailors stabbed a pirate in the hand in the battle to retake the container ship, one of the sailors told CNN. Snippets of information are starting to emerge about how the Alabama's crew managed to retake the ship after it was hijacked by pirates Wednesday about 350 miles off ...

A former crew member on the American ship attacked by pirates off Africa said the ship's captain is exactly the kind of person who would offer himself in exchange for the crew's safety. "I was amazed when I heard that he offered himself up to the pirates, but he's definitely the kind of person to make that sacrifice," the former crew member of the Maersk Alabama, who asked not to be identified, said of Capt. Richard Phillips. The man woke ...

Pirates attacked a Japanese cargo ship off the coast of Somalia on Sunday, a Japanese Transportation Ministry official said. A pair of small pirate vessels fired on a ship operated by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines about 4 p.m. Somali time (9 a.m. ET), damaging the front of the ship, but not seriously, according to Masami Suekado. There were no injuries. The exact number and makeup of the crew were not immediately known, although none of the crew members is Japanese, ...