French investigators have ended the second phase of their search for the flight recorders from Air France Flight 447, the French air accident investigation agency BEA said Thursday. Flight 447 went down June 1 in the Atlantic Ocean in stormy weather as it flew from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Charles de Gaulle airport here, killing all 228 people on board. BEA said in a statement that the second phase of the search for the wreckage and the data and ...

A Scottish court is expected to release convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi on compassionate grounds, senior State Department officials tell CNN. Al Megrahi, 57, is suffering from terminal prostate cancer. He is serving a life sentence for bombing Pan Am Flight 103 over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people. The Scottish government has informally notified the U.S. State Department of the decision, the senior officials said. But they added that the conditions of his ...

You're sitting in an airport lounge and seize the chance to check your e-mails before your flight departs. You log on and are tempted by a wireless Internet provider offering free Internet access. So, do you take it? Security experts warn that hackers may be masquerading as free public Wi-Fi providers to gain access to the laptops of unsuspecting travelers. All it takes, they say, is a computer program downloaded from the Internet, an open access point and a user ...

It's a moment familiar to any regular air traveler. The plane bucks up and down, lurches forward and back, or both. Sometimes overhead bins fly open. The squeamish gasp. Babies cry. Then, usually, it's all over. In-flight turbulence is often a mere inconvenience. But it's also the leading cause of airline passenger injuries that are not associated with a fatal crash, experts say. And, on rare occasions, it can be deadly. In the case of Monday's Continental Flight 128, an ...

Severe turbulence shook a Continental Airlines flight Monday, injuring 26 passengers -- four seriously -- and forcing the aircraft to divert to Miami, Florida, an airport fire official said. There were 168 passengers on Flight 128, which was originally headed from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Houston, Texas, according to Lt. Elkin Sierra of the Miami-Dade Fire Department. Ambulances and other vehicles were lined up on the runway to treat and transport the injured passengers when the plane landed at ...

Aircraft manufacturer Airbus is ready to fund a third search of the Atlantic Ocean if a second search, now under way, fails to find debris from last month's Air France crash, the company said Friday. Airbus is discussing a payment of between 12 to 20 million euros ($17-28 million) to help pay for a third search, but it is still too early to settle on a figure, company spokesman Stefan Schaffrath said. "We are ready to give a significant share, ...

A group of 22 students from the greater District of Columbia and Maryland area have been quarantined in China after several tested positive for the H1N1 flu virus, school officials said Tuesday. Total eclipses occur about twice a year as the moon passes between the Earth and the sun on the same plane as Earth's orbit. Wednesday's event will be the longest of the 21st century, with astronomers predicting it will last more than six minutes. Wednesday's event will ...

Darkness fell across parts of China and India on Wednesday morning as a total solar eclipse passed across the world's most populous countries, bringing throngs of people outside to watch the phenomenon. Total eclipses occur about twice a year as the moon passes between the Earth and the sun on the same plane as Earth's orbit. Wednesday's event will be the longest of the 21st century, with astronomers predicting it will last more than six minutes. Wednesday's event ...

Skywatchers are gathering from parking lots in western India to music festivals on remote Japanese islands to witness what NASA describes as an "exceptionally long" total solar eclipse that will cross half the planet on Wednesday. "This eclipse has the potential to be observed by more people than any eclipse in all of history," said MIT astronomer Richard Binzel, who will be in Shanghai leading an expedition of observers and a group of eclipse chasers. "Essentially, every inhabitant ...

The bodies of 152 people killed in a fiery plane crash in Iran Wednesday have been returned to their families, an Iranian state broadcaster reported Sunday. Ahmad Majidi, the head of the special working group investigating the Caspian Airlines crash, also said a Russian team had arrived in Iran to help study the crash of the Russian-made plane, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting said. The plane went down in a field near the city of Qavzin Wednesday, killing all 168 ...