PALMA, Balearic Islands: Spanish authorities on Saturday were investigating the unauthorized disembarkment of 21 people from a plane that made an emergency medical landing on the island of Mallorca.
The incident under investigation occurred late Friday when an Air Arabia flight from Casablanca to Istanbul made an emergency landing to attend a passenger. On landing, 21 people forced their way off the plane, prompting security officials to temporarily close the airport.
A government official on the Balearic Islands, Aina Calvo, said 12 people had been detained by police and were in custody. Those included nine who illegally left the plane, the person who was said to be sick, the person’s companion, and a person who was arrested for fighting with an official on the plane.
Police are still looking for 12 more on the loose.
Investigators are considering the hypothesis that the passenger who provoked the emergency landing was not actually ill.
“All fronts (for the investigation) are open at this moment and there is no information that allow us to affirm that it is act of unauthorized immigration carried out in a plot,” Calvo said. “What is unprecedented is that a person feels sick and ... 21 people jump onto the airstrip and start running around, because that puts air traffic in jeopardy.”
Spain investigates 21 who fled plane after emergency landing
https://arab.news/2d5et
Spain investigates 21 who fled plane after emergency landing
- The incident under investigation occurred late Friday when an Air Arabia flight from Casablanca to Istanbul made an emergency landing to attend a passenger
- On landing, 21 people forced their way off the plane
Japan restarts world’s biggest nuclear plant
- Japan wants to revive atomic energy to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels
KARIWA: The world’s biggest nuclear power plant was restarted Wednesday for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, its Japanese operator said, despite persistent safety concerns among residents.
The plant was “started at 19:02” (1002 GMT), Tokyo Electric Power Company spokesman Tatsuya Matoba said of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata prefecture.
The regional governor approved the resumption last month, although public opinion remains sharply divided.
On Tuesday, a few dozen protesters — mostly elderly — braved freezing temperatures to demonstrate in the snow near the plant’s entrance, whose buildings line the Sea of Japan coast.
“It’s Tokyo’s electricity that is produced in Kashiwazaki, so why should the people here be put at risk? That makes no sense,” Yumiko Abe, a 73-year-old resident, told AFP.
Around 60 percent of residents oppose the restart, while 37 percent support it, according to a survey conducted in September.
TEPCO said Wednesday it would “proceed with careful verification of each plant facility’s integrity” and address any issues appropriately and transparently.
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is the world’s biggest nuclear power plant by potential capacity, although just one reactor of seven was restarted.
The facility was taken offline when Japan pulled the plug on nuclear power after a colossal earthquake and tsunami sent three reactors at the Fukushima atomic plant into meltdown in 2011.
However, resource-poor Japan now wants to revive atomic energy to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and meet growing energy needs from artificial intelligence.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has voiced support for the energy source.
Fourteen reactors, mostly in western and southern Japan, have resumed operation since the post-Fukushima shutdown under strict safety rules, with 13 running as of mid-January. The vast Kashiwazaki-Kariwa complex has been fitted with a 15-meter-high (50-foot) tsunami wall, elevated emergency power systems and other safety upgrades.
However, residents raised concerns about the risk of a serious accident, citing frequent cover-up scandals, minor accidents and evacuation plans they say are inadequate.
