The Prince flew with Anna Malova, 27, as they travelled from Epstein’s private Caribbean island to the American mainland

Prince Andrew flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet with a Russian model who was later imprisoned, it has been revealed.

The Duke of York took the billionaire’s Gulfstream plane now known as the “Lolita Express” with Anna Malova, 27, from Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean to the American mainland in 1999.

According to the Times, flight records submitted in court showed details of Prince Andrew’s journey.

Women who claimed to have been trafficked by Epstein obtained the logs which were made public during civil litigation against him.

The log reportedly states that the jet carried nine passengers including Epstein, Andrew, Malova and the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.

Malova reached the final of the Miss Universe beauty pageant in 1998, but later developed an apparent addiction to painkillers and was accused of forging prescriptions by prosecutors in New York in 2010.

In May 2011 she was jailed after repeatedly showing up late to be evaluated for a court-mandated drug programme.

Read more:

Prince Andrew says it was “a mistake” to visit Jeffrey Epstein

A source close to Andrew said the prince had “no recollection” of being on the 1999 flight with Malova.

It comes just a day after the Duke released a statement saying it was a “mistake and an error” to visit Jeffrey Epstein’s home following the billionaire’s conviction for sex crimes.

Epstein took his own life in a Manhatten jail earlier this month while being held on sex-trafficking charges.

In an extraordinary personal letter issued via Buckingham Palace, the royal denied that he had any knowledge of Epstein’s wrongdoings prior to his convictions, and said he had visited him “probably no more than only once or twice a year” following his convictions.

He wrote: “It is apparent to me since the suicide of Mr Epstein that there has been an immense amount of media speculation about so much in his life.

“This is particularly the case in relation to my former association or friendship with Mr Epstein. Therefore I am eager to clarify the facts to avoid further speculation.”

Lebanon’s prime minister Saad Hariri has said two Israeli drones, which came down in the Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs of Beirut, amounted to an open attack on the country’s sovereignty and an attempt to foment regional tensions.

“The new aggression…constitutes a threat to regional stability and an attempt to push the situation towards further tension,” Hariri said on Sunday in a statement from his office.

Earlier, Mohammed Afif, a Hezbollah spokesperson, said a small, unmanned reconnaissance drone fell on the roof of a building that was housing Hezbollah’s media office in the Moawwad neighbourhood in Dahyeh suburb on Sunday.

He said a second drone, which appeared to have been sent by Israel to search for the first drone less than 45 minutes later, exploded in the air and crashed nearby.

“We did not shoot down or explode any of the drones,” Afif told The Associated Press news agency.

Residents said they heard an aircraft flying just before the blast and reported later that the area was sealed off 

Residents reported one large explosion that shook the area early on Sunday, triggering a fire. They said the nature of the blast was not immediately clear but said it may have been caused by the drone that went down in the area amid Israeli air activity in neighbouring Syria.

Residents told the Associated Press they heard an aircraft flying just before the blast and reported later that Hezbollah sealed off the area. 

A man was seen taking away metal fragments in a white plastic bag that he said contained parts of the aircraft that went down.

The Israeli military said it does not comment on “foreign reports”.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said it was “a densely populated neighbourhood in the Lebanese capital and also a Hezbollah stronghold”.

Israeli warplanes regularly violate Lebanese airspace and have struck inside neighbouring Syria from Lebanonon numerous occasions.

Damage inside Hezbollah’s media office in the Moawwad neighbourhood [Anwar Amro/AFP]

Israeli attacks

Late on Saturday, the Israeli military attacked targets near Syria’s capital of Damascus in what it said was a successful effort to thwart an imminent Iranian drone attack on Israel, stepping up an already heightened campaign against Iranian military activity in the region.

The raid, which triggered Syrian anti-aircraft fire, appeared to be one of the most intense attacks by Israeli forces in several years of hits on Iranian targets in Syria.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Al Quds force, working with allied Shia fighters, had been planning to send a number of explosives-laden attack drones into Israel.

Syrian state TV said the country’s air defences responded to “hostile” projectiles over Damascus and shot down incoming missiles before they reached their targets.

In recent days, US officials said Israeli attacks have also hit Iranian targets in Iraq.

Hezbollah and Israel fought a month-long war in 2006. The volatile border between the two countries, which remain technically in a state of war, has been mostly calm since.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

Tokyo and Seoul at loggerheads over sovereignty of group of islets called Takeshima in Japanese and Dokdo in Korean.

South Korean forces have begun two days of expanded drills around an island also claimed by Japan, prompting a protest from Tokyo only days after Seoul said it would scrap an intelligence-sharing pact with its neighbour amid worsening relations.

Tokyo and Seoul have long been at loggerheads over the sovereignty of the group of islets called Takeshima in Japanese and Dokdo in Korean, which lie about halfway between the East Asian neighbours in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.

The latest military drills that started on Sunday included naval, air, and army forces, as well as marines, a South Korean ministry of defence official said.

Japan PM Abe: S Korea move to end intelligence pact damages trust (2:37)

Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the drills unacceptable and said it had lodged a protest with South Korea calling for them to end the drills.

The island is “obviously an inherent part of the territory of Japan”, Kenji Kanasugi, the director-general at the ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, told the South Korean embassy in Tokyo in a statement.

Ko Min-jung, a spokeswoman for South Korea’s presidential Blue House, said the drill was an annual exercise and not aimed at any specific country.

“It’s an exercise to guard our sovereignty and territory,” she told reporters in Seoul.

The exercise included significantly more South Korean forces than previously involved and spanned a wider area in the sea between South Korea and Japan, a South Korean navy official told Reuters news agency.

For the first time the drills included an Aegis-equipped destroyer and army special forces, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Decades-old dispute

Tensions in the region have spiked amid a worsening political and economic spat between South Korea and Japan, a string of missile launches by North Korea, and increasingly assertive military patrols by China and Russia.

South Korea announced the scrapping of an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan on Thursday, drawing a swift protest from Tokyo and deepening a decades-old dispute over wartime history that has hit trade and undercut security cooperation over North Korea.

Relations between South Korea and Japan began to deteriorate late last year following a diplomatic dispute over compensation for wartime forced labourers during Japan’s occupation of Korea.

They soured further when Japan tightened its curbs on exports of hi-tech materials needed by South Korea’s chip industry, and again this month when Tokyo said it would remove South Korea’s fast-track export status.

South Koreans mark anniversary of end of Japan’s colonial rule (2:28)

The disputed islands have long been one of the most sensitive areas of contention between Japan and South Korea.

A detachment of South Korean guards has been stationed there since the 1950s.

The current exercises had been delayed as relations deteriorated, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

In July, South Korea and Japan responded to what they saw as a violation of their airspace near the islands by a Russian military plane.

SOURCE: REUTERS NEWS AGENCY

There are so many so I’m just going to quickly cover some of the worst for different reasons.

There’s quite a bit of reading for each one, so feel free to just look at the pictures and read the main facts for each one. However I put a lot of work into this so probably give it a read and an upvote anyway.

AF4590

There are a few aviation incidents that I believe everybody should remember the flight number of. This is one of them. Air France flight 4590 is more commonly referred to as ‘the Concorde crash’, because it is the only accident involving a Concorde in active revenue service.

You might of seen this photo, taken a few seconds before the previous image^

AF4590 goes on my list of worst plane crashes not because of fatalities, but because it was (economically) both the best and worst crash ever. Why? Because this was one of the last ever times a Concorde flew. As soon as the crash occurred, the only two airlines to actually buy this aircraft (British Airways and Air France) started retiring them. There are so many stories and theories as to why the Concorde stopped flying, but this was pretty much it. You can’t ignore it.

After the crash, British Airways and Air France knew that passengers weren’t going to fly on an insanely expensive jet that already looked risky after one had crashed. By the way, it killed all on board when it was flying at a normal speed. You’re kidding yourself if you think that anyone could survive a crash at twice the speed of sound. Seriously, I don’t know why that thing even had safety cards.

AF4590 also pretty much killed all SSTs (Super Sonic Transport) forever. Yes, Boom and Spike (and that other one, Aerotime or whatever it’s called) are planning on making them. But they probably won’t ever fly commercially, or at least not on the scale of the Concorde.

At the same time as Concorde was flying with AF and BA, a few Russian airlines started flying something called the Concordski. “wow, that sounds like the Russians just copied the Concorde lol” I hear you say. Well son,

you’re not wrong.

This is the Tupolev TU-144D “Concordski”, the aircraft which apparently was designed using stolen Concorde plans from Aerospataile.

Soon after flight 4590, the TU-144 also saw the end of it’s days due to bans on passenger aircraft breaking the speed of sound. Admittedly, that was probably going to happen anyway. The TU-144 crashed into residential buildings at an airshow on it’s first flight.

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The Tenerife Airport Disaster

This crash is widely regarded as the worst because of the amount of people it killed. the Tenerife Airport Disaster killed 583 people, more than any single incident combined (Septmber 11th was technically a collection of several crashes, however I’ll discuss it later).

The incident occurred when two 747s (a KLM 747–200B and a PanAm 747–100) hit each other on the runway at Tenerife airport, hence the name.

KLM, the world’s oldest airline, was the one that hit the other. Not the one at fault (although if we were to play the ‘blame game’ then they might end up that way), the one that crashed into the other one.

Pan American Airlines, which has since gone bankrupt, was operating the 741 that the KLM hit. It’s pretty confusing, but just Google it and you’ll understand what happened.

This, the next crash, and AF4590 are the three most signifigant crashes ever. They caused massive change throughout the industry, to an almost incomprehendable scale. The Tenerife Airport Disaster, in particular, caused a lot of change.

One of the main factors was lack of responsibility. The KLM was told to wait at the end of the runway, while the PanAm crossed it. The KLM pilot then got impatient and decided to take off anyway. The first officer (the co-pilot) tried to stop him, but back then the pilot had all the control.

After the crash, equal control was given to all (back then three, but now it’s usually two) people in the cockpit.

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The September 11th Attacks

The September 11th attacks, informally known as “9/11”, were a collection of plane crashes as a result of hijacked aircraft. This is a very sensitive topic for some people, so I’ll only briefly discuss it.

A few things before I begin:

1. 9/11 will never be a ‘meme’. I myself, like most people, enjoy a good meme now and then, but this is not funny. At all. And it never will be.
2. Due to the sensitivity of this topic, I will not discuss why it happened in detail. I’ll just underline its signifigance.
3. Please, no comments about how you feel that I’m a bad person because I mentioned this event. I know it’s tragic, but I cannot undo it. I can only inform people of it.

Now that they’re all sorted out, here’s basically why it’s important:

The September 11th attacks were a mass terrorist attack, on a scale that this planet had never seen before. They involved the hijacking and intentional crash of four aircraft: two 767–200ERs, and two 757–200s. No, there was no 747s ever involved in 9/11. That is a myth.

The thing I find really strange, aside from the coordination of the crashes, is that there was two airlines involved: American Airlines and United Airways. And each crash for each airline had one 767–200ER, and one 757–200.

The (obvious) reason I included 9/11 was because of how many fatalities there were, and because of its signifigance in our modern day culture.

Now, you can’t walk into KLAX with a knife in your hands. You will be taken down by several large security guards.

A lot has changed, some for the better, some not so much.

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Asiana 214

Okay on initial inspection, this seems like another plane crash. Which, once again, is never funny and shouldn’t be made into a joke. But from what I’ve heard, this is one of the dumbest crashes ever.

Basically the aircraft was trying to land in San Francisco, in perfect conditions. Bear that in mind.

Then, the Boeing 777–200ER started to drop its altitude way too fast.

The plane hit the seawall at the end of the runway. At a large international airport. It hit a wall at the end of the runway.

Then, it crashed like, perfectly, with an outstanding survival ratio (only 3 casualties).

Finally, that photo above isn’t before it “burst into flames” or anything. It stayed that way.

Apparently a firefighter who went inside said that the first class seats were “pristine” before the fire broke out.

No fuel was even ignited, the only fire was from oil leaking onto the hot engine!

What a weird crash.

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Anyway, here’s just some crashes I thought were signifigant in human history. Feel free to add any more.

The British Army has been accused of “leaning on” under-18s in order to plug recruitment gaps, with 16 and 17-year-olds accounting for nearly 30 per cent of those enlisted last year.

Data compiled by the Child Rights International Network (CRIN) shows that the (UK) army recruited 1,000 16-year-olds and 820 17-year-olds last year, with the youngsters more likely to come from poorer areas. 

The UK is the only country in Europe which routinely recruits people aged under 18, and Charlotte Cooper, campaigns coordinator with CRIN, told The Guardian: “The army is leaning on teenagers from the most deprived backgrounds to fix its recruitment crisis, using them to fill the riskiest roles because it can’t persuade enough adults to enlist.”

According to figures compiled by Ms Cooper and rounded to the nearest five, some 55 teenagers aged 16 and 17 from Blackpool South enlisted in the British army between April 2013 and April 2018, while 50 came from Kingston upon Hull East.

Children as young as 15 years and seven months old can start their applications to become a soldier, but cannot join until they are 16.

Soldiers cannot be deployed on operations outside the UK until they are 18, and anyone under that age needs written parental consent to be able to enlist.

Government data released earlier this month revealed that the strength of the British military fell for the ninth year in a row.

The figures also showed that while recruitment is increasing, the Army, with 74,400 regular fully-trained troops, is still more than 7,000 short of the target figure of 82,000, a deficit of over nine per cent.

A recent controversial Army advertising series appeared to resonate with target audiences, despite branding youngsters ‘snowflakes’, ‘phone zombies’, ‘binge gamers’ and ‘selfie addicts’.  Your Army Needs You: British Army unveils its latest recruitment campaign

Lieutenant General Tyrone Urch, Commander Home Command, said at the time: “You may feel like the army is dumbing down on who it seeks to recruit as these ads are a change to the norm, [but] the army is open for business”.

Today, an MoD spokesperson said: “We are proud of the opportunities serving in the armed forces affords young people, from basic literacy education and support for postgraduate degrees, to high-quality accredited training and unique employment prospects.”

Of the 1,554 747s built up to June of 2019, somewhere between 22 and 28, depending on what you want to count.

• 22 have permanently stopped flying due to crashing into things,
• 4 have exploded or disintegrated in mid-air,
• 1 has been shot down, and
• 1 has been destroyed by another 747 crashing into it.

I’ll give more detail on these 28 below. In addition to these, the Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety Network database lists another 130 “occurrences” and another 35 “hull losses” involving 747s since 1970.

I had to actually read through all 158 “occurrences,” though, because: that database includes not only accidents, but also hijackings, criminal acts, and “other,” and there is no equivalence between the terms “occurrence,” “hull loss” and “crash.”

There are, after all, tons of bad things that can happen to an airplane when it’s not even flying. You might think that the part on the ground is easy, but way more 747s have suffered substantial damage during aborted takeoffs, landing overruns (bon soir, lagoon!), trying to taxi on ice, trying to taxi without ice, being pushed back by an airport tug, waiting for the jetbridge while parked, or even being cleaned.

There are also many, many cases of 747s that were repaired and returned to service even after they banged their tails while taking off or landing, or landed safely after parts — up to and including engines — fell off in-flight, or landed so hard an engine hit the runway and was torn off (must’ve been ex-Navy?)

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I’ll begin with a few that didn’t just crash — you can decide for yourself whether these count:

• HL7442 (Korean Air Lines) was shot down by a Soviet Su-15 fighter 1983–09–01.
• VT-EFO (Air India) apparently exploded over the ocean, 1985–06–23.
• N739PA (Pan Am) was blown up in flight, 1988–12–21. (Pan Am Flight 103)
• N93119 (TWA) exploded, probably due to a short circuit igniting vapor in the fuel tank, 1996–07–17. (TWA Flight 800)
• B-18255 (China Airlines) suffered a tail strike on 1980–02–07 and was repaired, but not in accordance with Boeing’s manuals. It apparently disintegrated at high altitude over the ocean, 2002–05–25.

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Then there are 22 definite crashes, involving 23 747s — because one crash famously involved a 747 crashing into another 747:

• D-ABYB (Lufthansa) crashed 1km after takeoff on 1974–11–20 due to flaps being set wrong.
• 5–8104 (Iranian Air Force) was struck by lightning, causing a fuel vapor explosion and crash on 1976–05–09.
• PH-BUF (KLM) collided with taxiing N736PA (Pan Am) at takeoff speed due to misunderstood tower instructions on 1977–03–27. (Tenerife airport disaster)
• VT-EBD (Air India) crashed into the ocean after takeoff after instrument failure led to improper pilot inputs, 1978–01–01.
• JA8119 (Japan Air Lines) bounced and hit its tail while landing 1978–02–06. Substantial damage was repaired, but the repaired portion later failed during flight resulting in loss of control and a crash into a hillside on 1985–08–12.
• HL7445 (Korean Air Lines) crashed short of the runway and caught fire 1979–03–23.
• HK-2910 (Avianca) crashed into a hill in Spain due to poor navigation and miscommunication with approach, 1983–11–27.
• ZS-SAS (South African Airways) crashed into the ocean after an in-flight fire, 1987–11–28.
• N807FT (Flying Tiger Cargo) crashed into a hill due to misunderstood approach instructions, 1989–02–19.
• B-198 (China Airlines Cargo) crashed into a hill while attempting to return to airport after an engine fell off and control was lost, 1991–12–29.
• 4X-AXG (El Al Cargo) crashed into an apartment tower while attempting to return to airport after two engines fell off and control was lost, 1992–10–04.
• HZ-AIH (Saudi Arabian Airlines) crashed after takeoff into an Air Kazakhstan flight that was descending for arrival and had failed to maintain its assigned altitude, 1996–11–12.
• HL7468 (Korean Air Lines) crashed into a hill 3.3 miles short of the runway due to pilot error and a software patch to the altitude warning system at the approach control radar center.
• HL7451 (Korean Air Cargo) crashed after takeoff due to after instrument failure led to improper pilot inputs, 1999–12–22.
• 9V-SPK (Singapore Airlines) crashed as it was taking off due to using the wrong runway, which had construction equipment and barriers on it, 2000–10–31.
• 9G-MKI (MK Airlines Cargo) crashed 700m short of the runway due to failure to follow approach procedures, 2001–11–27.
• 9G-MKG (MK Airlines Cargo) crashed 100m after takeoff due to takeoff weight being calculated incorrectly, resulting in incorrect thrust and speed settings, 2004–10–14.
• N714CK (Kalitta Cargo) lost two engines after takeoff and crashed into a farm, 2008–07–07.
• N571UP (UPS Cargo) crashed after an in-flight fire, 2010–09–03.
• HL7604 (Asiana Cargo) crashed after an in-flight fire, 2011–07–28.
• N949CA (National Air Cargo) crashed after takeoff due to poorly-restrained cargo breaking loose, 2013–04–29.
• TC-MCL (ACT/Turkish Cargo) crashed into a slope 930 meters past its destination runway, 2017–01–16.

You’ll notice that it’s been 17 years since a passenger 747 crashed. The airlines that still have them in passenger service are pretty careful nowadays — and cargo has gotten less well-behaved.

thanks to Dan Birchall (New England)

https://www.quora.com/How-many-747s-have-crashed

HANOI (Reuters) – A Chinese survey vessel on Saturday extended its activities to an area closer to Vietnam’s coastline, ship tracking data showed, after the United States and Australia expressed concern about China’s actions in the disputed waterways.

The Haiyang Dizhi 8 vessel first entered Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) early last month where it began a weeks-long seismic survey, triggering a tense standoff between military and coastguard vessels from Vietnam and China.

The Chinese vessel continued to survey Vietnam’s EEZ on Saturday under escort from at least four ships and was around 102 kilometers (63 miles) southeast of Vietnam’s Phu Quy island and 185 kilometers (115 miles) from the beaches of the southern city of Phan Thiet, according to data from Marine Traffic, a website that tracks vessel movements.

The Chinese vessel group was followed by at least two Vietnamese naval vessels, according to the data.

Vietnam’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment.

A country’s EEZ typically extends up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers or 230 miles) from its coastline, according to an international UN treaty. That country has sovereign rights to exploit any natural resources within that area, according to the agreement.

Vietnam and China have for years been embroiled in a dispute over the potentially energy-rich stretch of waters and a busy shipping lane in the South China Sea.

China’s unilaterally declared “nine-dash line” marks a vast, U-shaped, expanse of the South China Sea that it claims, including large swathes of Vietnam’s continental shelf where it has awarded oil concessions.

On Friday, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Australian counterpart expressed their concern about China’s activities in the South China Sea, known in Vietnam as the East Sea.

Earlier in the week, the United States said it was deeply concerned about China’s interference in oil and gas activities in waters claimed by Vietnam, and that the deployment of the vessels was “an escalation by Beijing in its efforts to intimidate other claimants out of developing resources in the South China Sea”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, in response to the U.S. statement, said Washington was “sowing division and had ulterior motives”.

“The aim is to bring chaos to the situation in the South China Sea and damage regional peace and stability. China is resolutely opposed to this,” Geng told a daily news briefing on Friday.