2014年11月12日 星期三

Week 4: TransAsia Airways plane crash Penghu

Plane crash on Penghu kills dozens

Thu, Jul 24, 2014 - Page 1 (TAIPEI TIMES)
By Shelley Shan and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter and staff writer, with CNA

‘CHAOTIC’:The crew of the TransAsia Airways plane had requested a ‘go-around’ as it tried to land at the Magong Airport before the tower lost contact with it


A TransAsia Airways (復興航空) plane crashed on Penghu yesterday, killing at least 47 people, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said last night.
The flight from Greater Kaohsiung crashed near the Magong Airport’s runway with 54 passengers and four crew on board, the agency said.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) said that 47 people were confirmed dead and 11 injured.
According to the CAA, the 70-seat turboprop ATR72 model plane carried 54 passengers and four crew.
TransAsia Flight GE222 had been scheduled to depart Greater Kaohsiung at 4pm yesterday. However, because of Typhoon Matmo it was delayed, not departing until 5:43pm.
CAA Director General Jean Shen (沈啟) said air traffic control personnel received the request from the flight for a go-around at the Magong Airport at 7:06pm, but they lost track of the flight afterward.
“It’s chaotic on the scene,” Reuters quoted Shen as saying.
The plane made a forced landing in Sisi Village (西溪), just outside the airport.
Several buildings on the ground were set on fire by the crash, but no one on the ground was injured, local officials said.
"A few empty apartment buildings adjacent to the runway caught fire, but no one was inside at the time and the fire was extinguished," said Hsi Wen-guang, a spokesman for the Penghu County Government Fire Bureau.
About 100 firefighters were sent to the scene, besides 152 military personnel and 255 police, he added.
CAA information said the pilot, Lee Yi-liang (李義良), 60, has 15 years of experience in flying civilian aircraft.
The co-pilot was identified as 39-year-old Chiang Kuan-hsing (江冠興).
Witnesses have said that there was heavy rain at the time. However, the CAA said that the visual range was 800 feet (243.8m), which was adequate for landing.
The agency said that it will dispatch officials to Penghu today to help with the investigation into the cause of the crash, but the investigation will be led by the Aviation Safety Council.
Penghu County Fire Department Director-General Hong Yung-peng (洪永澎) said the airplane tried to land at the airport, but had pulled up to make another try because the heavy rain was hampering the pilot’s vision.
Executive Yuan spokesman Sun Lih-chuyn (孫立群) said Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) had ordered the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to report on the situation as soon as possible.

Structure of the Lead:

WHO-TransAsia Airways

WHEN-Thu, Jul 23, 2014

WHAT-crashed in Penghu

WHY-Typhoon Matmo

WHERE-Penghu

How-Not mention

 

 Keywords:

1.  the Civil Aeronautics Administration:民航局

2. confirmed:已確定的

3. depart:出發

4. personnel:人員

5. adjacent:鄰近的

6. extinguished:撲滅

7. adequate:足夠的

8. hamper:阻礙了

2014年11月5日 星期三

Week Three : Robin Williams, dead, suicide

Actor Robin Williams dead at 63

Wed, Aug 13, 2014 - Page 7 (TAIPEI TIMES)

By:Reuters, TIBURON, California

COMEDIAN REMEMBERED:Tributes to the ‘one of a kind,’ Oscar-winning actor followed news of his death, which authorities are investigating as a suicide

Robin Williams, the versatile actor whose madcap comic style made him one of television and film’s biggest stars, was found dead on Monday after an apparent suicide at his home in Northern California. He was 63.

The comedian’s appeal stretched across generations and genres, from family fare as the voice of Disney’s blue Genie in Aladdin to his portrayal of a fatherly therapist in the 1997 drama Good Will Hunting, for which he earned his sole Oscar.

However, many remembered the master of impressions on Monday for his tender portrayal in Mrs Doubtfire, when he played the part of a British nanny whose identity he assumed as a divorced father to be with his children.

Williams had been recently suffering from severe depression, his publicist Mara Buxbaum said in a statement and the actor had repeatedly talked about his past struggles with alcohol.

“This morning, I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost one of its most beloved artists and beautiful human beings. I am utterly heartbroken,” Williams’ wife, Susan Schneider, said in a statement.

The Marin County Sheriff’s coroner’s division said it suspected Williams committed suicide by asphyxia, but the cause of death is still under investigation and an autopsy was to be conducted yesterday.

The sheriff’s office said it received an emergency call about noon on Monday, saying Williams was unconscious and not breathing at his home near Tiburon, north of San Francisco.

Outside the family home in a neighborhood of low-slung houses with water views, people left flowers and talked about the man who rode his bike around and had a smile and a wave for kids on the street.

“It wasn’t like having a celebrity,” Sonja Conti said. “He was just a normal, nice guy. People left him alone.”

Social media was alight with appreciation for Williams, who introduced his boyish exuberance and outlandish style to audiences as a quirky extraterrestrial in the late 1970s TV comedy Mork & Mindy.

US President Barack Obama called Williams a “one of a kind” actor who could make people laugh and cry in his array of characters.

Williams, most recently in the CBS television comedy The Crazy Ones until it was canceled in May, entered a rehabilitation center this summer.

His representatives at the time said Williams was not using drugs or alcohol, but was there to “fine-tune” his sobriety after a demanding work schedule.

Williams’ death shook Hollywood and colleagues mourned who many called a big-hearted man and one of the most inventive comedians of his time.

“Robin was a lightning storm of comic genius and our laughter was the thunder that sustained him,” said Steven Spielberg, who directed Williams as Peter Pan in the 1991 film, Hook.

Williams, who was born in Chicago in 1951 and grew up in suburban Detroit, earned four Academy Award nominations, the first for Good Morning, Vietnam.
He earned nominations for the 1990 coming-of-age prep school drama Dead Poets Societyand 1991’s The Fisher King.

Williams married three times, most recently in 2011 to Schneider. He has three children.

In a 2009, the actor told Reuters that his children often referenced his struggles with alcohol when he would confront them about their own misbehavior.
“They went, ‘And you had a three-year drunken relapse.’ Ah, thank you for bringing that back, my little happy creatures,” Williams said.

Williams will appear in the upcoming films Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb andMerry Friggin’ Christmas. He was also attached to a sequel to 1993 hit Mrs Doubtfire.

In his final Twitter post on July 31, Williams wished his daughter Zelda a happy 25th birthday.
Late on Monday, Zelda posted: “I love you. I miss you. I’ll try to keep looking up.”



Structure of the Lead:

WHO-Robin Williams
WHEN-August 11, 2014
WHAT-suicide himself
WHY-suffering from severe depression
WHERE-at his home in Northern
How-Hung himself after cut on his wrist


Keywords:
1. madcap:狂妄的
2. fare:遭遇
3. portrayal:飾演
4. divorced:離婚的
5. utterly:徹底地
6. asphyxia:窒息
7. autopsy:驗屍
8. boyish exuberance:充滿孩子氣
9. outlandish:奇異的
10. quirky extraterrestrial:古怪的外星人
11. sobriety:清醒的
12. mourned:哀悼
13. inventive:創造性
14. relapse:復發