Startling video shows Russian fighter jet flying within feet of US F-16 near Alaska

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Startling video shows Russian fighter jet flying within feet of US F-16 near Alaska

2024-10-01 07:03 Last Updated At：07:11

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Military officials have released new video of a startling encounter between a Russian fighter jet flying near Alaska and a U.S. Air Force F-16 sent to intercept it.

In the video released Monday, the Russian plane comes from behind the camera and swoops by the U.S. jet, just feet from the aircraft.

The video release of the close encounter Sept. 23, with the U.S. pilot under the direction of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, comes after a series of Russian incursions into the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone just beyond U.S. sovereign airspace.

The interaction drew condemnation from NORAD’s top officer and one of Alaska's U.S. senators.

“The conduct of one Russian Su-35 was unsafe, unprofessional, and endangered all – not what you’d see in a professional air force,” said Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander, NORAD and U.S. Northern Command. The NORAD aircraft flew “a safe and disciplined” routine to intercept the Russian aircraft, he added.

A message sent to the Russian Embassy Monday seeking comment was not immediately returned.

The close pass of the Russian jet comes just weeks after eight Russian military planes and four of its navy vessels, including two submarines, came close to Alaska as China and Russia conducted joint drills.

None of the planes breached U.S. airspace. However, about 130 U.S. soldiers were sent along with mobile rocket launchers to Shemya Island, about 1,200 miles (1,931 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage. They were deployed to the Aleutian island for a week before returning to their bases.

In July, Russian and Chinese bombers flew together for the first time in international airspace off Alaska, a sign of cooperation that U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said raised concerns.

In 2022, a U.S. Coast Guard ship about 85 miles (137 kilometers) north of Alaska’s Kiska Island in the Bering Sea came across three Chinese and four Russian naval vessels sailing in single formation.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, said the close pass of the Russian jet is another reason to build America’s military presence in Alaska and the Arctic.

“The reckless and unprofessional maneuvers of Russian fighter pilots — within just a few feet of our Alaska-based fighters — in Alaska’s ADIZ on September 23 put the lives of our brave Airmen at risk and underscore the escalating aggression we’re witnessing from dictators like Vladimir Putin,” Sullivan said in a statement.

Supplies arrive by plane and by mule in North Carolina as Helene's death toll tops 130

2024-10-01 07:08 Last Updated At：07:11

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Widespread devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene came to light Monday across the South, revealing a wasteland of splintered houses, crushed cargo containers and mud-covered highways in one of the worst storms in U.S. history. The death toll topped 130.

A crisis was unfolding in western North Carolina, where residents stranded by washed-out roads and by a lack of power and cellular service lined up Monday for fresh water and a chance to message loved ones days after the storm that they were alive.

At least 132 deaths in six Southeastern states have been attributed to the storm that inflicted damage from Florida's Gulf Coast to the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia.

The toll steadily rose Monday as emergency workers reached areas isolated by collapsed roads, failing infrastructure and widespread flooding. During a briefing Monday, White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall suggested as many as 600 people hadn’t been accounted for as of Monday afternoon, saying some might be dead.

President Joe Biden plans to travel to North Carolina on Wednesday.

Government officials and aid groups were working to deliver basic supplies by air, truck and even mule to the hard-hit tourism hub of Asheville and its surrounding mountain towns. At least 40 people died in the county that includes Asheville.

The destruction and desperation were unimaginable. A flattened cargo container sat atop a bridge crossing a river with muddy brown water. Overturned pontoon boats and splintered wooden docks and tree trunks covered the surface of a picturesque lake tucked between the mountains.

A woman cradled her child while people around her gathered on a hillside where they found cellphone service, many sending a simple text: “I'm OK.”

The North Carolina death toll included one horrific story after another of people who were trapped by floodwaters in their homes and vehicles or were killed by falling trees. A courthouse security officer died after being submerged inside his truck. A couple and a 6-year-old boy waiting to be rescued on a rooftop drowned when part of their home collapsed.

Rescuers did manage to save dozens, including an infant and two others stuck on the top of a car in Atlanta. More than 50 hospital patients and staff in Tennessee were plucked by helicopter from the hospital rooftop in a daring rescue operation.

Several main routes into Asheville were washed away or blocked by mudslides, including a 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) section of Interstate 40, and the city’s water system was severely damaged, forcing residents to scoop creek water into buckets so they could flush toilets.

People shared food and water and comforted one another in one neighborhood where a wall of water ripped away all of the trees and left behind a muddy mess not far away. “That’s the blessing so far in this,” Sommerville Johnston said outside her home, which has been without power since Friday.

She planned on treating the neighborhood to venison stew from her powerless freezer before it goes bad. “Just bring your bowl and spoon,” she said.

Others waited in a line for more than a block at Mountain Valley Water, a water seller, to fill up milk jugs and whatever other containers they could find.

Derek Farmer, who brought three gallon-sized apple juice containers, said he had been prepared for the storm but now was nervous after three days without water. “I just didn’t know how bad it was going to be,” Farmer said.

Officials warned that rebuilding from the widespread loss of homes and property would be lengthy and difficult. The storm upended life throughout the Southeast, where deaths were also reported in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia.

Video showed a mass of debris, including overturned pontoon boats and splintered wooden docks, covering the surface of Lake Lure, a picturesque spot tucked between the mountains outside Asheville.

Helene roared ashore in northern Florida late Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane and quickly moved through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains that flooded waterways.

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said Monday that hundreds of roads were closed across western North Carolina and that shelters were housing more than 1,000 people.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, took an aerial tour of the Asheville area and later met with workers distributing meals.

“This has been an unprecedented storm that has hit western North Carolina,” he said afterward. “It’s requiring an unprecedented response.”

Officials implored travelers from coming into region for the next several days to keep the roads clear for emergency vehicles. More than 50 search teams spread throughout the region in search of stranded people.

Several dozen people gathered on high ground in Asheville, where they found one of the city's hottest commodities — a cell signal.

“Is this day three or day four?” Colleen Burnet asked. “It’s all been a blur.”

The storm unleashed the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina. Rainfall estimates in some areas topped more than 2 feet (61 centimeters) since Wednesday.

Biden said he will travel to Raleigh on Wednesday to meet with officials and take an aerial tour of Asheville.

He earlier said that the federal government would be with survivors and others in the nation’s southeast affected by Helene “as long as it takes.”

Ten federal search and rescue teams were on the ground and another nine were on their way, while trucks and cargo planes were arriving with food and water, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell surveyed damage with North Carolina's governor Monday.

Volunteers were showing up, too. Mike Toberer decided to bring a dozen of his mules to deliver food, water and diapers to the hard-to-reach mountainous areas.

“We’ll take our chainsaws, and we’ll push those mules through,” he said, noting that each one can carry about 200 pounds (90 kilograms) and travel 2 mph (3.2 kph).

Western North Carolina suffered relatively more devastation because that’s where the remnants of Helene encountered the higher elevations and cooler air of the Appalachian Mountains, causing even more rain to fall.

Asheville and many surrounding mountain towns were built in valleys, leaving them especially vulnerable to devastating rain and flooding. Plus, the ground already was saturated before Helene arrived, said Christiaan Patterson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“By the time Helene came into the Carolinas, we already had that rain on top of more rain,” Patterson said.

Climate change has exacerbated conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones, sometimes within hours.

Along Florida's Gulf Coast, several feet of water swamped the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, forcing workers to move two manatees and sea turtles. All of the animals were safe but much of the aquarium’s vital equipment was damaged or destroyed, said James Powell, the aquarium’s executive director.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said the storm “literally spared no one.” Most people in and around Augusta, a city of about 200,000 near the South Carolina border, were still without power Monday.

With at least 25 killed in South Carolina, Helene was the deadliest tropical cyclone to hit the state since Hurricane Hugo made landfall north of Charleston in 1989, killing 35 people.

Tropical Storm Kirk formed Monday in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and is expected to become a “large and powerful hurricane” by Tuesday night or Wednesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The storm was located about 800 miles (1,285 kilometers) west of the Cabo Verde Islands with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph). There were no coastal watches or warnings in effect, and the storm system was not a threat to land.

Associated Press reporters Gary D. Robertson in Asheville; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia; Beatrice Dupuy in New York City; Zeke Miller and Aamer Madhani in Washington; and Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed.