Mother Loses Three Children in Arizona Plane Crash

Bill Cummings/Desert Breeze Photography(PHOENIX) -- An Arizona sheriff said he tried Thursday to comfort the mother of a family that perished when a small plane crashed into Superstition Mountain, a crash the sheriff said no one could have survived.

The twin-engine aircraft, which carried three adults and three children, was en route to Safford, Ariz., when it crashed Wednesday night in the jagged terrain of the Superstition Mountains.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu told ABC News Thursday he was in close contact with the mother of the children, who were between the ages of 5 and 9.

"It's traumatic for any parent to hear this, and then just the nature of the crash is horrific," Babeu said. "We just want to be there for her and love her and embrace her during this difficult time at Thanksgiving."

Elias Johnson, a spokesman for the Pinal County sheriff, told ABC News that deputies had found the body of one child during the night.

Babeu told ABC News that authorities could not determine if the body was that of a boy or a girl.

The childrens' mother is divorced from their father, who was one of the pilots onboard the plane, Babeu said. The father had picked up his three children in Mesa, Ariz., where they resided with their mother, to take them to Safford for Thanksgiving, Babeu said.

Babeu told ABC News he expected to release the identities of all but one victim Thursday afternoon, once all immediate family members have been notified. He said officials were having difficulty reaching one member of a victim's immediate family, who was out of the country.

A 40-person recovery team began searching the mountainous terrain at first light Thursday morning for bodies and signs of what went wrong when the plane smashed into the mountain at 200 mph.

Helicopters transported two search and rescue deputies at a time, carrying teams that repelled into the tight caverns.

The recovery team, which Babeu said comprises "some of the best-trained pros in the country," is working rapidly to find the remaining five bodies and evidence before 4 p.m. Thursday.

"There's a window because of some storm concerns," he said. "Some of the evidence and wreckage is strewn for some distance."

The crash is believed to have involved a Rockwell AC69 twin-engine plane that had just departed from Falcon Field in Mesa, Ariz., according to the Federal Aviation Administration's Allen Kenitzer.

However, the exact make of the plane has still not been confirmed.

The mountainous terrain presents a challenge in the recovery effort. The remains of the plane's fuselage were wedged vertically in a crevice-type formation that was not easily accessible, Babeu said.

Officials now believe the plane crashed before 5 p.m. local time. Earlier reports placed the time of the crash east of Phoenix later in the evening.

Witnesses said they saw the plane crash, causing an eruption of flames.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Nearly 3.5 Million People Attend Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

The "Spider-Man" float at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan (ABC News Radio)(NEW YORK) -- An estimated 3.5 million people came together to experience the 85th edition of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan Thursday.

Macy's predicted another 50 million people tuned in at home to witness the parade featuring 40 balloon creations, 27 floats, and entertainers such as Mary J. Blige, Avril Lavigne, and Neil Diamond. Spectators were treated to pleasant weather and music during the parade, with performances on floats in addition to the stage at the end of the parade route at Herald Square. A marching band from Carmel High School in Carmel Indiana also performed during the parade, which began at 77th Street and worked its way along Central Park and Seventh and Sixth Avenues.

Among the highlights at the parade was New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's favorite float, Snoopy. Dressed up with an aviator hat, goggles, a red scarf, and holding binoculars, Snoopy made his record-breaking 36th appearance in the parade.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Florida A&M Band Director Fired Over Drummer's Death

Scott Cunningham/Getty Images(ORLANDO, Fla.) -- The embattled director of bands at Florida A&M University has been fired after a drummer in the school's Marching 100 died after a suspected hazing incident.

Four days after 26-year-old drum major Robert Champion was found dead on the band's bus after performing at a halftime show at a football game, university President James H. Ammons has announced the dismissal of Julian White, the longtime director of the school's famed marching band.

Champion was found unresponsive on the band's bus in Orlando, Fla., Saturday night, and later declared dead at Dr. Phillips Hospital. Initial results from the medical examiner were inconclusive, and the university is awaiting the results of an autopsy.

Police and former band members said that Champion was likely forced to walk through a gauntlet of fists on the chartered bus after the team's game in Orlando. Champion was reportedly vomiting and said he couldn't breathe before he collapsed and died.

In a statement released late Wednesday, Ammons explained the firing of White, who joined the university's faculty in 1972 and has been the director of the Marching 100 since 1998.

"While Dr. White has had a distinguished career in music education and administration within the university as director of bands, I did not feel there was competence involving reporting allegations of hazing within the department of music and the Marching 100," Ammons said, according to USA Today.

White said that he was given the choice to resign or be fired. His termination is effective Dec. 22, and until then he will be on paid administrative leave. He is barred from returning to campus.

Speaking with the Orlando Sentinel, Ammons made it clear that the university will not tolerate hazing of its students.

"We are serious: This has to stop," Ammons told the Sentinel. "The highest priority we have as a university is protecting the health, safety and well-being of our students."

A spokeswoman for the Orange County, Fla., sheriff's office told ABC News that investigators were conducting interviews with members of the school band, football team and others who were at the Florida Classic football game that night.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Search Continues for Victims of Plane Crash

Bill Cummings/Desert Breeze Photography(PHOENIX) -- A plane crashed Wednesday evening in Arizona's Superstition Mountains, creating a fireball captured on video and leaving officials voicing little hope for survivors. Officials says rescue crews were battling the fire well into Thursday morning.

Elias Johnson, a spokesman for the Pinal County sheriff, tells ABC News Radio deputies have found the body of one child between the ages of 5 and 9 and that the search for more survivors or victims continues.

Officials believe the twin-engine plane was carrying three adults and three children.

Initial indications were that the incident about 4,500 feet up Flat Iron Mountain involved a general aviation plane, not a commercial flight. Passenger flights at major area airports all were safe and accounted for, officials told ABC News.

Elias Johnson, a spokesman for the Pinal County Sheriff's Office, told AZCentral.com that there were "multiple fatalities," and evidence that the crash involved a twin-engine plane.

Witnesses said they saw the plane crash and flames erupt after 6:30 p.m. local time, according to ABC News Phoenix affiliate KNXV.

"What we saw was a small plane," Mark Klein, who lives at the base of the Superstition Mountains, told ABC News Radio. "It only had the red and green lights on the wings on, and it just ran into the mountain. I looked, like fireworks and then a big explosion."

The video posted on YouTube purported to capture the plane crash. It showed lights moving in the darkness and then a flash in the distance. A local resident told ABC News he took the video from his house in Gold Canyon, Ariz., about seven miles away from the crash site.

Dark video transmitted from the scene appeared to show fires in the mountain terrain.

The Federal Aviation Administration initially said it had no reports of a plane crash in the area.

Video Courtesy of Ryan Johnston

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

GAO Report Exposes Rule-Breaking at for-Profit Colleges

Photodisc/Jack Hollingsworth/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- A new report from the Government Accountability Office found several instances of rule-breaking at several for-profit colleges in the United States. Investigators who went undercover to pose as students found they could get away with blatant flouting of academic standards, such as plagiarism. Some even found they could get away with inserting photos of celebrities and politicians in lieu of written answers to essay questions.

When the investigators presented “fictitious evidence of high-school graduation -- either a home-school diploma or a diploma from a closed high school,” they were allowed to enroll in online courses at 15 commercial colleges, which were not identified in the report.

Once enrolled, the undercover students investigating the colleges engaged in “substandard academic performance,” including plagiarism, failure to attend class, failure to submit assignments and submission of incorrect assignments.

The investigation was conducted over the course of one year, from October 2010 to October 2011. Each investigator enrolled for one term. The report focused on the areas of enrollment criteria, cost, financial aid, course structure, substandard student performance, withdrawal and exit counseling.

Overall, eight of the 15 schools followed standard procedures regarding penalties for academic dishonesty, exit counseling and course grading. There were mixed results for the remaining seven schools.

At one college, “Our undercover student consistently submitted plagiarized material, such as articles clearly copied from online sources or text copied verbatim from a class textbook,” according to the report.

The first time it happened, the instructor told the student to paraphrase but gave full credit. The student continued to turn in plagiarized assignments and ultimately received a failing grade, but no action related to academic misconduct was taken.

There were also situations in which the schools and instructors followed standard policies.

At one college, a professor repeatedly tried to contact a student who logged into class but did not submit assignments or participate in discussions. When the student refused help, the professor locked the student out of the class.

The undercover investigation was done at the request of Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Harkin’s office was closed Wednesday, but he released a statement Tuesday regarding the report, as was reported by the New York Times.

“The fact that many of the schools accepted incomplete and plagiarized work -- sometimes for full credit -- leads me to question whether for-profit college students are truly receiving the quality education they are promised to prepare them for a good job,” Harkin  said.

“Coupled with sky-high tuition costs, alarming dropout rates, poor job placement services and the many other troubling practices that we’ve uncovered in the HELP Committee’s investigation,” Harkin said, “it is obvious that Congress must step in to hold this heavily federally subsidized industry more accountable.”

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

New Penn State Allegation Claims His Grandchild Was a Victim

Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General(CENTRE COUNTY, Pa.) -- Accused Penn State child molester Jerry Sandusky has been hit with a new complaint, this one filed by his daughter-in-law, who claims he abused one of his grandchildren.

The complaint was filed with Centre County's Children and Youth Services by the wife of one of his adopted sons, Sandusky's lawyer told ABC News.

The lawyer, Joe Amendola, said the allegation cites the abuse of one grandchild.

"The allegations are ridiculous and unfounded. Jerry has absolutely denied any inappropriate contact with his grandkids," Amendola told ABC News.

The lawyer said, "It's important to keep in mind these allegations were made after the attorney general filed charges against Jerry even though the alleged incident[s] took place before the AG's charges were filed."

Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach, has been charged with molesting eight boys over a 15-year period. Sandusky, 67, has admitted showering with boys but has denied any sexual activity with them.

Sandusky and his wife adopted five boys and the person who filed the complaint has not been publicly identified.

One of Sandusky's adopted sons, Matt Sandusky, still supports his father despite the allegations and even brought his children to visit Sandusky after his Nov. 5 arrest.

But the mother of Matt Sandusky's kids immediately went to court to obtain an order preventing Sandusky from being alone with her children. By court order, Sandusky is now not allowed unsupervised contact or overnight visits with his grandchildren.

Sandusky is free on bail without having to post any bail money. Amendola told ABC News earlier this week that if any fresh criminal charges were filed against his client, he feared, Sandusky would be sent to jail as a danger to the community.

In a related issue, lawyers for one of Sandusky's alleged victims, identified in a grand jury report as Victim 4, filed a request Wednesday for a preliminary injunction that would prevent the disbanding of The Second Mile, a charity that Sandusky helped to create.

The Second Mile, which helps disadvantaged children, has announced that it is considering several options, including disbanding.

The grand jury report claimed that Sandusky used the charity to prey on boys and legal experts have predicted the criminal allegations will be followed by civil lawsuits.

"We felt it was necessary to take this action after learning the organization was considering transferring its programs and not continuing its operations," lawyers Benjamin Andreozzi and Jeffrey Fritz said in a statement. "We believe it is in the best interest of our clients, as well as the other victims, to ensure that the organization is being financially responsible.

"We have reached out to attorneys for The Second Mile in the hope that appropriate safeguards against the dissipation of assets can be reached, but are proceeding with these legal measures in order to protect the interests of our clients and other victims in the event we are unable to come to an agreement," the lawyers said.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Passenger Stands On Seven Hour Flight

USAir[dot]com(PHILADELPHIA) -- Arthur Berkowitz was buckled into his aisle seat and ready for take-off on a flight from Anchorage to Philadelphia when a morbidly obese man boarded the airplane at the last minute and headed toward the vacant middle seat which separated Berkowitz and a young exchange student on the otherwise full flight.

"He was very apologetic," Berkowitz, 57, told ABC News. "When he boarded, he said: 'I'm your worst nightmare.'"

Those words turned out to be prophetic for Berkowitz, who said he was forced to stand for most of the seven hour flight, which he took on July 29.

"During takeoff and landing, I was wedged into my seat and unable to belt it," he said. "The man next to me was resting on top of the seat belt."

Other than takeoff and landing, he said he spent the seven hour flight standing in the aisle and galley area.

Berkowitz said he is speaking out about his ordeal now because he believes US Airways did not properly address his concerns.

"My issue first and foremost is that this was a safety issue," Berkowitz said. "The airlines and regulatory bodies need to have protocol when it comes to this."

He said he brought the problem of his large seatmate to the flight attendants' attention and asked if he could sit in one of their jump seats.

They apologized and said there was nothing they could do and that sitting in their seats was against FAA regulations.

"We have attempted to address this customer's service concerns, but offering increasing amounts of compensation based on a threat of a safety violation isn't really fair -- especially when the passenger himself said he didn't follow the crew members' instructions and fasten his seat belt," John McDonald, a US airways spokesperson, told ABC News.

"We realize it is inconvenient, but it is our obligation to be safe," McDonald said.

Berkowitz said he brought complaint to the attention of the Department of Transportation and the FAA.

"They've done next to nothing other than to acknowledge they received [my letters]," he said.

US Airways, for their part, said they have discussed Berkowitz's complaints with the crew members who were on the flight.

Berkowitz, a frequent flyer, isn't satisfied.

"They say they want to give passengers comfort and convenience," he said. "Well, this is as inconvenient and uncomfortable as you can get."

Consumer advocate Christopher Elliott, who tried to help Berkowitz mediate his complaint, said travelers need to communicate, especially during the busy holiday travel season.

If the direct communication doesn't work, Elliott said passengers should talk to a flight attendant. Above that, they can appeal to the lead purser.

"The final level of appeal on the flight would be to talk to the pilot," Elliott said. "Pilots have the final say."

Beyond that, he recommends passengers immediately put their complaints in writing and submit them to the airline when they land.

"Airlines say they're giving us what we want -- low fares," Elliott said. "But we haven't also asked to be tortured. This is a form of torture."

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Plane Reportedly Crashes in Arizona's Superstition Mountains

Comstock/Thinkstock(PHOENIX) -- A plane crashed Wednesday evening in Arizona's Superstition Mountains, creating a fireball captured on video and leaving officials voicing little hope for survivors.

Initial indications were that the incident about 4,500 feet up Flat Iron Mountain involved a general aviation plane, not a commercial flight. Passenger flights at major area airports all were safe and accounted for, officials told ABC News.

Elias Johnson, a spokesman for the Pinal County Sheriff's Office, told AZCentral.com that there were "multiple fatalities," and evidence that the crash involved a twin-engine plane.

Witnesses said they saw the plane crash and flames erupt after 6:30 p.m. local time, according to ABC News Phoenix affiliate KNXV.

"What we saw was a small plane," Mark Klein, who lives at the base of the Superstition Mountains, told ABC News Radio. "It only had the red and green lights on the wings on, and it just ran into the mountain. I looked, like fireworks and then a big explosion."

The video posted on YouTube purported to capture the plane crash. It showed lights moving in the darkness and then a flash in the distance. A local resident told ABC News he took the video from his house in Gold Canyon, Ariz., about seven miles away from the crash site.

Dark video transmitted from the scene appeared to show fires in the mountain terrain.

The Federal Aviation Administration initially said it had no reports of a plane crash in the area.

Video Courtesy of Ryan Johnston

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

First Family Stuffs Sacks at D.C. Food Bank

ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- The first family stuffed food sacks at the Capital Area Food Bank in northeast Washington Wednesday afternoon, fulfilling an annual pre-Thanksgiving tradition of performing an act of community service.

The Obamas stood side by side along an assembly line of workers in the food bank warehouse, stuffing reusable grocery sacks with various food items as volunteers filed by. The packages were later bound for delivery to needy children and older Americans.

The president greeted volunteers with a “Happy Thanksgiving” as he handed out packages of baby carrots. While the first lady deposited bundles of grapes, older daughter Malia doled out sweet potatoes and Sasha dished boxes of White House branded M&Ms.

About 100 of the packages were bound for in-person delivery, while the remainder were to be delivered by local social service agencies, the White House said.

The Obamas were joined by 50 members of their extended family and players from the Oregon State basketball team, but the White House did not immediately identify who was in attendance. Michelle Obama’s brother, Craig, is the head basketball coach for Oregon State.

As part of the community service excursion, the Obamas also donated two fully dressed turkeys from Jaindl’s Turkey Farm of Lehigh, Pa., as well as a stash of White House M&Ms and other foodstuffs collected during an East Wing food drive.

The food bank is the largest nonprofit hunger and nutrition education resource in the Washington Metropolitan area, distributing nearly 30 million pounds of food a year, per the White House.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Family Goes Missing in Florida

Ryan McVay/Thinkstock(EDGEWATER, Fla.) -- An entire family from Edgewater, Fla., is missing in a case that has local law enforcement puzzled.

Karen Burger, 57, along with her daughter, son-in-law and grandson, have not been seen since July of this year, according to police.

Burger’s elderly father, Maxwell Lee, initially reported his daughter as missing in August although she had not been seen for nearly a month prior.

The case is complicated by Burger’s alleged drug-abuse problem, according to a police bulletin.

After authorities began to investigate Burger’s disappearance in the fall, they realized that her daughter, Christina Hilgefort, son-in-law, Allen Hilgefort, and their two-year-old son had also disappeared, possibly around the same time that Burger went missing.

Burger was last seen at the All-Suite Motel in Edgewater, where her daughter and son-in-law were staying, on July 25.

After Christina and Allen Hilgefort checked out a few days later on July 28, they also disappeared.

Bank accounts for all three have remained untouched and they have had no known contact with anyone since July, police said.

The manager of the All-Suite Motel, Francis Mills, is baffled by the disappearances. She didn’t notice anything particularly worrying about the family, she said, except for how they paid.

“We didn’t think anything about them except that didn’t have money and [Lee] would come in every day and pay for their room,” said Mills.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio