Scary briefs
• Women survive ordeal along rail bridge
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - A video camera captured the terrifying plight of two women as a freight train bore down on them as they walked along an 80-foot-high railroad bridge in Indiana.
The women lay down on the tracks as the train went over them and survived the July 10 incident, which happened just before sunrise on a bridge northeast of Bloomington. Authorities are reviewing the video (http://bit.ly/1s53bnj) for potential criminal charges.
The engineer of the 100-car, 14,000-ton coal train activated its emergency brakes when he saw the women, who began to run.
"They're frankly running for their lives at this point in time," Indiana Rail Road spokesman Eric Powell told WTHR-TV on Tuesday while reviewing the video footage.
The two had few choices, as jumping from the tracks would have seriously injured or killed them. Instead, one woman lies flat between the tracks immediately, while the other stumbles before doing the same.
"He had thought he had killed the two people here on this bridge," Powell said of the train driver. "... Both duck at the last minute.
"How they survived that is nothing short of a miracle."
Officials say the women have been identified but have not released their names. Train personnel saw them drive away after they had climbed down from the bridge and wrote down their license plate number.
Monroe County deputy prosecutor Jeff Kehr told the Herald-Times of Bloomington that Indiana Rail Road officials have turned over evidence to the sheriff's department.
The department will review the incident for potential criminal charges, Monroe County Prosecutor Chris Gaal said, but until then, he said it's inappropriate for prosecutors to comment on the case.
Powell said people sometimes follow a trail up to the railroad bridge and trespass on that bridge.
"It's dangerous, but it's easy for people to get on the tracks and walk on there," he said.
• Report: Jet hit unlisted pole in Georgia crash
THOMSON, Ga. (AP) - A private jet hit a utility pole that wasn't listed on aeronautical charts, then ran into trees and burst into flames last February, killing a Georgia vascular surgeon and four colleagues, federal investigators said in a report released Wednesday.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators say the plane with Vein Guys medical practice employees aboard hit the unlighted pole at the Thomson-McDuffie County Airport near Augusta the night of Feb. 20, 2013. The plane's six seats were found scattered among the fiery wreckage and were detached from the floor of the aircraft, according to the report.
The plane's left wing hit the pole as it was lifting off after a failed landing attempt, NTSB investigators said. The pilot aborted the landing after a warning light for the Beechcraft 390 Premier jet's anti-skid system illuminated.
Georgia Power built the pole in 1989, but didn't notify the Federal Aviation Administration, and the obstruction wasn't listed on aeronautical charts, according to the NTSB report. The pole supplied power to a nearby textile plant.
"The pole and its involvement with airspace at the airport is currently under review by the FAA. The FAA is conducting further study on the pole in question and a final determination has not been made," said Georgia Power spokeswoman Carol Boatright.
Georgia Department of Transportation inspections in 2010 and 2012 found that the airport met minimum state safety requirements, but didn't meet federal requirements for precision and visual approaches, according to the NTSB report. Airport officials couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
Dr. Steven Roth, 48, who was killed in the crash, routinely traveled between the medical practice's satellite clinics in Atlanta, Nashville, Tennessee, and Raleigh, North Carolina.
Four members of Roth's traveling medical team also died. Roth and his colleagues treated patients for varicose and spider veins, and other vascular diseases affecting the legs.
The plane's South Carolina-based pilot and co-pilot both survived but were seriously injured, according to the report.