Well, what can we say? Two days ago we thought San Francisco would make it into our weekly news round-up with a funny story, then just yesterday another story from the same airport changed that view entirely. Here’s what we have for this week:
First, the good news when 400 goats were the topic of the first San Francisco story this week when The Seattle Times reported that last month, officials at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) hired a herd of part-time employees to toil on the west side of the property and engage in an unusual — but environmentally friendly — form of fire prevention. We surely thought this will be our closing, funny story. But then just yesterday another story from the same airport changed everything.
Then on Saturday NBC News reported that a Boeing 777 jetliner with 307 people on board crashed and caught fire at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday after a flight across the Pacific Ocean from South Korea. Two people were killed and scores injured, authorities said. The same article then also stated that the airport suspended all takeoffs and landings for four hours after the crash and said that some flights were being diverted. Two of its four runways later reopened. The airport advised passengers to check with their airlines.
Earlier in the week the continuation of Snowden’s Moscow Airport hiding was the result of another story that made the rounds. CNN reported that France, Spain, Portugal and Italy refused to let the Bolivian president Evo Morales’s plane fly through their airspace after rumors surfaced that Snowden might be on board, Bolivian officials said. With no clear path home available, the flight’s crew made an emergency landing in Vienna, Austria (VIE), where it spent some 14 hours. In the meantime Reuters reported in a story that Edward Snowden should find another country to seek refuge in, a Russian official said on Thursday, signaling Moscow’s growing impatience over the former U.S. spy agency contractor’s stay at a Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport (SVO).
And finally we heard from a country that doesn’t usually appear in our updates: Myanmar. International Business Times wrote this week that the country is not kidding around with its plan to welcome international visitors – after committing half a billion dollars to develop its tourism industry, the country announced plans for a new international airport project, which will cost $1 billion, and is set to be completed in December 2017.
That’s all we have for this week – safe travels!
[Photo of San Francisco International Airport from Wikimedia – some rights reserved]