The Latest on deadly small plane crash in New Orleans (all times local):
7:10 p.m.
A New Orleans TV journalist and the pilot of a small plane are dead after their aircraft went down in a field near a city airport.
WVUE-TV confirms that Nancy Parker, a reporter and anchor at the television station for 23 years, was killed in the crash Friday afternoon near Lakefront Airport.
Authorities didn't immediately release the victims' names.
The station says the 53-year-old journalist was shooting a story in a stunt plane when the crash occurred.
A Federal Aviation Administration statement says the plane was a 1983 Pitts S-2B aircraft that it crashed about a half mile south of the airport under unknown circumstances.
5:34 p.m.
New Orleans authorities say a small plane has crashed in the city, killing two people.
The city said on its "Nola Ready" website that firefighters, emergency medical services and police responded to the crash Friday afternoon. It says two fatalities were confirmed.
The plane went down near Lakefront Airport, which accommodates smaller aircraft.
New Orleans Homeland Security Director Collin Arnold told reporters the plane crashed about 3 p.m., causing a fire.
He did not release the victims' identities and could not confirm the type of plane involved, or whether there were reports of engine failure. He said those details would be part of the investigation.
The FAA sent inspectors to the scene.
The National Transportation Safety Board representative was expected Saturday.
Information from: WVUE-TV, http://fox8live.com
BEIRUT (AP) — The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.
The repatriation was the largest Washington has carried out from the camps to date, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. Five of the 11 citizens brought back were children, and one non-U.S. citizen child -- the 9-year-old sibling of one of the other children -- was also brought with them.
As part of the same operation, the U.S. facilitated the repatriation of 11 other camp residents, eight of them children, to Canada, the Netherlands and Finland, the statement said.
Although the pace of repatriations has picked up -- neighboring Iraq recently returned hundreds of its citizens -- many countries remain reluctant to bring back citizens from the al Hol and al Roj camps, which now hold about 30,000 people from more than 60 countries, most of them children.
The camps are run by local authorities affiliated with the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF and its allies, including U.S.-led coalition forces, defeated the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019, ending its self-proclaimed Islamic “caliphate” that had ruled over a large swath of territory straddling Iraq and Syria.
Human rights groups have regularly reported on what they describe as inhumane living conditions and abuses in the camps and in detention centers where suspected IS members are housed.
“The only durable solution to the humanitarian and security crisis” in the facilities “is for countries to repatriate, rehabilitate, reintegrate, and where appropriate, ensure accountability for wrongdoing,” Blinken said in the statement.
FILE - Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the Islamic State group in Hasakeh province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)
FILE - Women shop in the marketplace at al-Hol camp, home to families of Islamic State fighters, in Hasakeh province, Syria, on March 31, 2019. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)
