• Plane makes belly landing at Newark Airport, no injuries reported

    A US Airways flight made a belly landing at Newark International Airport in the early morning hours on Saturday after the plane reported a problem with its landing gear. NBC's Craig Melvin reports.

    By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A US Airways flight made a belly landing at Newark International Airport in the early morning hours on Saturday after the plane reported a problem with its landing gear, a spokesman for the airline said.

    No injuries were reported after Express Flight 4560 landed just after 1 a.m. carrying 31 passengers and three crew from Philadelphia, US Airways spokesman Davien Anderson said in a statement. The De Havilland DASH-8 100 turboprop plane was operated by Piedmont Airlines, he said.

    “Passengers were evacuated, transported to a terminal and loaded on buses,” Anderson said. “All passengers departed the airport shortly after the landing after being reunited with their belongings and baggage.”

    The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating the emergency landing and assessing the extent of damage to the plane, the agency said on its Twitter feed on Saturday.

    The plane declared an emergency after its left main landing gear failed to extend, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The FAA is also investigating the incident.

    “The aircraft landed successfully on Runway 4L at about 1 a.m. The airport was closed until 2:55 a.m.,” the FAA said in a statement. “Runway 4L remained closed until 9:34 a.m.”

    The aircraft sustained “minimal damage,” FAA spokesman Arlene Salec told NBC New York.

    WNBC

  • Newark high school students walk out of class to protest budget cuts

     

    By Sofia Perpetua, NBCNews.com

    Nearly a thousand of Newark high schoolers walked out of their classes Tuesday to protest budget cuts that include teacher layoffs, school closures and hits to after-school programs.

    Students from half a dozen Newark schools walked out of class at noon chanting “Stand up, fight back.” They marched to Rutgers Law School, where the State Assembly was holding hearings on the proposed budget.

    Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, proposed a $32.8 billion budget that includes an all-time high $8.9 billion for public education in the state.

    Newark schools will receive $714 million but the protest organizers don't think that is enough, as it would underfund the district by about $53 million.

    "This $53 million is real; students see it in the cutting of clubs and extracurricular activities, sports, teachers and administration," protest organizer Robert Cabanas of the group NJ Communities United told Reuters. "They don't think they should have to see any of those things go."

    New Jersey's state government has been in control of Newark schools for the past 18 years.

    When the Christie’s budget proposal was unveiled in February, he noted that there were no cuts in individual districts. Christie's office did not respond to calls seeking comment.

    When Christie took office in 2010, he cut state aid to schools by $820 million and districts in Newark and Camden were hit heavily with layoffs and closures. Last year, seven schools were shut down in March about 100 teachers and other school personnel were laid off.

    Other U.S. cities have also been hit with cuts. Last month, Chicago announced it would close 54 schools by the beginning of the next academic year.

  • Southwest plane blows three tires during aborted takeoff in Denver

    Courtesy Jimmy Diffee

    Southwest Airlines Flight 513 blew three tires during an aborted takeoff from Denver International Airport on Monday afternoon.

    By John Newland, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A Southwest Airlines jet blew three tires Monday afternoon as the pilot aborted a takeoff from Denver because of a fire warning light in the cockpit.

    The Las Vegas-bound Boeing 737 carried a full load of 137 passengers and five crew members. No one was injured.

    Three buses were sent onto the runway to retrieve the evacuated passengers, and another plane was slated to take them to Las Vegas, Denver NBC station KUSA-TV reported.

    Southwest spokeswoman Olga Romero told The Denver Post that the plane's rapid deceleration caused the jet's brakes to overheat and led to the tires blowing out. She credited the pilot with heeding the warning light.

    "There was no fire," Romero added. "Procedurally, the pilot had to stop the flight. He made the right decision to ensure everything was safe."

    On Monday evening, mechanics were trying to determine why the light came on, Romero said.

    Airport spokeswoman Cyndi Karvaski told the Post that it was common for brakes to overheat and tires to blow out when a pilot stops a plane quickly before takeoff. 

    The incident was the second in as many days involving blown tires on a commercial flight.

    On Sunday, a United Express commuter plane from western New York blew four tires as it landed at Newark Liberty International Airport and veered off a runway.

    The plane was carrying eight passengers and five crew members. No one was hurt.

  • Four tires blow as commuter jet lands in Newark

    Authorities say a United Express plane from western New York blew four tires as it landed at Newark Liberty International Airport and veered off a runway.

    Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesman Ron Marsico says Flight 4480 from Rochester was landing Sunday night in New Jersey when several rear tires blew. He tells the Star-Ledger that the plane veered onto a taxiway and didn't strike anything.

    The plane was carrying eight passengers and five crew members. No one was hurt.

    More news from NBCNewYork.com

    It wasn't the only mishap at the Newark airport on Sunday.

    Earlier in the day, a United Airlines employee became pinned between a luggage cart and a food service truck. Marsico tells The Record that the worker was seriously hurt. It's unclear how the accident happened.

    By NBCNewYork.com

  • Newark Mayor Booker sparks melee with council vote; police pepper spray crowd

    By NBC News staff and news services

    A Newark, N.J., City Council meeting to decide who would fill a vacant council seat descended into chaos, with angry residents rushing the stage and police using pepper spray to end the near-riot, according to media reports.


    Dozens of people rushed the stage Tuesday night after Mayor Cory Booker made a rare appearance at the meeting and cast the deciding vote to fill the vacancy left by Donald Payne Jr., who was elected to Congress, the Newark Star-Ledger reported.

    Booker, invoking a law that gives the mayor a vote in the absence of a quorum, backed Shanique Davis Speight for the seat, raising the ire of many in the packed council chamber who supported John Sharpe James, the son of former mayor Sharpe James. James is an avowed opponent of Booker, who lost to James’ father in the 2002 mayoral race before winning in 2006.

    An attempt was made to swear in Speight, but people in the audience protested, with some chanting, "Cory's gotta go!" Several people in the audience shouted and gestured animatedly toward the stage, ignoring appeals to sit down.

    “People in the crowd stood up and said it was unlawful,” South Ward Councilman Ras Baraka told the Montclair Patch.

    Speight was ultimately ushered out of the room and sworn in later by the city clerk.

    Police moved in to try to control the crowd after a group, led by SEIU Local 617 President Rahaman Muhammad, rushed toward the dais, the Newark Star-Ledger reported. In the chaos, people were shoved, a podium was knocked over and an officer doused Muhammad with pepper spray, according to the Star-Ledger. Others in the hall snapped pictures and video of the chaos on their cellphones and tablet computers.

     

    Earl Best, a community activist known as "Street Doctor," told the Montclair Patch he was also sprayed and had to go to a hospital for treatment. Baraka said his mother had also been sprayed, according to the Montclair Patch. 

    Muhammad was arrested and charged with assaulting Speight and City Clerk Robert Marasco, resisting arrest and inciting a riot, Police Director Samuel DeMaio told the Star-Ledger.

    DeMaio said the officer’s use of the pepper spray will be reviewed but noted that it might be warranted in such a chaotic scenario.

    "From what I see right now at face value, in the situation that they had there with the crowd surging toward the council desk … the officer made a decision," he said, according to the Star-Ledger.

    The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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  • Cocaine shipment through Newark leads to 3 arrests in Spain, officials say

    By Jim Gold, NBC News

    A cocaine shipment spotted by customs officers in Newark, N.J., helped lead to the arrest of three people in Barcelona, Spain, U.S. officials said Friday.


    Special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), along with the Spanish Guardia Civil, said they arrested Oleksii Stepanets, a Ukrainian national; Eduard Medvedev, a Russian national; and Edgar Palma Bofill, a Spanish national.

    Customs and Border Patrol officers at Newark Liberty International Airport intercepted a shipment of pulleys containing approximately 2.23 kilograms of cocaine on Aug. 21, ICE officials said. The shipment originated in Costa Rica and arrived in Newark on a commercial aircraft, they said. The shipment’s manifest said it was auto parts destined for an auto shop in Barcelona.

    Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com 

    HSI Newark agents coordinated with agents in Madrid to assist the Spanish Guardia Civil in the arrests, officials said.

    Besides the arrests, police seized a total of 2.99 kilograms of cocaine and “precursor chemicals” used to process the drug, officials said.

    The arrests were linked to a previous seizure of 10 kilograms of cocaine at the Newark airport, officials said.

    The total wholesale value of the cocaine is over $500,000, they said.

    "This cooperation with foreign governments represents HSI's broad footprint that extends beyond our border," said Andrew McLees, special agent in charge of HSI Newark.

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    The investigation was the latest in a series of drug-smuggling interceptions reported by ICE. Among others, which yielded larger drug seizures:

    • Two U.S. citizens were arrested and 1,048 kilograms of cocaine with a street value of $72 million were seized Aug. 6 from a boat towing a vessel off the southern coast of Puerto Rico.
    • Two U.S. citizens were arrested and 450 kilograms of cocaine with a street value of $10 million were seized July 31 from a suspicious 30-foot fiberglass boat with two outboard engines sinking off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico.
    • Six Dominican Republic nationals aboard a 25-foot unmarked fiberglass boat heading toward Puerto Rico were arrested and 330 kilograms and 1 kilogram of heroin with an estimated street value of $8 million were seized in early June.

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  • Unscreened baby leads to terminal evacuation, delays at Newark airport

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    Who knew a baby could cause such a fuss at the airport?

    A baby who hadn’t been properly screened prompted authorities to shut down a section of a terminal at Newark Liberty International Airport for more than an hour Friday, Transportation Security Administration officials said. The “security breech” led to an evacuation of part of the terminal, flight delays and inconveniences for hundreds of passengers.

    The incident happened around 1:15 p.m. at a checkpoint leading to some gates at Terminal C.

    TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said a mother and baby went through a metal detector when the machine sounded an alarm, according to The Associated Press. The mother handed the child to the father, who had already been screened. The mother was cleared, but the baby hadn't been properly screened. The parents and baby left the checkpoint and headed to their gate, Farbstein told the AP.

    A short time later, TSA workers realized the baby had not been checked. They began searching for the family in the terminal and notified Port Authority police as per protocol, but they emphasized that it was a low-risk situation, Farbstein said.

    A TSA official said the agency recommended against evacuating the terminal because of the low risk, but Port Authority police did so anyway. "Port Authority police unilaterally made the decision to evacuate the terminal, sweep the terminal for explosives and re-screen all of the passengers, inconveniencing hundreds of passengers and delaying numerous flights," the official, who was not authorized to discuss the issue by name because of its delicacy, told nj.com.

    Watch the most-viewed videos on msnbc.com

    Steve Coleman, a Port Authority spokesman, said that it took the TSA more than 30 minutes to notify police of the lapse. He said officers "took immediate action to make sure the breach did not endanger passengers or our facility," AP reported.

    "We're not going to second-guess a real-time decision made by our police department to err on the side of caution and protect passenger safety," he said.

    The search for the family was called off and the area was reopened at 2:50 p.m.

    Passengers who went through the security checkpoint had to be screened again.

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  • Newark Mayor Cory Booker helps save neighbor from fire: 'I felt terror'

    Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker gave new meaning to the term "public servant" when he rescued a neighbor from a burning building. NBC's Mara Schiavocampo reports.

    By Ian Johnston, msnbc.com

    Updated at 11:35 a.m. ET Friday: Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker suffered second-degree burns and smoke inhalation as he helped rescue one of his next-door neighbors from a burning building Thursday.

    “There was a time when I didn’t think we’d make it out of there,” Booker told media at a news conference Friday morning, describing the rescue as his "proverbial 'come to Jesus' moment."

    “I didn’t feel bravery; I felt terror," he said, adding: "There was a moment I felt very religious."

    Booker returned home to his home in the Upper Clinton Hill neighborhood of Newark Thursday evening to find the building next door was on fire, the The Star-Ledger newspaper said.

    "We got everybody out of the house, but their daughter’s screaming, ‘I’m upstairs!’" he told the paper.

    He went in, followed by his security detail, and heard cries for help from upstairs. When he got to the second floor, he was engulfed in flames and smoke.

    Newark Mayor Cory Booker holds a press conference to answer questions about Thursday's fire rescue, where he helped save a neighbor from a burning building. Booker said he "did what most neighbors would do."

    "I suddenly had the realization that I can't find this woman," Booker told The Star-Ledger newspaper. "I look behind me and see the flames and I think, 'I'm not going to get out of here.' Suddenly I was at peace with the fact that I was going to jump out the window."

    Twitter on fire with #CoryBooker stories

    Then he heard the woman's voice again from another bedroom.

    "I just grabbed her and whipped her out of the bed," Booker said.

    They got downstairs, but then collapsed, Booker said.

    The paper reported a total of five people went the hospital: the mayor, three members of his security detail, and the woman from the house.

    Rescued woman has back, neck burns
    The woman was listed in stable condition in the hospital, the Star-Ledger said. She had burns to her back and neck.

    Newark Mayor Cory Booker suffered second-degree burns and smoke inhalation after rushing into his neighbor's burning building and carrying her down from the engulfed second floor. WNBC-TV reports.

    Fire Chief John Centanni told The Star-Ledger that the mayor may have saved the woman's life.

    On Friday, Booker said he used to think he had problems. "Now everything seems so small in my life."

    Booker was treated for burns on his hand and for breathing in smoke, the paper added.


    "Thanks 2 all who are concerned. Just suffering smoke inhalation. We got the woman out of the house. We are both off to hospital. I will b ok," Booker said in a message on his Twitter account.

    "Thanks everyone, my injuries were relatively minor. Thanks to Det. Alex Rodriguez who helped get all of the people out of the house," he added on Twitter.

    Another Twitter user, Alethea Felton, said in a message responding to Booker's tweet, "@CoryBooker Wow...I can't wait until you're PRESIDENT oneday-YOU ROCK! God bless you for your devotion & humility to those you serve."

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  • Human remains found in Newark suitcase

    By NBCNewYork.com

    A homicide investigation is under way after human remains were discovered in a suitcase near the Passaic River in Newark.

    Police responded to a telephone tip Monday about the gruesome finding in the vicinity of Raymond Boulevard and Van Buren Street, not far from Penn Station.

    The Essex County Prosecutor's homicide task force is also investigating.

    Further details were expected to be released later Monday.

    Read the original story on NBCNewYork.com

    Check back for updates on this developing story.

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  • Strong winds divert flights, spark NYC airport delays

    By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services

    NEW YORK -- The skies above New York City were clogged with planes waiting to land in winds gusting up to 50 mph Tuesday night, forcing long delays at two of the three major metropolitan airports and causing some flights to be diverted to other cities.

    National Weather Service meteorologist Adrienne Leptich said the delays occurred because the number of planes that can land each hour must be decreased in high winds, forcing some planes to circle the region or be diverted to other airports if fuel runs low.

    "The winds were a little bit stronger than we anticipated," she said. "We're getting into the season now where we have stronger storms. It's not completely out of the ordinary that this would happen."

    The Federal Aviation Administration reported at 10 p.m. ET that some arriving flights at Newark International Airport were delayed an average of 2 hours and 8 minutes while flights into LaGuardia Airport were delayed an average 1 hour and 34 minutes. Kennedy International Airport reported minor delays.

    By early Wednesday, all three airports were reporting average delays for arrivals and departures of less than 15 minutes.

    Daniel Kennedy said his 4:48 p.m. Delta flight operated by Shuttle America left Madison, Wis., bound for New York's LaGuardia Airport, only to be diverted to Albany, where passengers were kept on board while the plane was refueled. It did not land in New York until shortly before midnight.

    "Our gate is occupied by another aircraft diverted from LaGuardia as well," one of the plane's pilots could be heard telling passengers as Kennedy spoke to The Associated Press while the plane was on the ground in Albany.

    "They tell us we can't get up because we're sitting on an active taxiway," Kennedy said. Shortly afterward, a flight attendant announced that they could get up one at a time to use a restroom.

    'People are behaving'
    After landing in New York, Kennedy said the flight attendants had been helpful, passing out bottled water at one point to passengers who remained in good spirits. He said he wished there had been more communication from the pilots.

    "I'm impressed by how well people are behaving," he said.

    Chris Kelly Singley, a Delta spokeswoman based in Atlanta, said two LaGuardia-bound Delta aircraft were diverted to Boston Tuesday night "as a direct result of the winds we were seeing in the three New York airports."

    She said the diversions are necessary when fuel starts to get low as planes circle while waiting for their turn to land.

    A message left Tuesday with Shuttle America's parent company, Republic Airways, was not immediately returned.

    Leptich said the space between planes must be increased in bad weather conditions. She had good news for those traveling in or out of New York City through New Year's, saying the next possibility of any kind of significant storm appeared to be at least eight days away.

    Meanwhile, NBC New York reported that strong winds ripped off the roof and blew out the windows of a hangar at MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma. However, no injuries were reported.

    The Associated Press, msnbc.com staff and NBC New York contributed to this report.

  • NJ woman charged in penis silicone injection death

    By The Associated Press

    NEWARK, N.J. -- A 34-year-old New Jersey woman injected a man's penis with silicone, killing him, police said Friday.

    The Essex County prosecutor's office says Kasia Rivera gave 22-year-old Justin Street the injection on May 5. Such injections often are used to enlarge body parts, such as the buttocks.

    Street died the day after his injection. His death was ruled a homicide following an investigation and a medical examiner's determination he died of a silicone embolism.

    Rivera has been charged with manslaughter. She also faces charges involving the unauthorized practice of medicine. She was arrested Friday and is being held on $75,000 bail. It's unclear if she has a lawyer. No telephone listing could be found for her home in East Orange.

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    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • N.J. man acquitted of burning 5 teens to death in 1978

    By Associated Press

    Julio Cortez / AP file

    Lee Evans, seen on Nov. 15, in Newark, N.J., was charged with murdering five teenagers more than 30 years ago.

     

    NEWARK, N.J. - A New Jersey man on Wednesday was acquitted of locking five teenagers in an abandoned home in 1978 and burning them to death in retaliation for stealing marijuana, ending a case that went cold until 2008 because no bodies were ever found.

    A jury in Newark found Lee Evans not guilty of 10 murder-related counts in the deaths of the teens. 

    Evans represented himself and denied killing the boys.

    Prosecutors sought to prove that Evans planned to kill the teenagers as payback for breaking into his apartment and stealing a pound of marijuana a week before they vanished. Evans, who ran a handyman business, often hired the teens for odd jobs and paid them in marijuana, prosecutors said.

    The case largely hinged on the prosecution's star witness, Evans' cousin Philander Hampton, who agreed to testify after pleading guilty in exchange for a 10-year prison sentence and $15,000 in relocation money. It was Hampton's comments to authorities in 2008 that helped revive the long-dormant case.

    Hampton testified that Evans was angry about the marijuana theft and was bent on retaliation. Hampton said he helped Evans lure the teens to a vacant Newark house after asking them to help move some boxes but then herded them into a closet and secured the door with a 6-inch nail. He said Evans poured gasoline around the perimeter, demanded that Hampton give him a match and set the house ablaze. 

    Boys reported missing; bodies never found
    The bodies of 17-year-olds Melvin Pittman and Ernest Taylor and 16-year-olds Alvin Turner, Randy Johnson and Michael McDowell were never found. The boys were reported missing after the fire, and authorities at the time never connected the two events or examined the fire site as a crime scene. 

    The case, originally classified as a missing-persons case, went cold for decades until a pair of Newark detectives on the cusp of retirement decided to rework it as an unsolved homicide. 

    Several family members of the missing teenagers, many of whom attended every day of Evans' trial, said they had long believed Evans had killed their loved ones. 

    Evans and the attorney assisting him, Bukie Adetula, said the scenario to which Hampton testified would have been impossible and pointed out Hampton's criminal record and inconsistencies in his testimony.

    Evans said he had lived and worked openly in the same community near Newark in the bordering city of Irvington, where many of the victims' families lived, and emphasized that fact as proof that he had nothing to hide.

    Read full coverage of the Evans trial on nj.com

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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