15 aboard Hawaii flight treated

after pepper spray goes off

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaiian Airlines says a can of pepper spray went off inside a plane headed from Oakland, California, to Maui, requiring emergency help for several people aboard.

Airline spokesman Alex Da Silva says 12 passengers and three flight attendants were treated for respiratory issues and released Friday.

He says in a statement that a passenger illegally brought the pepper spray on the plane carrying 256 passengers and 10 crew members but that it appears the release was accidental.

Hawaii Department of Transportation spokesman Tim Sakahara says about 30 people complained of being affected by the irritant, but no one was taken to the hospital.

The airline says the flight was delayed earlier Friday after a teenager in Oakland sent a photo depicting a fake crime scene to cellphones of other passengers.

Farrow’s former producer criticized

NBC on Weinstein story

NEW YORK (AP) — Ronan Farrow’s former producer at NBC News says his old network breached its journalistic duty by failing to stick with the story of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct.

Farrow instead took the story to the New Yorker, where he shared a Pulitzer Prize with the New York Times for the story that launched the #MeToo movement.

“As a journalist for 16 years I do know that when you have an explosive story you never let it walk out the door,” said Rich McHugh, who just left NBC as an investigative producer, and issued a statement through lawyer Ari Wilkenfeld. “You keep digging for more so you can publish at your network.”

McHugh’s statement and interview with The New York Times ripped open a scab at NBC News. The network has said that it released Farrow to take the story elsewhere following a disagreement over whether he had enough material to go with it. Farrow, who was a freelancer when working on the story with NBC, is writing his own book about the issue.

NBC said it was an “outright lie” that it tried to kill the Weinstein story while Farrow was working on it.