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National

Skydiving plane in Hawaii crash had scary 2016 mishap

HONOLULU (AP) — A skydiving plane that crashed in Hawaii, killing 11 people, was involved in a terrifying midair incident three years ago in Northern California that prompted the 14 skydivers aboard to jump earlier than planned to safety, according to government investigative records.

The Beechcraft King Air plane crashed and burned on Oahu island’s north shore Friday evening after witnesses said it appeared to turn back shortly after takeoff.

In the 2016 incident near Byron, California, the twin-engine plane stalled three times and spun repeatedly before the pilot at that time managed to land it safely, the National Transportation Safety Board said in its investigative report.

No one aboard survived the Hawaii crash, which left a small pile of smoky wreckage near the chain link fence surrounding Dillingham Airfield, a one-runway seaside airfield.

The plane appeared to be heading back to the airfield when it “flipped a reverse,” skimmed some trees and crashed near the airfield’s perimeter fence, witness Steven Tickemeyer told KHON television news. Other witnesses reported seeing the plane wobble before it went down.

The crash appeared to be the worst U.S. civil aviation accident since a 2011 accident at the Reno Air Show in Nevada that killed the pilot and 10 spectators.

Man convicted in Charlottesville attack asks for “mercy”

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Adolf Hitler admirer who plowed his car through a crowd of people protesting a white nationalist rally in Virginia two years ago, killing one person and injuring dozens, has asked a judge to show mercy and sentence him to a prison term shorter than a life sentence.

Lawyers for James Alex Fields Jr., 22, said in a sentencing memo submitted in court documents Friday that he should not spend his entire life in prison because of his age, a traumatic childhood and a history of mental illness.

“No amount of punishment imposed on James can repair the damage he caused to dozens of innocent people. But this Court should find that retribution has limits,” his attorneys wrote.

But prosecutors countered that the avowed anti-Semite has shown no remorse since he drove the car on on Aug. 12, 2017 into anti-racism activist Heather Heyer, killing her, and injuring the others protesting against the white nationalists.

The dueling memos were filed week before he is set to be sentenced on June 28.

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