Authorities ID man who fell from plane
MIAMI – Authorities released the identity Friday of a Florida man who they say fell out of a private plane, and searchers continued looking for his body in the Atlantic Ocean near Miami.
Miami-Dade Police Department spokesman Javier Baez identified the man as 42-year-old Gerardo Nales of Key Biscayne, an island not far from where the plane’s pilot said Nales fell into the water. Baez said police air and water units were scouring the sea and expanded their search area because of currents and wind.
The pilot of the Piper PA 46 called for help Thursday afternoon, radioing “mayday, mayday, mayday” and telling an air traffic controller that a door was open and a passenger had fallen from the plane. The aircraft had just taken off from Tamiami Executive Airport, south of Miami, Baez said.
Hagel talks to officers about nuke command
WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told Air Force members Friday there is “no room for error” within America’s nuclear forces, commenting publicly for the first time on what he called “troubling lapses” in professionalism within the ranks.
Speaking at the headquarters of the military’s nuclear war-fighting command in Omaha, Neb., Hagel alluded to a series of missteps revealed by The Associated Press, including lapses among those who operate and support the Air Force’s nuclear missile force.
“You have chosen a profession where there is no room for error,” Hagel said, directing his remarks to the hundreds gathered at U.S. Strategic Command for a change-of-command ceremony. “That’s what the American people expect from you, from all of us. And you must deliver.”
U.S. reveals reward for attack information
WASHINGTON – The State Department said Friday that it has been quietly offering rewards since January of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of any person involved in last year’s attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya. The announcement ends weeks of Obama administration silence on questions about whether it was using all available means to catch the attackers.
The department said the rewards were not publicized on its “Rewards for Justice” website as is normally done because of security issues around the ongoing investigation into the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the mission in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
Associated Press
