Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 31
HONOLULU (AP) — Go out for a night on the town in some U.S. cities and you might find yourself waiting while someone at the door of the restaurant or theater closely inspects your vaccination card and checks it against your photo ID. Or, conversely, you might be waved right through just by flashing your card. How rigorously vaccination requirements are being enforced varies from place to place, even within the same state or city. Proof of vaccination is required in several American cities to get into restaurants and bars, enjoy a concert or a...
HONOLULU (AP) — Two pilots told air traffic controllers that their engine had cut out and they needed help moments before crashing their cargo plane into the Pacific Ocean off Hawaii on Friday. "It doesn't look good out here," one of the pilots said before the Boeing 737 broke apart as it entered the water. Both pilots, the only people aboard, were seriously injured but survived the crash. An hour later, rescuers found the two clinging to packages and parts of the plane in about 150 feet (46 meters) of water several miles off Oahu, a...
HONOLULU (AP) — Lavinia "Lavi" Mounga had no idea a baby was coming when she went into labor on a flight from her home in Utah to Honolulu last week. "I just didn't know I was pregnant, and then this guy just came out of nowhere," Mounga said during a video interview with Hawaii Pacific Health. The baby boy, Raymond Mounga, arrived early at just 29 weeks while mom was traveling to Hawaii for vacation with her family. Dr. Dale Glenn, a Hawaii Pacific Health family medicine physician, along with Lani Bamfield, Amanda Beeding and Mimi Ho — neo...
HONOLULU (AP) — The remains of six people have been found after a helicopter heading to one of the most rugged and remote coastlines in Hawaii crashed at the top of a mountain on the island of Kauai, authorities said. Officials said Friday that there are no indications of survivors and that a search for the last person yet to be recovered would resume in the morning, depending on weather. Those who were recovered have not been identified and their families are being notified, authorities said. A search began for the helicopter carrying a p...
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — An active duty U.S. sailor whose submarine was docked at Pearl Harbor opened fire on three civilian employees Wednesday, killing two and then taking his own life just days before dignitaries and veterans descend on the base for the 78th anniversary of the Japanese attack. The commander of Navy Region Hawaii, Rear Adm. Robert Chadwick, said he didn't know the motive behind the shooting at the Hawaii base's naval shipyard that left the third civilian Department of Defense employee hospitalized. It also wasn't known i...
MIDWAY ATOLL, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (AP) — A crew of deep-sea explorers and historians looking for lost World War II warships have found a second Japanese aircraft carrier that went down in the historic Battle of Midway. Vulcan Inc.'s director of undersea operations Rob Kraft and Naval History and Heritage Command historian Frank Thompson reviewed high frequency sonar images of the warship Sunday and said that its dimensions and location mean it must be the carrier Akagi. The Akagi was found in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National M...
HONOLULU (AP) — For the first time in recorded history, a pond of water has been discovered inside the summit crater of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano, a development that could signal a shift to a more explosive phase of future eruptions. After a week of questions about a mysterious green patch at the bottom of the volcano's Halemaumau crater, the former home of a famed lava lake, researchers confirmed the presence of water on Thursday, officials with the U.S. Geological Survey told The Associated Press on Friday. "The question is what does this m...
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (AP) — Scientists hope the massive telescope they plan to build atop Hawaii's highest peak, a world-renowned location for astronomy, will help them peer back to the time just after the Big Bang and answer fundamental questions about the universe. But the site where they plan to build is considered sacred by some Native Hawaiians — a realm of gods and a place of worship and prayer. The road to Mauna Kea's summit will be closed Monday morning as trucks carrying construction gear start to make their way to the peak. Alo...
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (AP) — Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Monday at the base of Hawaii's tallest mountain to protest the construction of a giant telescope on land that some Native Hawaiians consider sacred. At about daybreak, a group of kupuna, or elders, sitting in chairs tied themselves together with rope and blocked the road to the summit of Mauna Kea. Another group of protesters lay prone on the ground, with their arms shackled under a grate in the road. Around them, protesters sang and chanted. The road was later officially closed, h...
HONOLULU (AP) — Construction on a giant telescope will start again next week after lengthy court battles and passionate protests from those who say building it on Hawaii's tallest mountain will desecrate land sacred to some Native Hawaiians. State officials announced Wednesday that the road to the top of Mauna Kea mountain on the Big Island will be closed starting Monday as equipment is delivered. Scientists revere the mountain for its summit above the clouds that provides a clear view of the sky with very little air and light pollution. A...
HONOLULU (AP) — The National Transportation Safety Board on Monday called on the Federal Aviation Administration to tighten its regulations governing parachute operations as Hawaii officials released the names of seven of the 11 victims killed when their skydiving plane crashed last week. The NTSB recommended to the FAA more than a decade ago that it strengthen its rules on pilot training, aircraft maintenance and inspection, and FAA oversight, board member Jennifer Homendy told a news conference in Honolulu. She said the FAA hasn't acted on t...
HONOLULU (AP) — Retired U.S. Navy Cmdr. Don Long was alone on an anchored military seaplane in the middle of a bay across the island from Pearl Harbor when Japanese warplanes started striking Hawaii on December 7, 1941, watching from afar as the attack that killed and wounded thousands unfolded. The Japanese planes reached his base on Kaneohe Bay soon after Pearl Harbor was hit, and the young sailor saw buildings and planes explode all around him. When the gunfire finally reached him, setting the aircraft ablaze, he jumped into the water and s...
Some airport and shipping access has returned to a U.S. Pacific territory ravaged by a super typhoon, but tens of thousands of residents still without power and sifting through rubble face a long road to recovery. Saipan International Airport reopened with limited service Sunday after Super Typhoon Yutu slammed the Northern Mariana Islands this week as a Category 5 storm. A statement posted on the Facebook page of Northern Marianas Gov. Ralph Torres said the airport will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. but will receive only six international...
PAHOA, Hawaii (AP) — Lava oozing out of cracks for two weeks in rural Hawaii neighborhoods took on new characteristics as fresher magma mixed with decades-old magma, sending a flow toward the ocean Saturday. Since a first fissure opened in a community on May 3, lava was mostly spattering up and collecting at the edges of the cracks in the ground. Two neighborhoods with nearly 2,000 people were forced to evacuate as lava claimed 40 structures. On Friday afternoon, the lava changed dramatically with one fissure ramping up and sending a flow a...
HONOLULU (AP) — A volcano on Hawaii's Big Island erupted anew Thursday with little sound and only modest fury, spewing a steely gray plume of ash about 30,000 feet (9,100 meters) into the sky that began raining down on a nearby town. The explosion at the summit of Kilauea came shortly after 4 a.m. following two weeks of volcanic activity that sent lava flows into neighborhoods and destroyed at least 26 homes. Scientists said the eruption was the most powerful in recent days, though it probably lasted only a few minutes. Geologists have w...
PAHOA, Hawaii (AP) — Whether spewing from the ground in red plumes or crawling in a fiery blob across neighborhoods, lava from the Kilauea volcano has produced the most arresting images of the recent eruption. But not all lava is created equal, and the differences could offer hints about the volcano's behavior. For instance, the age of lava and the rate at which it bursts out can provide clues about the length and intensity of volcanic activity. As the eruption sputters into a third week, scientists are examining lava samples and trying to u...
PAHOA, Hawaii (AP) — Edwin Montoya's family carved their farm on the slopes of the Kilauea volcano out of "raw jungle," transforming it into a fertile collection of gardens, animal pens and fruit trees. Now the property is imperiled by the very land it stands upon. A couple of miles up the hill, lava has destroyed dozens of homes, and his daughter's farm is in an evacuation zone. Despite the nearby danger, Montoya plans to stay unless he is forced to leave. "I'm going to go ahead and stick it out," he said. "If it happens, if it blows its t...
PAHOA, Hawaii (AP) — Hundreds of anxious residents on the Big Island of Hawaii hunkered down Saturday for what could be weeks or months of upheaval as the dangers from an erupting Kilauea volcano continued to grow. Lava spurted from volcanic vents, toxic gas filled the air and strong earthquakes — including a magnitude 6.9 temblor on Friday — rocked an already jittery population. The trifecta of natural threats forced the evacuation of more than 1,700 people from communities near the lava and prompted the closure of parks, college campu...
PAHOA, Hawaii (AP) — Many rural residents living on an erupting volcano in Hawaii fled the threat of lava that spewed into the air in bursts of fire and pushed up steam from cracks in roadways Friday, while others tried to get back to their homes. Officials ordered more than 1,700 people out of neighborhoods near Kilauea volcano's newest lava flow, warning of the dangers of spattering hot rock and high levels of sulfuric gas that could threaten the elderly and people with breathing problems. Two homes have burned. Adding to the chaos, a huge m...
HONOLULU (AP) — A series of earthquakes and the collapse of the crater floor at the Puu Oo vent on Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano could trigger a new eruption of lava, officials said Tuesday. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said that seismic activity over the past 24 hours could lead to a new breakout on the east side of the Big Island volcano. USGS geologist Janet Babb said similar activity has been recorded prior to previous eruptions in the area. In mid-April the observatory issued a volcano activity a...
HONOLULU (AP) — Khanh Huynh has been a commercial fisherman since he was 12 years old. For the past six years, he's been living on a fishing boat in Hawaii, catching premium ahi tuna for some of the world's most discerning consumers. The 28-year-old fisherman from outside Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, recently saved the lives of two Americans and helped rescue five others after the fishing vessel he was working on sank hundreds of miles off Hawaii's Big Island. But Huynh isn't the captain. He works 12- to 20-hour days for less than $10,000 a y...
HONOLULU (AP) — A timeline shows Hawaii officials botched efforts to immediately correct a false missile alert over the weekend, taking more than 20 minutes to contact federal authorities for approval they didn't need and then taking another 15 minutes to cancel the alert that was sent to mobile devices statewide. The astonishing error and dismal response has prompted both state and federal investigations and left one of the state's U.S. senators wondering aloud if top brass at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency should be replaced. "I t...
Two Indonesian fishermen who say they were enslaved on an American fishing boat have settled their lawsuit against the vessel's owner seven years after escaping and receiving special U.S. visas as victims of human trafficking, their lawyers told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The attorneys said Sorihin, who uses just one name, and Abdul Fatah settled their lawsuit for an undisclosed sum against Thoai Van Nguyen, the California-based owner and captain of the Sea Queen II. Nguyen denied all allegations of abuse but agreed to provide a detaile...
HONOLULU (AP) — Two women from Hawaii who were rescued after being lost at sea defended their account of the ordeal Tuesday, insisting that a storm was whipping up 30-foot waves and near hurricane-force winds on the night they set sail in a 50-foot boat, despite government records that show no severe weather in the area. The Coast Guard is reviewing records from the days after Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava put to sea, but NASA satellite images for the days around their departure show no organized storms in the area where they planned to t...
HONOLULU (AP) — Trapped on a storm-battered boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for months, Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava were just about out of food and beginning to believe they were completely out of luck when they finally saw it: a U.S. Navy ship chugging toward them. "When I saw the gray ship on the horizon, I was just shaking," Appel told reporters Friday. "I was ready to cry, I was so happy. I knew we were going to live." On Wednesday the pair, followed by their dogs, Zeus and Valentine, boarded the USS Ashland, all four looking r...
