Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Yahoo News- Lead Story: Three Generations of Emmas Die in Plane Crash


Spain: 3 generations, all named Emma, die in France crash

Associated Press 
A stele and flowers laid in memory of the victims are placed in the area where the Germanwings jetliner crashed in the French Alps, in Le Vernet, France, Friday, March 27, 2015. The crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 into an Alpine mountain, which killed all 150 people aboard, has raised questions about the mental state of the co-pilot. Authorities believe the 27-year-old German deliberately sought to destroy the Airbus A320 as it flew Tuesday from Barcelona to Duesseldorf. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
.
View gallery
  • .
  • .
  • .
SANT CUGAT DEL VALLES, Spain (AP) — From a lush suburban valley near bustling Barcelona, three generations of a well-heeled family set off last week for a fun trip to Manchester, England: 12-year-old Emma Solera Pardo, her mother Emma Pardo Vidal, and grandmother Emma Vidal Bardan.
They were on their way to pick up the youngest Emma's teen brother as he finished a semester abroad to hone his English, do some sightseeing and then head home together.
But the Germanwings flight 9525 taking them to Duesseldorf for a connecting flight to Britain slammed into the French Alps. Prosecutors say co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked the pilot out of the cockpit and aimed the aircraft down in an eight-minute descent until it hit the ground and disintegrated.
Juan Pardo Yanez — little Emma's grandfather, the father of her mother and the former husband of the eldest Emma — was virtually speechless after returning from a trip for relatives of the 150 crash victims to the accident zone in Seyne-Les-Alpes, France, where investigators working in a ravine were collecting small pieces of the plane and body parts ahead of a painstaking identification effort.
"There is nothing that can be done or could be said to me to change the loss of these three so dearly loved ones," Pardo Yanez told The Associated Press and other journalists outside a Barcelona crisis center set up for victims' relatives.
About 400 friends and relatives of the daughter, mother and grandmother gathered for a private Mass at a monastery in Sant Cugat del Valles, choking up as they went inside to commemorate those lost from the family that moved to the community of about 85,000 about a decade ago.
The youngest Emma's father, Juan Ignacio Solera, is the founder and chief executive of iVOOX, a company that makes a popular software application for podcast downloads.
Emma went to a Catholic school just a five-minute walk away from the family's apartment in a cluster of buildings ringed by high brick walls. Her death hit classmates incredibly hard, said principal Maria Reina Montoro, who could only come up with one word to describe how they felt: "Destroyed."
While somewhat quiet and timid, the youngest Emma was a dedicated tennis player who regularly practiced at a club, said Manu Navas, director of the club's tennis academy. Emma's mother also played paddle tennis there.
"She wasn't a player who stood out, but what I would highlight about her was her attitude. She never took no for an answer," Navas said of the girl.
Pardo Yanez didn't say how he would try to help rebuild his life and family now that his ex-wife is gone along with one of his daughters and a granddaughter.
But he was sure of one thing: "I will return with all my children to the site where all of them have died."
___
Associated Press writers Alan Clendenning and Jorge Sainz in Madrid contributed to this report.
Related video:
 View Comments (155)

Recommended for You

  • Missing U.C. Berkeley student was killed in weekend car accident

    A University of California, Berkeley student reported missing over the weekend after a fraternity party at another campus was identified on Monday as the person struck and killed by a car in Los Angeles early on Saturday, police said on Monday. Eloi Vasquez, a 19-year old freshman on the men's…
    Reuters
  • China closes 66 'illegal' golf courses

    China has closed down nearly 70 "illegal" golf courses, a government statement said, in what appears to be the first sign of enforcement of a decade-old ban. The announcement by China's ministry of land and resources comes amid a high-profile anti-graft campaign spearheaded by President Xi Jinping,…
    AFP
  • New movies and TV shows you can stream on Netflix this week (Mar. 29 – Apr. 4)

    It’s that time of the week again, and BGR is bringing you a roundup of the best new Netflix movies and shows for your streaming pleasure. A lot of your time is wasted by looking around Netflix for something you haven’t seen yet, so this update will save you some precious ticks on the clock. DON’T…
    BGR News
  • U.S. Supreme Court rejects Obamacare 'death panel' challenge

    By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a new challenge to President Barack Obama's healthcare law that took aim at a bureaucratic board labeled by some Republicans as a "death panel" because it was designed to cut Medicare costs. The high court…
    Reuters
  • Play

    Woman Killed After Driver Following GPS Drives Off Demolished Bridge

    Authorities say a driver, who was apparently following GPS navigation, drove off the ramp of a demolished bridge in Indiana, killing his wife.
    WGN - Chicago
  • Where Retirees Want to Live Now

    According to a recent study sponsored by Merrill Lynch, by age 61, most people finally feel free to live where they want to live, rather than live where they have to live because they need to commute to work or have family obligations. According to a U.S. Census Bureau update released last week,…
    U.S.News & World Report
  • Aaron Hernandez Fiancee Cites Infidelity, Says She Dumped Box Prosecutors Believe May Have Held Murder Weapon

    Aaron Hernandez told his fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins, to "remove a box" from the basement of the home they shared near the murder scene, Jenkins told a jury today.
    ABC News
  • North Korea threatens strike against UN rights office in Seoul

    North Korea has threatened "merciless punishment" against South Korea if it goes ahead with plans to open a UN field office in Seoul for monitoring the North's human rights record. The United Nations first proposed opening the field office in May last year, following a searing report by a UN…
    AFP
  • Suspect in Ohio fireworks store blaze that killed 9 dies

    IRONTON, Ohio (AP) — A brain-damaged man accused of starting a 1996 fire at an Ohio fireworks store that killed nine people has died at a mental health facility.
    Associated Press
  • Crete's mystery croc killed by cold snap

    A man-eating crocodile that became an attraction on the Greek island of Crete last year after its mysterious appearance in a lake has died, probably of cold, an official said Monday. "The crocodile was found dead on Sunday," regional water management official Vangelis Mamangakis told AFP. Nickhamed…
    AFP
  • Eight dead, 10 injured in Florida van accident

    Miami (AFP) - Eight people were killed and 10 injured early Monday after a van drove through a stop sign and careered off a Florida highway into a canal, officials said.
    AFP
  • Buhari extends lead in tight Nigerian election

    By Tim Cocks and Alexis Akwagyiram ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian opposition contender Muhammadu Buhari built a lead of over 2.5 million votes with only six states uncounted on Monday, raising the prospect of a stunning ballot box victory for a man who first came to power three decades ago via a…
    Reuters
  • Lincoln Continental, the car of presidents, is returning

    DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Elvis Presley had one; so did Clark Gable. It was even the sedan of presidents. Then the name vanished amid an invasion of newer luxury cars from Europe and Asia.
    Associated Press
  • Texas mother arrested for leaving daughter in dumpster overnight

    By Lisa Maria Garza DALLAS (Reuters) - A Texas mother was arrested for leaving her 7-year-old daughter in a dumpster overnight after saying that she drank vodka but remembered little else about the evening, police said on Monday. Alicia Carroll, 28, was charged with abandoning and endangering a…
    Reuters
  • If you don’t like Apple’s new MacBook, Steve Jobs has a message for you

    Though Apple’s recently unveiled 12-inch Retina MacBook has largely elicited positive feedback, not everyone has good things to say about the most recent addition to Apple’s notebook line. Given some of the compromises Apple made in order to get the device so incredibly thin, some of the complaints…
    BGR News
  • Russia, Iran, Syria share same vision: Assad

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says he shares the same goals as Iran and Russia when it comes to the brutal war tearing apart his country. "Syria and Iran and Russia see eye to eye regarding this conflict," Assad added.
    AFP

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please leave a comment-- or suggestions, particularly of topics and places you'd like to see covered