A Toxic Gas Leak on Indian Aircraft Carrier Kills Two

An Indian Navy sailor and a civilian were both killed after a toxic gas leakage on board Indian Navy aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya on Jun. 10.

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The 4 of 50 Self Driving Cars California Had Accidents, No Robopocalyptic Cars at Fault

Four of the nearly 50 self-driving cars now rolling around California have gotten into accidents since September, when the state began issuing permits for companies to test them on public roads.

Two accidents happened while the cars were in control; in the other two, the person who still must be behind the wheel was driving, a person familiar with the accident reports told The Associated Press.

Three involved Lexus SUVs that Google Inc. outfitted with sensors and computing power in its aggressive effort to develop "autonomous driving," a goal the tech giant shares with traditional automakers. The parts supplier Delphi Automotive had the other accident with one of its two test vehicles.

Google and Delphi said their cars were not at fault in any accidents, which the companies said were minor.

Since September, any accident must be reported to the state Department of Motor Vehicles. The agency said there have been four, but would not comment about fault or anything else, citing California law that collision reports are confidential.

The person familiar with the accident reports said the cars were in self-driving mode in two of the four accidents, all of which involved speeds of less than 10 mph. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the reports publicly.

Five other companies have testing permits. In response to questions from the AP, all said they had no accidents. In all, 48 cars are licensed to test on public roads.

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F-35s "Grounded" Until Fire Cause Found

The F-35A struck by fire as it took off from Eglin Air Force Base still sits on the runway and the Air Force and Marines are not flying their versions of the Joint Strike Fighter program until they know more about the fire’s causes.

“We will resume flying once we know more about the cause of the F-35A fire that occurred at Eglin AFB earlier this week,” Capt. Richard Ulsh, a spokesman for Marine aviation, said in an email.

The 33rd Fighter Wing, responsible for F-35 training at Eglin Air Force Base, said Wednesday morning that its “commander has decided to continue the temporarily (sic) suspension of F-35A flights at Eglin in the interest of safety as we continue to investigate the cause of the mishap.” First Lt. Hope Cronin said in an email to reporters that “We have no further information regarding the nature or extent of the damage” yet.

Readers who may be wondering why you haven’t seen the word grounded should know that grounding has a specific meaning for the military and these aircraft have not been grounded — yet. Grounded means the plane won’t fly until further notice or the specific conditions that led to the plane being banned from flight is found and fixed. So far they’re expecting to get the planes back in the sky as soon as they have some idea as to the fire’s cause.

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Russian "Stealth" Fighter Prototype Catches Fire

A prototype Sukhoi T-50 PAK FA fifth-generation fighter aircraft caught fire on 10 June following landing, according to Sukhoi.

"While the plane was landing, smoke above the right air intake was observed, then a local fire broke out," Sukhoi stated. The incident occurred at the Zhukovsky test centre, near Moscow, where the T-50 prototypes have been conducting flight trials.

The aircraft involved in the incident is the fifth flying prototype, aircraft T-50-5 (side number '055'), which was delivered for tests at Zhukovsky in November 2013.

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I Got Caught in This This Morning

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Fortunately, I wasn't hit by the truck, but had I been at my usual place at my usual time, I would have been a prime target for the twit driving this monster. Instead, I got stuck in two hours of traffic driving from Lafayette to DT Oakland.  Normally, it takes 10 minutes...this time it took 2 hours.

German Heron UAV Goes Nuts