Free Republic

The popular travel discount blog Dan’s Deals is circulating a story that a Jewish passenger who was supposed to be on the missing Malaysia Airlines plane was switched to an alternative flight because his Orthodox Jewish travel agent in Israel refused to book him on an itinerary that would have him traveling on Shabbat. Under Orthodox Jewish law, facilitating someone else’s Sabbath desecration — boarding an airplane — is as forbidden as desecrating the Sabbath oneself. Here’s the email exchange on January 13 and 14 between the passenger, identified as Andy, and the travel agent. The emails were posted online...

It’s not quite the same as the opening sequence to “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” but it’s awfully close. The Daily Mail reports that a Polish oil company worker, Jakub Perka, has discovered an “almost perfectly preserved” Kittyhawk P-40 that crash-landed in the Sahara Desert in 1942. “Despite the crash impact, most of the aircraft’s cockpit instruments are intact,” according to the report.

OTTAWA (AFP) – Canadian underwater archeologists accidentally discovered what they believe to be the wreck of a US Air Force airplane that sank in the Saint Lawrence seaway in 1942, the Parks Canada divers said Thursday. The divers said in a statement that they were carrying out routine work in an adjacent area when they came across the wreck. It must still be confirmed that it is indeed the lost plane. "This is a very significant discovery," Quebec region Minister Christian Paradis said. "This plane is a testament to the collaboration between Canada and the US during the Second World...