Free Republic

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - The UPS cargo jet that crashed in Alabama this week, killing its two crew members, was flying on autopilot until seconds before impact, even after an alert that it was descending too quickly, authorities said on Saturday "The autopilot was engaged until the last second of recorded data," said Robert Sumwalt, a senior official with the National Transportation Safety Board.

Barronett man aids in pilot rescue The Associated Press SPOONER -- Mary Wickland named her son after a brother who drowned in a lake, and she made sure the boy became an excellent swimmer. On Tuesday, 20-year-old Scott Daniel Wickland jumped into the waters of the Persian Gulf and rescued two pilots who had ejected from a crashed plane. Wickland, a native of Barronett in Barron County, is a crew member on a helicopter assigned search-and-rescue duties in the war with Iraq. He was in the helicopter early Tuesday when a plane veered off the deck of the aircraft carrier...