Pilot dies after plane crashes on highway

A small plane crashed Wednesday on a highway in the Netherlands, killing the pilot and scattering debris across the double-lane road, Dutch emergency services said. The accident happened near the southern city of Breda, about 60 kilometres (38 miles) south of Rotterdam.

“A plane crashed on the A58 from Breda in the direction of Roosendaal,” the Middle-West Brabant Safety Region said on its website. “Unfortunately the pilot, the only person on board, died,” it said, without disclosing the type of plane. No other injuries were reported.

Images posted on X showed a burned-out wreck and debris on the highway, where traffic had been blocked off by emergency services from both sides. A logo of a local aviation flight school could be spotted on the wreckage, local broadcaster Omroep Brabant said. “I suddenly saw something descend. It was the plane,” an unidentified witness told Omroep Brabant. “At the moment it crashed, we saw a ball of fire and that was it.”

The highway will remain blocked off for the rest of the day, emergency services added. One of the worst aviation accidents in recent times happened in the Netherlands in 2009, when a Turkish Airlines passenger jet crashed on approach to Schiphol airport. Nine people were killed and more than 80 injured in the crash, which investigators at the time said was caused by a faulty altimeter.

In 1992, 43 people were killed when an Israeli El Al Boeing 747 smashed into a block of flats in Amsterdam’s Bijlmermeer neighbourhood shortly after take-off from Schiphol.

SOURCE: Vanguard

UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, Makes Phone Call to President Tinubu

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has placed a call to President Bola Tinubu, the Prime Minister’s Office disclosed in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement revealed that President Tinubu congratulated Prime Minister Starmer on his recent election victory, while Starmer commended the President on Nigeria’s 25 years of unbroken democracy.

The leaders discussed the importance of the UK-Nigeria relationship, built on trade and security cooperation as Commonwealth partners, with long-standing ties between the two nations.

“The leaders welcomed this moment as an opportunity to reset and strengthen this relationship, working closely together to drive economic growth and prosperity between our countries, including through the Enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership,” the statement added.

Sir Keir Starmer took over from Rishi Sunak after leading the Labour Party to victory in the recent general election early in the month.

SOURCE: Politics Nigeria