1/25/10

bizarre coincidences to ponder

When Moshe Saba's helicopter crashed outside Mexico City, most of the stories cited the foggy weather. One source, an Israeli investment news service, cited eyewitness accounts that the helicopter burst into flames before crashing:

Mexican Jewish billionaire Moises (Moshe) Saba, 46, along with members of his family, have died in a crash of a helicopter outside Mexico City,. Six people were killed altogether, including the pilot. The Saba family is one of Mexico’s wealthiest families. The family’s pharmaceuticals firm, Grupo Casa Saba SA de CV (NYSE; Mexico: SAB) is one of the family’s business interests, which also include real estate, communications, and media. Moshe Saba was one of the investors whom Joseph Maiman approached to participate in the investment in Channel 10 in 2004, but he declined. Eyewitness accounts said that the helicopter burst into flames while still in the air. The helicopter hit a billboard before hitting the ground. Rescue services found no survivors. Although the accident occurred in a built-up area, there were no casualties on the ground.

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard went to the site of the crash. He said that Mexico’s civil aviation authorities had opened an investigation. The accident was believed to have been caused by the stormy and foggy weather conditions at the time in the area on Sunday night. Moshe Saba was close to Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, and was a donor to many haredi (ultra-orthodox) institutions. He also a donor to Zaka - Identification, Extraction and Rescue, which today announced that a delegation would go to Mexico City to identify the dead. Ovadia Yosef’s son, Rabbi David Yosef, will accompany the delegation.

You can find the link here.

It's just kind of strange because the Ethiopian jet crash also took place in stormy weather, but eyewitness reports also note an explosion and fireball.
"The weather undoubtedly was very bad," Aridi told reporters at the airport....Witnesses reported seeing flames as the plane plunged into the sea. One employee of a gas station near the site of the crash said he heard an explosion and saw "a huge ball of fire" as the plane crashed. Another witness said: "It was like the whole sea lit up." The accident took place amid heavy rains and storms in Lebanon in the past two days that have caused heavy flooding and damage in some parts of the country.
So could it have been struck by lightning? Possibly, but unlikely.
Estimates show that each commercial airliner averages one lighting hit per year but the last crash that was attributed to lightning was in 1967 when the fuel tank exploded, causing the plane to crash.
The other weird thing was this story:
Police in Oslo are to investigate suspicions that Norwegian drug gangs may be connected to the grisly find of two burned bodies in the boot of a car in western Sweden last week….Though a full identification is not expected until the end of the week, family members of the supposed victims, with a background in northern Iraq, have already begun grieving their loss, Expressen reports. “The car is mine. I have lost hope that my son and his uncle are still alive. This is the worst catastrophe of my life,” the 25-year-old’s father told Expressen. The 42-year-old, a resident of Arvika in central Sweden, had previously lived in Oslo where he ran a business and had a large number of contacts. He was believed to have been travelling from the Norwegian capital to Malmö on the day of the macabre find. With him in the car was his 25-year-old nephew and three million Norwegian kronor ($535,000), believed to have been the proceeds of a drug deal, Dagbladet reports.
Today The Local reported that these victims were 'shot through the eye.'
At least one of the two victims of a brutal double murder in southern Sweden earlier this month was shot through the eye in a gangland-style execution, reports newspaper Aftonbladet. The older of two victims found in a burning Volvo car on January 6th, 2010, believed to be the 42-year-old uncle of the second victim, was shot through the eye, an anonymous police source told the newspaper.

Both men suffered fractured skulls, caused by an extremely powerful blow. "It would have required strong force and extreme violence," said the police source.The attackers – we are sure there were several – were incredibly brutal.”

Police have yet to fully identify the victims and have issued an arrest warrant for a 35-year-old man, believed to have been part of the gang which carried out the executions at a house near Lund, before transporting the bodies along the E4 motorway and setting the car alight.

The murders are believed to be connected to an international drug smuggling ring, involving a Norwegian criminal gang, according to earlier police reports. According to local Swedish Radio in Halland county in western Sweden, a 44 year old Norwegian man is also wanted in connection with the crime.
And the last time I recall gory details like that was in relation to Mumbai.

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