WASHINGTON, D.C.

Safety board targets deaths on small planes

Federal safety officials want the Federal Aviation Administration to find ways to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning on small planes, the cause of 84 deaths in the past four decades.

On Dec. 17, 2000, the pilot of a single-engine plane was killed en route from Chesterfield, Mo., to Tulsa, Okla., after passing out from inhaling carbon monoxide leaking out of a fractured muffler.

On Jan. 17, 1997, another small plane crashed near Alton, N.H., again because the pilot was incapacitated by carbon monoxide poisoning from an exhaust gas leak. Both the pilot and the passenger were killed.

The NTSB recommended that the FAA evaluate the way exhaust systems on the engines are inspected.

Los Angeles

Rock discovery on Mars befuddles scientists

A mysterious rock found by NASA’s Spirit rover at the foot of the Columbia Hills continues to puzzle scientists, while the Opportunity rover is discovering that there was more water at Meridiani Planum than the team had originally suspected.

The mystifying rock, above at lower right, discovered by Spirit is like nothing scientists have seen before, said principal scientist Steven Squyres of Cornell University. “We may be dealing with something uniquely Martian here,” he said.

The rock, called Pot of Gold, is about the size of a softball. Its most intriguing features are tiny stalks with “little nuggets” on the end of each, “kind of dangling out there,” Squyres said. The stalks point in all directions and the nuggets are not close to round.

“I don’t know how these things formed, and they are driving me nuts, to be perfectly honest,” Squyres said.

Alaska

Wildfires strand dozens; half escape in convoy

Wildfires kept 90 miles of highway closed Friday, stranding about 150 people and dozens of RVs in the tiny mining community of Chicken.

About half the people were allowed to leave under escort before dawn, and officials hoped to lead out another convoy today, when flames might be diminished by cooler temperatures and higher humidity.

The community has no land phone lines, so details were limited to occasional radio transmissions from fire crews, said Craig McCaa, a fire information officer in Tok.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Frozen cod sold at SuperTargets recalled

Frozen cod fillets sold nationwide at SuperTarget stores are being recalled because they contain egg white that is not listed on the ingredient label, the manufacturer said Friday.

The recall covers 24-ounce Archer Farms Frozen Breaded Cod Fillets produced by High Liner Foods of Portsmouth, N.H.

The packages carry the UPC Code 8523912126 with date codes having these first digits: 2106, 2130, 2175, 2189, 2198, 2296, 3015, 3069, 3092, 3098, 3112, 3189, 3204, 3273, 3322, 3352, 4027, 4041, 4057, 4119.