Hawaii

Ship rescues pilot after crash in Pacific

A pilot who treaded water for hours in the Pacific after his small plane crashed, and then spent part of the night bobbing in a life raft, was rescued by a container ship early Tuesday and was doing well, shipping officials said.

Ray Clamback, 67, of Australia, was spotted Monday evening by the crew of a C-130 airplane from Honolulu that had been searching for him for about seven hours, said Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Marsha Delaney. His plane had gone down about 750 miles south of Oahu.

He climbed into a life raft dropped from the C-130, and about 9 1/2 hours later he was picked up by the crew of the container ship P&O Nedlloyd Los Angeles, which was on its way from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Australia, Delaney said.

Crew members reported Clamback was “safe and sound and in good shape,” said a spokeswoman for the P&O Nedlloyd shipping company in London.

The spokeswoman said the ship was expected to reach Melbourne by Oct. 12, and that Clamback would go from there to his home in Sydney.

Florida

Law firm wins ‘pit bull’ fight

A scrappy Fort Lauderdale law firm has won the right to drum up business by advertising its phone number as 1-800-PITBULL.

Broward County Court Judge William Herring ruled the Pape & Chandler law firm’s TV commercials using its controversial phone number and logo of a spike-collared pit pull is protected, despite objections from the Florida Bar.

Herring rejected the Florida Bar’s assertions that capitalizing on the image of “a ferocious animal” in the commercials is manipulative and violates state laws regulating legal advertisements.

Herring last week said the qualities the lawyers link to pit bulls are “desirable traits in attorneys.”

The law firm, which specializes in motorcycle crash litigation, has spent the last three years defending its use of 1-800-PITBULL. Attorney John Pape said the logo was symbolic of the firm’s “loyalty to our clients and to each other and tenacity, determination and aggressiveness in representing our injured clients.”

Tennessee

Prison guard aids in inmate’s escape

Authorities on Tuesday described an escaped inmate from a maximum security prison hospital in Nashville as extremely dangerous and said they think he has fled Tennessee with a guard who helped him get away.

The search for Edward McDaniel, 37, and guard Vickie Sanford, 51, spread beyond Tennessee to Illinois, Texas, Michigan and Arizona, where the pair are believed to have contacts, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation officials said.

McDaniel was serving a 20-year sentence for attempted murder in the 1996 shooting of a deputy during a traffic stop. The officer was shot five times in the leg and injured so seriously his limb was amputated.

McDaniel and Sanford allegedly walked out of Nashville’s DeBerry Special Needs facility over the weekend during a shift change and drove away in Sanford’s vehicle.