device

An airport employee spotted the drone carrying what authorities described as ‘an unknown explosive device’.

German authorities have launched an investigation after police removed the detonator from an explosive device attached to a drone found at Leipzig/Halle airport.

The airport’s north runway reopened on Wednesday after being closed for about two hours, while the south runway remained out of use due to scheduled maintenance.

Several flights, including a passenger aircraft, were diverted to other airports after a flying object was reported near the airport shortly before midnight. Police deployed an explosives-disposal robot to examine the object.

Authorities later said an airport employee discovered the drone near the runway carrying what they described as “an unknown explosive device”. Police examined it and removed its detonator, but did not provide further details about the nature of the device.

The probe is being led by prosecutors in the eastern state of Saxony who are responsible for politically motivated and “extremist” crimes, although authorities have not identified any suspects or attributed responsibility.

Meanwhile, an apparent second flying object collided with a freight aircraft after it aborted its landing because the runway was closed.

The aircraft diverted to Hannover airport, where officials found slight damage during an inspection. Authorities have not said whether the second object was connected to the drone found near the runway.

Authorities said there was no danger to travellers or airport employees, and flights were operating normally on Wednesday.

Photos from the scene showed police technicians working with an explosives-disposal robot near a Ukrainian Antonov cargo aircraft parked at the airport, although authorities have not indicated the aircraft was the intended target.

In a sign of how high school football practices in Southern California have changed over the last 20 years, Crespi athletic director Brian Bilek was holding a beeping device on Monday to determine what modifications might be needed to practice in heat.

It was 100 degrees in Encino, but the reading from the wet-bulb device measuring heat and humidity gave out a number that allowed for practice to take place with precautionary measures.

Southern Section players were in shorts and wearing helmets around the Southland. City Section teams began five days of mandatory acclimation periods to get players into shape.

It’s an annual ritual that once had programs practicing twice or even three times a day. CIF rules that restrict tackling to two days per week and a maximum of 45 to 90 minutes a day were adopted in an effort to protect players from concussions and injuries.

By the weekend, when the shoulder pads come on, coaches will be breaking out in smiles watching their freshmen players trying to figure out the routine for the first time.

Crespi coach Brad Vonnahme grew up in the Central Valley and coached at Fresno State. He described the weather from those days as “toasty.” Monday’s environment, though, was probably the hottest opening day in his four seasons at Crespi.

It’s a big year for the Celts. They’ve improved each season after Vonnahme was put in charge of a rebuilding project following Crespi’s 0-10 season in 2022. The Celts have responded with records of 2-8 and 5-6 before their 10-1 mark last season.

This year, they’ve upgraded their schedule, adding rival Sherman Oaks Notre Dame for a season-opening nonleague game Aug. 21.

Asked if his team can continue to climb, Vonnahme said, “I think we can. But most importantly, we have to try. Everybody wants us to continue to elevate.”

Crespi’s Russell White carries the ball during a game against St. John Bosco on Nov. 7, 1986.

(John McCoy / Los Angeles Times)

This season marks 40 years since Crespi’s greatest team, led by running back Russell White, won the Division 1 championship over St. John Bosco in 1986. It remains the only San Fernando Valley team to win a Division 1 football title. Many of the players are expected to attend the Notre Dame game for a recognition ceremony.

Crespi returns a number of players who were standouts as sophomores, led by quarterback Chase Curren. They’ll need to be bigger, faster and stronger. If all goes well, they will play Salesian on Oct. 30 to decide the Del Rey League title.

A strong group of teams will be traveling to Hawaii next month, so they’ll be getting ready a little faster for football and surfing. Chaminade, Edison, Beaumont, San Clemente, San Juan Hills, Newport Harbor, El Camino Real and Villa Park are among the teams with Hawaii trips.

Athletic directors are back from vacation and will be busy trying to clear players who transferred. Making sure paperwork is correct is one of the most important tasks, because one mistake can lead to forfeits.

July 16 (UPI) — U.S. Army medics in Europe said Thursday they are testing a new handheld diagnostic tool that can identify traumatic brain injuries in as little as 15 minutes.

Military officials predicted the new i-STAT Alinity device, made by Abbott Laboratories, can revolutionize the way medics can detect and treat such injuries quickly in the battlefield environment.

Rather than traditional methods of assessing brain injury or concussion by making subjective judgements based on questioning patients, the new device can yield objective information by measuring unique biomarkers that are present in the blood of the injured.

Lt. Col. Bradley Dengler, the neurosurgery consultant to the Army Surgeon General and director of the Military Traumatic Brain Injury Initiative at the Uniformed Services University, said the development of the i-STAT Alinity is a game-changer.

“This is probably the single most important advancement in traumatic brain injury care in the last 15 to 20 years,” he said in an Army release. “Historically, we’ve missed a lot of these injuries.”

Abbott Labs received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration to use the device with whole blood two years ago. The company says it allows doctors to help assess patients with suspected concussion at the bedside and obtain “lab-quality” results in 15 minutes.

Prior to that, the tests were only cleared for use with plasma or serum, requiring samples to be sent to a lab for processing and testing.

With that approval, the Army is now integrating the devices into air defense forward units under 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command. These units were judged to be among the most likely to benefit from the devices because they often operate in far-flung locations, hours away from advanced medical facilities and sophisticated brain scanners.

The i-Stat device measures two biomarkers from the brain that may be released into the bloodstream indicating a possible brain injury — ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1, or UCH-L1, and glial fibrillary acidic protein, or GFAP.

Dengler said the tests are extremely valuable because if the blood biomarkers are not elevated, there is a 99% chance that there is no bleeding in the brain.

That’s deemed a major improvement over the widely used Military Acute Concussion Evaluation, a 15-minute standardized cognitive assessment involving memory lists and concentration exercises.