Illinois
Southwest flights aloft after glitch
CHICAGO - Southwest Airlines was operating normally Saturday afternoon after a systemwide computer failure caused it to ground 250 flights for nearly three hours late Friday night.
Full service was restored just after 11 p.m. Arizona time Friday, but the Dallas-based airline experienced lingering delays in the morning as it worked to clear a backlog of flights and reposition planes and crew.
The airline - the country's largest domestic carrier - canceled 43 flights Friday night and another 14 Saturday morning.
Southwest is the latest airline to ground flights because of a large computer outage.
The problem impaired the airline's ability to do such things as conduct check-ins, print boarding passes and monitor the weight of each aircraft. Some flights were on the taxiway and diverted back to the terminal, said Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins. Flights already in the air were unaffected.
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Most of Southwest's cancellations Friday night were in the western half of the country, according to airline spokeswoman Michelle Agnew. Saturday's cancellations were scattered across the U.S. They included planes leaving from Minneapolis, Chicago, Phoenix, Denver and San Diego, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware.
Ohio
Wing walker, pilot die in air-show crash
CINCINNATI - A plane carrying a wing walker crashed at an air show and exploded into flames Saturday, killing the pilot and the stunt walker, authorities said.
The crash of the 450 HP Stearman happened at about 12:45 p.m. local time at the Vectren Air Show near Dayton in front of thousands of horrified spectators. No one else was hurt.
A video posted on WHIO-TV shows the plane turn upside-down as the performer sits on top of the wing. The plane then tilts and crashes to the ground, erupting into flames, killing pilot Charlie Schwenker and stunt walker Jane Wicker.
Federal records show the biplane was registered to Wicker, who lived in Loudon, Va. A man who answered the phone at a number listed for Wicker on her website said he had no comment and hung up.
One of the pilots listed on Wicker's website was named Charlie Schwenker. A post on Jane Wicker Airshows' Facebook page announced the deaths of Wicker and Schwenker.
Dayton International Airport spokeswoman Linda Hughes and Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Anne Ralston confirmed that a pilot and stunt walker had died but declined to give their names. The air show also declined to release their identities.
Kansas
Police: Mom arrested; left infant at Walmart
WICHITA - Authorities have arrested a 26-year-old mother suspected of abandoning her 2-week-old baby inside a Wichita Walmart.
The Wichita Eagle reported that the woman roamed the store between 1 and 2 a.m. local time Saturday. Police Sgt. Bruce Watts said store security observed her opening items and placing them atop the baby in a child carrier.
The woman then was observed putting down the carrier and walking around the store for another half-hour before attempting to leave.
The store notified police, and officers confronted the woman in the parking lot.
The woman was booked on suspicion of child abandonment, along with an unrelated felony warrant. The infant was taken into police protective custody.
California
Beagle-boxer-basset takes ugliest honors
PETALUMA - A huge-headed, duck-footed mix of beagle, boxer and basset hound was the upset winner at the 25th annual World's Ugliest Dog Contest.
Walle (WAHL-ee), a 4-year-old mutt from Chico, Calif., who was entered at the last minute, was judged Friday as the most unsightly of 30 dogs at the Northern California competition.
"This dog looked like he's been photo-shopped with pieces from various dogs and maybe a few other animals," judge Brian Sobel said.
Walle overcame the dominance in recent years by nearly hairless Chihuahuas, Chinese cresteds, or combinations of the two.
The Associated Press
