Nation & World

Update 12:10 p.m.

A Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Los Angeles made an emergency landing at an Aleutian Islands military airport early Wednesday morning due to smoke inside the plane.

Ian Gregor, a spokesman with the Pacific Division of the Federal Aviation Administration, says Flight 884 “declared an emergency and diverted to Eareckson Air Station in Shemya,” at the far western edge of the Aleutian chain.

Airlines officials described the emergency as “smoke detected in the aircraft.”

The Boeing 777, which was carrying 276 passengers and 18 crew, landed without incident around 3:30 a.m. AKST, says Cathay Pacific spokeswoman Jennifer Pearson.

Air Force Col. Frank Flores — the regional commander for Eareckson and 20 other installations in the Pacific and Alaska — says the air station has a single 10,000-foot long asphalt runway with a modern instrument landing system.

“And it can handle a (Boeing 777); it can handle our larger aircraft. It was built up in the 40s to handle bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, and we’ve maintained it primarily as a divert runaway,” Flores says.

Old aircraft revetments, buildings and two other runways on the island date back to World War II and are mostly abandoned. An operational crew of about 120 people contracted through the Air Force was on the ground to handle the emergency landing. Flores says planes land at the base every day or so.

“We have a contingent of people who will respond to any aircraft arrival … (that) requires us to mobilize firefighters, airfield mangers and airfield personnel … (or) receive passengers and cargo,” Flores says. “When this airplane came in, an announcement was put over the net and all those people assembled in the airfield just like they would for any other arrival.”

Though it’s still unclear what grounded the flight beyond the smoke in the aircraft, Flores says the plane appears to have been “fixed” and could be in the air by noon Wednesday.

When it does leave Shemya, the airline says the plane will fly to Anchorage where another Cathay Pacific plane will take passengers to Los Angeles.

The Cathay Pacific flight is operated jointly with American Airlines and South America’s LAN Airlines.

Original story:

A Cathay Pacific flight traveling from Hong Kong to Los Angeles early Wednesday morning made an emergency landing at an Aleutian Islands military airport.

Airline officials say smoke detected in the aircraft caused Flight 884 to divert to the Eareckson Air Station on the island of Shemya Wednesday  around 5:30 a.m. AKST

Officials say as of 7 o’clock this morning the Boeing 777 aircraft was safely on the ground and all passengers and crew were safe.

Messages to Eareckson Air Station—under control of the U.S. Air Force—have not been returned as of this morning.

The airline says preliminary information shows that 276 passengers and 18 crew were onboard the plane. The flight was operated jointly with American Airlines and South America’s LAN Airlines.

More than 800 people have signed a petition created Tuesday to put the Mississippi flag back up in downtown Juneau, just days after it was removed over its Confederate imagery.

The new, unpunctuated, seven-word petition on change.org says, “Put back up the Mississippi state flag.”

It’s addressed to the City and Borough of Juneau, which doesn’t control the all-flags display on Egan Drive and hasn’t officially weighed in on the controversy.

“The city employees don’t put those flags up, there are no city vehicles, they’re not city poles, it’s not even a city right of way,” Juneau Assemblyman Jesse Kiehl said. “So the Friends of the Flags group has not gotten any instructions, directions or push from the Assembly that I’m aware of,” Kiehl said.

Community member Gary Durling started the petition after about 200 people last week successfully petitioned to replace Mississippi’s official state flag with its first official flag, the Magnolia flag.

Durling doesn’t think that group should make the decision for all of Juneau.

“I feel that a lot of groups in this town try to push their ideas on others in this town, and it divides us,” he said.

Durling acknowledges the different sides of the issue, but says Mississippi’s official flag should fly downtown.

“All of a sudden it becomes an issue, and if you like the flag you’re racist or promoting slavery,” Durling said.

For Durling, who grew up in Juneau, the flag controversy is a part of a city that’s changing. He says it worries him a little. Now that his petition has garnered so much attention, Durling is unsure what he will do moving forward.

Juneau college student Amos Kissel is a supporter. While he acknowledges the flag’s association with racism, he says it’s also a part of people’s heritage.

“I understand people are offended by the Confederate flag, and I respect that and value their opinion. But I know there’s also people that are good and value the Confederate flag as a part of their history and it’s not just about racism and slavery,” Kissel said.

Assemblyman Kiehl says he recently spot-checked the supporters of the new petition and says the majority of them are locals.

“Eighty or 90 percent of the folks live in Juneau, and probably 90 percent of those are registered voters. So it’s clearly something folks in Juneau are starting to think about,” Kiehl said.

The June 17 racially motivated massacre of church parishioners in Charleston, South Carolina, sparked a national conversation about the Confederate and Mississippi flags — and in the Magnolia state itself.

So far, five Mississippi cities have removed the flag from their municipal properties. Clarksdale is one of them.

Clarksdale Mayor Bill Luckett says he wishes he removed the state flag sooner. For him, the Charleston massacre was the tipping point.

“They call it heritage, I call it history. It’s not most peoples’ history, at least not around Clarksdale, Mississippi,” Luckett said.

He says the flag is a reminder of a darker time in America.

“That is a reminder to many people of oppression, suppression, slavery, divisiveness, it just carries a lot of negative connotations with it,” Luckett said.

Luckett hopes that the increased attention to the issue will encourage the Mississippi lawmakers to change the flag.

“Sometimes you need to stand out from the crowd and be different if it’s for the right reason, but we stand out and we’re different from most states for the wrong reason,” he said.

The Columbus city council recently voted unanimously to remove the flag, becoming the fifth city in Mississippi to do so. Councilman Charlie Box voted on the issue.

“I just felt like anything that divisive—it’s a piece of cloth—and to some it means so much, but I  just feel like it’s really time to move forward,” Box said.

Box says his constituents are split down the middle.

If the change.org petition succeeds at reversing the Friends of the Flags decision, supporters in Juneau will need to pay for a replacement flag, installation equipment and a permit from the Department of Transportation.

The original Mississippi flag was donated to the Juneau-Douglas City Museum. Once collections are logged, the museum usually doesn’t give them back.

Friends of the Flag organizer Judy Ripley, who allowed the original flag replacement, did so because of the hateful associations with the flag. Although she would not comment on the new petition, she said she was not surprised.

Yesterday evening, Juneau resident Gary Durling started a petition to put the recently removed Mississippi flag back up. The petition, addressed to the City and Borough of Juneau, has more than 500 supporters, most of who are largely from Juneau and the Southeast region.

The flag, which features a full image of the Confederate flag in its upper left corner, was removed Saturday morning after a monthlong debate. It was replaced with the Magnolia flag, the state’s first official flag.

Criticism of the Confederate flag has grown after the racially charged mass murder of church parishioners at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, last month.

After taking down the Mississippi flag, volunteers donated it to the Juneau-Douglas City Museum.

After a month long dispute, the Mississippi flag on Egan Drive is coming down. Former Assemblyman Marc Wheeler received a permit earlier this morning to remove the flag this weekend. The flag has been debated ever since last month’s mass shooting at a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

Wheeler says he spoke with Friends of the Flags organizer Judy Ripley and longtime volunteer Jim Carroll, who said the group decided to allow the flag change.

Wheeler says he’s very happy about the decision.

“I just feel really grateful to the Friends of the Flags and really proud of my community,” Wheeler said. “It’s great to be standing with cities like Jackson, Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Grenada, Mississippi , the communities around the country that are refusing to fly this flag.”

The Department of Transportation issued the permit as it has authority over the right of way along Egan Drive where the flags are posted.

Wheeler says he will also try to fix the California state flag, which was blown off earlier this summer.

The Mississippi flag will be replaced with the Magnolia flag, the state’s first official flag.

Editor’s note: This is a developing story. Please check back later for more details. 

The White House announced Friday that President Obama is coming to Alaska at the end of next month. On Aug. 31 Obama will address a State Department climate change conference in Anchorage. According to the White House, the “GLACIER” conference will convene foreign ministers from Arctic and non-Arctic nations, along with scientists, policymakers and Arctic stakeholders. The aim is to discuss how the Arctic is changing, what it means for the rest of the world and how to address it.

This will be Obama’s first trip to Alaska, other than a refueling stop at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in 2009 that included a speech to the troops. Secretary of State John Kerry told Sen. Lisa Murkowski months ago that he planned to accompany the president, but his travel plans were not included in the White House announcement Friday. Anchorage was the only location mentioned in the official statement. White House spokeswoman Hallie Ruvin says more details will follow in the coming weeks.

Rumors are spreading throughout the state that the president plans to visit one or more communities in Western or Southwestern Alaska. Dillingham mayor Alice Ruby said this week Washington staffers told her they were evaluating her city for a possible presidential visit.

Nearly 200 people have signed a letter asking for the removal of the Mississippi flag downtown because it features an image of the Confederate flag.

After dust settles from the controversy, the people spearheading the removal of the flag are unsure what’s next in combating racism in the state’s capital.

“What do we do from here? Because I don’t think anyone has the answer,” Secretary of Juneau’s Black Awareness Association Latarsha McQueen says. “Once we’re able to be honest with ourselves and with each other, then we can move forward and do something about it, but I don’t know where we go from here.”

McQueen is among the nearly 200 people to sign a letter asking for the removal of the Mississippi flag in downtown Juneau.

The flag, which features Confederate imagery in its upper left corner, is a part of an all-states flags display organized each year by a volunteer group called Friends of the Flags.

Controversy surrounding the flag began a month ago, after the massacre of church parishioners at a historical black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

McQueen, who grew up less than two hours from the church, says she’s dealt with racism her entire life and has become desensitized to it.

Recently McQueen, former Juneau Assemblyman Marc Wheeler and the local Rev. Phil Campbell discussed their decision to call for the flag’s removal.

For Wheeler, it’s imperative to understand the flag’s significance, especially in relation to violence against blacks.

“Somebody told a story about seeing that flag around the head of a person that was hanged. So if you can’t imagine that, what that must be like, maybe you shouldn’t talk about it,” Wheeler says.

Prompted by the events in Charleston, they believe removing the flag is a step forward.

But local writer Ishmael Hope says that while he supports the flag’s removal, it sidesteps the larger problem — racism in Juneau is nothing new.

For Hope, the flag controversy looks at an overt example of racism, without addressing deeper issues.

“When you have terrorism in Black churches, it doesn’t ignite a civil rights movement, it starts a national conversation about a flag,” Hope says.

Juneau’s largest minority populations are Alaska Natives and Filipinos.

Hope, who’s Iñupiaq and Tlingit, says more open discussions about racism and privilege is a part of the solution.

Campbell, a supporter of the Black Awareness Association and member of the Alaska Native Brotherhood, says that it’s never too late to start the discussion.

“I don’t think there’s ever a wrong time to do the right thing, so now is the moment we have,” Campbell says.

Juneau Mayor Merrill Sanford says he will let the issue play out on its own.

“I went off to war when I was young, and fought for our flag and fought for our country. All of those flags are a part of our country, whether it be good or bad,” Sanford says.

In an email sent to a supporter of removing the flag, Friends of the Flags organizer Judy Ripley says while she understood the horrific attacks in Charleston, the mission of the group is to display the official states’ flags.

Ripley encouraged the woman to write the governor of Mississippi.