Plane makes emergency landing on Loudoun Co. Parkway in Virginia

Fri, January 19th 2024

A plane with seven people on board made an emergency landing on Loudoun County Parkway roadway Friday, causing lane closures near Arcola Mills Drive.

The plane, identified as Southern Airways Express flight 246, made a hard landing in the DIREX lanes of Loudoun County Parkway, according to Virginia State Police (VSP). Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials confirmed the plane was a Cessna 208 Caravan that departed from Washington Dulles International Airport at around 12:15 p.m.

According to Washington Dulles International Airport officials, the plane landed at around 12:50 p.m.

As the plane was navigated around trees, power lines and traffic lights, Jesse Labell witnessed the amazing.

"I heard a loud noise thinking my car blew up or something. I look up and there’s a plane 20 feet above me and lands 30 feet in front of me," said Labell. “My first thought is 'this is insane. What’s going on, what the heck, what do I do?' It landed, went under the traffic light, got squirrely over here and hit the guard rail.”

According to Virginia State Police at 3:40 p.m., the 27-year-old pilot from Florida was not injured, nor was his co-pilot and all five of the passengers. Four of the passengers were adults, one was a 15-year-old boy, according to a statement.

“They landed across from the Wendy’s in ALDI approximately a mile and a half west of the departure runway," a caller said in 7News obtained air traffic audio from LiveATC. net. "They were pretty much in shock like what the heck just happened. This is crazy.”

Labell added that he's glad road conditions were icy and wet because if he was driving the speed limit, the plane may have landed on top of him.

“Phenomenal landing in an emergency. Just unfortunate that he lost control at the end," said Labell.

FAA records indicate the plane was owned by Southern Airways Pacific, LLC out of Palm Beach, Florida. Sources report the plane was heading to Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

See the full statement from Southern Airways CEO Stan Little below:

"We are relieved to report there were no injuries, and all passengers are safe and sound. We are thankful to our pilots, who did exactly what they were trained to do – to put the safety of our passengers first. We are working closely with the authorities to thoroughly investigate the situation, and we will take all necessary precautions to ensure the safety and security of our passengers and our fleet."

The FAA, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Loudoun County officials are investigating.

https://wjla.com/news/local/plane-lands-in-loudoun-county-parkway-crews-virginia-state-police-department-of-transportation-old-ox-road-investigation-crash-emergency-landing-sources-officials

Microsoft executive emails hacked by Russian intelligence group, company says

JAN 19 20244:49 PM EST

Microsoft said in a Friday regulatory filing that a Russian intelligence group accessed some of the software maker’s top executives’ email accounts. Nobelium, the same group that breached government supplier SolarWinds

in 2020, carried out the attack, which Microsoft detected last week, according to the company.

It isn’t the first time Russian hackers have gained entry into Microsoft’s systems. State-sponsored attacks that can result in the dissemination of sensitive data becomes a greater risk during periods of armed conflict, and Russia’s war against Ukraine has been going on for almost two years now. On Thursday Russia said Ukrainian forces conducted drone strikes in multiple Russian locations.

Microsoft’s announcement comes after new U.S. requirements for disclosing cybersecurity incidents went into effect. A Microsoft spokesperson said that while the company does not believe the attack had a material impact, it still wanted to honor the spirit of the rules.

In late November, the group accessed “a legacy non-production test tenant account,” Microsoft’s Security Response Center wrote in the blog post. After gaining access, the group “then used the account’s permissions to access a very small percentage of Microsoft corporate email accounts, including members of our senior leadership team and employees in our cybersecurity, legal, and other functions, and exfiltrated some emails and attached documents,” the corporate unit wrote.

The company’s senior leadership team, including finance chief Amy Hood and president Brad Smith, regularly meets with CEO Satya Nadella.

Microsoft said it has not found signs that Nobelium had accessed customer data, production systems or proprietary source code.

The U.S. government and Microsoft consider Nobelium to be part of the Russian foreign intelligence service SVR. The hacking group was responsible for one of the most prolific breaches in U.S. history when it added malicious code to updates to SolarWinds’ Orion software, which some U.S. government agencies were using. Microsoft itself was ensnared in the hack.

Nobelium, also known as APT29 or Cozy Bear, is a sophisticated hacking group that has attempted to breach the systems of U.S. allies and the Department of Defense. Microsoft also uses the name Midnight Blizzard to identify Nobelium.

It was also implicated alongside another Russian hacking group in the 2016 breach of the Democratic National Committee’s systems.

Last year, a vulnerability in Microsoft software allowed China-aligned hackers to access the email accounts of senior government officials, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, ahead of a critical U.S.-China meeting. The company’s “negligent cybersecurity practices” led to the attack, Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, wrote in a letter to Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and other federal officials.

“We are continuing our investigation and will take additional actions based on the outcomes of this investigation and will continue working with law enforcement and appropriate regulators,” the Microsoft blog post said.

CISA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/19/microsoft-executive-emails-hacked-by-russian-intelligence-group-company-says.html