5 Killed after Small Airplane Crashes in Nashville

A handout photo made available by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) shows debris at the site of a small plane crash alongside Interstate 40 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, 04 March 2024. EPA/METROPOLITAN NASHVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) shows debris at the site of a small plane crash alongside Interstate 40 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, 04 March 2024. EPA/METROPOLITAN NASHVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT HANDOUT
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5 Killed after Small Airplane Crashes in Nashville

A handout photo made available by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) shows debris at the site of a small plane crash alongside Interstate 40 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, 04 March 2024. EPA/METROPOLITAN NASHVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) shows debris at the site of a small plane crash alongside Interstate 40 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, 04 March 2024. EPA/METROPOLITAN NASHVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT HANDOUT

Five people died after a single-engine airplane crashed near an interstate highway in Nashville, shutting down multiple lanes, the US city's metro police department said early on Tuesday.

The plane crashed off the eastbound lanes past the Charlotte Pike exit, police said in a post on social media platform X.

The control tower at Nashville's John Tune airport received a message from a pilot at about 7:40 p.m. ET on Monday (0040 GMT on Tuesday) saying their aircraft was experiencing engine and power failure and needed permission to land, a police spokesperson told reporters on Monday night, according to ABC News.

A spokesperson for the Nashville Fire Department told the television network the plane imploded on impact. The "impact was catastrophic and did not leave any survivors," the representative said.



Italian Journalist Cecilia Sala Released from Iran and Returning Home

This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)
This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)
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Italian Journalist Cecilia Sala Released from Iran and Returning Home

This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)
This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)

An Italian journalist detained in Iran since Dec. 19 and whose fate became intertwined with that of an Iranian engineer wanted by the United States was freed Wednesday and is heading home, Italian officials announced.

A plane carrying Cecilia Sala took off from Tehran after “intensive work on diplomatic and intelligence channels,” Premier Giorgia Meloni’s office said, adding that Meloni had informed Sala's parents of the news.

There was no immediate word from the Iranian government on the journalist’s release.

Sala, a 29-year-old reporter for the Il Foglio daily, was detained in Tehran on Dec. 19, three days after she arrived on a journalist visa. She was accused of violating the laws of the country, the official IRNA news agency said.

Italian commentators had speculated that Iran was holding Sala as a bargaining chip to ensure the release of Mohammad Abedini, who was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport three days before on Dec. 16, on a US warrant.

The US Justice Department accused him and another Iranian of supplying the drone technology to Iran that was used in a January 2024 attack on a US outpost near the Syrian-Jordanian border that killed three American troops.

He remains in detention in Italy.