An Alaska Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing after the plane's engine cover began detaching.

The flight had just departed from Sea-Tac International Airport on Monday when the crew reportedly noticed an "unusual vibration."

Alaska Airlines Flight 558, which was headed for San Diego, returned to the Seattle airport and landed safely.

According to NBC News, no one was injured and the plane has been taken out of service.

The network reports that there were 176 passengers and six crew members on the flight.

The passengers were reportedly rebooked on another flight to San Diego.

CINCINNATI — A Cincinnati firefighter stepped up on a flight out of CVG when another passenger was experiencing a medical emergency.

Part of the way through the flight from Cincinnati to Salt Lake City, passengers started to notice another passenger needed help.

“It was clear that there was someone in distress. The flight attendants were asking around if there was anyone who had medical help,” another passenger on the plane, Blake Taylor, said.

A few rows in front of Taylor, another passenger had already taken charge of the situation.

"Once the flight attendants started going through their motions and their protocols, they brought me a medical bag that had everything I needed, there was a nurse there that was helping out," Kenny Christo said.

He's a Cincinnati firefighter and EMT at Station 23 in East Walnut Hills.

Christo was able to assess the passenger, get an IV started and monitor her until the plane landed and local EMTs took over.

"It happened very calmly, very efficiently and really impressive," Taylor said.

Christo said by the time he got on his connecting flight out of Salt Lake City, the woman was conscious and talking.

This isn't the first time he's stepped in to help someone when he's off the clock.

"It's just what we do. Especially Cincinnati firefighters. We're always on the ready, we're always there to help out," Christo said.

He said most of the time, firefighters in a situation like this are happy to help. They do what they can to make sure the stranger in need is okay, then do exactly what Christo did: turn around and go about their day, not looking for any credit.

After a woman tested positive for COVID-19 midflight, the bathroom became her seat for the next few hours.

Marisa Fotieo was on an Icelandair flight from Chicago to Reykjavik, Iceland, on Dec. 19, en route to her final destination of Switzerland with her brother and father.

Before the flight, Fotieo told CNN she took two PCR tests and about five rapid tests, all of which came back negative. But about an hour and a half into the flight, Fotieo started to feel a sore throat.

"The wheels started turning in my brain and I thought, 'OK, I'm going to just go take a test.' It was going to make me feel better," Fotieo told CNN. "Immediately, it came back positive."

Fotieo, who is fully vaccinated and has received the booster, is an early childhood teacher in Chicago. She tests consistently since she works with an unvaccinated population.

When she got her results in the airplane bathroom, over the Atlantic Ocean, she said she started to panic.

"The first flight attendant I ran into was Rocky. I was hysterical, I was crying," Fotieo said. "I was nervous for my family who I just had dinner with. I was nervous for the other people on the plane. I was nervous for myself."

Ragnhildur Eiríksdóttir, or Rocky, the flight attendant Fotieo ran into, helped calm her down.

"Of course, it's a stress factor when something like this comes up, but that's part of our job," Eiríksdóttir told CNN.

The flight attendant said she did what she could to try to rearrange seats so Fotieo could be seated in a spot alone, but the flight was full.

"When she came back and told me she couldn't find enough seating, I opted to stay in the bathroom because I did not want to be around others on the flight," Fotieo said.

A note was then put on the bathroom door saying it was out of service, and that was Fotieo's new seat for the remainder of the flight.

CNN contacted Icelandair on Thursday for comment but has yet to hear back.

Policies vary among airlines as to how to handle a COVID-positive passenger. This comes just weeks after the U.S. and other countries have made travel restrictions amid the spread of the omicron variant.

Fotieo was inside the bathroom for about three hours. Eiríksdóttir continuously checked up on her and provided her with plenty of food and drinks.

"I was in shock that I was missing out on a family trip. I was in shock that I was going to be in Iceland alone. I was in shock that I had 20 families back home that just had me in their classroom," Fotieo said.

While inside the bathroom, she said she bought internet access and made calls to let her school know. She also made a TikTok video, which has been viewed more than 4.3 million times, as of Thursday afternoon.

Fotieo said she did not feel crammed inside the bathroom and was just happy to not be in the main cabin with the rest of the passengers, one of which was her 70-year-old father.

Quarantined in Iceland

Once the plane touched down in Iceland, Fotieo and her family were the last ones off the flight.

Since her brother and father didn't have any symptoms, they were free to take their connecting flight to Switzerland. Fotieo was given both a rapid and PCR test at the airport, both of which were positive, she said.

She was then shuttled to a Red Cross hotel where she began her 10 days of quarantine.

Doctors checked in on her three times a day, she was given meals and medication was readily available. "Honestly it has been an easy experience," Fotieo said. "It's partially due to Rocky and the breed of Icelandic people. Everyone here is so kind."

Throughout her quarantine, she continued to document the experience on TikTok. She even received Christmas gifts and snacks from Eiríksdóttir, who she had stayed in contact with over social media.

"I knew she was going to be by herself in Iceland," Eiríksdóttir said. "So even if it's isolated, if you have someone there that can bring you something is nice. So, I just had to be that someone."

Fotieo's last day of quarantine was Dec. 30 and her family planned to meet up with her then. They will be able to experience Iceland together to make up for the lost time, as their flight back to the States is on Jan. 3.

And Fotieo has plans to meet up with Eiríksdóttir before she leaves the country. Eiríksdóttir also mentioned visiting Fotieo when she has flights over to Chicago.

"Coming out of this experience I have a new friend and I have a new outlook on how much flight attendants have to do," Fotieo said. "Rocky and the flight crew had me, but they also had the other passengers to deal with on the flight."

GREEN, Ohio — Two Canton Township, Ohio natives are overjoyed to learn a fighter plane housed at a local museum has ties to their pilot brother, who went missing while flying a mission in the Vietnam War more than 50 years ago.

Barb Aman and Rich Schoeppner beam with pride as they look back at photographs of their older brother, Lt. Jack Schoeppner.

"He loved adventure. He loved speed," Aman said.

While his siblings admired Jack for his service to his country, most of their memories surround growing up with him in Canton Township.

Aman said her brother was a good guy, very smart and an Eagle Scout.

"He graduated at the top of his class at Central Catholic High School in 1961," Aman said.

Rich Schoeppner recalled the time that he accidentally rode a bicycle into a pool and struggled to get out until his brother saved his life.

"He meant the world to me," Rich Schoeppner said.

Lt. Jack Schoeppner got his "wings" as a Navy fighter pilot in 1966. He served two tours of duty in Vietnam and flew dozens of missions, according to relatives.

But on March 9, 1970, the F4 Phantom he was piloting along with Lt. Rex Lewis Parcels went down in the Gulf of Tonkin. They were reported as missing in action.

"Supposedly, where he went down is unrecoverable," Rich Schoeppner said.

Fifty-one years have passed. Both men are considered dead, but neither has been found.

"There's no closure when they don't come home," Aman said. "It's hard. I think your mind tells you that you know it's true, but your heart tells you something else."

The hope of finding any tangible connection to the fighter pilot faded over the decades. But then, something remarkable happened at MAPS Air Museum in nearby Green, Ohio.

The museum has a mission to preserve the history of military aviation.

"For me, it's the place for veterans to come back and feel it's a safe spot," said Valerie Kinney, one of the directors at MAPS.

In 2003, the Navy offered to loan the museum a 56,000-pound F4 Phantom fighter jet to MAPS. They gladly accepted.

Bob Jones | News 5 Cleveland

For 16 years, museum workers and volunteers didn't realize there was an amazing link between Jack Schoeppner and the fighter jet on display.

That all changed in 2019 when Rich Schoeppner began having conversations with people connected to MAPS. Thanks to Lt. Schoeppner's meticulous flight book, they realized that Jack had flown the jet that was on display at the museum.

"I was amazed. Totally surprising, couldn't believe it," Rich Schoeppner said.

Lt. Schoeppner's flight log indicated which jet he flew by serial number. He made notations before every takeoff and after each landing.

On March 6, 1970, three days before his death, Jack Schoeppner wrote in his book that he flew a jet with the serial number 155764 — the same number on the fighter now housed at MAPS.

For his family, it was an unbelievable coincidence — or perhaps, fate.

"We don't choose the planes. The planes choose us. For some reason, this plane was meant to be here," Aman said.

"He's finally coming home after 51 years," Rich Schoeppner added.

As it turns out, documents showed the jet at MAPS also went up to search for Schoeppner and Parcels when they disappeared on that fateful day in Vietnam in 1970.

The plane has since been restored, and the museum has added the words "Lt. Chops Schoeppner" on the canopy. "Chops" was Schoeppner's call sign.

Bob Jones | News 5 Cleveland

The insignia for Jack's squadron, the Freelancers, was also added to the back of the fighter.

"I couldn't ask for anything more," Rich Schoeppner said.

Bob Jones | News 5 Cleveland

But the museum indeed will do something more in the days following Veterans Day.

On Friday afternoon, a headstone will be dedicated in honor of Jack Schoeppner during a ceremony in the MIA section at Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery in Rittman.

In addition, a dedication of the F4 Phantom in memory of Jack Schoeppner and Parcels will take place on Saturday from 3:00 to 7:30 p.m at MAPS.

"It's like he's coming home, and everybody will be able to remember his story," Aman said.

This story was originally published by Bob Jones on Scripps station WEWS in Cleveland.

When a plane carrying baseball fans to a playoff game crashed in Houston last week, one passenger remembered hearing the words "get out, get out" as flames started to engulf the aircraft.

"It was already on fire before we got out of it!" the passenger, who didn't want to be named, told CNN affiliate KHOU.

The 21 people on board evacuated safely, and no major injuries were reported.

"It's not as rare as you think," CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo said of the fact that no one died.

Modern aircraft are designed for passengers to be able to evacuate within 90 seconds, according to Schiavo, former inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation and a lawyer who has represented fliers and crew members of several aviation accidents.

"I'm going to give credit to both the Federal Aviation Administration... and the International Civil Aviation Organization, which put in place the evacuation rules you have to have enough doors and emergency exits on modern planes to get people out," Schiavo said. "And that has been documented to saving thousands of lives."

Schiavo pointed to the fiery 2005 crash of an Air France flight in Toronto, where nearly 300 passengers and twelve crew members survived.

And to an Aeromexico flight carrying 103 people that crashed in 2018 just after taking off from an airport in northwestern Mexico, forcing passengers to escape via emergency slides before the aircraft went up in flames. No one died.

In July 2013, Schiavo noted, just three passengers died when an Asiana Airlines flight carrying more than 300 people crashed at San Francisco International Airport.

"If you put the pictures of those four flights together ... you will be stunned how similar the pictures look because it's just total devastation," Schiavo said. "That people got off is a testament to exit protocols and having exits on planes."

The FAA standard requires that aircraft manufacturers demonstrate all passengers and crew can evacuate an aircraft within 90 seconds by conducting live demonstrations of simulated evacuations or through testing and analysis.

'We thought it was going to explode'

On Tuesday, an MD-87 carrying Houston Astros fans to their team's game against the Red Sox in Boston never gained altitude at takeoff and crashed into a fence before bursting into flames.

"Going down the runway, and it just all the sudden they slammed on the brakes," the unidentified passenger told KHOU.

"Things were flying around and when it finally came to a stop, they just said 'get out, get out' because we thought it was going to explode," the man said.

The emergency slides deployed and passengers were able to slide down to safety.

Two people were transported to a hospital with minor injuries, officials said.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived at the site on Wednesday morning. The cause of the crash hasn't been determined.

The plane traveled about 500 feet on the runaway before the crash, according to Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Sgt. Stephen Woodard.

"This is a good day. This is actually a day of celebration for a lot of people," Woodard told reporters on Tuesday.

'It is technology that saves lives'

Experts attribute the high rates of survivability during airline crashes to the use of more flame-resistant cabin components such as fabric and padding, safer and sturdier seat designs and improved floor lighting.

"It is technology that saves lives, and it did in all four of these crashes," Schiavo said.

Aviation accidents are infrequent and, according to experts, most are survivable. Most commercial aviation accidents, they add, occur on take-off or landing.

"One thing you can say for sure is that the evacuation rule and having an adequate number of aircraft exits and having materials that don't immediately catch fire in cabins with more flame-resistant materials without a doubt saves lives, and that's been well documented," Schiavo said.

Schiavo said the first thing she does on a flight is to find the exits.

"When I board that plane, I note to myself and I say, 'My nearest exits are three rows up and two rows back,' or whatever they happen to be," she said.

"I know where the exits are. And I also always try to get myself as close as I can to an exit," she said. "And if I'm in an aisle and my exit is not an exit row then I look for my pathway to get out."

Schiavo also recommends keeping shoes on during a flight.

"Please wear sensible shoes and leave them on until after takeoff," she said. "I see people boarding with flip flops and I think if you have to get up and run and you fall down or you can't run, you're not only going to hurt yourself, you're going to hurt dozens of other people on this plane. So get some shoes."

There are possible fatalities after a twin-engine plane crashed Monday afternoon into two homes and also struck a delivery truck, according to the California city of Santee's Twitter feed.

"It is unknown at this time how many occupants were in the plane," Santee officials tweeted. "We currently know of two burn victims and possible fatalities."

The San Diego County Fire Department and sheriff's department responded to the crash, which occurred near a high school. Santana High School tweeted that all students are secure and the incident happened a few blocks away.

The San Diego County Sheriff's Department is warning residents to stay away from the area.

Media reports show damaged homes, along with smoke and flames.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

HEBRON, Ky. — It isn't often that we hear of a company moving from Silicon Valley to Cincinnati. But, a year ago, a company called ThorDrive relocated to Over-the-Rhine and has spent that time quietly developing an autonomous vehicle program being tested at the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport.

“One of the reasons we found Ohio to be such a welcoming state is because of that interest in Ohio and the leadership of Ohio to get to the next economy, economy 2.0, which is going to be technology,” said Eddie Shelton, vice president of business development for ThorDrive.

The move to Cincinnati is a return for Shelton. He grew up on the west side of the city, but left for more than 20 years to attend college and launch his career. He was pleasantly surprised by the way the city has changed and become an inviting place for technology businesses.

The result has been a luggage tug that moves around outside of the airport as if it is actually transporting luggage from the terminal to a plane, without a driver.

“In order for the tractor to be able to see, it uses a combination of lidar and camera vision,” said Shelton. “What these are able to do is map the area around it. And then there’s also computing power that’s also on-board the tractor.”

The test vehicle is nicknamed "Valkyrie," which goes with the ThorDrive theme. Shelton admits it's a nod to the Marvel movies and comics. ThorDrive even has a lightning bolt as its logo.

Meanwhile, the vehicles know when to stop, when to go and when to turn. ThorDrive doesn't build the vehicle. It retrofits the software program to existing vehicles, which airport officials believe is the first time this technology has been applied this way in North America.

“It implies that the Midwest is very much on the forefront of technology,” said Brian Cobb, chief innovation officer at the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport.

Cobb said showing the technology can work for luggage will help make other uses, like passenger transportation, more acceptable.

“A unique opportunity like this to see a driver-less tug will certainly start imparting that knowledge on the traveling consumer to understand the technology that we’ve heard about for so many years is actually here today at CVG,” said Cobb.

“We intend to have this proof of concept developed to a sale-able product by the end of next year," said Shelton. "Then through several of our partners that we work with have identified over the next year what the next vehicles that we’ll make autonomous are.”

Shelton said the company is already finding interest in the concept at other airports. But, the concept can likely be adapted to a number of environments.

“It’s really not much of a stretch for this autonomous tractor to be pulling inventory in a distribution center, supplies in a manufacturing location, or even adding forks to it and having an autonomous forklift,” he said.

As far as the impact on workers, Shelton believes it will be an opportunity to train workers to learn to operate the technological aspects of autonomous vehicles. He also said ThorDrive is creating jobs in Cincinnati.

“We’re hiring as fast as we can. We currently have 11 people here in Cincinnati. And, our technical staff of about nine, we will see that double next year here in Cincinnati," said Shelton.

He also said safety is a priority. They've operated for more than 80,000 miles safely.

“Obviously, this environment is safety-critical. And that’s another reason why it plays so well into Thordrive is that we’ve done a lot of development. This technology has actually been incubated for over 15 years,” Shelton said.

A Spirit Airlines flight departing from Atlantic City Airport on Saturday was aborted after a large bird flew into one of the plane’s engines and sparked a fire as it attempted to take off, officials say.

The plane was headed down the runway, destined for Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when the bird collided with the plane. A fire started, causing passengers and crew to evacuate immediately.

The plane ultimately came to a full stop and was evacuated by officials.

The plane’s passengers were returned to the terminal and given a full refund as well as a travel voucher and the option to board another flight to Florida.

"We’re closely monitoring an aircraft incident that happened tonight at @ACYAirport," New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy tweeted Saturday night. "All passengers and crew were successfully evacuated off the plane, and no serious injuries reported. The airport has reopened."

February is all about celebrating black history, and throughout the month we'll be honoring influential African Americans whose stories you might not yet know. Some are pioneers in their field, some helped spark the civil rights movement, and all have contributed incredible things to not only black history, but to the history of the United States as a whole.Discover the story of how Bessie Coleman became the first African American woman to earn her pilot license by watching the video above.

Debris from a United Airlines plane fell onto Denver suburbs during an emergency landing Saturday after one of its engines suffered a catastrophic failure and rained pieces of the engine casing on a neighborhood where it narrowly missed a home.

The plane landed safely, and nobody aboard or on the ground was reported hurt, authorities said.

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the Boeing 777-200 returned to the Denver International Airport after experiencing a right-engine failure shortly after takeoff. Flight 328 was flying from Denver to Honolulu when the incident occurred, the agency said.

Photos posted by the police department showed large, circular pieces of debris leaning against a house in the suburb about 25 miles north of Denver.

Passengers recounted a terrifying ordeal that began to unfold shortly after the plane full of vacationers took off.

The aircraft was almost at cruising altitude and the captain was giving an announcement over the intercom when a large explosion rocked the cabin, accompanied by a bright flash.

“The plane started shaking violently, and we lost altitude and we started going down,” said David Delucia, who was sitting directly across the aisle from the side with the failed engine. “When it initially happened, I thought we were done. I thought we were going down."

Delucia and his wife took their wallets containing their driver's licenses and put them in their pockets so that “in case we did go down, we could be ID'd," said Delucia, who was still shaken up as he waited to board another flight for Honolulu.

Tyler Thal, who lives in the area, told The Associated Press that he was out for a walk with his family when he noticed a large commercial plane flying unusually low and took out his phone to film it.

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“While I was looking at it, I saw an explosion and then the cloud of smoke and some debris falling from it. It was just like a speck in the sky and as I’m watching that, I’m telling my family what I just saw and then we heard the explosion,” he said in a phone interview. “The plane just kind of continued on and we didn’t see it after that.”

Thal was relieved to learn later that the plane had made a safe landing.

United said in a separate statement that there were 231 passengers and 10 crew on board. All passengers were to be rebooked on a new flight to Hawaii, the airline said.

Video posted on Twitter showed the engine fully engulfed in flames as the plane flew through the air.

Kirby Klements was inside with his wife when they heard a huge booming sound, he said. A few seconds later, the couple saw a massive piece of debris fly past their window and into the bed of Klements' truck, crushing the cab and pushing the vehicle into the dirt.

He estimated the circular engine cowling at 15 feet in diameter. Fine pieces of the fiberglass insulation used in the airplane engine fell from the sky “like ash” for about 10 minutes, he said, and several large chunks of insulation landed in his backyard.

“If it had been 10 feet different, it would have landed right on top of the house,” he said in a phone interview with the AP. “And if anyone had been in the truck, they would have been dead.”

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.

Aviation safety experts said the plane appeared to have suffered an uncontained and catastrophic engine failure. Such an event is extremely rare and happens when huge spinning discs inside the engine suffer some sort of failure and breach the armored casing around the engine that is designed to contain the damage, said John Cox, an aviation safety expert and retired airline pilot who runs an aviation safety consulting firm called Safety Operating Systems.

“That unbalanced disk has a lot of force in it, and it’s spinning at several thousand rotations per minute ... and when you have that much centrifugal force, it has to go somewhere,” he said in a phone interview.

Pilots practice how to deal with such an event frequently and would have immediately shut off anything flammable in the engine, including fuel and hydraulic fluid, using a single switch, Cox said.

Former NTSB Chairman Jim Hall called the incident another example of “cracks in our culture in aviation safety (that) need to be addressed.

Hall, who was on the board from 1994 to 2001, has criticized the FAA over the past decade as “drifting toward letting the manufacturers provide the aviation oversight that the public was paying for.” That goes especially for Boeing, he said.

Despite the scary appearance of a flaming engine, most such incidents don't result in loss of life, Cox said.

GUATEMALA CITY —

With Kamala Harris visiting Guatemala and Mexico on her first foreign trip as vice president, the Biden administration is expected to announce new measures to fight smuggling and trafficking, and hopes to announce additional anti-corruption efforts as well on Monday, a senior administration official said.

The official, who briefed reporters traveling with Harris on Sunday, spoke on condition of anonymity to preview announcements before they have been made public. No further details were provided.

Harris has been tasked by President Joe Biden with addressing the root causes of the spike in migration to the U.S.-Mexico border, and her aides say corruption will be a central focus of her meetings with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on Monday and Mexico's Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday.

"Corruption really does sap the the wealth of any country, and in Central America is at a scale where it is a large percentage of GDP across the region," said special envoy Ricardo Zuniga.

"We see corruption as one of the most important root causes to be dealt with," Zuniga added.

The trip got off to a rocky start when Harris' plane returned to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland about 30 minutes after takeoff because of what her spokesperson said was a problem with the landing gear. She departed on another plane and landed late Sunday in in Guatemala City, where she was met by Foreign Minister Pedro Brolo.

Harris is seeking to secure commitments from Guatemala and Mexico for greater cooperation on border security and economic investment, and aides say she will also discuss vaccine sharing during her meetings. But corruption in the region — a far more intractable challenge — will complicate her efforts.

It's already had a significant impact on her work in Central America. Harris has yet to engage substantively with the leaders of Honduras and El Salvador, who are both embroiled in corruption scandals.

Giammattei has faced criticism over corruption within his own government. Zuniga acknowledged that the U.S. government faces a challenge in working with him but argued Harris was in the country in part to have a direct conversation with the president about this and other issues.

"The best way to deal with these cases where you have a very complex relationship in a country like Guatemala is to talk clearly and plainly as partners, as countries that have to get along," he said.

Harris has laid out an approach centered on creating better opportunities and living conditions in the region through humanitarian and economic aid. She announced plans to send $310 million to provide support for refugees and address food shortages, and recently secured commitments from a dozen companies and organizations to invest in the Northern Triangle countries to promote economic opportunity and job training.

Washington won some goodwill through its vaccine diplomacy this past week. Giammattei and López Obrador both received calls from Harris on Thursday telling them the U.S. would be sending 500,000 doses and 1 million doses, respectively, of COVID-19 vaccine.

While in Guatemala, Harris also plans to meet community leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs. In Mexico, she will speak with female entrepreneurs and hold a roundtable with labor workers.

She's underscored the need to address corruption in public remarks and events. In a May meeting with a number of leading voices on Guatemala's justice system, she noted her work as a prosecutor and said that "injustice is a root cause of migration."

"Part of giving people hope is having a very specific commitment to rooting out corruption in the region," she said.

Harris has also raised the issue during virtual meetings with the leaders of both countries, and aides say she will do it again during meetings on her trip. During their past conversations, they have discussed areas of mutual interest — improving port security, fighting smuggling networks, going after corrupt actors — and the goal of this trip is to turn that talk into action, aides say.

While the vice president will make announcements concerning new efforts at cooperation and new programs, she's not expected to announce any new aid during her trip.

While in Latin America, Harris will also have to navigate the politics of immigration. Congressional Republicans have criticized both Biden and Harris for deciding not to visit the border, and contend the administration is ignoring what they say is a crisis there. April was the second-busiest month on record for unaccompanied children encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border, following March's all-time high. The Border Patrol's total encounters in April were up 3% from March, marking the highest level since April 2000.

Conservatives will be watching Harris closely for any missteps, hoping to drag her into further controversy on an issue that they see as a political winner.

In her efforts to win commitments on corruption from the region's leaders, Harris can point to a number of moves by the Biden administration last week.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized the problem during his own recent trip to Central America. The White House issued a memo elevating foreign corruption to a major national security issue, and directed all federal agencies to prioritize it and modernize their foreign corruption-fighting tools.

Eric Olson, director of policy at the Seattle International Foundation, which works to promote good governance in Central America, said that addressing corruption will take particular diplomatic skill. Harris will need to hold the leaders of Guatemala and Mexico accountable while also deepening trust and cooperation with the two nations.

"The challenge that she faces is how to, on the one hand, have a conversation, keep the door open — while not seeming to ignore the obvious elephant in the room, which is this incredible penetration of the state by corrupt actors," he said.

In Mexico, López Obrador continues to face a complicated security situation in many parts of the country. Nearly three-dozen candidates or pre-candidates were killed before this weekend’s midterm elections as drug cartels sought to protect their interests. The government’s inability to provide security in parts of the country is of interest to the U.S. in an immigration context, both for the people who are displaced by violence and the impact it has on a severely weakened economy trying reemerge from the pandemic.

The number of Mexicans encountered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection rose steadily from December through April. Mexico remains a key U.S. ally in trying to slow immigration, not only of its own citizens, but those crossing its territory. Successive U.S. administrations have effectively tried to push their immigration enforcement goals south to Mexico and Guatemala.

Nongovernmental organizations placed Guatemala's widespread corruption at the top of their list of concerns before Harris' visit.

Last month, two lawyers who are outspoken critics of Giammattei's administration were arrested on what they say were trumped-up charges aimed at silencing them.

The selection of judges for Guatemala's Constitutional Court, its highest, was mired in influence peddling and alleged corruption. Giammattei picked his chief of staff to fill one of the five vacancies. When Gloria Porras, a respected force against corruption, was elected to a second term, the congress controlled by Giammattei's party refused to seat her.

Harris' visit comes with high expectations, but experts say clear progress on corruption may be elusive.

"These are societies built on corruption," said Olson. "You're not gonna have an impact in six months."

___

Sherman reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writer Sonia Pérez D. in Guatemala City contributed to this report.

United Airlines is trying to bring back supersonic travel. They announced a deal this week with a Denver-area start-up called Boom Supersonic.

It announced it's buying 15 new jets from a Denver startup.

The jets would carry between 65 to 88 people at a speed of Mach 1.7 and it would cut flight times almost in half.

A flight from New York to London would be 3.5 hours compared to the normal 6.5 hours.

The planes have not been built yet. United plans to have passengers on-board by 2029. It's been nearly 20 years since the Concorde supersonic plane was retired.

Robin Dich and Alex Livingston contributed to this report.

Inside a hangar that sits just outside the runways at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Russ Peterson is one of the many people responsible for making sure United Airlines planes run smoothly – both in the air and on the ground.

“The guys today are going to remove all the external tape, flags, covers,” he explained.

A specific airplane had been in storage for just over a month.

“We have to do a lot of checks on the airplane,” said Peterson, a shift manager for United Airlines Aircraft Maintenance in Cleveland, Ohio.

It’s a process that takes about three and a half days.

“We go over the whole entire fuselage, wings, everything to make sure there's nothing out of place.”

But for planes that have been in storage long-term, the process takes longer.

“Long-term storage takes probably five to six days,” he said.

Multiply that by dozens of planes at that one location.

As the pandemic hit last year, the CDC ranked flying a moderately high risk for COVID-19 and every airline grounded aircraft, leaving these companies scrambling for storage space.

“When they first came about and this all hit the fan we decided to take on as many as we could,” Peterson said. “We took on 53 which was the second largest city of stored aircraft initially.”

Peterson and his team were now in charge of dozens of empty aircraft. After working there for almost four decades, he said he had never seen anything like it.

“The work that we've done on the 53 aircraft far surpasses what we normally do because we’ve had to work so much harder to keep them and maintain them. Airplanes are made to fly, not sit on the ground. We had to jack airplanes and rotate tires so they don't get flat spots, so there's always something to do on every airplane.”

It led to images of planes stacked next to each other on the tarmac – one of the jarring images during the height of the pandemic that showed the toll on the travel industry.

“At the worst scenario we only had 200 airplanes flying when normally we had over 700 flying,” he said. “And all the airlines basically had to do the same thing.”

On May 20, 2020, United Airlines had the most aircraft in storage with 515 planes.

Now, things are looking up. With vaccines available nationwide and loosened restrictions, more people are filing seats, which translates into more planes filling the skies.

United Airlines said they’ve seen summer bookings for June through August go up 214% from July 2020.

It’s led to the greatest demand for trips that Heather Travis has ever seen.

“About March I got super busy,” Travis said. “March was my busiest month ever and I was booking trips for the summer, I was booking trips for 2022.”

As a travel agent, she said she sees the pent-up demand to travel, and some of the issues customers face with booking flights as everything goes back to mostly normal.

“It just feels a little different, there's maybe not so many options. I haven’t seen a whole lot of there's just no availability, not that problem, just flight prices. People are calling me like I can’t believe it’s going to cost me $1,700 to get me to the East Coast,” she explained.

Of the 53 United airplanes stored at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, just one remains in long-term storage. One last reminder of the way the pandemic rippled through the travel industry.

“It’s wrapped up, engines are closed off, air conditioning systems closed off, flight controls are disabled,” Peterson said, explaining the last plane in long-term storage. But even this one will be out by September.

“It really does show the horizon for us, so we can get everything back flying,” he said.

Workers like Peterson can focus less on the unknown every day and more on the regular maintenance and safety of the planes.

“That’s it. That’s what I like to do, keep them flying, keep them safe.”

In June, United Airlines will fly its largest schedule since before the pandemic, with 561 aircraft in the active fleet. By July, they expect to be operating 80 percent of its domestic network compared to July 2019.