In crowded skies, lost plane's request for new path denied

SURABAYA, Indonesia — The plane sought permission to climb above threatening clouds. Air traffic control couldn't say yes immediately — there was no room. Six other commercial airliners were crowding the surrounding airspace, forcing AirAsia Flight 8501 to remain at a lower altitude.

Minutes later, the jet carrying 162 people was gone from the radar. No distress signal was issued. It is believed to have crashed into Indonesia's Java Sea on Sunday morning, but exactly what happened — and whether the plane's flight path played any role — won't be determined until after the aircraft is found.

Broad aerial surveys on Monday spotted two oily patches and objects in separate locations, but it's unknown whether any of it is related to the missing Airbus A320-200.

The plane left Surabaya, Indonesia, but vanished halfway into what should have been a two-hour hop to Singapore. Officials on Monday saw little reason to believe the flight met anything but a grim fate.

"Based on the coordinates that we know, the evaluation would be that any estimated crash position is in the sea, and that the hypothesis is the plane is at the bottom of the sea," Indonesia search and rescue chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo said. Search officials did, however, plan to expand their search efforts onto land on Tuesday.

The last communication from the cockpit to air traffic control was a request by one of the pilots to increase altitude from 32,000 feet (9,754 meters) to 38,000 feet (11,582 meters) because of the rough weather. The tower was not able to immediately comply because of the other planes, said Bambang Tjahjono, director of the state-owned company in charge of air-traffic control.

Sarjono Joni, a former pilot with a state-run Indonesian carrier, said the usual course of action when planes run into rough weather is to veer either left or right. A request to climb would most likely come if the plane was experiencing heavy turbulence or otherwise causing serious passenger discomfort, he said.

He added that heavy traffic is not unusual for any given airspace.

The twin-engine, single-aisle plane was last seen on radar four minutes after the final communication from the cockpit.

Search and rescue crews were looking for the plane with at least 15 ships, seven aircraft and four helicopters, national search and rescue spokesman Jusuf Latif said. Most are Indonesian but Singapore, Malaysia and Australia have contributed planes, and a ship and aircraft from Thailand were awaiting clearance from Indonesia's Foreign Ministry.

Those numbers do not include Indonesian warships taking part in the search. Many fishermen from Belitung island also have joined in, and all vessels in that area of the sea have been alerted to be on the lookout for anything that could be linked to the plane.

Jakarta's air force base commander, Rear Marshal Dwi Putranto, said an Australian Orion aircraft had detected "suspicious" objects near an island about 100 miles (160 kilometers) off central Kalimantan. That's about 700 miles (1,120 kilometers) from the location where the plane lost contact, but within Monday's greatly expanded search area.

"However, we cannot be sure whether it is part of the missing AirAsia plane," Putranto said. "We are now moving in that direction, which is in cloudy conditions."

Air Force spokesman Rear Marshal Hadi Tjahnanto told MetroTV that an Indonesian helicopter spotted two oily spots in the Java Sea east of Belitung island, much closer to where the plane lost contact than the objects viewed from the Australian plane. He said oil samples would be collected and analyzed to see if they are connected to the missing plane.

An Associated Press photographer flew in a C-130 transport carrier with Indonesia's Air Force for 10 hours Monday over a large section of the search area between Kalimantan and Belitung. The flight was bumpy and rainy at times. It hovered low at 1,500 feet, giving clear visibility to waves, ships and fishermen, but there was no sign of the plane.

The disappearance and suspected crash caps an astonishingly tragic year for air travel in Southeast Asia, and Malaysia in particular. Malaysia-based AirAsia's loss comes on top of the still-unexplained disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March with 239 people aboard, and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July over Ukraine, which killed all 298 passengers and crew.

"Until today, we have never lost a life," AirAsia group CEO Tony Fernandes, who founded the low-cost carrier in 2001, told reporters in Jakarta airport. "But I think that any airline CEO who says he can guarantee that his airline is 100 percent safe, is not accurate."

He refused to address compensation issues or any changes that may be made to the airline as a result of this incident.

"We have carried 220 million people up to this point," he said. "Of course, there's going to be some reaction, but we are confident in our ability to fly people."

Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo was in Indonesia's Papua province when the plane disappeared but was back in Jakarta, the capital, on Monday. He said he ordered an immediate review of all aviation procedures.

"I was very shocked (by the disappearance) and I could feel the concern, the frustration and the sadness experienced by the passengers' families, and I believe also felt by all the people of Indonesia," Jokowi said at a press conference.

Nearly all the passengers and crew are Indonesians, who are frequent visitors to Singapore, particularly on holidays.

Ruth Natalia Puspitasari, who would have turned 26 on Monday, was among them. Her father, Suyanto, sat with his wife, who was puffy-eyed and coughing, near the family crisis center at Surabaya's airport.

Suyanto remembers the concern his daughter showed for the families of the MH370 tragedy. Puspitasari once told him how sad it must be for the victims' relatives who were left waiting for their loved ones with no certainty.

"Now she is gone in the missing plane, and we should face this sorrow, I can't believe it!" he said, tears rolling down his cracked cheeks. "This is too hard to be faced."

He was still sleeping when Puspitasari left for the airport with her fiance and future in-laws for a New Year's vacation. But he called her just before she boarded, and she told him excitedly that they planned to celebrate her birthday in Singapore.

"I don't want to experience the same thing with what was happened with Malaysia Airlines," he said as his wife wept. "It could be a long suffering."

Few believe this search will be as perplexing as the ongoing one for Flight 370, where what happened onboard remains a total mystery. Authorities suspect the plane was deliberately diverted by someone on board and ultimately lost in a remote area of the Indian Ocean where the water is notoriously deep. Flight 8501 vanished over a heavily traveled sea that is relatively shallow, with no sign of foul play.

Flight 8501 had been airborne for about 42 minutes when it lost contact.

The plane had an Indonesian captain, Iryanto, who uses one name, and a French co-pilot, five cabin crew members and 155 passengers, including 16 children and one infant, the airline said in a statement. Among the passengers were three South Koreans, a Malaysian, a British national and his 2-year-old Singaporean daughter. The rest were Indonesians.

AirAsia said the captain had more than 20,000 flying hours.

"Papa, come home, I still need you," Angela Anggi Ranastianis, the captain's 22-year-old daughter, pleaded on social media late Sunday, which was widely quoted by Indonesian press. "Bring back my papa. Papa, please come home."

At Iryanto's house in the East Java town of Sidoarjo, neighbors, relatives and friends gathered Monday to pray and recite the Quran to support the distraught family. Their desperate cries were so loud, they could sometimes be heard outside where three televisions had been set up to monitor search developments.

"He is a good man. That's why people here appointed him as our neighborhood chief for the last two years," said Bagianto Djoyonegoro, a friend and neighbor.

Many recalled him as an experienced Air Force pilot who flew F-16 fighter jets before becoming a commercial airline pilot.

His co-pilot, Remi Plesel, had been in Indonesia three years and loved to fly, his sister, Renee, told France's RTL radio.

"He told me that things were going well, that he'd had a good Christmas. He was happy. The rains were starting, the weather was bad. It was raining a lot," she said.

___

Mason reported from Jakarta. Ali Kotarumalos, Niniek Karmini and Robin McDowell in Jakarta, Joan Lowy in Austin, Texas, Scott Mayerowitz in New York and Lori Hinnant in Paris contributed to this report.

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Vermont Yankee plant prepares to shut down

VERNON, Vt. — The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant is getting ready to shut down.

Its owner, Entergy Corp., says it is closing the plant for economic reasons. The plant in Vernon is expected to disconnect from the regional power grid Monday.

The plant employed more than 600 people when it announced it would close. The workforce will be cut in half after a round of layoffs and retirements Jan. 19.

In 2016, the plant will see another big reduction as it prepares for a 30-year period during which time its radiation will cool. The plant likely won't be dismantled until the 2040s or later.

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Greece heads for early election, stoking financial concerns

ATHENS, Greece — Greece's government was forced Monday to call early national elections, stoking financial concerns as investors worry the main opposition party will win — and want to renege on the country's bailout deal.

The stock market closed 3.9 percent lower, recovering from an earlier 11.3 percent plunge on news of the election, which was triggered by parliament's failure to elect a new president. European markets also fell, with the Euro Stoxx index down 0.6 percent.

Investors fear the left-wing opposition Syriza party, which has a narrow but steady lead in opinion polls, might act on popular resentment over six years of government austerity by seeking to overhaul the international bailout deal.

At the height of the eurozone crisis in 2010-2012, Greece's financial turmoil risked breaking up the currency union, an event which would have shaken the global economy.

The risks today are not as great, analysts say. For one, little of Greece's debt is held by private investors around the world, but mainly its bailout creditors, the International Monetary Fund and other eurozone countries.

Also, the European Union and European Central Bank now have programs meant to stabilize markets and support confidence in eurozone markets.

"Due to the policy advances made, the safeguards that have been put in place and the (European Central Bank's) stated public commitment to doing whatever is necessary to keep the eurozone together, events in Greece now pose much less of a threat to the eurozone" than a few years ago, IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer said in a note.

However, should a new government seek changes to the deal, Greece's access to credit would be delayed just as its bailout loans are coming to an end. Greece still cannot finance itself independently on bond markets, so it faces the danger of a default that could hurt the finances of fellow European countries.

The IMF said Monday the current bailout review — upon which depends the payment of the next batch of rescue loans — will resume only after the new government is in place. It said Athens faces no immediate financing needs, however. The review has been stalled for months due to disagreements on new spending cuts.

Greek conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said national elections, the fourth in six fraught years of financial crisis, will be held "at the soonest possible date" — Sunday, Jan. 25, 18 months early.

"The country has no time to waste," Samaras said in a televised address after the presidential vote. "The people must learn the truth about how easy it is to relapse into the deepest and most dramatic crisis."

In the presidential vote, his coalition's candidate for the post, 73-year-old former European commissioner Stavros Dimas, garnered 168 out of 300 possible votes— short of the 180 needed to win. It was the third and final round of voting. According to the constitution, the vote's failure means parliament has to be dissolved within 10 days.

Syriza has pledged to roll back some of the reforms Greece implemented to qualify for 240 billion euros in rescue funds. But it has recently softened its rhetoric about unilaterally pulling out of the bailout deal.

Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras said Monday's vote marked a "historic day for Greek democracy."

"Today Mr. Samaras' government, which for two and a half years plundered our society and had already decided and committed to take new (austerity) measures, belongs to the past," Tsipras said. "With the will of our people, in a few days, the austerity agreements will also belong to the past."

Commenting on the elections, European Finance Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said a "strong commitment to Europe" and backing for reforms will be "essential for Greece to thrive again within the euro area."

Greece lost market confidence and nearly went bankrupt in 2010, after years of profligate spending, dodging public sector reforms and hiding the extent of its bloated public deficit and debt.

The EU-IMF bailouts kept the country afloat, but drastic belt-tightening demanded by creditors hammered incomes and living conditions, sending unemployment to a post-World War II high. Ensuing resentment fuelled support for anti-austerity parties, from Syriza — whose pre-crisis support was under 5 percent — to the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn.

Samaras, 63, presided over a historic coalition that united his conservative party with their historic socialist rivals to hammer out further draconian spending cuts that balanced the budget after decades and led to a modest economic recovery this year.

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Derek Gatopoulos in Athens contributed to this report.

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Israel's Channel 10 seeks emergency government funding to avert shutdown

TEL AVIV - Israel's Channel 10, which for years has been struggling to pull itself out of a financial black hole, will go dark for good on Dec. 31 without an emergency injection of cash from the government.

On Sunday night, however, three days before their looming closure, the station halted its broadcasts for several hours and instead displayed a photograph of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It was accompanied by the message, "In three days, Channel 10 will close. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who serves as the communications minister, refuses to find a solution."

In a move that sent the Israeli government into turmoil earlier this moth, Netanyahu summarily fired several members of his cabinet and called for fresh elections. He has since been serving as acting minister of communications in addition to his prime minister duties, but has refrained from making a statement on the status of Channel 10.

Channel 10 is one of only two private television networks in Israel. Its closure will mean a monopoly on news reporting for rival Channel 2. Many critics in Israel are calling the situation a genuine threat to Israel's democratic character.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin weighed in on the situation on Monday, writing on his public Facebook page, "The TV blackout casts a shadow on Israeli democracy, especially during election time. Given the limited competition in the Israeli communications market, we cannot afford to lose the channel, especially at a time when we need to be exposed to the spectrum of opinions and attitudes."

Channel 10 was previously brought back from the grave in 2012 when Israel's parliament gave it a two-year reprieve to pay back the significant funds it owed to the government. Two years later, the station remains mired in debt, but its employees are also operating under a near-unanimous contention that Netanyahu wants to see them shuttered following a series of damning news items about him, his wife and their associates.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Key decisions on drones likely from Congress

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is on the verge of proposing long-awaited rules for commercial drone operations in U.S. skies, but key decisions on how much access to grant drones are likely to come from Congress next year.

Federal Aviation Administration officials have said they want to release proposed rules before the end of this month, but other government and industry officials say they are likely to be delayed until January. Meanwhile, except for a small number of companies that have received FAA exemptions, a ban on commercial drone flights remains in place. Even after rules are proposed, it is likely to be two or three years before regulations become final.

That's too long to wait, say drone industry officials. Every year the ban remains in place, the United States loses more than $10 billion in potential economic benefits that drones could provide, according to the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, a trade group.

"We need some sort of process that allows some of the low-risk operations," said Jesse Kallman, the head of regulatory affairs for Airware, a drone technology company backed by Google Ventures. "I think Congress understands that, and hopefully they'll take steps in the coming year to address that."

That appears to be what some key lawmakers have in mind. "We in Congress are very interested in UAS," Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said at a hearing this month, referring to unmanned aerial systems, or drones. "We understand UAS are an exciting technology with the potential to transform parts of our economy. ... It is our responsibility to take a close look."

One of the committee's first priorities next year is writing legislation to reauthorize FAA programs and overhaul aviation policy. The bill is expected to include directions from lawmakers on how to integrate drones into the nation's aviation system. The last reauthorization bill, passed in 2012, directed the agency to integrate drones by Sept. 30, 2015, but it's clear the FAA will miss that deadline.

The FAA is expected to propose restricting drones weighing less than 55 pounds to altitudes below 400 feet, forbid nighttime flights and require drones be kept within sight of their operators. Drone operators may also be required to get pilot's licenses, a possibility already drawing fire from critics who say the skills needed to fly a manned aircraft are different from those needed to operate a drone.

Shuster indicated he's concerned that requiring pilot's licenses might be burdensome and unnecessary. And keeping drones within sight of operators would be too strict and limit their usefulness, he said.

The reason for keeping drones within line of sight is that they don't yet have the ability to detect and avoid other aircraft.

AUVSI, the drone industry trade group, recently hired Mark Aitken, former legislative director to Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J., as its government relations manager. LoBiondo is chairman of the House Subcommittee on Aviation, which will write the FAA reauthorization bill.

"We're really looking at an incremental approach still," Aitken said. "It's not something that is going to happen overnight."

FAA officials have been working on drone regulations for nearly a decade. The agency twice drafted regulations that were later rejected by the White House or Transportation Department. The FAA has long maintained that unmanned aircraft must meet the same regulations as manned aircraft unless waiving or adjusting those regulations doesn't create a safety risk. However, FAA officials more recently have begun talking about "risk-based" regulations, giving industry officials hope the agency might propose a blanket exemption from regulations for the smallest drones — usually defined as weighing under 5 pounds — as long as operators follow a few basic safety rules. Canadian authorities recently approved a blanket exemption for very small drones.

Congress already is getting pushback from private and commercial pilots who worry about possible collisions. The FAA receives reports nearly every day about drones sighted flying near manned aircraft or airports.

"As a (Boeing) 737 captain, I'll be damned if myself and 178 other people are taken down by a 12-pound or a 50-pound or a 150-pound piece of metal coming through my windshield," said Ben Berman at a recent forum hosted by the Air Line Pilots Association. "There are too many near misses occurring every day like this."

Mark Baker, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, which represents private pilots, said online videos show that "operators are flying near airports, in the clouds and in congested airspace." He called such actions "reckless" and said they will inevitably lead to a collision.

FAA regulations permit recreational users to fly small drones as long as they stay at least 5 miles away from an airport, limit flights to less than 400 feet in altitude, keep the aircraft in line of sight and fly only during the daytime.

Last week, drone industry trade groups teamed up with the FAA and model aircraft hobbyists to launch a safety campaign aimed at amateur drone operations. The campaign includes a website, www.knowbeforeyoufly.com , where operators can find FAA regulations and advice on how to fly safely. The trade groups said they also plan to distribute safety pamphlets at industry events and are working with manufacturers to see that safety information is enclosed inside the package of new drones.

Retailers say small drones, which are indistinguishable from today's more sophisticated model aircraft, were popular gifts this Christmas.

___

Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

___

Online:

Drone safety campaign: http://www.knowbeforeyoufly.com

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Allianz says it's lead insurer for AirAsia plane

BERLIN — Allianz says it is the lead insurance firm for the AirAsia jetliner that went missing off Indonesia with 162 people on board.

The Munich-based reinsurance giant said Monday that its subsidiary Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty UK is the lead insurer for AirAsia, including for liability insurance.

Allianz said in a statement that it is too early to comment on the incident itself, but expressed its support for those affected by it.

An international search is underway to determine the fate of AirAsia Flight 8501, which disappeared from radar Sunday morning over the Java Sea on its way from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore.

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AirAsia's brash CEO in spotlight after jet disappears

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — His airline empire began, Tony Fernandes likes to say, with the purchase of a bankrupt company for less than a dollar. Now, after years of growth that made him the king of Asian budget travel, the flamboyant Malaysian businessman is facing the horror of the disappearance of an AirAsia jet with 162 people on board.

Fernandes, who built AirAsia's regional network on cheap fares, a love of the spotlight and occasionally provocative advertising ("There's a new girl in town. She's twice the fun and half the price."), was clearly exhausted by the time he met reporters late Sunday at the airport in Surabaya, Indonesia, where the missing flight had taken off.

"We are very devastated by what has happened. It is unbelievable," he said. In an earlier tweet to his employees, Fernandes said, "This is my worst nightmare."

Fernandes pioneered regional low-cost air travel by launching AirAsia in January 2002, growing it from two planes to more than 180 by breaking the dominance of national airlines and making flying affordable for the millions of Asians entering the middle class. Today, he has an estimated net worth of $650 million.

A massive air and sea search has so far turned up no confirmed sign of AirAsia Flight 8501, which vanished from radar Sunday morning about 42 minutes after taking off from Surabaya en route to Singapore.

The missing jet was the third major airline incident this year involving Malaysia. First came Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared on its way to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on March 8 and has not been found. A few months later, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine.

But this marks the first tragedy for Malaysia-based AirAsia, which has a strong safety record. Flight 8501 was operated by AirAsia Indonesia, a subsidiary that is 49 percent owned by AirAsia Malaysia.

Earlier this year, AirAsia boasted in its in-flight magazine that its well-trained pilots would never lose a plane. The airline withdrew the magazine and Fernandes apologized for the article, which was written before Flight 370 disappeared. Fernandes also courted controversy on the day that flight lost contact. An active Twitter user with more than a million followers, he tweeted that the plane's radio had failed and that all on board were safe. He later deleted the tweet.

Shukor Yusof, an aviation analyst with Endau Analytics in Malaysia, said Fernandes had reacted well so far to the latest crisis, communicating properly and quickly traveling to Surabaya.

"There will be some adverse knee-jerk reaction, but I don't think it will cripple the airline," Shukor said. "AirAsia has sound fundamentals in terms of its business model and management, and this crisis should not suppress its growth."

Last year, AirAsia flew 42.6 million people across the region.

A 50-year-old Malaysian of Indian-Portuguese descent and a serious music buff — he plays keyboards and the drums — Fernandes earned a finance degree in the United Kingdom and rose quickly in the music industry, first at Virgin Group and later at Warner Music International. He was appointed Warner's chief in Malaysia in 1992 at age 28, the youngest person to hold that post.

Warner CD sales jumped during his tenure, but he left after Time-Warner's merger with AOL to enter the airline business, a longtime dream.

Fernandes got together with three other investors, mortgaged his house and withdrew his savings to buy the floundering AirAsia on Sept. 8, 2001, paying a symbolic 1 ringgit, or about 25 U.S. cents. Three days later, New York and Washington were hit by terrorist attacks.

But AirAsia coasted through the crisis. With its tagline "Now Everyone Can Fly," it revolutionized cheap air travel in the region and repaid its 40 million ringgit ($11.4 million) debt in less than two years.

Today, it has more than 8,000 employees and flies to 132 destinations in Asia. AirAsia is now a major competitor to full-service carriers such as Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways, which have since set up budget offshoots to vie for a bigger share of passengers.

In many ways, Fernandes' career echoes the empire Richard Branson created at Virgin Group — both in terms of how the men love attention, and how they have expanded across industries.

From short routes of up to four hours, AirAsia has expanded into long-haul flying through its sister airline AirAsia X. Through his Tune Group, which owns AirAsia, Fernandes also started a hotel chain and offers car rental, insurance and credit cards in tie-ups with banks.

He was, in many ways, ahead of the industry curve, sensing a need for low-cost flights in what is now the world's fastest-growing region for airlines.

"Air travel is made for Asia," Fernandes told The Associated Press in 2002. "You can generally drive from one end of Europe to another or take a train, but that's not the case here. You want to try driving from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok? Good luck, mate!"

Fernandes is a vocal leader who enjoys interacting with the public at airports and on social media. AirAsia passengers often tweet him photos of their vacations, images Fernandes then shares with his followers.

In 2011, Fernandes stepped into the sports world when he bought a majority stake in the Queens Park Rangers, an English Premier League soccer club. The same year, Britain honored him as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and France made him an Officier de la Legion d'Honneur.

He also has funded a Formula One racing team, making lavish bets with owners of competing teams. But he sold his shares in the F1 team this year.

Last year, Fernandes further put AirAsia in the spotlight by hosting the Asian version of the reality TV series "The Apprentice." Filipino Jonathan Yabut won and now works for AirAsia in his country.

Since the disappearance of Flight 8501, Fernandes has focused on encouraging his staff not to buckle under the pressure.

"Be strong," he told his staff in another Twitter message. "Continue to be the best. Pray hard."

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Associated Press writers Scott Mayerowitz in New York and Tim Sullivan in New Delhi contributed to this report.

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S. Korea officials face punishment over 'nut rage'

SEOUL, South Korea — Four South Korean officials will be punished for improper conduct during an investigation into a former Korean Air Lines executive who forced a flight to return over a bag of macadamia nuts, the Transport Ministry said Monday.

The punishments could include dismissals, salary reductions or formal reprimands, according to Shin Eun-chul, the official who headed the ministry's internal investigation. The ministry also issued warnings to four other lower-ranking officials who were involved in the investigation.

Earlier this month, then-Korean Air executive Cho Hyun-ah, the daughter of the airline's chairman, forced a plane that was preparing to take off in New York to return to the gate and kicked off the chief flight attendant because she had been served nuts in a bag, not on a plate.

The ministry has been under fire following revelations that some officials leaked information and committed other improper acts during the investigation.

One of the officials to be reviewed for punishment was arrested Friday over allegations that he leaked information about the ministry's probe to a current Korean Air executive, surnamed Yeo, through several telephone conversations and text messages.

The ministry found other officials responsible for allowing Yeo to attend the ministry's questioning of the flight attendant forced off the plane and failing to interview other first-class passengers, one of whom who told prosecutors that Cho had assaulted and threatened the flight attendant.

A Seoul court is expected to decide Tuesday whether to issue an arrest warrant for Cho, who resigned as vice president at the airline earlier this month amid mounting public criticism over the incident. Prosecutors are also seeking to arrest Yeo over suspicions that he pressured airline employees to cover up the incident.

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Program that backed Solyndra now showing successes

WASHINGTON — At the RV Park he owns in a remote corner of southwestern Kansas, Jan Leonard is seeing the benefits of one of the federal government's most contentious programs.

Development is booming in tiny Hugoton, a town of roughly 3,900 people. The town is the site of a new cellulosic ethanol refinery that was funded in part by a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. The same program funded high profile flops like Solyndra, the California-based solar company that filed for bankruptcy and led to hearings over the Barack Obama administration's backing of unproven green-energy projects.

But in Hugoton, which Leonard describes as "pretty far from nothing," more trailers rolling in to his park and new businesses are popping up.

"There's a Dollar General getting built, a new motel getting built. Another grocery store getting built," Leonard said in a phone interview. "There's a lot of different people coming to town. It's been big."

The plant has a work force of 75 and an annual payroll of $5 million. When it was established in 2009, as part of Obama's stimulus package, the clean energy loan guarantee program was billed as a two-fer: It would provide billions of dollars for environment-friendly energy and it would create jobs.

Instead, the program became synonymous with failure and a regular talking point for conservatives.

Besides Solyndra, three other subsidized companies went bust at a cost of $780 million. Critics, especially Republicans in Congress, seized on it as an example of government waste.

But roughly six years on, there are more signs that the program is working. In California, Tesla Motors has flourished, paying back a $465 million loan nearly 10 years early. A handful of companies have opened solar energy sites and signed long term contracts to sell power to utility companies.

And then there is the Abengoa biorefinery in Hugoton, where Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz came in October for the opening. He was joined by two Kansas officials who voted against the stimulus package: Republicans Sen. Pat Roberts and Gov. Sam Brownback, a former senator.

"This program, let me say, not only here in Hugoton, but across the board has been a tremendous success," Moniz said. "I mentioned $30 billion in loans with a 2 percent default rate — that is a pretty enviable in any portfolio."

Roberts and Brownback say they voted against the stimulus package for other reasons.

"The governor strongly supports the Abengoa project," said Eileen Hawley, a spokeswoman for Brownback.

Despite the program's failures, the department now projects a profit of between $5 billion and $6 billion over the next 20 to 25 years. Overall, 20 of the program's 30 enterprises are operating and generating revenues so far, according to the department.

The successful projects include a site in Alamosa, Colorado, that is the world's largest generator of high concentration photovalic energy, which is a type of solar power. The operator, power company Cogentrix, has 10 permanent operations positions in addition to supply line jobs.

Overall, the Department of Energy claims the program has created or saved roughly 35,000 permanent jobs.

Republicans have argued that the investments are risky and the program mismanaged, as Solyndra demonstrated, though improvements have been made.

"We are not out of the woods by any stretch," said Michigan Rep. Fred Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "Our oversight efforts will continue as problems still persist, and more needs to be done to protect billions of dollars in taxpayer interests."

But supporters say government investment is necessary for innovative energy enterprises.

"It's very hard to get commercial scale financing, especially for these types of projects," said Nancy Pfund, a managing partner with DBL Investor, a San Francisco-based venture capital company with holdings in two companies backed by the program. "It's been a very positive force in that respect."

Mike Garland, CEO of Pattern Energy Group, a company focused on wind energy investments, said he was turned down by the program in part because he could get other financing.

"I kind of respected that about the program," said Garland. "I would have liked to have had a lower cost of capital, lower cost of debt. But it is run in a way that said, 'your deal is too good. You don't need it.'"

The loan program's director, Peter Davidson, said the program had a specific target.

"Commercial lenders are often unwilling to finance the first few commercial-scale projects that use a new technology because there is not yet a history of performance or operation," he said.

The refinery in Hugoton, built by Seville, Spain-based Abengoa, is the largest cellulosic biorefinery in the world, producing up to 25 million gallons ethanol fueled by non-edible waste. About $132 million of the plant's $500 million cost was backed by the loan guarantee program.

Abengoa buys biomass from local farmers that would otherwise be useless and sells the refined biofuels through trading companies in the U.S., Europe and parts of Asia.

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Gas in Massachusetts drops 11 cents per gallon

BOSTON — Another double-digit drop in the cost of a gallon of gasoline in Massachusetts has brought prices to their lowest level in more than five years.

AAA Southern New England reports Monday that self-serve, regular fell 11 cents in the past week to an average of $2.46 per gallon. Prices were last this low in October 2009.

The current price is exactly a dollar below where it was at this time last year and 39 cents lower than a month ago.

The price in Massachusetts, however, is 17 cents above the national average.

AAA found self-serve, regular selling for as low as $2.23 per gallon in Massachusetts and as high as $2.89.

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