CBS News
Restaurant’s new recipe cost Texas college student her life, parents say. Now they are on a mission to make changes.
NORTH TEXAS — Twenty-three-year-old Alison Pickering knew to watch out for peanuts.
It was a discovery her family made the day she came home from preschool with hives.
“She said, ‘well, a friend of mine shared with me a chocolate Jiff sandwich.’ And I was like, ‘Oh!'” recalls her mother, Joy Pickering, “and it became evident she had a peanut allergy.”
“She would feel it in her lips and in her throat and so we would take trips to the ER,” said her father, Grover Pickering.
Thankfully, those trips to the hospital were rare.
“She was always very very careful. She rarely ate cookies that were not mine,” said Joy Pickering.
Her parents said that caution was evident as she prepared for a first date just days before her graduation last year from Tarleton State University in Stephenville last year.
Alison, they said, chose a restaurant she’d been to before.
She ordered the mahi-mahi, a dish she’d eaten there before.
“She would repeatedly go to the same restaurants and order the same dishes, you know. And that was a common thing,” said her father.
What Alison and even the wait staff didn’t know, the Pickerings said, was that the recipe had changed. Peanut sauce had been added.
“She took a few bites, realized something was wrong,” said Grover Pickering. “She did her Epipen. The ambulance came. She actually walked to the ambulance talking to them, but somewhere along the way things went downhill.”
Alison never woke up.
“It’s tragic and it doesn’t need to happen to anyone else,” he said.
The Pickerings are now on a mission to raise awareness of the seriousness of food allergies.
“We would love to see more done to make wait staff and patrons aware,” said Joy Pickering.
The Texas Legislature last year passed the Sergio Lopez Food Allergy Awareness Act to improve training and communication among restaurant kitchen workers.
They’re calling for clear, consistent communication at restaurants and comprehensive training for all restaurant staff.
They’re hoping to see that expanded to all restaurant staff.
They’re also interested in working with the Texas Restaurant Association.
“To determine what guidelines could be put in place to help restaurants have better communication to their customers as far as ingredients, much like labels on grocery store items you buy,” said Grover Pickering.
It’s a message they’re certain will spare others from the loss they suffered.
“I know we’re going to save lives by doing this,” said Joy Pickering.
CBS News
Sonar image was not Amelia Earhart’s long-lost plane, but exploration team says search continues: “The plot thickens”
A sonar image suspected of showing the remains of the plane of Amelia Earhart, the famed American aviator who disappeared over the Pacific in 1937, has turned out to be a rock formation.
Deep Sea Vision (DSV), a South Carolina-based firm, released the blurry image in January captured by an unmanned submersible of what it said may be Earhart’s plane on the seafloor.
Not so, the company said in an update on Instagram this month.
“After 11 months the waiting has finally ended and unfortunately our target was not Amelia’s Electra 10E (just a natural rock formation),” Deep Sea Vision said.
“As we speak DSV continues to search,” it said. “The plot thickens with still no evidence of her disappearance ever found.”
Deep Sea Vision
The image was taken by DSV during an extensive search in an area of the Pacific to the west of Earhart’s planned destination, remote Howland Island.
Tony Romeo, a pilot and former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year that he funded the $11 million search by selling off his commercial real estate properties.
“This is maybe the most exciting thing I’ll ever do in my life,” he told the Journal. “I feel like a 10-year-old going on a treasure hunt.”
Earhart went missing while on a pioneering round-the-world flight with navigator Fred Noonan.
Her disappearance is one of the most tantalizing mysteries in aviation lore, fascinating historians for decades and spawning books, movies and theories galore.
The prevailing belief is that Earhart, 39, and Noonan, 44, ran out of fuel and ditched their twin-engine Lockheed Electra in the Pacific near Howland Island while on one of the final legs of their epic journey.
Earhart, who won fame in 1932 as the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, took off on May 20, 1937 from Oakland, California, hoping to become the first woman to fly around the world.
Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared on July 2, 1937, while flying over the Pacific Ocean during Earhart’s attempt to become the first female aviator to circle the globe. They vanished without a trace, spurring the largest and most expensive search and rescue effort by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard in American history. Earhart and Noonan were declared dead two years later.
Multiple deep-sea searches using high-tech equipment have tried but failed over the years to find Earhart’s plane.
There other theories about where Earhart may have vanished. Ric Gillespie, who has researched Earhart’s doomed flight for decades, told CBS News in 2018 that he had proof Earhart crash-landed on Gardner Island — about 350 nautical miles from Howland Island — and that she called for help for nearly a week before her plane was swept out to sea.
Gillespie’s organization, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, has also claimed that it found forensic evidence, including bones on the island, that were likely Earhart’s.
contributed to this report.
London — The world’s oldest man, John Tinniswood, has died at the age of 112 at the care home where he lived in Southport, northwest England, Guinness World Records said Tuesday, quoting his family. Tinniswood was born in Liverpool on Aug. 26, 1912, and died on Monday.
He became the world’s oldest man in April following the death of 114-year-old Venezuelan Juan Vicente Perez.
“His last day was surrounded by music and love,” the family said in a statement, also thanking “all those who cared for him over the years.”
Born the same year the Titanic sank and living through both World Wars, Tinniswood told Guinness World Records that the secret to his longevity was “pure luck.”
Guinness World Records via AP
“You either live long or you live short, and you can’t do much about it,” he said.
He nonetheless advised moderation in all things to stay healthy.
“If you drink too much or you eat too much or you walk too much, if you do too much of anything, you’re going to suffer eventually,” he added.
During World War Two, Tinniswood held an administrative role in the Royal Army Pay Corps, going on to work in accounts for oil giants Shell and BP.
He was a life-long supporter of Liverpool soccer club, and ate fish and chips every Friday. Staff at his care home in Southport described Tinniswood as a “big chatterbox.”
The world’s oldest living woman currently is Japan’s Tomiko Itooka, who is 116.
CBS News
Animal rescue pilot and dog killed in plane crash in the Catskill Mountains; 2 dogs survive
A pilot and a rescue dog he was transporting to an animal shelter were killed when a small plane crashed in the snowy woods of the Catskill Mountains, though two other dogs were later found to have survived, authorities said.
Seuk Kim, 49, was flying from Maryland to Albany, New York, when the plane crashed Sunday evening in a remote area of Windham, about 35 miles southwest of Albany, officials said.
A preliminary investigation indicates the pilot died from the impact, Greene County Sheriff Peter Kusminsky said. The flight was carrying three dogs and was associated with a not-for-profit group that transports rescue animals with help from volunteer pilots, the sheriff said.
Two dogs survived the crash: A Labrador-mix puppy that suffered broken bones, and another dog that had only minor injuries.
“It was pretty scared and it was dug down into the snow,” Kusminsky said of the puppy with broken bones.
That dog, named Whiskey, was taken to a veterinary hospital in Middleton, Connecticut, according to the nonprofit Kim was delivering the dogs to, the Animal Shelter of Schoharie County. The other dog found safe was a 18-month-old yorkie terrier mix named Pluto.
The sheriff’s office posted photos of the surviving dogs on social media.
Tributes to Kim, who was from Springfield, Virginia, poured into an online memorial Monday, with fellow dog rescuers thanking him for flying flights and coordinating pilots across the country.
“Over the years, Seuk helped to save the lives of hundreds of animals who would have otherwise been euthanized due to overcrowding at animal shelters,” Maggie Pryor, director of the Animal Shelter of Schoharie County, said in a statement.
Animal shelter “Forever Changed Animal Rescue” said on social media that Kim was part of its “Pilots N Paws” program.
“The sky will never be the same without you. We’re so thankful to have met you and for all of the countless hours you flew to help animals have a new life, including our most memorable one; Connie the Container Dog.” the group said in the social media post.
Connie was found trapped inside a shipping container at the Port Houston’s Bayport Container Terminal earlier this year, CBS affiliate WUSA-TV reported. Kim flew down to Houston to bring Connie to Virginia where she had puppies.
Cathay West, who operates the Kuddles & Kisses K9 Rescue in Baltimore, Maryland, said she last saw Kim in October at a nearby airport as he handed over to her a dog that had only days before been on a list to be euthanized at an overcrowded shelter in Tennessee.
“He was bringing me a momma dog and five puppies,” West said. “He was so involved in trying to get the word out to volunteer, to other pilots. That this is a good thing to save these dogs so that they don’t die in shelters.”
A statement from Kim’s family said he was originally from South Korea and “came to this country with little but a dream, and through hard work and perseverance, he built a life of meaning and generosity.”
“He was a kind, selfless individual who always went out of his way to help others, no matter the circumstances,” the statement said. “His legacy will live on in the countless lives he touched, both human and animal,” it added.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating the crash.
Visibility was poor on Sunday and Kim sought permission to change his altitude due to turbulence before the crash, Kusminsky said.
The plane crashed in woods a couple of miles from the nearest road. Rescuers located the wreckage before midnight in woods covered by about a foot of snow, according to the sheriff.
Sonar image was not Amelia Earhart’s long-lost plane, but exploration team says search continues: “The plot thickens”
World’s oldest man John Tinniswood dies in England at the age of 112
Animal rescue pilot and dog killed in plane crash in the Catskill Mountains; 2 dogs survive
Sonar image was not Amelia Earhart’s long-lost plane, but exploration team says search continues: “The plot thickens”
World’s oldest man John Tinniswood dies in England at the age of 112