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Stranded traveler rescued from site near Iceland’s erupting volcano after using flashlight to signal SOS
A pilot in Iceland wanted to see the ongoing eruption of a volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula. He took to the air – and discovered a stranded traveler using a flashlight in the “pitch dark” to signal for help just miles from where lava had surfaced.
Ernir Snaer Bjarnason told Reuters that he and his friend Finnir Snae Baldvinsoon took off from Reykjavik Airport on Dec. 19, a day after the volcanic eruption began near the evacuated town of Grindavík.
“When we were getting closer, around 5 kilometers [3 miles] from the eruption, we spotted a flashlight or a light of some kind and then we spotted another one,” he said. “We saw that one of them was pointed directly towards us and was flashing us an emergency signal like the S.O.S. Morse code signal.”
The pilot said they thought it was “quite strange” to see someone when it was “pitch dark outside.” So they contacted the local air traffic control to report the emergency signal. With no way to contact the stranded traveler, he said that all he could do was hover, and wait for emergency officials to arrive.
“I was flying my plane just exactly above him, just taking circles … and there he was,” he said. “…I could see his lights and I could see he was in distress but I couldn’t, I could only rock my wings or flash some lights at him but I couldn’t tell him ‘Wait, the helicopter is coming, just stay calm.'”
The Icelandic Coast Guard said on Facebook that the man, who has not been identified, was rescued and “had become cold and raw after a long stay outside,” according to a translation. He was flown to Reykjavik for medical attention, Reuters said.
The volcanic eruption started Monday after weeks of anticipation, with locals experiencing thousands of earthquakes and a small local fishing village seeing its ground crack open, prompting evacuations. Lava fountains have been seen shooting up 98 feet in the air, as the eruption created a fissure 2.5 miles long.
On Thursday, Iceland’s meteorological office said that “no volcanic activity was observed” in the morning hours, and that it appears “as though there is no activity in the craters.”
“However molten lava can be seen within the new lava field,” the office said in its update. “The volcanic activity seems to have come to an end late last night or early morning. Despite that it is possible that lava is flowing underneath the lava coat in lava tubes and therefore it is not possible to say that the eruption is over.”
Christopher Ciccone, an artist and former dancer who was also singer Madonna’s younger brother, has died, his rep Brad Taylor confirmed to CBS News. He was 63.
He died from cancer on Oct. 4, surrounded by his husband, Ray Thacker, Taylor said in a statement.
Born on Nov. 22, 1960, in Pontiac, Michigan, Ciccone was an artist, interior decorator and designer, who began his career as a dancer. He joined the Le Group de La Palace Royale in Ottawa in 1980 before moving to New York two years later to support his older sister’s music career as a backup dancer.
Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
As Madonna’s career grew, Ciccone became more involved — serving as the art director on his sister’s Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990 and as the tour director for her The Girlie Show in 1993. He also directed music videos for megastars Dolly Parton and Tony Bennett in the 1990s.
His role expanded away from music when Ciccone took on the role of interior designer within the homes his sister owned and occupied in New York, Miami, and Los Angeles.
In 2012, Ciccone released his own shoe line, The Ciccone Collection, at London Fashion Week.
He told CBS News at the time that his goal is to make the brand “accessible to everybody” and not too pricey.
“The great thing about doing shoes is that potentially everyone could have a pair. When you’re doing art, there’s only one,” Ciccone said
Ciccone, who was openly gay, claimed that his sister outed him during her 1991 interview with The Advocate.
Mike Coppola/Getty Images for OUT Magazine
Ciccone released a tell-all autobiography called “Life With My Sister Madonna,” leading to reports that the two had been estranged, but Ciccone told CBS News in 2012 that he was glad he wrote the book.
“I don’t regret any of that,” he said. “I think because of that it sort of led me to this. It gave people an opportunity to think of me as a creative person, as an artist and not just as Madonna’s brother, which is a tag I’m going to wear forever,” Ciccone said in 2012. “But I’m hopeful that at some point it will be Christopher Ciccone first. It’s cool…I’m perfectly happy being what I am.”
The two eventually made up.
“Our relationship is fine as far as I’m concerned,” he told CBS News.
Ciccone and Thacker — a British-born actor — married in 2016.
Ciccone’s death comes fewer than two weeks after the death of his and Madonna’s stepmother, Joan Clare Ciccone, from cancer. His eldest brother Anthony died in 2023.
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