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A solar-powered plane has been grounded by damaged batteries for at least a few weeks after completing its record-breaking five-day journey from Japan to Hawaii.
The Solar Impulse 2’s team says the batteries were overinsulated and overheated on Day 1 of the Japan-Hawaii leg. The team said Saturday that it monitored the situation throughout the flight but could not cool the cells.
The plane won’t fly before August as the team works to replace or repair damaged parts.
The plane landed in Hawaii on July 3 after completing a 118-hour voyage that broke the record for longest nonstop solo flight. It heads to Phoenix next as part of an around-the-world flight to highlight the importance of renewable energy.
Box jellyfish sting 2 dozen swimmers
Box jellyfish invaded the west shores of Oahu Saturday, stinging about two dozen people.
A spokeswoman for the city Emergency Services Department said that by 11 a.m. lifeguards had recorded more than 700 jellyfish along west shore beaches; on the south shores, fewer than 10 were recorded.
More jellyfish are expected on Sunday and beachgoers are advised to talk to lifeguards before entering the ocean.
Convicted killer gets 20 years for sex assault
A once-paroled murderer convicted of attempting to rape a 12-year-old girl in a Hawaii island church has been sentenced to 20 more years in prison.
The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports that Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara imposed the sentence Thursday on Peter Kalani Bailey, 57.
Bailey was found guilty by a jury in February of three counts of attempted first-degree sexual assault.
It’s the second time he has been convicted for the events of July 2007 in the Hamakua Coast Assembly of God Church in Papaikou.
His 2009 conviction was overturned by the Hawaii Supreme Court, which ruled Hara should have declared a mistrial after a juror told others that Bailey had an earlier murder conviction.
The victim, now an adult, testified at trial that Bailey, then the church’s choir director, took off her clothes and massaged her with oil.
The victim’s older brother testified he found Bailey and the girl naked in a back room of the church and ran to an uncle’s house for help.
The uncle said when he arrived at the church, Bailey was on top of the girl and both were naked.
In a 911 call played during the retrial, the uncle told the dispatcher, "I gotta tell you that I lost it when I first got here and I seen what happened … I wen’ hit him, so he’s bleeding."
Bailey’s attorney asked the court to make his sentencing concurrent to the life sentence he is serving for the 1979 kidnapping and murder of 17-year-old Carol Olandy on Oahu. He was on parole when he committed the sex offenses.
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