Jet lands safely after engine trouble

A Hawaiian Airlines flight to Portland, Ore., encountered engine trouble while over the Pacific Ocean but landed safely.

Hawaiian Airlines Flight 40 out of Maui was about an hour and 20 minutes away from Portland when an electronic flight controller had a discrepancy, and one of the Boeing 767's two engines powered itself down, said airline spokesman Keoni Wagner.

The flight crew brought the plane to a lower altitude, a standard precaution, Wagner said. The flight arrived in Portland safely with no injuries to any of its 164 passengers.

Passenger Robin Gordon of Beaverton, Ore., said there was a collective gasp when the pilot told passengers what happened—and then applause when the safe landing was made just after 11 p.m. Thursday night.

Wagner said the plane, which is 7 years old, is undergoing maintenance.

Schatz to lead school complexes

Stephen Schatz, principal of Pohakea Elementary School in Ewa Beach, will serve as superintendent for the Kaimuki, McKinley and Roosevelt complexes.

Superintendent Pat Hamamoto appointed Schatz, twin brother of Hawaii Democratic Party Chairman Brian Schatz, to the post. The Board of Education approved the appointment on Thursday.

Schatz replaces Clayton Kaninau, a school renewal specialist who has been acting complex-area superintendent for the past year.

From 1994 to 2002, Schatz served inner-city youth in California's Compton Unified School District as a teacher, vice principal and principal in various elementary schools. He joined Hawaii's public school system at the beginning of the 2002-03 school year as vice principal at Waialua High and Intermediate.

In 2004, Schatz went to Pohakea Elementary, whose students have posted gains in reading and math scores for four straight years. The school is on track of the federal No Child Left Behind law of having every student proficient in both subjects by 2014, according to the Education Department.