Becky Bohrer

Ida could reach the Gulf Coast by Tuesday, though it was unclear how strong it would be by then.

Ida is expected to interact with a weakening cold front over open seas and will most likely be a tropical storm or perhaps a low-level hurricane when it gets to the Gulf Coast, said Jack Beven, a hurricane specialist at the center. But when that will happen isn’t entirely clear.

Parts of the Yucatan Peninsula remained under a hurricane warning, and a tropical storm warning was in place for the western tip of Cuba with heavy rains expected.

Earlier Sunday, Ida’s wind and rain whipped palm trees in the Mexican resort city of Cancun. Fishermen tied their boats down, though tourists seemed to regard Ida as only a minor setback.

“I figure probably in a couple hours we’ll be stuck inside,” said Julie Randolph, 40, a social worker from Ormond Beach, Fla., who braved the rain to jog along the near-empty beach.

As winds picked up and intermittent rains intensified Sunday morning, restaurants and nightclubs near the waterfront began covering their windows with large pieces of plywood.

Mulva spoke after a closed reception with business and political leaders featuring him and the CEOs of the North Slope’s other major players, Rex Tillerson of Exxon Mobil Corp. and Bob Dudley of BP.

The reception followed a two-hour meeting between the chief executives and Parnell that focused on ways to advance a natural gas pipeline.

Parnell said in October that he wants the companies to unite behind a project that would allow for liquefied natural gas to be shipped overseas, if the market for gas has truly shifted from the Lower 48. Such a project would have to come about under the framework of the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, which gave TransCanada Corp. an exclusive state license to build the pipeline and up to $500 million in reimbursable costs.

The Canadian company has been working with Exxon Mobil to advance a pipeline project. TransCanada has focused attention on a longer line into Canada that would deliver gas to North American markets, but it also has proposed a smaller line that would allow for liquefied natural gas exports out of Alaska.

A rival project, a joint effort of BP and ConocoPhillips that also would have gone through Canada, folded last year.

In the meantime, the boom in shale gas production elsewhere in the U.S. has made building a pipeline into Canada less attractive, Dudley and Mulva said.

Dudley told reporters in Anchorage he thinks it would be possible for the companies to come together under terms of AGIA. He said there would have to be adjustments to tailor it to a liquefied natural gas option, if that’s the route that’s ultimately chosen.

An Exxon Mobil spokesman said the parties are in early talks, with both pipeline options under consideration.

TransCanada recently began talks with BP, Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips about the liquefied natural gas option, said Tony Palmer, the company’s vice president for major projects development.

Palmer said TransCanada will proceed with making a filing to federal regulators for the Canada option later this year, in keeping with the terms of AGIA. The company would need state approval if it changed course and went with the liquefied natural gas option, he said.

Parnell said no firm commitments were made in Thursday’s meeting, but at least the companies are talking. He called it a “significant start.”

The governor also said he urged the executives to resolve a long-running dispute over gas leases, considered key to the prospects of a line. The state has reached an agreement with Exxon Mobil, but other interest-owners — including BP and ConocoPhillips — haven’t announced whether they’ll sign off on the deal.

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Associated Press writer Mark Thiessen contributed to this report from Anchorage, Alaska.

Haney did not eject and was killed upon impact in the November 2010 training mission about 100 miles north of Anchorage. Investigators found no evidence that Haney activated an emergency oxygen supply.

The nation’s F-22 fighter jets were grounded for several months earlier this year over pilot complaints about lack of oxygen.

But the accident investigation board concluded hypoxia wasn’t a factor in the Alaska crash and that Haney would have had adequate reserve blood oxygen supply after the onboard oxygen generation system failed.

Hypoxia is when the body does not receive enough oxygen.

The report states that Haney had an adequate oxygen supply until roughly the last minute of the flight.

Haney, who was assigned to the 525th Fighter Squadron, 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, was considered one of the top pilots in the squadron by peers and supervisors. He had received a number of accolades and awards.

The report is not considered official until it is released by the commander of Pacific Air Forces, General Gary North. An agency spokesman, 1st Lt. Robert Howard, said it’s unusual for a report to be released in the way it was.

He said the report remains under review by North to it ensure it complies with applicable laws and regulations.

Haney did not eject and was killed upon impact in the November 2010 training mission about 100 miles north of Anchorage. Investigators found no evidence that Haney activated an emergency oxygen supply.

The nation’s F-22 fighter jets were grounded for several months earlier this year over pilot complaints about lack of oxygen.

But the accident investigation board concluded hypoxia wasn’t a factor in the Alaska crash and that Haney would have had adequate reserve blood oxygen supply after the onboard oxygen generation system failed.

Hypoxia is when the body does not receive enough oxygen.

The report states that Haney had an adequate oxygen supply until roughly the last minute of the flight.

Haney, who was assigned to the 525th Fighter Squadron, 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, was considered one of the top pilots in the squadron by peers and supervisors. He had received a number of accolades and awards.

The report is not considered official until it is released by the commander of Pacific Air Forces, General Gary North. An agency spokesman, 1st Lt. Robert Howard, said it’s unusual for a report to be released in the way it was.

He said the report remains under review by North to it ensure it complies with applicable laws and regulations.

On Friday, Capt. Andrew Norris, the investigating officer presiding over the Article 32 hearing, said he planned to investigate an additional charge of dereliction of duty for failure to employ proper crew resource management, a reference to to communications in the cockpit.

The prosecution said it did not seek the new charge.

Leone, who has earned a long list of Coast Guard awards and accolades, was co-piloting an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Astoria, Ore., to the crew’s base in Sitka, Alaska, when it crashed off LaPush, Wash. He is accused of not actively navigating or challenging the pilot’s decision to drop in altitude seconds before the helicopter hit the 1,900-foot span of wires and crashed.

The wires, which were the site of at least two other accidents in 1961 and the late 1950s, were the responsibility of the Coast Guard, and they sloped from 190 feet to about 36 feet. At the time of the 2010 crash, marking balls were pooled near a pole, above land, at the low point, not along the span. The helicopter hit at about 114 feet, according to testimony and the court record.

One of the prosecutors, Cmdr. Matthew Fay, said there was no requirement the lines be marked because they were below 200 feet. The crash’s lead investigator called the lines a contributing factor but also said there was no reason for the aircraft to be flying so low.

Leone’s civilian attorney, John Smith, said Leone had programmed the helicopter on a track that would have missed the wires, but the pilot deviated from that, dropping in altitude as he flew over a Coast Guard vessel in the channel. Seconds later, the aircraft struck the wires.

He called it a “costly human error,” caused by “the trap” set by the Coast Guard.

“There is an arrogance about saying, Gee whiz, you know why we didn’t mark them? Because we didn’t have to,” Smith said during closing statements. Since the crash, the lines, which had been used to power lighting at James Island, have been replaced by a generator.

Witnesses who have worked with Leone attested to his experience in the cockpit, saying they never knew him to be negligent or a risk taker.

Cmdr. Kevin Lyons, who worked with Leone at Elizabeth City, N.C., cited an incident in which Leone as co-pilot spoke up when he saw another helicopter involved in efforts to medevac sailors off one ship landing on the wrong ship.

The defense has cast Leone as a recent transfer to Sitka, learning from his mentor and a more experienced Alaska flyer, Lt. Sean Krueger.

On Thursday, the commanding officer of Air Station Sitka, Cmdr. William Cameron, said that if anything would have stopped the crash, it would have been strong crew resource management skills.

But Cameron also said he didn’t think Krueger would have listened to Leone had Leone spoken up about the drop in altitude, saying he believed Krueger was comfortable in what he was doing.

The flight plan called for the helicopter to hug the coastline but prescribed no set altitude. Cameron also said it’s customary for a Coast Guard helicopter to fly over an agency vessel.

The negligent homicide charges are related to the deaths of Brett Banks, 33, of Rock Springs, Wyo., and Adam C. Hoke, 40, of Great Falls, Mont. There is no charge related to the death of Krueger, 33, of Seymour, Conn. His wife attended all three days of the hearing.

Leone’s wife, Ellen, who is expecting their third child, said her husband still loves the Coast Guard but the situation has been mentally and physically draining. She said there’s been a great outpouring of support.

“I pray that our lawyers will do everything in their power to not only show he’s not guilty but that he’s innocent,” she said. “There’s a difference.”

Norris, a Coast Guard judge advocate stationed in Rhode Island, will make recommendations to the Coast Guard commander in Alaska, Rear Admiral Thomas Ostebo, for the next course of action. Norris said Ostebo is not bound by any recommendations he makes.

Possibilities include dismissal of the charges, administrative action or court-martial. Leone could face a possible maximum penalty that includes 7 1/2 years in prison if convicted on all courts at a court-martial.

The charges against Leone, which the Coast Guard hasn’t publicly specified in detail, will be heard beginning Wednesday in Juneau. Both sides will be allowed to make arguments during the Article 32 hearing with an investigating officer making eventual recommendations to the Coast Guard’s commanding officer in Alaska, Rear Admiral Thomas Ostebo, for the next course of action.

Possibilities include dismissal of the charges, administrative action or court martial, Coast Guard spokesman Kip Wadlow said. Leone faces a possible maximum penalty that includes 7 ½ years in prison if convicted on all courts at a court martial.

The 31-year-old Leone, who has earned a long list of Coast Guard awards and accolades, including commendation medals, was the co-pilot of the MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter flying from Astoria, Ore., to the crew’s base in Sitka, Alaska, when it crashed off LaPush, Wash., last year. Witnesses told media outlets the helicopter was flying low and hit power cables strung 1,900 feet from LaPush to James Island. Leone was pulled from the water by Good Samaritans.

Lance Leone, who is currently serving in an administrative position, wasn’t available for comment. But his father, George, said his son wasn’t at the controls and did everything he was supposed to be doing as navigator that day.

George Leone claimed the helicopter hit unmarked wires, which had orange warning balls near the poles instead of dotting the span.

“And the sole survivor, they’re trying to blame him,” said George Leone, who is from Palm Bay, Fla., but has been at his son’s home in Sitka lately. “It’s just unbelievable.”

The lines were maintained by the Coast Guard, and it wasn’t the first accident involving them, according to court records: There was a fatal accident in 1961 and another collision in the late-1950s, according to a 1965 federal appeals decision. That decision, in the 1961 case, found the Coast Guard failed to exercise “reasonable care” by not having warning devices installed but said the probability of resulting harm wasn’t great enough to find this constituted “wanton misconduct.”

Wadlow said he couldn’t answer questions about whether or how the lines were marked at the time of the 2010 crash, citing the investigation. He said that issue will be discussed at the hearing.

Leone faces charges of negligent homicide, dereliction of duty and destruction of government property. The charge sheet alleges Leone failed to properly navigate the helicopter to avoid charted hazards and that he negligently failed to ensure it was flying at a higher altitude. It also alleges that he did “without proper authority, through neglect, destroy by causing the crash of CG-6017,” an aircraft valued at $18.3 million.

The negligent homicide charges are related to the deaths of Banks, 33, of Rock Springs, Wyo., and Adam C. Hoke, 40, of Great Falls, Mont. There is no charge related to the third victim, the pilot, Lt. Sean Krueger, 33, of Seymour, Conn.

Leone’s civilian attorney, John Smith, who is part of his defense team, said the government hasn’t explained why that is. Wadlow said the charges were based upon the evidence collected. Ostebo said he couldn’t discuss the circumstances surrounding the case.

Sandra Banks said she was told by someone with the Coast Guard in early October that it was a two-pilot helicopter so both Leone and Krueger were considered pilots. She couldn’t recall who that person was but said she told him she considered the accident a circumstance of improperly marked lines. He told her there was new evidence.

Banks said she saw Leone this summer, and that she and her husband felt like they had closure after visiting the crash site and attending a memorial in Sitka in August. She said they consider the Leones — Leone has a wife and two young children — family.

“We just felt good about it after that, like we could go on,” she said. Now, “we’re hoping and praying he will be absolved, exonerated, that nothing will come of this.”