Katharine Da Costa

London, Oxford

Senior Reporter and Presenter at BBC

Senior Reporter and Presenter @BBCSouthNews and @BBCNews email [email protected]

Featured in: Favicon

bbc.co.uk

bbc.com

Articles

电动飞机能很快实现载人翱翔和商业运作吗？ - BBC News 中文

3 weeks ago | bbc.com | Katharine Da Costa

图像加注文字，Skyfly公司的Axe机型能垂直起飞，也能在跑道上降落。 Article information Author, 凯瑟琳·达科斯塔（Katharine Da Costa） Role, BBC记者发自英国牛津郡想象一架装有固定机翼的电动飞机——这是一家名为Skyfly的初创公司开发的两座全新机型。名为“Axe”（斧子）的这种飞机承诺具备直升机功能，但成本很低，没有噪音污染和碳排放问题。它有垂直飞行能力，准确来说是一种电动垂直起降飞机（Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing, eVTOL) 。该公司称，Axe最高时速可达100英里（约160公里），最大载重172公斤，大约相当于两名体重13.5英石（1英石约为6.35千克）的成人。它的续航里程达到100英里（约160公里），这差不多就是牛津到怀特岛的距离。图像加注文字，Skyfly首席执行官迈克尔·汤普森对明年这款飞机面世表示乐观。位于牛津郡班伯里（Banbury）附近的开发团队花了五年时间对设计进行微调。...
Barton Park school 'fobbed off' in crossing delay, head says

3 weeks ago | bbc.co.uk | Katharine Da Costa

Image source, Barton Park Primary SchoolImage caption, Pupils at Barton Park Primary have held protests over a lack of safety measures outside their schoolA head teacher has accused a council and developer of "fobbing off" her school over a lack of traffic calming measures and a crossing outside, five years after it was built. Bryony McCraw, of Barton Park Primary School in Oxford, joined five pupils at an Oxfordshire County Council meeting earlier.
An electric drone you can sit in - could it take off?

3 weeks ago | bbc.co.uk | Katharine Da Costa

Image caption, The Skyfly Axe can take off vertically like a helicopter or land on a runwayImagine an electric drone mixed with a fixed wing plane - that is the concept behind a new two-seater aircraft being developed by start-up company, Skyfly. The Axe promises the flexibility of a helicopter but without the cost, noise pollution or carbon emissions. It is a vertically capable aircraft, or Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft, which means it can take off like a helicopter.
Oxfordshire mum with brain tumour backs research funding calls

1 month ago | bbc.co.uk | Katharine Da Costa

Image caption, Georgie Maynard was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour in May 2023Georgie Maynard has suffered from regular migraines all her adult life, but one Saturday lunchtime in May 2023 she knew something wasn't right. "I went out to the garden to get some fresh air and I thought 'no, this light is doing my head in' so I walked inside, sat on the sofa and then it just went bang! "It was excruciating...
Afghan man criticises Home Office delays to reunite family in UK

1 month ago | bbc.co.uk | Katharine Da Costa

Image caption, Muhammad Khan's family have been separated since they fled from the Taliban in 2001An Afghan man has urged the Home Office to fast-track applications to reunite family members who face an imminent risk of being deported back to the Taliban-led country. Muhammad Khan has been living in Oxfordshire since being resettled in the UK after arriving in 2021, while his family escaped to neighbouring Pakistan.
Nicotine pouch warning from Oxfordshire Trading Standards

2 months ago | bbc.co.uk | Katharine Da Costa

High strength nicotine pouches that are being sold illegally in the UK could cause inadvertent overdosing and harm to teenagers and young adults, experts have warned. Nicotine pouches - small sachets that fit under the top lip - are largely unregulated and there is currently no law stopping children from buying them. Trading Standards teams in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Dorset have made more than 1,500 seizures in the past year.
Assisted dying: 'My stress and fear of taking my wife to Dignitas'

Nov 26, 2024 | bbc.co.uk | Katharine Da Costa

The family of a terminally ill woman who took her own life at Dignitas have spoken of the stress and worry they experienced trying to keep the plan a secret to avoid prosecution. David, from Berkshire, accompanied his wife Alison to the assisted dying clinic in Switzerland in February 2023. At present, laws throughout the UK prevent people from asking for medical help to die. Those who assist someone to end their life face up to 14 years in prison.
'She's my world and my heart' - an adoption journey

Oct 27, 2024 | bbc.co.uk | Katharine Da Costa

"At our first meeting she just looked at me and my husband with such intensity and then broke out in a smile and that was it...we all looked at each other and said 'yes this is our family'', recalls Rachel beaming. We're sitting in her lounge surrounded by books and toys while two-year-old Winnie plays happily with a social worker in the next room. Rachel, who's 41, and her husband Lewis, who's a year older, got married in 2019 and like many couples, hoped to start a family.
Period pain in teenagers subject of landmark Oxford study

Oct 16, 2024 | bbc.co.uk | Katharine Da Costa

A new study will seek to identify changes in the brain when teenagers experience period pain and whether it is linked to developing chronic pain in later life. In what is described as a world first, researchers at the University of Oxford will conduct a trial of 11 to 20-year-olds using a range of tests including MRI scans. Half of the 120 volunteers recruited into the RoADPain, external project will suffer from period pain and half will not.
Wallingford mother's horror as son's heart stops in boxing ring

Oct 11, 2024 | bbc.co.uk | Katharine Da Costa

Ms Sarpong said: "Myles took a blow to his head, he was unsteady and fell to the ground. "At that point I just couldn't look so I left." She said was called shortly afterwards and asked to come back as ambulance crews had been sent to the scene. Ms Sarpong said there were 20 people around her son and he was still on the floor. The paramedics put Myles into a medically induced coma before he was rushed to hospital.