Aviation News May 15 2011
On 22nd of
this month, it will be one year after the tragic crash of Air India
Express IX-812 at Mangalore that killed 158 people.
It seems the
last major news break related to the accident was duly celebrated by the
media with the submission of the investigation report by the Court of
Inquiry (CoI) on 16 November 2010, five months after it was constituted.
Thanks to the selective and somewhat precisely scheduled leaking of
certain parts of the report to the press, now everyone is aware that the
crash happened because the 'Serbian' commander of the aircraft was
asleep for the first 100 minutes of the flight.
Though the relatives
and dependents of more than 100 dead passengers are yet get
compensation, the public already has accepted the crash as a well
concluded story.
So there shouldn't be much left to write an anniversary story.
But no news reporter who had followed the story from the beginning can leave it thus.
It never was something as simple as an expatriate pilot causing a horrific crash by simply sleeping at the controls.
There were many, many things the public was never properly made aware of, about the crash.
The
incomplete, erroneous way the court of inquiry conducted the
investigation too should have been laid bare before the people of India.
The
aviation reporters of the country by now should already have asked
themselves why the manufacturer of the crashed craft was never
questioned or investigated.
The media should also have investigated Capt. Zlatco Glusica in his home country.
Air India Express and Air India the parent airline too were never sufficiently subjected to unbiased scrutiny of the mass media.
It
was a phone call from a 'law maker', as they say, of the country, that
made me to start worry about the whole business of the CoI which was
appointed by the govt of India on 3 June 2010.
Soon after the CoI
was constituted, three of the members of the CoI had flown to US to
'decode' the content of the two back boxes- the DFDR and CVR- at the
facility of NTSB.
It was after two weeks of their return to India that I got the call.
That was in July.
He
was very excited. He said one of the pilots had fallen asleep during
the flight and his snoring and all was there in the CVR. Loud and clear.
That sure was news.
But
I had to be sure. Okay, how he came to know about it? Well, that was
simple. It was a fellow lawmaker, who happened to own a major private
airline who revealed that to him. One of the members of the CoI was an
employee of that particular airline and after hearing the CVR in US, he
right away told his boss all about the unbelievable content.
But
the Associate Editor of the Daily where I was working was not that
adventurous to print this explosive exclusive straightaway.
No proof- he calmly pointed out. So let us wait.
And our wait prolonged well in to first week of September 2010.
Coinciding
with the second hearing of CoI at the national capital from September 6
to 9, this particular info was leaked to the press. All channels broke
the news for the whole day. Dailies celebrated it on 8th.
Though many
veteran pilots who testified in that session of the hearing told the
CoI that sleeping in the cockpit, was not that alarming or dangerous,
that never was got prominently reported. Some commanders had even
pointed out that it was a healthy practice for the pilots to sleep
taking turns under 'controlled conditions'. A little sleep would only
raise the level of alertness.
On their part, the CoI too seemed to be
agreeing with those observations. Many of the experts who attended the
hearing too had noted that. It was a kind of reassurance for them that
the investigation was proceeding in a scientific, unbiased manner.
But
the fact remained that one of the members of the CoI who was pledged to
secrecy, had way back revealed this sensitive info in a very callous
manner to his boss who was the owner of rival airline of Air India
Express.
And the way the 'sleep news' was planted in to selected national media too was reason to worry.
Especially
because the taped conversation between the pilots of the aircraft and
Mangalore ATC too had found it way to some media as early as June 2 ,
well before the CoI's first hearing at Mangalore airport from August
17-19.
None could fail to notice that leaked content of both the
tapes were highly incriminating Capt. Zlatco Glusica, the Commander of
the crashed flight.
A pattern was beginning to emerge, for those who were closely watching the investigation.
15/05/11 Jacob K Philip/Decision Height
Mumbai: An argument over
resting time between two cabin crew personnel on board an Air India
flight from Delhi to Chicago on Friday lead to a safety violation that
could have risked the lives of 250 passengers, apart from affecting
in-flight services. According to the reports, the Hindustan Times has
copies, Mayank Sharma, a cabin crewmember had a verbal spat with his
senior SK Marwah, a flight purser, because the latter refused to allow
the mandatory five-hour rest to crew on board.
The aviation
regulator’s rules states that crew operating ultra-long haul flights
such as this one should compulsorily get five hour rest on board.
However,
Marwah permitted the crew rest for only three hours and 30 minutes
citing the airline’s flight operation manual. "This shows that either
the airline does not follow rules made by the Directorate General of
Civil Aviation (DGCA) or that Marwah was taking us for a ride,” said a
cabin crewmember requesting anonymity as it is against their company
policy to talk to the media.
The squabble had an immediate impact on
passenger service. "There was delay in food and liquor service because
the crew was too busy arguing with each other,” said another crewmember
witness to the incident.
15/05/11 Soubhik Mitra/Hindustan Times
Mumbai: With helicopter
joy rides becoming affordable, Mumbaikars are taking to the skies to
celebrate and surprise their friends and families.
On May 7, Rohil
Paralkar, 26, decided to surprise his parents on their wedding
anniversary. "My parents have never flown before, even on a flight. So I
thought it would be nice to book them on a chopper joy ride on their
special day,” said Paralkar, an advertising executive who stays in
Sewri.
Airnetz Aviation is a charter/chopper provider that offers joy
rides for an hour in Mumbai skies. "I had been inquiring with Airnetz
about joy rides but they were too expensive.This month when I called up,
I found out that prices were as low as Rs7,500 per person,” he said,
adding, "So I thought I can really surprise my parents and give them an
hour of adventure on their special day.They were so thrilled and found
Mumbai fascinating from the clouds.”
Even Sameer Tandon (24) an MBA
student from Prabhadevi, booked a joy ride for his girl friend on her
birthday on May 3."Being an adventurous person, I wanted to do something
different for her.
15/05/11 Naveeta Singh/Daily News & Analysis
Mumbai: A day after
MiDDAY reported that the Air India pilots' 10-day strike had been called
off after a meeting on May 6 with AI management and Aviation Ministry
officials without any mention of corruption charges (Corruption Crusade
Merely an Eyewash), the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) is
drafting a 100-point letter detailing instances of corruption by the
management, which they intend to send to the Union Civil Aviation
Ministry this week.
The ICPA claims is taking the step at the behest of the aviation ministry officials who had met them on May 6.
"The
civil aviation ministry had asked for our feedback on charges of
corruption. We are preparing a letter that will detail 100 points of
corruption occurring in the national carrier," a senior official of
pilot body said on condition of anonymity. The letter will highlight
corrupt practices and suggest ways to bring the national carrier back to
health, he added.
"Questions will include why Air India withdrew its
operations in profitable sectors and whether it was done to benefit
private carriers. We will also request an investigation on the
acquisition of new aircrafts that benefits only one manufacturer," he
said.
The AI spokesperson refused to comment.
15/05/11 Bipin Kumar Singh/MiD DAY
Jaipur: A BSF team
comprising of technical experts on saturday visited the site in Sirohi
district in Rajasthan to probe the helicopter crash that left four
people dead.
The mishap took place on Friday when the helicopter
crashed in the hills of village Fatehpura near Abu Road here in the
Sirohi district, killing all the four occupants, including the pilot.
"A
BSF team headed by an IG rank official reached the crash site today and
investigated the matter to ascertain the causes behind the incident,"
BSF DIG (Rajasthan Frontier) R C Dhyani told PTI.
"The occupants of
the helicopter were identified as Captain Bal (pilot), co-pilot Vivek
Choudhary (Deputy Commandant- BSF), BSF's Sub-Inspector Sohan Lal and an
engineer of Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited S S Chopra," he said.
Four Army personnel were killed on April 22 in a Dhruv helicopter crash in north Sikkim near the Sino-India border.
The
mishap occurred just three days after a Russian-origin MI-17-2 chopper,
owned by Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited, crashed claiming 17 lives
after it took off from Guwahati for Tawang.
Another Pawan Hans
helicopter had crashed in Arunachal Pradesh on April 30 killing Chief
Minister Dorji Khandu along with four others. The wreckage was located
on May 4.
14/05/11 Press Trust Of India/IBN Live
Ahmedabad: Finally,
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) woke up and razed to ground eight
illegal structures obstructing the radar at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
International Airport. AMC has in last three days brought down first
floors of eight tenements in Nataraj Society of Kubernagar near the air
traffic control radar.
"To achieve accuracy, it is necessary that the
electromagnetic waves from the radar are not obstructed wholly or
partially by any intervening structure. The structures created a block
in the radar range. We had complained to AMC some six months back about
the illegal construction," said a senior air traffic control official.
Last year, a partial closure of this radar for around five hours had the
officials on tenterhooks.
AMC has also demolished more than 40
houses between Meghaninagar and Kubernagar to clear the area near
airport in the last one week. The waste dumped from the houses close to
the city airport attracted birds, monkeys and dogs which posed serious
threat during landing and taking off of the aircrafts.
15/05/11 Ankur Jain/Times of India
Mumbai: The Mumbai police
arrested an airport attendant on Friday for selling a country-made
revolver to a client at a hotel near the Khar Police Station. The
police, who had been tipped off by an informer had set a trap to arrest
the him. Omprakash Bagdi (50) worked at the Chhatrapati Shivaji
International Airport for 25 years as an attendant. He confessed to the
police that he has been dealing in arms for the past 10 years. The
police suspect Bagdi is also part of a gang that carries out contract
killing. However, Bagdi has reportedly refused to divulge the name of
the gang he works for.
On Friday, the police received information
that Bagdi was meeting a client at Krishna Chaya hotel in Khar at 8 pm.
They followed him and nabbed him before he delivered a country-made
revolver to the client.
15/05/11 Sayed Roshan/MiD DAY
New Delhi: Delhi Police
have arrested a cargo loader for stealing a bike from the parking of
Indira Gandhi International Airport. The accused, Sanjay, was caught
from New Rohtak Road during routine checking by Central district police.
"During checking, around 10.20pm on Friday, one person riding a TVS
Apache was stopped. On verification,
he could not give any
satisfactory reply to our questions nor could he produce any documents
in support of ownership of the motorcycle. We later found that the
motorcycle was stolen from the parking of the Delhi airport,” Vivek
Kishore, DCP (central) said.
14/05/11 Hindustan Times
New Delhi: Airlines are
liable to compensate its passengers for delays caused due to bad weather
even though there may be no deficiency of service on their part, a city
consumer forum has held.
A Delhi District Consumer Court gave this
ruling while directing Oman Aviation Services to pay Rs 25,000 to a
lawyer and his wife, who had to wait at Delhi Airport for 10 hours in
December 2005 as their flight was delayed due to fog and low visibility.
"After
going through the material on the record, we find that though there is
no deficiency of service on the part of Oman Aviation Services, yet long
waiting at the airport caused tiredness and inconvenience to the
passengers, who felt frustrated and harassed.
"In these
circumstances, to meet the end of consumer justice, we direct the Oman
Aviation Services to pay a compensation of Rs 10,000 to each of the
complainants (the advocate and his wife) and Rs 5,000 towards litigation
expenses," a district consumer court bench headed by C K Chaturvedi
said.
The court passed its order on a complaint filed by advocate
Hardev Lal Kapur and his wife Sudesh Kapur, who had planned a trip from
Delhi to United Arab Emirates via Muscat in December 2005.
14/05/11 PTI/Economic Times
Mumbai: Low-cost carrier
SpiceJet today said one of its promoters KAL Airways has pledged over
seven crore shares of the company, representing 17.33 per cent stake in
the airline.
KAL Airways, a private firm owned by media baron and Sun
TV chief Kalanithi Maran, has pledged its over 7.02 crore shares of
SpiceJet, the airline said in a filing to the BSE. Of this, over 1.01
crore shares were pledged on April 27, the filing said, but it did not
give the details of with whom the shares had been pledged.
The KAL
Airways has over 15.65 crore shares in the airline. In June, 2010 the
Sun TV Chief had clinched a deal to acquire a 37.7 per cent stake in the
airline for about Rs 750 crore from American investor Wilbur Ross, his
investment companies and the Kansagara family-promoted Royal Holding
Services Ltd.
15/05/11 Press Trust of India/Indian Express
New Delhi: In its global
expansion plans, Turkish Airlines has decided to open its own office in
India instead of operating through a general sales agency (GSA).
InterGlobe Aviation is the GSA for the airline in India.
"We are
working out plan for expansion in India,” said Adnan Aykac, general
manager of Turkish Airlines in India. Turkish Airlines is the national
carrier of Turkey and operates in 139 international and 42 domestic
cities of Europe, Asia, Africa and the US.
Aykac said the airline
will take delivery of 22 aircraft by the end of the current calendar
year and would not need leased aircraft. The airline has taken four
Boeing 777s on lease from Jet Airways and the lease period will expire
this year. "We will take delivery of 12 Boeing 777s and 10 Airbus 330s
this year and may not need to continue operating with leased aircraft,”
said Aykac.
Jet Airways, India’s largest carrier in terms of
passenger carriage, said it has informed Turkish Airlines that the lease
would not be extended. "Jet Airways will induct two Boeing 777 aircraft
into its operations and has entered into an agreement with Thai Airways
for the lease of the remaining two. The aircraft will be leased for two
years with an option to extend for a year,” said an email reply from
the airline.
15/05/11 Mihir Mishra/Business Standard
Surat: Tired of being let
down time and again after repeated assurances of promised air
connectivity, Surtis have begun to voice out on Facebook by forming a
group called 'We want a working airport at Surat'. The movement has got
immense support by Surtis around the world and has grown from 80 to a
whopping 600 plus members and counting.
Begun with the simple lines
'Dreaming a day when no need to catch a train after a long wait at
Borivali station. Just land directly on our own airport', two months
ago, the group was started by an NRI Surti youngster - Priyank Desai -
who lives in Armenia.
Discovered by a Surti businessman Manoj
Singapuri on Facebook on Thursday evening, it is now spreading like
wildfire. "I chanced upon it while searching for information on Surat
airport, day before yesterday. It had 80 members protesting and I added
my entire group of friends to it. Since then, I have been constantly
posting official numbers and data regarding this issue. Even the
smallest of cities like Dibrugarh and Agartala have at least 6 flights
each," says Singapuri.
Overnight, strong comments as well as online
links to news articles where politicians have made false promises in the
past have been posted on the FB group wall.
14/05/11 Ashleshaa Khurana/Times of India
New Delhi: Officials of
the Competition Commission of India (CCI) will meet private airline
officials May 25 to seek their explanation on the sudden hike in fares
during the 10-day strike by Air India pilots, an official said.
"Our
officers will meet them on May 25. That day we will seek replies from
them. This new date was set after our first meeting on Friday, when the
airlines' officials requested for more time," a senior official with the
competition watchdog said Saturday.
Earlier, notices were issued by
CCI seeking an explanation from private sector airlines on allegations
that they hiked fares to cash in on the strike when thousands of
passengers, stranded after their Air India flights were cancelled, had
to shell out between 50 percent and 75 percent more for bookings.
"The
CCI is currently probing all angles like collusion and predatory
pricing. They are expected to give a report by 60 days," the official
said.
Passengers complained that the base fare on a Delhi-Mumbai
flight, which goes up to Rs.2,400-Rs.3,000 for last-minute bookings, had
gone up to as much as Rs.7,500 on some airlines, resulting in a total
one-way cost of Rs.11,500, including various levies.
14/05/11 IANS/Economic Times
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