'In multi-pilot operations, no critical switch can be moved without the other pilot's consent.'
'A last-second aborted landing at Mumbai airport left us speechless.'
An Air India aircraft with 242 passengers on board heading to London crashed in the Meghaninagar area near Ahmedabad airport on Thursday afternoon, the police said.
India has closed its airspace to flights operated by Pakistani airlines in a retaliatory move following the Pahalgam terror attack. The ban will be in effect until May 23 and applies to all aircraft registered in Pakistan, as well as planes operated, owned or leased by Pakistani airlines and operators. This comes a week after Pakistan closed its airspace to Indian carriers. The move is part of various measures taken by the Indian government against Pakistan in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people.
Videos of the moments of turbulence shared on social media showed panic-stricken passengers could be heard making religious supplications as the plane swayed.
The process of identification of victims by matching the DNA samples is currently underway, and the bodies will be handed over to their relatives once the process is complete.
More than 300 flights have been cancelled and at least 25 airports, including Srinagar, have been temporarily shut for operations amid restrictions in the wake of the armed forces launching missile attacks on terror targets in Pakistan on Wednesday morning.
The sources said that an ATC posted at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi was subjected to the drug test.
The DGCA has derostered the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) who was on duty at the time of the incident on Saturday, while IndiGo has initiated a probe into the matter
"It was a very proud moment for me as well as the entire Air India crew when we heard from Pakistan ATC praising our special flight operations to Europe," one of the senior captains of the special flight said.
Airlines must ensure that all check-in counters at the Delhi airport are fully staffed to minimise passenger inconvenience as smog has started affecting the flight operations, Aviation Minister Rammohan Naidu directed on Wednesday. The minister gave this direction during a meeting with representatives of major airlines, Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), officials of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS).
Aircraft pilot-in-command Captain Achint Bhardwaj spoke exclusively to ANI after landing at Delhi Airport and said that all air traffic controls, including that of Pakistan, extended support during the evacuation mission.
An ATC officer's job requires 100 per cent concentration and a break after every one-and-a-half hours.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday issued specific measures for aviation sector players to mitigate the risk of runway incursions at Indian airports. The measures include activating stop bars by Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) to inform aircraft when not to proceed, establishing contingency plans in case stop bars malfunction, establishing runway safety teams at airports, and conducting comprehensive training programs for pilots, ATC personnel, aircraft maintenance engineers, and airport drivers.
The death toll in the Ghatkopar hoarding collapse in Mumbai rose to 16 on Thursday with rescue personnel retrieving the bodies of a retired general manager of Air Traffic Control (ATC) and his wife, officials said.
The Mumbai police have issued a notice to a teenage boy, his father and another person from Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh to join questioning in connection with bomb threats posted on social media targeting three flights, officials said.
The pilot of the aircraft informed the ATC about the threat after a 'Bomb in flight' message, written on a tissue paper, was found in the washroom of the plane, they said.
'Whoever is doing it (threats to airlines), they are actually carrying out a recce.' 'This is the manner in which terrorists strike.'
Officials also denied that security concern regarding construction of multi-level parking lot near the ATC tower was behind the idea to build control tower in Kalina
Following the incident, which took place at Chennai airport last week, the Airports Authority of India raised the issue with IndiGo, asking it not to pass the blame for flight delays "falsely" to the ATC, sources said.
This is the second such incident involving an IndiGo flight in the past week. On May 28, an IndiGo Varanasi flight from Delhi had received an alleged bomb threat.
Radar screens at the Air Traffic Control tower at the IGIAirport in New Delhi went blank on Friday following power failure caused by accidental switching off a miniature circuit breaker (MCB) by a worker carrying out an electrical job in ATC, hitting flight operations.
The India meteorological department (IMD) on Wednesday evening issued a red alert for Mumbai and its neighbouring districts, predicting "extremely heavy rainfall".
The value of private equity (PE)-backed mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in India reached a six-year low during the first seven months of the current calendar year, amid ongoing global uncertainties. The total value of these deals stood at $6.2 billion during the period, down from $9 billion in the same period last year, and lower than the $14 billion recorded during the corresponding period in 2019, according to data from LSEG Deals Intelligence. PE funds pool capital from investors, including high-net-worth individuals, to invest in high-return opportunities.
As Cyclone Dana barrels toward the coasts of Odisha, threatening to impact nearly half of the state's population, the government is racing against time to execute a massive evacuation plan aimed at relocating about 10 lakh people in several coastal districts to safety. In West Bengal, the cyclone is set to bring heavy rainfall in several southern West Bengal districts, including Kolkata, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said.
An Air Traffic Control staff at the Mumbai airport averted a tragedy on Wednesday evening by aborting the takeoff of Jet Airways' Goa-bound flight carrying 158 passengers when another plane was about to touch down.
Captain Sharan and Flight Engineer Anil Jaggia both confirm that the hijackers seemed to know a lot about flying an aircraft. Without help from the ISI or the Pakistan army, it was impossible, points out Utkarsh Mishra.
About 600 nautical miles around Nagpur is now safe from mid-air mishaps, thanks to the new Air Traffic Control (ATC) automation system 'Indra' at the international airport here, which will also help saving up to 1.28 crore litres of aviation fuel every year, top airport officials said.
The new ATC tower, being built at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi by the Airports Authority of India, will be about 90-95 mt in height, taller than even the famous Qutub Minar.
The operation went on for 66 hours after a giant 120 feet x 120 feet hoarding collapsed on a petrol pump in the Chheda Nagar area during gusty winds on Monday evening, the official said.
Concerned over the 'high' number of airport incidents, a parliamentary committee has suggested alcohol tests for air-traffic controllers (ATCOs) as in the case of pilots, but also recommended a hike in their pay and reduction in working hours to retain them.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal has suspended two employees of the air traffic controller department for "carelessness", according to CAAN spokesperson Jagannath Niroula.
However, police and other security agencies did not find anything suspicious, a senior officer said, adding that the Air Traffic Control (ATC) also did not find anything.
The DGCA would inquire how the monitor of the area western radar went blank for over three minutes soon after the aircraft took off from the Kolkata airport on Thursday morning, a ministry spokesperson said in New Delhi
The vertical separation between Air India flight IC-941 from Hyderabad to Delhi and Kingfisher Airlines' Delhi-to-Bhubaneshwar flight IT-3345 came down to 700 feet as against the required 1,000 feet when they were manoeuvring over Delhi airspace.
A court in Mumbai on Wednesday directed police to conduct an enquiry into social media influencer Sapna Gill's complaint of molestation against cricketer Prithvi Shaw in 2023.
A near miss situation was averted at the IGI airport on Monday evening when the pilot of a small plane entered the runway after but an alert ATC directed an incoming aircraft to go around and another to abort take-off.
Khan will remain in jail as he is convicted in many other cases.
After facing significant flight disruptions recently, Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan on Thursday told the airline staff that the "worst is behind us" and operations have already stabilised. Pilot woes have forced the Tata Group airline to temporarily cut down capacity by 10 per cent or 25-30 flights daily. While acknowledging that things should have been planned better, Kannan said it has been a "learning experience".
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