Aviation regulator DGCA plans to implement measures to control excessive air ticket price increases, following concerns raised during a parliamentary panel meeting. The meeting also addressed air safety issues in light of the Ahmedabad plane crash.
How cockpit voices and flight data unravel what happened during an air crash.
The tragic incident saw 241 of the 242 lives on board the London-bound Boeing 787-8 perish, along with 29 people on the ground as the aircraft plunged into a medical college campus shortly after takeoff.
Authorities at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital have so far identified eleven victims of the June 12 Air India plane crash through DNA testing and started the process to hand over the bodies to their relatives, officials said on Saturday.
Former Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha (Reired), on Saturday said the engine of the Air India aircraft that crashed near Ahmedabad airport on June 12 'definitely' lost power at a critical stage and there was no time for recovery.
Vishwas Kumar Ramesh, the sole survivor of Air India's AI 171 crash, said he still cannot believe how he miraculously survived the accident of the ill-fated London-bound flight in which 265 people lost their lives.
Air India's flight to London from Ahmedabad, which has started operating with a new code post the June 12 crash of AI-171, was cancelled on Tuesday due to "operational issues", an airport official said.
With the finding of both black boxes of the plane, it would be easy for investigators to ascertain the cause of the crash.
A native of Mandangad in coastal Ratnagiri district, the Songhare family had moved to Mumbai for work and shifted to Dombivli two years ago.
Amid mounting safety concerns and the cancellation of at least 66 flights that were to be operated with Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, DGCA officials held a detailed review meeting with top Air India and Air India Express executives.
The specific reasons for the crash of the Boeing 787-8 aircraft flying from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick will be known only after the completion of the detailed probe by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.
In one of the frames of the chilling video, a woman is seen trying to climb down from the balcony with the support of mere railings with huge flames emanating from the crash site just metres away.
Air India reiterated that its priority remains extending assistance to the families.
'The tone of the preliminary report creates a narrative towards pilot error. This is wrong.' 'Selected conversation has been divulged. It's not as if the pilots did not speak anything else in the cockpit.'
'Humanly impossible for the switches to turn from on to off at rapid succession within one second'
Hundreds of people, including inconsolable family members and friends, gave an emotional farewell to First Officer Clive Kunder, co-pilot of the Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad last week, and flight attendant Roshni Songhare whose last rites were held on Thursday.
'Other than blaming the pilot, there is zero accountability.'
Rajesh Patel, 57, said he collected nearly 70 tolas of gold ornaments, which would be priceless for the victims' kin, Rs 50,000 and a few US dollars from the scene of the deadly aviation tragedy and handed them over to the police.
Both the CVRs and FDRs were recovered within a week after the accident. One was retrieved from a rooftop of the building at the crash site on June 13, and the other from the debris on June 16.
There have been some cases where the entire family has perished or both spouses died in the crash, which are making the claims process particularly complex.
'If major components of any dead body from which you can retrieve DNA is available, that is enough.'
Ramesh Chand Patel, a regular visitor to Gujarat and deeply connected to his roots, had come to India for just nine days.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is expected to release its preliminary report this week on the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, which resulted in the deaths of at least 260 people. The investigation is ongoing, with the help of foreign experts, and the black box and voice recorder data are being analyzed.
Pilot groups have accused the AAIB of portraying the pilots as responsible for the incident, with vague and selective presentation of cockpit conversations.
Air India has cancelled eight flights, including four international services, on Friday due to enhanced maintenance and operational reasons, the airline said.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has urged restraint in speculating about the cause of the Air India plane crash, emphasizing that the investigation is ongoing and premature narratives should be avoided.
'This (crash) is one of those times where there is no concrete explanation yet for what happened. I think that adds to my parents' worry.'
'We consider everyone who lost someone in this tragedy as part of our family -- now and forever.'
Will operate only after FAA and DGCA gives green light.
As of now, there have been no problems with the aircraft.
A selfie taken by Dr Prateek Joshi onboard the flight, showing the smiling family, has gone viral, capturing their excitement for the journey ahead.
'...from the recovered part of the throttle quadrant -- the control panel that manages engine power -- it is hard to say at this stage if the locking mechanism was damaged in any way.'
After a London-bound Air India aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport on Thursday, the spotlight is back on India's history with aviation disasters.
'$125 million for the hull and the remaining of over $350 million for liability.'
They were asked to wait for 72 hours, but the deadline passed on Sunday and the wait seems endless.
'A few answers for the reason of the crash will be known -- whether it was a technical fault, design issue, human error etc.'
More than 30 hours have passed since the horrific crash of Air India's London-bound flight in Meghaninagar area of Ahmedabad shortly after its take-off from the city airport snuffed out the lives of 265 people, including 241 passengers and 12 crew members.
'When there are glaring errors in the report, how can you trust anything in it?'
The two Boeing 787s, which were to take off for their destinations just 10 minutes apart on Thursday, had to be replaced with new planes which flew the passengers to their respective destinations, they said.
All the 12 cabin crew members, including two pilots, on board the ill-fated London-bound Air India flight were killed in the Ahmedabad air crash on Thursday.
