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.
The foremost lesson for India today is to beef up its air defence to cater for multiple drone attacks. As seen in Operation Sindoor, we have come a long way, but there's room for getting better. We must develop a robust and almost impregnable air cover over ourselves, asserts IAF veteran Air Commodore Nitin Sathe (retd).
'It is an indication that they had forgotten to retract the landing gear. That causes heavy drag, and you cannot accelerate or gain height too fast with a hanging gear.'
For India, the challenge is to strike a balance between tactical necessity and economic priorities, point out Pravin Krishna and Monil Sharma.
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.
'Attacks on nuclear sites pose significant threats.'
An official expressed hope that the DNA profiling all the victims will be completed by either Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning.
Air India has cancelled eight flights, including four international services, on Friday due to enhanced maintenance and operational reasons, the airline said.
'If anything happened out of the normal, there would be instantaneous ECAM, EICAS warnings, the master caution or master warnings going off.' 'It would be like a Christmas tree in the cockpit if things start going wrong.'
21-year-old Nganthoi Sharma Kongbrailatpam was part of the cabin crew in Air India flight AI 171, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which crashed near Ahmedabad airport on Thursday.
The truth about what triggered the fatal crash of the Dreamliner should not only help bring the guilty to book, but also outline the future course of action in aviation safety, notes Nivedita Mookerji.
Jet said three of its aircraft were temporarily grounded for engine normalisation and are expected to rejoin scheduled operations on February 1.
The flight had departed after a delay of almost 3.5 hours as its scheduled departure was at 8.50 am, as per flight tracking website flightradar24.com.
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.
Air India will begin operating flights between Ahmedabad and London Heathrow from August 1, replacing the Gatwick route. The airline is also partially resuming domestic and international services suspended after a fatal plane crash. Some routes will remain suspended until September 30, while others will see increased frequency.
'A few answers for the reason of the crash will be known -- whether it was a technical fault, design issue, human error etc.'
The ministry of civil aviation clarified that, contrary to circulating reports, a video recorder that had been recovered at the crash site was not the DFDR.
'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.'
"Decoding of the black box is going to give in-depth insight into what happened moments before the plane crash," Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said at a briefing in the national capital.
India and the US have collaborated through the past one month on launching a powerful satellite; are commencing joint production of GE Aerospace's F414 jet engines in India; India is participating in a massive three week-long military exercise in the Western Pacific, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
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.
The Indian Air Force will carry out a two-day mega military exercise along the border with Pakistan from Wednesday that will involve all the frontline fighter jets including Rafale, Su-30 and Jaguar aircraft. The exercise is taking place amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan over the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people. India's civil aviation authorities have already issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) for the major air exercise that will largely take place along the southern and western section of the Indo-Pakistan border. India's frontline fighter jets including the Rafale, Su-30 MKI, MiG-29, Mirage-2000, Tejas and AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft are set to feature in the exercise.
Teams have been formed and assigned to individual families with a rank of a deputy collector or tehsildar rank officer. Bodies will be handed over to the families and taken in ambulance to the village or district with a police pilot, Pandey said.
They were asked to wait for 72 hours, but the deadline passed on Sunday and the wait seems endless.
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel met the family members of Rupani and informed them about the DNA match, state Health Minister Rushikesh Patel said.
Authorities continue evacuating stranded pilgrims from areas around Dharali village in Uttarkashi, focusing on air rescue and relief operations due to damaged roads. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami is overseeing the efforts, with central government support.
The three officials include a divisional vice president of the airline, as per the DGCA order.
Israel Defence Forces spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin on Saturday claimed that the Israeli Air Force has achieved aerial freedom of action over Tehran, which is 'no longer immune'.
'The people who are missing are the people who used to work in the mess.'
Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren, a towering figure in the state's tribal movement, was cremated with full state honors in his native village of Nemra. Thousands gathered to pay their respects to the 'Dishom Guru,' including political leaders and villagers.
Speaking about the building in which the plane crashed, the eyewitness said, "It is a residential building, doctors live there."
The first batch of women cadets joined the NDA's 148th course in 2022 after the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) allowed women to apply to the defence academy following a Supreme Court direction in 2021.
The Human-rated LVM3 vehicle, the Crew Escape System and the Crew Module and Service Module are all in final stages of testing and integration.
In what was perhaps the most critical meeting before full-scale war broke out, Shastri defined India's immediate war objectives to his defence minister, army, and air force chiefs: 'To defend against Pakistan's attempts to grab Kashmir by force and to make it abundantly clear that Pakistan would never be allowed to wrest Kashmir from India; To destroy the offensive power of Pakistan's armed forces...' A fascinating excerpt from Shiv Kunal Verma's must-read 1965: A Western Sunrise India's War With Pakistan.
If India caves in to US pressure as Trump hopes it will, he will further try to blackmail it into submission, points out Ramesh Menon.
While Air India cancelled six international flights due to aviation regulator DGCA subjecting its Dreamliner fleet to enhanced checks, the Ahmedabad-London Gatwick one was cancelled due to unavailability of aircraft, the airline said.
The Chinese see no need to fight directly. They have an able and willing proxy in Pakistan, points out Shekhar Gupta.
InterGlobe Aviation, the parent of the country's largest airline IndiGo, on Wednesday posted its highest ever fourth-quarter profit after tax of Rs 3,067.5 crore, mainly helped by strong air travel demand. The company's profit after tax in the three months ended March 2025 jumped 62 per cent from Rs 1,894.8 crore in the year-ago period.
Demand for the Christmas period is expected to rise further in the coming days.
The Indian government defended its decision to revoke the security clearance of Turkey-based Celebi without warning, citing an "unprecedented" threat to aviation security. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued that giving a hearing or reasons before taking action would "defeat the purpose" in matters of national security. The decision came after Turkey backed Pakistan and condemned India's airstrikes on terror camps in the neighboring country. Celebi, which operates at nine Indian airports, has challenged the government's move in court.
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