The DGCA has issued multiple fines and warnings to Air India over the past three years, flagging serious concerns in flight operations, cockpit discipline, and internal accountability.
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.
The Indian Commercial Pilots' Association (ICPA) defends the crew of the crashed AI 171 flight, rejecting insinuations of pilot suicide and calling for a fair investigation.
An Air India flight bound for New York returned to Mumbai on Monday morning after a bomb threat was reported. The aircraft, carrying 303 passengers, was thoroughly checked by security agencies, and nothing suspicious was found. The flight has been rescheduled to operate at 5 am on Tuesday, and passengers have been offered hotel accommodation and other assistance. This incident follows a recent trend of hoax bomb threats on flights, with at least 15 flights receiving such threats this year.
The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) has expressed concerns over the preliminary investigation report on the Air India Boeing 787 plane crash, calling it premature and irresponsible to assign blame before a thorough investigation.
A passenger spotted the note with the message "There is a bomb in the flight" written on it inside the toilet and alerted the crew, a Sahar police official here 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.'
The death of a young pilot and three fighter jet crashes prompt the question -- should there be more simulation training?
Over 250 Virgin Atlantic passengers, including Indians, landed at the Mumbai airport late in the evening on Friday after being stranded for more than 40 hours at a Turkey airport. The passengers were stuck at the Diyarbakir Airport in Turkey after their Mumbai-bound aircraft from London was diverted to the airport on Wednesday. The flight landed at around 9 pm at the Mumbai airport. A spokesperson for Virgin Atlantic said the plane departed Diyarbakir Airport at 13:00 local time on Friday, April 4, operating as flight VS1358. The passengers were provided with overnight hotel accommodation on Thursday evening.
India's scores in the ICAO's air safety oversight audit will improve substantially as the international watchdog's just-concluded validation mission was highly successful as per the initial reports, regulator DGCA said on Wednesday. ICAO is the International Civil Aviation Organisation. Under its Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) Continuous Monitoring Approach, an ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM) was undertaken from November 9 to 16.
Rudraprayag District Disaster Management Officer Nandan Singh Rajwar told PTI that the accident took place above the forests of Gaurikund amid poor visibility due to bad weather.
'The switch can't be shut off by an accidental brush of the hand, but needs effort, conscious physical action to operate it.' 'Was it the software of the aeroplane that caused the switch to turn off?' 'Was it the hardware of the aeroplane?' 'Was it both software and hardware put together?'
In a written reply, Singh said the 5G C-band spectrum has the likelihood of interfering with the current radio altimeters installed on the aircraft.
Delhi is under high security with over 10,000 police personnel and hi-tech surveillance deployed for Independence Day celebrations.
However, it said that the Delhi airport protocol required the aircraft to be inspected elsewhere before being cleared to land.
'They will cover up the failures of all the others.'
Days after its recent downgrade by the US aviation regulator, DGCA has set up two dedicated technical teams for surprise inspections on the aircraft of foreign airlines and charter firms and carry out extensive safety checks.
'70-80 per cent of the operations are carried out by the SDRF...We also aim to secure the area to make sure that further damage does not take place'
'That refresh programme -- because they are big aircraft and we cannot ground them all at the same time -- will last well into 2027.'
'A last-second aborted landing at Mumbai airport left us speechless.'
'When there are glaring errors in the report, how can you trust anything in it?'
The Elon Musk-headed SpaceX's newest Starship exploded ahead of a routine engine test in Texas, leading to a complete loss of the aircraft and damage to the immediate area surrounding the stand, the company has said.
'A few answers for the reason of the crash will be known -- whether it was a technical fault, design issue, human error etc.'
The pilot ejected safely and a court of inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident, the IAF said in a brief statement.
After chairing an emergency meeting with senior officials to discuss the situation, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that heli services on the Char Dham route will remain suspended for two days, as the weather is bad and the safety of the passengers is the government's top priority.
The proposals cleared by the DAC include new-generation anti-tank mines, air defence tactical control radar, heavy-weight torpedoes, medium-range maritime reconnaissance and multi-mission maritime aircraft, flight refueller aircraft and software-defined radios.
The incident has left the family grappling with grief and pride as they remember their brave son who sacrificed his life while saving another.
Italian news agency ANSA said the flight was diverted following a request from American Airlines for security checks related to a "suspected bomb threat".
Days after its Delhi-bound aircraft returned to Chicago due to unserviceable lavatories, Air India on Monday said its probe found that polythene bags, rags, and clothes had been flushed down and were stuck in the plumbing.
Air India on Wednesday said it has cancelled its Lucknow-Mumbai flight scheduled for June 17 due to 'operational reasons' and the ripple effect of flight diversions.
An Air India flight from Delhi to Tel Aviv was diverted to Abu Dhabi on Sunday after a missile attack near the Tel Aviv airport. The airline has suspended Tel Aviv flights till May 6. The attack happened less than an hour before the Air India flight was to land at Tel Aviv. The flight landed normally in Abu Dhabi and will soon return to Delhi. Air India's operations to and from Tel Aviv will remain suspended with immediate effect till May 6.
Aviation watchdog DGCA has issued a circular to airlines and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) on measures to deal with threats from jamming and spoofing of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) amid reports of such interference in the Middle East.
Containers from a Liberian cargo ship that sank off the Kerala coast have started washing ashore, prompting authorities to urge the public to stay away from them. The ship carried 13 hazardous cargos, including calcium carbide, which reacts with seawater to release highly flammable acetylene gas. The Indian Coast Guard is leading pollution response efforts and monitoring the spread of the oil slick.
Two runways at the airport will remain closed as officials investigate the incident, according to the airport's CEO Deborah Flint, CNN reported.
A Liberian cargo ship carrying 640 containers, including 13 hazardous cargoes, has sunk off the coast of Kerala, raising concerns of environmental damage. The ship, MSC ELSA 3, capsized and sank in the early hours of May 25 after listing rapidly. The three remaining crew members were rescued by the Indian Navy. The Indian Coast Guard is monitoring the situation for any oil spills and has positioned a ship with pollution response equipment at the scene. The ship was carrying 84.44 MT of diesel and 367.1 MT of furnace oil, in addition to the hazardous cargo. The Kerala State Disaster Management Authority has cautioned the public against touching any cargo containers or oil spills that may wash ashore.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra launched a scathing attack on the government regarding the Pahalgam terror attack, questioning intelligence failures and demanding accountability.
Members of the Indian cricket fraternity expressed deep sorrow and extended heartfelt condolences to the victims and their families on Thursday after a London-bound Air India flight crashed shortly after takeoff in Gujarat's Ahmedabad.
Of the 22 crew members on board the ship, MV Wan Hai 503, 18 have abandoned the vessel and are being rescued by Indian Navy and Coast Guard assets, he said.
The Indian Navy's P8I maritime patrol aircraft on Thursday located a Chinese fishing vessel that capsized three days ago in the Indian Ocean, officials said.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) suspended the licences of 92 pilots in 2022 for violating safety norms, which was more than double the 2021 figure. The number of scheduled flights (domestic and international) in India increased by 32.74 per cent to 1.3 million in 2022, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium. A DGCA official stated that the minimum period of licence suspension in 2022 was one month and the maximum was three years.
