'...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.'
Air India has put all its newly-acquired Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner planes for sale and leaseback and invited bids from prospective lessors by February first week, even as all of these aircraft remained grounded across the world.
The AI-111 flight departed from the Delhi airport at around 5.20 pm instead of its scheduled departure time of 2 pm, they said.
A local resident of Meghani Nagar in Gujarat's Ahmedabad, who lives close to the site where Air India flight-171 crashed, recounted the horror and described the devastation and horror following the tragic incident.
'Visualise those 15 to 18 seconds: Fully loaded aircraft, pilot manually controlling with both hands (no autopilot immediately after takeoff), looking forward while switches are behind.'
'In multi-pilot operations, no critical switch can be moved without the other pilot's consent.'
The maiden flight, which is part of a comprehensive flight-test programme leading to its certification and delivery in mid-2014, was for over five hours with a Boeing spokesperson saying here that it was successful.
The Ahmedabad air tragedy, which claimed the lives of all but one of the 242 passengers and crew on board, and several others on the ground, has left deep scars on BJMC's residential quarters and the psyche of the survivors.
In its bid to grab Air India orders, US aircraft manufacturer Boeing on Tuesday said it had offered a "comprehensive competitive pricing" to the public sector carrier, whose decision to purchase 50 aircraft of different makes was yet to get governmen
The flight will operate every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. While the inaugural flight AI 139 left at 6 pm (Indian time) on Thursday, the scheduled departure will be 4.50 pm (Indian time) from March 25 when the summer schedule comes into operation.
This is the third instance in the last three days when the aviation regulator grounded a plane after an incident.
Air India on Friday said it has completed the acquisition of its first A350-900 aircraft by way of a finance lease transaction with HSBC through the GIFT City. This is also the first wide body aircraft to be leased through the GIFT City, the country's first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC). In a release, the airline said the transaction was facilitated by its wholly-owned subsidiary AI Fleet Services Ltd (AIFS) and is also the first financing transaction from the orders for 470 aircraft that were made earlier this year.
5 AI's Dreamliner pilots left the airline to join other carriers without serving the mandatory six-month notice period
Air India's decision to buy five Boeing 787-9 is illogical.
'Indian diplomacy in West Asia under the present government has been a success story -- and with Saudi Arabia in particular,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
