In 1911, French pilot Henri Pequet flew the world's first official airmail, carrying over 6,500 letters and postcards, during the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, now Prayagraj. The flight, which covered five miles in 13 minutes, marked a significant milestone in aviation and postal history. The mail included letters to Jawaharlal Nehru and King George V, and special commemorative postcards signed by Pequet are now prized collector's items. The event, which coincided with the Kumbh Mela, highlights the intersection of spiritual and technological advancements in India's history.
Sunita added that "I hope, and I think for sure, I'm gonna be going back to my father's home country and visiting with people and getting excited about the first, or not the first, but the Indian national who's going up on the Axiom Mission coming up, pretty awesome," she said.
'I eagerly await the day when we can experience a truly great Bollywood movie rooted in pure historical facts, one that authentically showcases the essence of our armed forces for Indian audiences,' notes Air Commodore Nitin Sathe (retd).
As domestic airlines face acute shortage of pilots, the government on Thursday decided to set up a flying and training institute in Maharashtra and modernise the existing state-run body in Rae Bareli with the help of a known Canadian pilot training firm, CEA Inc. The new institution at Gondia in Maharashtra, to be called the National Flying Training Institute, would be set up as a subsidiary of Airports Authority of India in joint venture with CAE.
Three crew members were killed after a helicopter of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) crashed and caught fire at an airport on the outskirts of Gujarat's Porbandar city, police said.
Bill Aitken came to India nearly 60 years ago. He never returned. An Indian citizen since 1972, he tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih how India changed his life forever.
Out of the 14 flights, 13 were diverted to Jaipur and 1 to Dehradun, the official said and added that the diversions happened between 8.30 am and 3 pm.
The new Vande Bharat Express train is specially designed to operate seamlessly in Jammu & Kashmir's challenging winter conditions for the upcoming Katra-Srinagar rail route.
The rapid growth of airlines and air passengers would necessitate an additional 2000-3000 commercial pilots in the country during the next 5-10 years, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. \n
The high court's order came on a plea by erstwhile Indian Airlines pilots for a stay on management's decision to train only erstwhile Air India pilots.
The aircraft crashed 3 km away from Chorhatta airstrip after hitting the dome of a temple and a tree while on a training sortie, said Chorhatta police station in-charge J P Patel.
Around 200 pilots of Go First, the cash-strapped airline that suspended operations on May 2, have joined Air India. As many as 75 of them started training with the Tata-owned airline on Monday. As Go First tries to salvage its operations, it has announced additional pay or retention allowance of Rs 100,000 and Rs 50,000 for captains and first officers, respectively, with effect from June 1.
It takes only two hours - roughly the time it takes for a plane to fly from Delhi to Mumbai - for a pair of pilots to complete their training on the 737 MAX simulator at Boeing's centre in Noida, the only one of its kind in India. Going by this estimate, all the 90 Spicejet pilots who the civil aviation regulator barred from flying the 737 MAX can be retrained in 90 hours.
The probe report has estimated the cost of damage due to the accident at more than Rs 52 crore.
The railway officials launched an investigation jointly with the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) and found there was no criminal intent behind the act.
The Palasa passenger train hit the Rayagada passenger train from behind at Kantakapalli, about 40 Km from Visakhapatnam, causing three coaches to derail.
If someone incompetent clears the system, it is probably intentional.
The locals reported that road construction is underway in the area, involving the use of dumpers to transport soil at night.
Air India has given more time to pilots to accept the revised compensation structure, which has been opposed by two pilot unions, according to a source. The decision to provide more time to pilots who are yet to sign the new contracts also comes days after Air India organised a town hall meeting with many pilots to discuss their concerns. The source said the airline has given time till the end of this week for signing the new contracts apparently due to requests from people who had not earlier accepted the revised compensation structure.
Air India on Monday announced a new compensation structure for its pilots and cabin crew, with a guaranteed flying allowance of 40 hours per month for both categories of staff. While the flying allowance has been doubled for pilots, it has been introduced for flight attendants as part of the new compensation structure. Pilots will earn an additional amount as a reward based on the number of years of service with the airline and get an allowance while undergoing training for command or conversion to another aircraft type.
Wing Commander Raveendran and flight steward Sargeant Iyer, though shaken and injured, managed to open the rear door of the aircraft and shouted for Prime Minister Morarji Desai and the passengers in the forward cabin to exit in haste since they suspected that fire would engulf the aircraft.
The government will look to standardise rules around operations protocol during failure of automatic signalling.
Wing Commander Pratap Marathe's story is one of dedication, bravery, and humour, a shining example of the spirit of the Indian Air Force. Air Commodore Nitin Sathe (retd) salutes Wing Commander Marathe who passed into the ages last week.
What is more, the training period in the US academies is six months, while it can take up to two and a half years in India. According to norms laid down by the DGCA, one can get a license only after completing 200 hours of flying.
Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday said women are all set to enter temples in Tamil Nadu as priests under the Dravidian model of governance.
Air India's pilot unions on Monday alleged that working conditions are hostile at the airline and sought Tata group chairman N Chandrasekaran's intervention to resolve the issues. Tata group took control of loss-making Air India in January this year. The two pilot unions -- IPG and ICPA -- claimed that despite its unflinching support extended to Air India in its growth and expansion plan, the management has not reciprocated in the same manner.
This is the third reported incident in the past two months in the Agra Division in which the crew of an express train violated the speed restriction.
With an unprecedented "boom" in aviation, the country is running short of pilots. Most carriers, state-owned as well as private, are in a scramble to lay their hands on trained pilots.
Air India chief Campbell Wilson on Friday said that a majority of pilots have accepted the new compensation package offered last week, amid protests by Air India pilots' unions against the revised salary structure and service conditions. The loss-making airline, which was taken over from the government by the Tata Group in January 2022, has announced a new compensation package for pilots and cabin crew. In his weekly message to Air India staff on Friday, Campbell said the airline is making investments in workplace technology and training as well as in new and improved employee benefits.
SpaceX launched a reduced two-man crew to the International Space Station on Saturday, carrying supplies and two empty seats for Starliner astronauts awaiting a return home in February after an unplanned eight-and-a-half-month stay in orbit, CBS News reported.
Of the 1,700 licences verified by it, the DGCA found seven cases of fake qualifications in mark sheets and flight hours.
A thorough probe is underway, none of the authorities has so far talked about any possibility of a sabotage.
No person was injured in the incident but it caused damage to window panes of three coaches, including the pantry car, they said, adding one person has been detained in connection with the incident.
IndiGo has restored annual increments for more than 4,500 pilots as a financial turnaround helped the airline make a profit in Q3 FY23 after three quarters of loss. An email from the airline's management last week informed pilots of the restoration from April. "The component of annual increment for Indian captains (Rs 10,000 per month) and Indian first officers (Rs 5,000 per month) on the Airbus and ATR fleet which was stopped due to Covid will restart from April 1, 2023," the airline's senior vice president (flight operations) Ashim Mitra said in the staff email.
The audit was ordered after one of the airline's planes plunged several thousand feet while flying over the Turkish airspace on the Brussels-Mumbai route early last month.
Air India will train its pilots in Singapore for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, due for delivery from December. The move is sparking a protest from one of its pilots' unions, on promotion issues.
The pilots of India's budget carrier SpiceJet would now be trained by flight training establishment of the Dubai carrier, Emirates.
Timely intervention by a loco pilot and locals saved the lives of 40 students after the school bus they were travelling on got stuck on railway tracks at a level crossing in Nagpur, an official said on Friday.
Videos from the scene, shot by locals in Morena, showed debris of the aircraft on the ground.
This is not a train for the regular commuter, evident from the number of large sized bags in the overhead bin, observes IAF Veteran Air Commodore Nitin Sathe.
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