Việt Citron opens in Somerville; the Nonantum Press Room serves luxurious paninis in Newton
Near the Prudential Center,
Don't Tell Aunty
(1080 Boylston St.) — which bills itself as Boston's first Indian gastropub — serves kale fritters, chutneys and naan chips, masala fries, and mango lasso cheesecake paired with cocktails made with curry brine and coconut milk. It's new from the team behind
Godavari
,
Vaanga
, and
Madras Dosa Co
. They're softly open now, with a grand opening slated for April.
Snacks from Madras Dosa Co.
Handout
Coming soon
: Speaking of which, The Street Chestnut Hill (55 Boylston St.) welcomes a branch of
Madras Dosa Co
. later this year, with an open kitchen and fast-casual, customizable rice and lentil crepes with sweet or savory fillings. A Seaport location opened in 2021.
Expansions
: Last but not least, some juicy barbecue news. The ever-growing
Smoke Shop BBQ
franchise from noted pitmaster Andy Husbands (
Tremont 647)
opens a new branch in Woburn (2 Elm St.) on Friday, March 21, with meats smoked on-site, a vast whiskey collection — and plenty of TVs tuned to sports, Husbands says.
Kara Baskin can be reached at
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New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Live Updates: Over 260 Dead After Air India Crash, Official Says, With One Survivor
Boeing suffered another setback on Thursday, when a crash of one of its passenger jets in western India renewed scrutiny of the company's safety record following a yearslong quality crisis. It could take months or years to determine the cause of the crash, in which an Air India passenger plane, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner carrying 242 passengers and crew members, slammed into a medical college in Ahmedabad, in the Indian state of Gujarat. Manufacturing issues may ultimately have little to do with what went wrong, but the episode — the first fatal crash involving a Dreamliner — could still lead to more scrutiny into concerns about Boeing's production practices that go back years. 'Our deepest condolences go out to the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board Air India Flight 171, as well as everyone affected in Ahmedabad,' Kelly Ortberg, Boeing's chief executive, said in a statement. Mr. Ortberg also said that he had spoken with N. Chandrasekaran, the chairman of Tata Group, the conglomerate that owns Air India, and offered Boeing's support. The company said it had a team ready to help with the investigation, which is being led by India's aviation regulators. Plane crashes are typically caused by multiple factors that can include things like bird strikes, pilot error, manufacturing defects and inadequate maintenance. Early hypotheses are often ruled out during lengthy, technical crash investigations. The first Dreamliner was delivered in 2011 to All Nippon Airways, Japan's largest airline. There are more than 1,100 in service today, including nearly three dozen operated by Air India, according to Cirium, an aviation data firm. The plane involved in the crash on Thursday was delivered to Air India in January 2014 and had accumulated more than 41,000 flight hours, according to Cirium. The plane had taken off or landed nearly 8,000 times over its life, a typical amount for a Dreamliner of that age. Thursday's crash comes as Boeing is still dealing with repercussions from two deadly accidents involving its 737 Max plane in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. The company reached a deal with the Justice Department last month, which would spare Boeing from taking criminal responsibility for the crashes. Boeing has agreed to admit to obstructing federal oversight, pay a fine, contribute to a fund for the families of the victims and invest in safety and quality programs. The agreement, which requires the approval of a judge, was opposed by some of the families of crash victims. The airplane manufacturer has faced other prominent safety issues in recent years. In January 2024, a hole blew open on a new 737 Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight, exposing passengers to forceful winds. Boeing told regulators last August that it would redesign the panels to better detect any malfunctions. That episode prompted widespread reforms at the company. Among them was an overhaul of senior management, including its chief executive, substantial changes in quality processes and procedures, increased regulatory scrutiny and Boeing's purchase of a major supplier of Max bodies. The Dreamliner has been the subject of quality concerns, too. Deliveries of the plane were paused for more than a year until the summer of 2022, when the Federal Aviation Administration approved a Boeing plan to make some fixes that included filling paper-thin gaps in the plane's body and replacing certain titanium parts that were made with the wrong material. Those problems had no immediate impact on the safety of Dreamliners, Boeing said at the time. Last year, the F.A.A. investigated claims by a Boeing engineer who claimed that the company had taken shortcuts around the time of the delivery pause in fitting together parts of the Dreamliner fuselage, or body. The whistle-blower, Sam Salehpour, said that the improper procedures could cause premature damage over years of use. Boeing disputed the claim, including at a briefing last year for reporters at the factory in North Charleston, S.C., where the Dreamliner has been assembled for years. Two top Boeing engineers said then that the company had found no evidence to support the whistle-blower's concerns after conducting exhaustive tests, inspections and analyses of the plane during its development and in recent years. One 787 airframe had been subjected to testing that put it through 165,000 'flight cycles,' the equivalent pressurization and depressurization of that many flights. That figure far exceeded the plane's expected useful life and the airframe still showed no signs of fatigue, Steve Chisholm, a vice president and the functional chief engineer for mechanical and structural engineering at Boeing, said at the briefing in South Carolina. Boeing also said then that nearly 700 Dreamliners had gone through thorough six-year maintenance checks, and eight had gone through 12-year checks. Mechanics found no signs of premature fatigue in those jets, either, according to the company. Other whistle-blowers have raised concerns about the South Carolina factory where the Dreamliner has been assembled for years. Among them was John Barnett, a former quality manager with almost three decades of experience at Boeing, who went public with his concerns about shoddy practices in 2019. Mr. Barnett killed himself last year after a yearslong legal battle with the company, which he accused of retaliating against him for raising his concerns. Last month, Boeing settled a lawsuit with Mr. Barnett's family concerning his death. But the Dreamliner involved in Thursday's crash predated those concerns: It was built years earlier in Seattle and delivered to Air India in 2014, according to Cirium. Mr. Ortberg, who took over as Boeing's chief executive last summer, described 2025 as 'our turnaround year' in a message to employees in April, when the company released better-than-expected quarterly financial results. At the time, the company said it had stabilized Dreamliner production at five planes per month, but planned to increase that to seven later in the year. The company's shares were down about 5 percent in midafternoon trading Thursday. Air India, one of the country's biggest carriers, had a cluster of dangerous incidents about 15 years ago. Before Thursday's crash, the airline's last fatal crash was in August 2020. The airline, which was taken over by the Tata Group in 2022 after decades of government ownership, has been working in recent years to improve its safety record and upgrade and expand its plane fleet. Alex Travelli and Pragati K.B. contributed reporting.
Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
Before crash, Air India spent years attempting a turnaround after emerging from government control
The deadly crash of an Air India flight carrying more than 240 people on Thursday arrives after years of efforts to turn around the country's flag carrier — which had been plagued by tragedy and financial losses under prior state ownership. In 2010, an Air India flight arriving from Dubai overshot the runway in the city of Mangalore and plunged over a cliff, killing 158 people out of the 166 on board. And in 2020, a flight for Air India Express, a subsidiary of Air India, skidded off a runway in Southern India during heavy rain and cracked in two — killing 18 people and injuring more than 120 others. Both of those incidents involved older Boeing 737-800 aircrafts — and occurred while Air India was still under governmental control. Indian conglomerate Tata Sons took over Air India in 2022, returning the carrier to private ownership after it was run by the state for decades. The 180 billion rupee (then worth $2.4 billion) deal was in some ways a homecoming for Air India, with roots that date back to the Tata family's founding of what was then-called Tata Airlines in 1932. It was also part of an wider effort to save the airline — which had become a money-losing, debt-saddled operation. Jitendra Bhargava, former executive director of the airline and author of 'The Descent of Air India,' said government ownership fostered an archaic work culture, outdated processes, and management by bureaucrats unfamiliar with the aviation industry. 'You are getting a recipe for disaster. And we went through it,' Bhargava told The Associated Press. As a result, he said, the company hemorrhaged money — which had a 'cascading effect' because it couldn't invest in upgrades. By the time of the Tata Sons takeover, Air India's market share was around 12% and at risk of shrinking as competitors expanded. Bhargava and other aviation experts stress that shedding government control was necessary for Air India to compete with other private rivals — and the carrier has since worked to reinvent itself by modernizing both its operations and fleet. Over recent years, Air India redesigned its branding and ordered hundreds of new planes from both Boeing and Airbus. Analysts don't expect Thursday's crash, which involved a 12-year-old Boeing 787 Dreamliner, to change such partnerships. 'Admittedly, Air India and the Tata organization have been very proud about the fact that they've made a major commitment to Boeing,' said Anita Mendiratta, an aviation and leadership consultant. While acknowledging that Boeing has been bruised in recent years, largely due to problems with its 737 Max, Mendiratta noted that there's still been a 'hunger' from airlines around the world to add the company's new planes to their fleets after recent delivery delays. That includes demand for the 787 Dreamliner — which, she said, is 'one of the most important aircraft when it comes to sustainable aviation, emissions reduction, managing the costs of aviation.' Boeing has been plagued by its own safety issues, including past deadly crashes. This, however, was the first crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, according to the Aviation Safety Network database. And the cause of Thursday's crash is still unclear. An international investigation is underway, and Boeing has said it's 'working to gather more information.' Air India said it's also working to get answers around what caused the crash — while promising to support those impacted by the tragedy. 'This is a difficult day for all of us at Air India,' CEO Campbell Wilson said in recorded remarks. 'Our efforts now are focused entirely on the needs of our passengers, crew members, their families and loved ones.' Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons, added in a statement that 'no words can adequately express the grief we feel at this moment.' He said that the company would provide 10 million rupees (nearly $116,795) to the families of each person 'who has lost their life in this tragedy' — and also cover medical expenses of anyone who was injured. The Boeing 787 crashed into a medical college after takeoff in India's northwestern city of Ahmedabad. A single passenger survived the crash, according to a senior Indian official and Air India. But the airline said there were no other survivors — putting the latest death toll at 241. Beyond the fatal accidents in 2010 and 2020, an Air India Boeing 747 flight also crashed into the Arabian Sea in 1978, killing all 213 aboard. The carrier was under government control from 1953 through 2022. Other fatal accidents involving India's state-owned airlines include the more than 50 people who died in a crash in the eastern city of Patna in 2000. In 1993, a flight crashed in the western city Aurangabad, killing 55. In 1988, over 130 died when a plane crashed while landing in Ahmedabad and in 1991, a crash near northeastern city Imphal killed 69 people aboard. __________ Grantham-Philips reported from New York and Ghosal reported from Hanoi. AP Writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.
Skift
an hour ago
- Skift
Air India Crash Poses Major Test for Airline's Reinvention and India's Aviation Ambitions
This is a terrible day for the Indian aviation sector, one of the fastest-growing in the world. The business impact will unfold in coming days and weeks. Air India Liveblog Ongoing coverage of the crash of Air India flight 171 from Skift's editorial team in India, Europe, and the United States. Ongoing coverage of the crash of Air India flight 171 from Skift's editorial team in India, Europe, and the United States. Get the Latest Updates Skift's coverage of the Air India crash is offered free to all readers. The crash of Air India Flight 171 is a human tragedy first — and it's going to be a while before we have clear answers about what exactly happened. The business impact will unfold over the coming days and weeks. We know there are implications for Boeing, given its struggles in recent years. Air India is in the middle of a multi-year transformation, and its response to the crisis will be closely watched. And there will certainly be an impact on India's aviation sector more broadly - one of the fastest-growing in the world. Here's what we'll be tracking. Boeing in India Boeing, which has already faced intense scrutiny over the past several years, finds itself once again in the spotlight. We know that safety is an important factor for airline passengers. On the whole Boeing aircraft are safe to fly but this string of bad news and tragic crashes have hurt the brand. The specific aircraft involved was a 787 Dreamliner and Air India is the only Indian airline operating it, with 34 in service today and 20 more on firm order. The Dreamliner is key for Air India's long haul strategy as it constitutes nearly 50% of the total long haul capacity for the airline. Air India's Transformation That brings us to Air India's strategy. This national icon was in the midst of its most ambitious transformation in decades — and this is a potential setback depending on how it handles the crisis. The team at Air India, led by Campbell Wilson, has been navigating a complex merger and brand renewal since 2021. But this tragedy will likely become one of the most defining moments of his leadership. India's Growing Aviation Sector And finally, this is a terrible day for Indian aviation more broadly. This moment feels especially heavy, as it comes just days after I returned from the IATA Annual General Meeting in New Delhi — the first time in 42 years that India hosted the event. There was so much optimism in the air — airlines, airport, travel tech, government leaders, everyone speaking about growth, safety, and the future of Indian aviation. India's aviation infrastructure has been a focus of investment with the government committing to invest $11 billion towards building and expanding airports. India aims to reach 200 airports by the end of this year with another 200 over the next two decades. Live Updates: Ongoing coverage of the crash of Air India flight 171 from Skift's editorial team in India, Europe, and the United States.
