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Daily Mirror
11 hours ago
- General
- Daily Mirror
Thorganby crash: Plane was performing aerobatics moments before fatal smash
A light aircraft which crashed in a field - killing two young men - was performing aerobatics moments before the disaster, investigators said yesterday. Pilot Matthew Bird, 21, and 24-year-old passenger Oliver Dawes died after the two-seater Cessna FRA150L aircraft careered into a field near Thorganby, North Yorkshire. Both families said they were "utterly heartbroken" following the tragedies, which are now being investigated by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB). And yesterday, the AAIB confirmed the plane had been "performing aerobatic manoeuvres north of Breighton Airfield" before the crash. The new report continued the aircraft "entered a steep descent and struck the ground in a field near Thorganby" fatally injuring the pilot and passenger. "The investigation is ongoing, and the final report will be published in due course," the statement added. It was released on the one-year anniversary of the crash, which happened at around 9.50am on Sunday July 28, 2024. Major update in Air India crash probe references key issue thought to be its cause Breighton Airfield, a private aerodrome primarily used for general aviation flying, is located on a former Royal Air Force station built in the early 1940s. Five people were injured in a helicopter crash, just inside East Yorkshire, at the airfield on July 17, 2016. And following last year's fatalities, there was a huge outpour of grief shown towards Mr Bird, from Burley in Wharfedale, West Yorkshire, and Mr Dawes, of Spofforth, North Yorkshire. Their families issued statements to the media via North Yorkshire Police in the days after the collision. Mr Bird's family said he 'meant so much to so many', adding: 'We are utterly heartbroken but he will live on in our hearts as we cherish the incredibly special memories he's left us with.' Mr Dawes was described by his family as a 'dearly loved son, cousin, nephew and friend'. The statement added: "Oliver will continue to live on in our hearts and memories as the kind, generous, hardworking and fun man he had become. We will miss him every day for the rest of our lives, we are heartbroken." The full report into the crash will be published later this year, it is thought.
Metro
15 hours ago
- Metro
Plane was 'performing aerobatics' before fatal crash in field, say investigators
Two men were killed after their small plane performed aerobatics before nosediving into a field, air crash investigators say. Matthew Bird, 21, from Spofforth, and Oliver Dawes, 24, from Burley in Wharfedale, were the pilot and passenger of the two-seater Cessna light aircraft that came down in Thorganby, Selby. Both men were pronounced dead at the scene on 28 July last year. In an update on Monday, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said: 'The aircraft was performing aerobatic manoeuvres north of Breighton Airfield. 'It entered a steep descent and struck the ground in a field near Thorganby. The pilot and passenger were fatally injured. 'The investigation is ongoing, and the final report will be published in due course.' In a statement at the time, Matthew's family said: 'Yesterday we lost our son, a brother, grandson, nephew, cousin and friend. 'Matthew meant so much to so many. We are utterly heartbroken but he will live on in our hearts as we cherish the incredibly special memories he's left us with.' Oliver's family said: 'Oliver will continue to live on in our hearts and memories as the kind, generous, hardworking and fun man he had become. 'We will miss him every day for the rest of our lives, we are heartbroken.'
BBC News
21 hours ago
- General
- BBC News
Thorganby crash plane was performing aerobatics
A light aircraft that crashed in rural North Yorkshire last summer, killing two men, was performing aerobatic manoeuvres, investigators Cessna FRA150L two-seater plane crashed in a field near Thorganby, between York and Selby, on the morning of 28 July Air Accidents Investigation Branch confirmed the pilot and a passenger died after the plane made a steep descent and struck the a statement released on the anniversary of the crash, it said: "The investigation is ongoing, and the final report will be published in due course." Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
The Hindu
3 days ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Air India disburses interim compensation to families of Ahmedabad crash victims
Private carrier Air India on Saturday (July 26, 2025) said it has disbursed interim compensation to the families of 166 victims of the Ahmedabad plane crash last month. The airline added that payments to the families of another 52 victims are currently under process. The crash, among the worst aviation disasters in India, involved a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner operating as Air India flight AI171. Of the 242 persons on board, 241 lost their lives, with the total death toll rising to 260, including fatalities on the ground. Besides, payment to the families of another 52 victims is in the process, it added. The plane crash, one of the worst air disasters in India in decades, involved a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner operating as Air India flight AI171. Of the 242 people onboard, 241 were killed, while the total death toll stood at 260, including casualties on the ground. Also Read: Unvarnished facts | On the Ahmedabad air crash, AAIB investigation On June 14, Air India announced that it would provide an interim compensation of ₹25 lakh to the families of each deceased passenger and survivor, intended to meet immediate financial needs. 'Air India has released the interim compensation to the families of 147 of the 229 deceased passengers and also the 19 who lost their lives at the accident site,' the airline said in a statement. The airline further noted that the necessary documents of 52 additional victims have been verified, and compensation will be released to their families in due course. Air India, owned by the Tata Group, clarified that the interim payments would be adjusted against the final compensation. In addition, the Tata Group has registered 'The AI-171 Memorial and Welfare Trust', dedicated to the victims of the crash. The airline has pledged to support the reconstruction of the BJ Medical College hostel infrastructure, which was damaged during the accident, the statement added.
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First Post
5 days ago
- Business
- First Post
Air India crash: How to spin-doctor and peddle narratives, the Western way
Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore used to terrorise villainous Western media by suing them in his courts. They learned to toe the line read more There has been a virtual masterclass lately in the creation and dissemination of biased narratives. Not only in the case of the ill-fated Air India 171 (Boeing 787, June 12, 2025) that crashed, but also in some other, unrelated instances. The age-old practices of 'truth by repeated assertion' and 'dubious circular references' as well as 'strategic silence' have all been deployed in full force. The bottom line with the Air India flight: there is reasonable doubt about whether there was mechanical/software failure and/or sabotage or possible pilot error. Any or all of these caused both engines to turn off in flight. But the way the spin-doctors have spun it, it is now 'official' that the commanding pilot was suicidal and turned off the fuel switch. Boeing, the plane maker, and General Electric, the engine maker, are blameless. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD This is, alas, not surprising. It is in the interests of Western MNCs to limit reputational damage and monetary loss related to their products. They do massive marketing by unleashing their PR agencies. We also saw how they protect themselves in other instances. A leaked Pfizer contract for their Covid vaccine insisted that if anything happened, it was the user's problem, not Pfizer's: there was no indemnity. Incidentally, a report on July 19 said that the Pfizer Covid vaccine can lead to severe vision problems. Oh, sorry, no indemnity. What is deplorable in the Air India case is that the AAIB, the Indian entity investigating the disaster, chose to release a half-baked preliminary report with enough ambiguity that a case could be (and definitely was) built up against the poor dead pilots. Any marketing person could have read the report and told them that it would be used to blame the pilots and absolve the manufacturers. Besides, the AAIB report was released late night on a Friday, India time, which meant that the Western media had all of one working day to do the spin-doctoring, which they did with remarkable gusto. Meanwhile, the Indian media slept. Whose decision was this? Clearly, Indian babus need a remedial course in public relations if this was mere incompetence. Of course, if it was intentional, that would be even worse. There is a pattern. In earlier air accidents, such as the Jeju Air crash involving a Boeing 737-800 in South Korea in December, the pilots were blamed. In accidents involving Lion Air (Boeing 737 Max 8, 2018), China Airlines (737-200, 1989), Flydubai (737-800, 2016), ditto. I am beginning to believe that a lot of Asian pilots are poorly trained and/or suicidal. Ditto with the F-35 that fell into the ocean off Japan. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Truth by repeated assertion is a powerful force for gaslighting the gullible. I wonder what excuses we'll hear about the Delta Airlines Boeing 767 whose engine caught fire in the air after take-off from LAX on July 20. The pilots didn't die, so they will speak up. Besides, they were Westerners. I am eagerly awaiting the spin on this. I also noticed with grim amusement how the BBC, WSJ, Bloomberg, and Reuters, and so on were busy quoting each other to validate their assertions. This is a standard tactic that India's 'distorians' (see Utpal Kumar's powerful book Eminent Distorians) have perfected: B will quote third-hand hearsay from A, then C will quote B, D will quote C, and before you know it, the hearsay has become the truth. But if you wind it back from D to C to B to A it becomes, 'I hear someone told someone that xyz happened.' Out of thin air, then. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD There is also the lovely tactic of strategic silence. It has been used to un-person people who ask inconvenient questions. It has also been used to defenestrate inconvenient news. Just days ago, under the Deep State-installed new regime in Syria, hundreds of minority Druze were brutally massacred. There was video on X of armed men in uniform forcing Druze men to jump off tall buildings, and desecrating their shrines. Similarly, there is a brutal reign of terror, rape, murder, and thuggery against Hindus, Buddhists, and others under the Deep State-blessed regime of Mohammed Yunus in Bangladesh: a clear genocide. Neither Syria nor Bangladesh gets any headlines. There are no loud human-rights protests as in the case of Gaza. This is not news. It is un-news. 'Manufacturing Consent' all the way. India is particularly vulnerable to this gaslighting because Indians consume a lot of English-language 'news.' Scholars have long noted how the US public has been maintained in a state of ignorance so they could be easily manipulated. The same is true of the Indian middle class. So, there is yet another reason to do less in English. Fooling, say, the Chinese or Japanese public is a lot more difficult. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The fact is that even though Indians may be literate in English, they do not understand the context and the subtext of what is fed to them by the likes of The Economist, NPR, The Financial Times, The New York Times, etc. The best way I can explain this is the 100+5 analogy in the Mahabharata: they may fight with each other on domestic matters, but Anglosphere and Deep State are in cahoots when it comes to international matters. Things are both getting better and getting worse. On the one hand, social media and its imprint on generative AI mean that it is ever easier to propagate fake news (in addition to deepfake audio and video, of course). On the other hand, despite the problem of charlatans and paid agents provocateurs getting lots of eyeballs, the large number of Indians on social media may push back against the worst kinds of blood libel against India and Indians, of which there's plenty these days, often created by bots from 'friendly' countries. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD This is a serious matter indeed. One solution is to do a version of the Great Chinese Firewall and ban wholesale the worst offenders. Indeed, a few of the vilest handles have been ejected from X. However, the pusillanimity with which notorious Pakistani handles were unbanned, then re-banned after outrage, shows there's something rotten in the Information Ministry. Almost exactly the same as the unbanning of Pakistani cricketers, then rebanning after outrage. Is there anybody in charge? Information warfare is insidious. Going back to the Air India case, I think the families of the maligned pilots should sue for gigantic sums for libel and defamation. The sad state of the Indian judiciary may mean that, unfortunately, this will not go far. However, there is precedent: Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore used to terrorise villainous Western media by suing them in his courts. They learned to toe the line. If this tactic does not work, India should eject the hostile media. The Indian market is increasingly important to Western media (not vice versa) because soon there will be more English-reading consumers in India than in the Five Eyes Anglosphere. I should say that in quotes because as I said above, most Indians are blissfully unaware of the hidden agendas, and naively believe them. But 'Judeo-Christian' culture is very different from dharmic. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD I keep getting emails from The New York Times with tempting offers to subscribe to them for something really cheap like Rs. 25 a month. They need Indian readers. I have been shouting from the rooftops for years that one of these charlatan media houses needs to be kicked out, harshly, with 24 hours' notice to wind up and leave. As in the Asian proverb, 'Kill the chicken to scare the monkeys.' The monkeys will notice, and behave. Otherwise, the information warfare is just going to get worse. The writer has been a conservative columnist for over 25 years. His academic interest is innovation. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
