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Metro
17 hours ago
- General
- Metro
Mum-of-two is first British Air India crash victim released to family
The body of the first British victim of Air India Flight 171 has been returned by officials to her family. Mother-of-two Elcina Alpesh Makwana, 42, had travelled to India for dental treatment and to visit her parents when she was caught in the aviation disaster. The telecom business owner had called her father to let him know she had boarded the flight and would contact him once she had landed safely at London Gatwick. At least 270 people have been confirmed dead after the Boeing 787 jet crashed after takeoff from Ahmedabad airport in India on Thursday. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Elcina's funeral was held today at the Pensionpora Cemetery Vadodara in Gujarat. Both her husband, Alpesh, 52, and their two children, aged seven and 11 flew out from the UK today for the Catholic service. Elcina's sister Anne found out about the crash in the news, their uncle Joseph Patel said. He told the Telegraph: 'She vanished just like that, leaving us in shock, in tears, unable to believe what we were hearing.' Elcina moved to London 15 years ago and worked part-time jobs to support both her family in the UK and her parents back home. Described as an 'incredibly sweet, kind and generous, a truly gentle soul' Elcina adopted two children and paid for their education. 'Her loss is devastating. She was the bond that held our entire family together', her uncle added. A total of 53 Britons were onboard the Boeing 787 Dreamliner bound for Gatwick, of whom all but one died. The lone survivor, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, was in seat 11A when he managed to escape from the burning wreckage. Many of the passengers were visiting family and friends in the UK or returning from holidays or family visits in India. Entire families were wiped out in one of India's worst aviation crashes. Sayedmiya Inayatali, 48, had been visiting his 90-year-old mother in India with his wife, Nafisabanu, 46, and their children, Waqueeali, 25, and Taskin, 22, when the crash happened. A relative from Wembley, London, who lived with the Inayatalis, had been preparing to pick them up from Gatwick until news of the crash emerged, tearing his 'life apart.' The family had posted a selfie showing them smiling moments before boarding the plane at Ahmedabad. Several passengers were travelling on to Leicester, home to one of the largest Indian communities in the UK. More Trending An investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing, led by India's Air Accident Investigation Bureau. One of the aircraft's black boxes has been recovered from the wreckage, authorities confirmed. DNA samples are being matched with bodies in order to identify victims of the disaster. Officials said that as of Sunday, 30 bodies had been identified with DNA samples provided by relatives. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: First picture of man, 30, shot dead in west London MORE: Boy who filmed Air India crash was trying to show friends 'how planes fly' MORE: EasyJet flight makes emergency landing after smoke smell on board
Metro
19 hours ago
- General
- Metro
Boy who filmed Air India crash was trying to show friends 'how planes fly'
The teenager who filmed the Air India crash has said he would not 'sit on a plane' again after witnessing the disaster. Aryan Ansari, 17, was standing on a terrace of a three-storey building to film the Boeing 787 on his phone as it left Ahmedabad airport on Thursday afternoon, in order to show his friends 'how planes fly.' He captured the doomed flight AI 171 bound for London Gatwick as it smashed into the ground before exploding in a ball of fire less than a minute after taking to the sky. The disaster claimed the lives of all but one of 242 people on board, 53 of whom were British. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The lone survivor, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, was in seat 11A when he managed to escape from the burning wreckage. Aryan was visiting his father in Gujarat with his sister when he and Raj Singh, 16, observed planes at the airport. Despite having dreams of flying, Aryan said he was put off setting foot on an aircraft after watching the disaster unfold before his eyes. He told local media that he thought the aircraft was attempting to land before realising it was crashing. 'I came here on June 12. The plane was passing very close, so I thought of shooting a video to show to my friends', the teenager said. 'The plane went downwards, and I thought it was going to land as the airport was nearby. 'But when it went down, flames started shooting up, and I saw that it had exploded. I was scared. I showed the video to my sister. I also told my father about it.' To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Officials are still trying to ascertain the final death toll and continue to match DNA samples to identify victims' bodies. Some 30 victims had been identified using DNA samples provided by relatives, authorities confirmed. Vigils to honour the dead have taken place in both the UK and India. An investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing involving India's Air Accident Investigation Bureau and the US National Transportation Safety Board. More Trending Air India has been ordered to inspect its Boeing 787-8 and Boeing 787-9 fleet as a 'preventive measure'. The Dreamliner involved in the crash had been delivered to the airline in 2014 and had flown between Ahmedabad and London Gatwick 25 times in the last two years. The last words picked up by air traffic control from a panicked flight deck were 'Thrust not achieved. Falling. Falling. Mayday. Mayday.' One of the two black boxes has been discovered, although authorities have yet to say whether it was the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: EasyJet flight makes emergency landing after smoke smell on board MORE: Child, 2, among seven people killed in India helicopter crash MORE: Ryanair engineers 'check every Boeing' after 'spanners found under floorboards'
Indian Express
2 days ago
- General
- Indian Express
Black boxes of ill-fated Air India Boeing 787 aircraft might be the first big test of AAIB's brand new, cutting-edge laboratory
The black boxes of the ill-fated Air India Boeing 787-8 aircraft that crashed in Ahmedabad on Thursday may be decoded and analysed by the Air Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) at its brand new state-of-the-art laboratory that was inaugurated just two months ago, The Indian Express has learnt. Sources indicated that the decision on whether the black boxes—digital flight data recorder (DFDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR)—will be analysed in India or sent to an overseas facility will be taken by the AAIB based on critical criteria like the physical condition of the black boxes and the extent of data analysis that may be required for the investigation. So far, the DFDR of the crashed aircraft has been recovered from the crash site, but its exact condition and whether it suffered any major damage has not been revealed by the AAIB or the government. Meanwhile, the search for the CVR is still on. The new lab, inaugurated on April 9 at the AAIB's office in Delhi, was established with an investment of Rs 9 crore. The black boxes of the Air India plane might well be the first real test of the facility. 'It will depend on the condition of the DFDR and the CVR. The investigators will have to ascertain the absolute integrity of the black boxes, and if they are confident about it, they would like to analyse them at the new lab instead of sending it to an overseas facility,' said a source. 'The new lab is a world-class facility but there are highly specialised labs in a few countries that may be superior. If the investigators feel that the DFDR or the CVR are not in a state that the AAIB lab can handle, or if the extent of data analysis that they require for the probe is beyond its capability, then they might decide to send it to an even more advanced facility, most likely in the US as the aircraft involved was a Boeing plane,' said another source. The new and advanced lab, built by support of government-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), has enhanced the AAIB ability to repair damaged black boxes, retrieve data, and conduct thorough analyses of accidents with high accuracy. Earlier, a black box lab under the aviation safety regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) was being used by the AAIB, but the facility was old and lacked the a few key capabilities needed for thorough and accurate data retrieval and analysis, said a source. That was one of the reasons why a nuber of black boxes from aircraft involved in serious accidents were sent to overseas labs, said a source. 'The establishment of this lab, built to international standards and comparable to those of developed nations, fulfills India's obligations as an ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) member state,' the Ministry of Civil Aviation had said in a release when the lab was inaugurated in April. Thursday's crash claimed the lives of 241 of 242 people on board the plane that was operating Air India flight AI-171 from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick. Lives were also lost on the ground as the plane crashed into a medical college hostel close to the Ahmedabad airport. This is the first wide-body crash for an Indian airline in four decades. It is also the first crash of a Boeing 787 globally. Both the black boxes are expected to play a critical role in the air crash investigation. The purpose of the DFDR is to record flight data on numerous parameters of aircraft operations, while the CVR records the flight crew's voices, as well as other sounds inside the cockpit, including engine noise, stall warnings, landing gear extension and retraction, and other clicks and pops. Communications with air traffic control, automated radio weather briefings, and conversation between the pilots and ground or cabin crew are also recorded. With the data retrieved from the DFDR, investigators can generate a computer animated video reconstruction of the flight. The investigators can then visualise the aircraft's attitude, instrument readings, power settings, and other characteristics of the flight. This animation enables the investigating team to visualise the last moments of the flight before the accident. 'Both the Flight Data Recorder and the Cockpit Voice Recorder have proven to be valuable tools in the accident investigation process. They can provide information that may be difficult or impossible to obtain by other means. When used in conjunction with other information gained in the investigation, the recorders are playing an ever-increasing role in determining the Probable Cause of an aircraft accident,' the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says on its website. 'The FDR on board the aircraft records many different operating conditions of the flight. By regulation, newly manufactured aircraft must monitor at least eighty-eight important parameters such as time, altitude, airspeed, heading, and aircraft attitude. In addition, some FDRs can record the status of more than 1,000 other in-flight characteristics that can aid in the investigation. The items monitored can be anything from flap position to auto-pilot mode or even smoke alarms,' the NTSB states. The AAIB is undertaking the air crash investigation, while the NTSB would also be involved in the detailed probe, given that the aircraft is manufactured by an American company—Boeing. A UK AAIB team is also going to help with the investigation, and so are Boeing and other major component manufacturers like GE (engine manufacturer). According to aircraft accident investigation protocol, the probe report should be finalised within a year. Sukalp Sharma is a Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express and writes on a host of subjects and sectors, notably energy and aviation. He has over 13 years of experience in journalism with a body of work spanning areas like politics, development, equity markets, corporates, trade, and economic policy. He considers himself an above-average photographer, which goes well with his love for travel. ... Read More
