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BBC News
27-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Air India: India begins downloading data from recorders of crashed Dreamliner
Investigators have recovered flight recorder data from the Air India crash earlier this month, the civil aviation ministry has confirmed, marking a key step in the least 270 people, most of them passengers, were killed when the London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed less than a minute after taking off on 12 June from Ahmedabad airport in western had earlier recovered both sets of Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorders (EAFRs) - the "black boxes" - from the Boeing 787 crash site on 13 and 16 June. - one from a rooftop, the other from the debris. It could be several weeks before the federal government is able to release information gathered from the recorders about the accident. The particular aircraft model carries the two recorder sets to aid in thorough analysis. These combined units record flight data and cockpit audio. Data recorders track with high precision the position of gear and flap levers, thrust settings, engine performance, fuel flow and even fire handle data can be used to reconstruct the flight's final moments and determine the cause of the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) captures pilot radio calls, individual mic audio, and ambient cockpit sounds via an area aviation ministry said data from the recorder was accessed on Wednesday by a team led by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), with the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)."The analysis of CVR and FDR [flight data recorder] data is underway. These efforts aim to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the accident and identify contributing factors to enhance aviation safety and prevent future occurrences," the ministry said in a US National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy told Reuters news agency that she hopes the Indian government will be able to share details from the investigation into the crash in short order."For aviation safety and for public safety and public awareness we hope that they will make their findings public swiftly," Homendy said on the sidelines of an aviation said the NTSB team has been working diligently to provide assistance to India and "we have had excellent cooperation from the Indian government and the AAIB."India's decision to download and investigate data from the flight recorders comes nearly two weeks after the crash and has raised questions among aviation experts, some of whom described the delay as India Flight 171 was airborne for less than 40 seconds before it crashed into a crowded Ahmedabad neighbourhood, killing all but one of the 242 passengers on board, in one of India's most puzzling air disasters in recent London-bound Boeing 787, piloted by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and co-pilot Clive Kundar, took off at 13:39 local time, but issued a mayday call moments later - its final transmission.
Hindustan Times
15-06-2025
- General
- Hindustan Times
'Mayday! Mayday!' Air India pilot's final radio message before deadly Ahmedabad plane crash
Ill-fated Air India aircraft's pilot Captain Sumeet Sabharwal's last radio message to Ahmedabad air traffic control was a 'Mayday' call. As per aviation authorities, flight AI 171 crashed seconds after Sabharwal's message to the ATC in Ahmedabad on Thursday, June 12. Speaking to reporters on Saturday, SK Sinha, the Aviation Ministry Secretary, said that the pilots made the distress call to ATC when the plane failed to rise above 650 feet after takeoff. Seconds after the distress call, ATC responded but the plane had crashed by then, killing 241 people on board. A British national seated in 11A has been identified as the sole survivor of the incident. "Thrust not achieved... falling... Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!," was the pilot's last message to ATC as reported by TOI. As per aviation authorities, the plane took off at 1:39 PM and a few seconds after, started sinking after reaching a height of 650 feet. "The plane took off at 1.39 pm and, within a few seconds, after reaching a height of about 650 feet, it started sinking, i.e., it started losing height. The pilot informed Ahmedabad ATC that it was a 'mayday', i.e., a full emergency. When ATC tried to contact, it did not receive a response," Sinha said in a press conference. "After exactly a minute, the plane crashed in Meghaninagar, which is two kilometres from the airport. The Captain was Sumeet Sabharwal and the First Officer was Clive Sundar," the aviation secretary added further. Thursday's plane crash in Ahmedabad has killed a total of 270 people. This includes 241 people who were on board the London-bound flight and the 29 people who were killed after the plane crashed into the hostel of B.J. Medical College. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was bound for London's Gatwick when it crashed. Of the 242 people on board, only one passenger survived the crash. The black box of the plane was recovered by officials during the rescue and relief operations. As per Union Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu, the data from the black box will help identify the exact cause of the deadly plane crash.
Boston Globe
14-06-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Data recorder is found for Air India plane that crashed
The Aviation Ministry previously announced late Friday that the government had formed a high-level investigative committee that would focus on 'preventing and handling such occurrences in the future.' Advertisement Flight AI171, bound for London's Gatwick Airport, crashed moments after takeoff from Ahmedabad, in India's western state of Gujarat. There was only one survivor from the 242 onboard, and dozens of people on the ground were also killed. In a sign of the alarm caused by the crash, India's aviation regulators ordered Air India on Friday to carry out 'additional maintenance actions' on its Boeing 787 fleet. The aviation minister said there were 34 such planes in India, eight of which had already undergone the new inspections. He said the rest would be inspected 'with immediate urgency.' It could be months before a definitive explanation emerges, but videos of the accident and other evidence have begun to offer clues about what might have brought down the plane. Among the initial questions: whether the plane's wing flaps and slats were properly extended, and why the landing gear, which creates drag, remained down. Advertisement Distraught relatives waited at Ahmedabad's Civil Hospital, the city's main medical facility, to claim the bodies of their loved ones for funerals. By late Friday, fewer than a dozen bodies had been released, as medical staff ran DNA tests to determine identities. Rafeek Abdul Aziz Ahmed, who was among the relatives at the hospital, said that his nephew, who had been working as a hotel manager in London, died in the crash along with his wife and their two young children. Ahmed said the wait was becoming excruciating, as the government had not said when the bodies might be released. 'I want to know where the two small children are,' he said, standing outside the center where workers were collecting DNA samples from the relatives. 'My nephew and his family came to visit me. What will I tell their relatives in London?' Medical workers at the facility said that what made the job hard was not just the sheer number of samples that had to be collected to identify the remains of 270 victims, but that in many cases, body parts had to be painstakingly pieced together before they could be released to families. 'For two nights now, without sleep, our teams have been working to swiftly match the DNAs of all the families,' said Harsh Sanghavi, the home minister for Gujarat, where Ahmedabad is located. On its way down, the plane skidded into the buildings of a medical college near the airport, its tail striking a dining hall where dozens of medical students and junior doctors had been having lunch. On Saturday, a crane was still trying to extract the tail of the aircraft from the badly damaged building, and rescuers pulled out another body from the wreckage. Advertisement Late Friday, the site remained cordoned off after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited to survey the wreckage. Earth-moving machinery was clearing debris as students from the college came out carrying personal belongings like books and clothing that they had retrieved. Many said they had spent the night elsewhere, in hotels. While the death toll among the passengers was clear by the end of Thursday, the day the plane went down, exactly how many on the ground died in the impact and fire caused by the crash is still uncertain. The government has remained tight-lipped, but security officials at the site and medical doctors say as many as three dozen people were probably killed in addition to those on board the plane. The official death toll stands at 270. This article originally appeared in
NDTV
14-06-2025
- General
- NDTV
"Pilot's Last Message Was 'Mayday'": Aviation Ministry On Ahmedabad Air Crash
New Delhi: The pilots of London-bound Air India flight AI-171 - which crashed 36 seconds after take-off from Ahmedabad - sent one last radio message to Air Traffic Control at 1.39 pm, the Aviation Ministry said Saturday afternoon. The Ministry said the pilots made the distress call after the plane failed to rise above 650 feet. But the ATC's responses got no reply; the plane had crashed by then. "Mayday, Mayday..." were the final words of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and his crew before the heavily-fuelled Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed into a college students' hostel in a residential area near the airport, exploding into a fireball that killed all but one of the 242 people on board. Overall 274 deaths have been confirmed, including those on the ground, in India's worst aviation disaster in nearly 15 years; that was in May 2010 when an Air India Boeing 737 flight from Dubai overshot the runway at Mangaluru airport and crashed into a gorge, killing 158 people on board. In a press conference today SK Sinha, the Aviation Ministry Secretary, said the authorities were notified of the crash "around 2 pm", which is about 20 minutes after the plane crashed. "... we received information the plane from Ahmedabad to Gatwick London had crashed. We immediately got detailed information about this through Ahmedabad ATC ... there were a total of 242 people on board, consisting of 230 passengers, 10 crew, and two pilots," Mr Sinha said. "The plane took off at 1.39 pm and, within a few seconds, after reaching a height of about 650 feet, it started sinking, i.e., it started losing height. The pilot informed Ahmedabad ATC that it was a 'mayday', i.e., a full emergency. When ATC tried to contact, it did not receive a response." "After exactly a minute the plane crashed in Medhaninagar, which is two kilometres from the airport. The Captain was Sumeet Sabharwal and the First Officer was Clive Sundar." Meanwhile, in the wake of speculation about the readiness of the plane and possible mechanical, electronic, or technical issues, the Aviation Ministry said the same plane had completed the Paris-Delhi-Ahmedabad sector "without any accident". READ | How Black Box Brings Investigators Closer To What Caused Air India Crash The aircraft's black box has been found and more than 100 workers and 40 engineers are engaged in efforts to remove wreckage of the plane from where it crashed, NDTV was told. Aviation experts said that going by the available visuals, lack of thrust in both engines and a bird hit could be among the probable causes. Visuals from the wreckage area showed bodies being pulled out and the injured, many with burns, wheeled into the city civil hospital close by. Of the 242 on board, only one person - an Indian-origin British national - survived the crash.
Zawya
16-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Air India lobbies government to axe IndiGo lease with Turkish carrier, source says
Air India has lobbied Indian officials to halt rival IndiGo's leasing tie-up with Turkish Airlines, citing business impact as well as security concerns sparked by Istanbul's support for Pakistan, according to a source and a document seen by Reuters. Amid growing public anger in India against Turkey's stance on Pakistan in the India-Pakistan conflict, Indians have been cancelling holidays. The Indian government on Thursday revoked security clearance of Turkish ground handling service firm, Celebi, citing national security. Since 2023, IndiGo has had a leasing arrangement with state-backed Turkish Airlines, which has provided two planes with pilots and some crew to IndiGo to operate on New Delhi- and Mumbai-to-Istanbul routes. Air India has asked India's Civil Aviation ministry to disallow repeated extensions of the leasing deal, which must be renewed every six months, arguing it is benefiting Turkey and hurting India's aviation sector, according to the source and a document Air India submitted to some Indian government departments, seen by Reuters. The aircraft leasing arrangement had led to "a substantial increase in seat capacity" to Turkey, boosting that country's tourism as well, the document said. Air India and Turkish Airlines, as well as India's aviation ministry, did not respond to Reuters queries. In a statement, IndiGo said its partnership with Turkish Airlines, which also include a codeshare deal, "provides multiple benefits to Indian travellers", boosts aviation growth and jobs, and also "enabled IndiGo to build its presence in the long-haul markets in Europe and the USA." Indian aviation policies say the government can approve such leasing deals for six months in cases of "emergent" or "unforeseen" circumstances, but they can be extended. The last extension for IndiGo for such leases is valid until May 31, and the carrier has already applied for an extension, said another source with direct knowledge. IndiGo, like Air India and other global airlines, has faced delivery delays due to supply chain disruptions affecting planemakers Boeing and Airbus. INDIA-PAKISTAN TENSIONS Air India has in recent weeks also invoked national security concerns in its discussions with Indian officials, after India's strikes in Pakistan following a militant attack in Indian Kashmir saw Turkey publicly supporting Islamabad's "calm and restrained policies" in the crisis, the source added. Pakistan has denied any involvement in the attacks. In revoking Celebi's clearance on Thursday, India's junior aviation minister Murlidhar Mohol said on X: "We have received requests from across India to ban Celebi ... Recognising the seriousness of the issue and the call to protect national interests, we have taken cognizance of these requests." Separately, IndiGo's codeshare partnership with Turkish Airlines, in place since 2018, allows it to offer many international destinations to its customers. Tata Group-owned Air India has told government officials that the carrier, as well as India's aviation sector, loses business due to IndiGo's longer-haul flights to the United States and Europe, as Turkey stands to gain more, the source added. "The codeshare partnership between IndiGo and Turkish Airlines provides an extra revenue stream for Turkish Airlines, further enhancing their financial gains," the document stated. (Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Abhijith Ganapavaram; Editing by Susan Fenton)
