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India Today
6 hours ago
- India Today
Charkhi Dadri midair collision: Horror in the sky
(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated November 30, 1996)Commander Gennady Cherapanov seemed relaxed and in control as he guided the IL-76 into the descent to Delhi over the dusty cotton and mustard fields of western Haryana. In 15 minutes, the chartered flight would be on the tarmac at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport. And in an hour, the 29 Kyrgyzstani shoppers on board could be on evening," the pilot greeted air-traffic control (ATC) as flight KZA 1907-owned by Kazakhstan Airlines but chartered by a group of Kyrgyz-made contact with Delhi, informing the tower that he was coming down from 23,000 ft to 18,000 ft. The controller, V.K. Dutta, who was recently promoted as senior aerodrome officer, knew from his schedules that the aircraft was due to land in cleared the descent to 15,000 ft. Cherapanov confirmed that and cruised along at that height-or so Dutta thought. In the villages surrounding Charkhi Dadri in the heart of Haryana, everything was quiet on the evening of November 12. The last firecrackers of Diwali had been exhausted. Routine was back. It was Tuesday. Many were preparing to adjust their watches to 6:45 p.m., when the scrupulously punctual Saudi Airways flight SVA 763 flew overhead thrice a week. It was on time that evening On board the Saudi Airways jumbo jet, carrying fitters, mechanics, odd jobbers chasing money and dreams, captain A.L. Shbaly was beginning his ascent. At 10,000 ft he spoke into his radio, letting the ATC Delhi know his height. "Cleared for 14,000," Dutta replied. The 747 continued to climb. At 14,000 ft Shbaly asked the ATC for clearance to go higher. Dutta asked him to stand by for clearance for further ascent. But did he?That is unclear. What is clear is that Cherapanov was told that there was a Boeing coming his way. "Maintain 150, identified traffic 12 o'clock." Dutta warned Cherapanov. What that meant was that the Jumbo was coming straight at the Kazakh plane. Flight SVA 763 was just about 25 km away from the Kazakh aircraft. Dutta also asked him to report if he sighted the Boeing. Even if he did see it, Cherapanov didn't get back to Dutta watched his radar, he saw the two blips converge. He wasn't overly concerned because that could mean one aircraft was just flying over the other. He had seen blips merge and separate on his outdated primary radar in the past. Not this time. To Dutta's horror, the blips converged and on a road in rural Haryana, retired subedar Mahendra Singh saw something far more awesome. "I saw this fireball, like a giant burst of gas on fire," says an awed Singh. Others living around the town of Charkhi Dadri, 80 km northwest of Delhi, saw those flames too. They say they lit up a sky rapidly fading to dusk. They heard a sound fiercer than thunder. It was nothing like they had ever the air, a US aircraft ferrying supplies to the embassy in Delhi spotted two streaks of flame descending rapidly downwards. But even they did not catch the moment. Those who witnessed that fraction of a second, lost somewhere between 6:41 p.m. and 6:42 p.m. on November 12, did not live beyond of flaming steel hit the ground seconds after the 747 hit the underside of the IL-76. There was evidence in the wreckage to show that the collision wasn't head-on: the windshield of the descending Kazakh aircraft was almost windshield may have survived, but none of the passengers in either plane could escape annihilation. When two aircraft hurtling at 500 km per hour slam into each other, the passengers and crew don't have much of a chance-the impact is 700 times that of a powerful car crash. In a fraction of a second, the thunderous collision decompressed the cabin and starved passengers of oxygen. Their liver and spleen were smashed to pulp and their hearts burst on slamming against the rib-cage at 500 km per hour. Death followed almost instantaneously-leaving little time to feel pain or realise they were than 500 tonnes of wreckage lay scattered over a 7-km stretch of farmland; 351 bodies-and parts of them littered the fields. The fuselage of the Boeing 747 burned into the night. The mid-air collision revealed gaping holes in India's air-safety systems, gaps that may have caused the third-worst tragedy in aviation history. Indian skies were perilously close to another head-on collision between aircraft just four hours has learnt that in the same area above Delhi a similar collision was averted when the pilots of an AN-32 and an Avro, both Indian Air Force planes, realised after listening to radio communication that they had both been given clearances to approach at almost the same level at the same time. "We avoided the mishap by a hair's breadth," says a crew member of the nothing on the transcripts of the last conversations the pilots of the two ill-fated planes had with ATC revealed any problem. "The transcript clearly shows that both the pilots know that they were approaching each other," says Civil Aviation Secretary Yogesh Chandra. "It is not air traffic control's fault."So was Commander Cherapanov really flying at 15,000 ft, the height he confirmed to ATC? With the equipment ATC has at present, there is no way of checking an aircraft's altitude. Says Director General of Civil Aviation H.S. Khola: "We have simply to take the pilot's word for it." Moreover, the altimeter, which gives height readings, could have been faulty in either also say that there may have been a language problem between the crew on the IL-76 and the ATC. The Kazakh crew, they said, were not very conversant in English and could have misunderstood some of the instructions. A Kazakh official scoffs at the suggestion: "How come they understand English everywhere else they go?" The transcript of the communication between the ATC and the Kazakh pilot bear that while the Government seems bent on giving the airport authorities a clean chit, and pin the blame on the Kazakh pilot (data is being collected on the poor safety record of Kazakh airliners to bolster the case), it is clear that an accident of such magnitude could occur only after a series of first of these lapses took place when Captain Shbaly was asked to stand by for further instructions if he wanted to continue his ascent. It would be the last time the two would talk. He did not follow the rules; he did not repeat the ATC's instructions in acknowledgement. And the ATC said nothing further. According to aviation norms Dutta should have repeated the instructions and asked Shbaly to acknowledge them. It isn't clear if the 747 continued to gain altitude without clearance. The obsolete primary radars at IGIA's ATC, which show only lateral distance without showing vertical separation, didn't allow the ATC to appears then that some simple obedience of the rule book by both the pilot and the Delhi tower might have avoided the tragedy. It also seems clear that one of the planes did not keep to the level complete picture will emerge only once the flight-data recorders of the two aircraft are decoded. But the black boxes will not tell how outdated equipment could be jeopardising air travel. Air traffic in India isn't going to lessen. The pressure of more flights is already telling on Indian airports. Delhi airport's aging air-traffic infrastructure is supposed to optimally handle 12 flights an hour. But the actual figure is more than 20, posing serious risks (see box). V.K. Chandna, director, air safety, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), says the Haryana disaster was "a freak accident, but not totally impossible because of ever-increasing air traffic." It's vital then, to ensure that the margins for error are how do we make the skies a safer place? Bring in new technology; revamp ATCs; install new sensors, both in planes and in airports; and improve pilot training. Control towers must be the first beneficiaries so that they receive sophisticated equipment (standard in many countries) that allows controllers to find out the height of an aircraft. Right now, all that guides controllers are blips on a screen. If two blips overlap, they have no way of knowing how far apart the planes actually equipment from the American electronics company Raytheon is being tested and is scheduled to come on stream in Delhi and Mumbai airports by early 1997, officials claim. "Our anxiety to upgrade it does not imply that the existing ATC system is outdated or inadequate," says Ranjan Chatterjee, chairman of the Airports Authority of ATCs all over the country can't keep pace with technological change in modern aircraft. From June 1, 1996, the DGCA made it compulsory for all commercial aircraft to have a mode C transponder. That means that if there's an obstacle in the flight path, the instrument will alert the pilot. It gives a reading of altitude, which is then transmitted to the the transponders are still useless in India because they need special radars that can receive their signals. And no Indian tower can do that. Guwahati, Delhi, Mumbai and Trivandrum were supposed to have these compatible radars by June 1, but they're nowhere in sight. The Saudi 747 had a Mode C transponder but obviously it was right now, towers in India have no way of knowing a plane's altitude-except taking a pilot's word for it. And how dangerous that can be has become evident. Either of the two pilots-or both-could have got their altitudes wrong over Haryana.T also seems clear that technology change must be used to stop accidents, not used as a knee-jerk reaction after one. It was only after a crash in Ahmedabad on October 19, 1988, that Indian airports got instrument-landing systems. The same thing happened in Imphal. In Aurangabad the airstrip was widened only after a Government insists safety is a key concern. Two months ago, a committee headed by an air marshal was set up to review current safety standards. "We are observing international standards of air safety," says Civil Aviation Minister C.M. Ibrahim. That is perhaps stretching the truth. But if ATC systems are upgraded, the skies would certainly be safer. For one, the new system would reduce verbal communication between pilots and the tower. Officials admit that a language problem between ATCs and foreign pilots is a problem area; the communication gaps imperil air there's a major impediment to upgrading ATC systems: money. "Upgrading needs hell of a lot of money," says Khola. "And that is a problem." However, he insists after Delhi and Mumbai, traffic control systems in other airports will be the future, civil aviation officials hope to introduce a satellite-based communication and navigational surveillance air-traffic-management system. A ministry project envisages the dismantling of ground-based ATC systems by 2010. But with the failure to quickly replace today's old systems, this seems wishful thinking. And this technological time lag, warns one aviation expert in Delhi, is at the cost of air that happens, tragedies like the Saudi-Kazakh crash will be difficult to prevent. Whatever the reasons for the crash, it seems clear that a technologically superior tower in Delhi could have warned Commander Cherapanov and Captain Shbaly of impending doom. Safety can no longer be neglected. As one commercial airline pilot, who flies that narrow Hissar-Delhi corridor frequently, says, "If safety is too expensive, try an accident."Subscribe to India Today MagazineMust Watch
Straits Times
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Kyrgyzstan detains eight media workers in widening crackdown
BISHKEK - National security authorities in Kyrgyzstan have detained eight current and former employees of independent media outlet Kloop, their lawyers said, accusing them of inciting unrest amid a growing crackdown on media in the Central Asian country. Five journalists from Kloop - known for its anti-corruption reporting - were arrested on Wednesday after authorities raided their homes and seized their electronic devices, lawyers for the people said. A further three people were arrested on Thursday. They face charges of calling for mass unrest and disobeying government officials, which can incur up to 10 years in prison. Daiyrbek Orunbekov, the head of the presidential administration, wrote on social media that the media workers had "spread false information" and had published material "directed against the state". A spokesman for the national security body declined comment. Rinat Tukhvatshin, a co-founder of Kloop, said the government's claims were fabricated. Syinat Sultanalieva, a Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, condemned the detentions as "yet another example of the Kyrgyzstani authorities' continued crackdown on freedom of speech and expression". Several of the people were released after hours of interrogation, while some are still in custody with no access to their lawyers. Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic, has historically enjoyed greater media freedom than its Central Asian neighbours. However, under President Sadyr Japarov, who came to power in 2020, the government enacted a law prohibiting media and individuals from "discrediting" the authorities, providing a tool to suppress dissent. Kloop, an independent outlet founded in 2007, was forced to shutter last year after state prosecutors filed a lawsuit arguing that its NGO publisher, Kloop Media, was not properly registered as a media organisation. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Kyrgyzstan detains eight media workers in widening crackdown
By Aigerim Turgunbaeva BISHKEK (Reuters) -National security authorities in Kyrgyzstan have detained eight current and former employees of independent media outlet Kloop, their lawyers said, accusing them of inciting unrest amid a growing crackdown on media in the Central Asian country. Five journalists from Kloop - known for its anti-corruption reporting - were arrested on Wednesday after authorities raided their homes and seized their electronic devices, lawyers for the people said. A further three people were arrested on Thursday. They face charges of calling for mass unrest and disobeying government officials, which can incur up to 10 years in prison. Daiyrbek Orunbekov, the head of the presidential administration, wrote on social media that the media workers had "spread false information" and had published material "directed against the state". A spokesman for the national security body declined comment. Rinat Tukhvatshin, a co-founder of Kloop, said the government's claims were fabricated. Syinat Sultanalieva, a Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, condemned the detentions as "yet another example of the Kyrgyzstani authorities' continued crackdown on freedom of speech and expression". Several of the people were released after hours of interrogation, while some are still in custody with no access to their lawyers. Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic, has historically enjoyed greater media freedom than its Central Asian neighbours. However, under President Sadyr Japarov, who came to power in 2020, the government enacted a law prohibiting media and individuals from "discrediting" the authorities, providing a tool to suppress dissent. Kloop, an independent outlet founded in 2007, was forced to shutter last year after state prosecutors filed a lawsuit arguing that its NGO publisher, Kloop Media, was not properly registered as a media organisation.
USA Today
24-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Video: Hulking Olympian Ayaal Lazarev wins debut in seconds – with Raul Rosas Jr. in corner
Video: Hulking Olympian Ayaal Lazarev wins debut in seconds – with Raul Rosas Jr. in corner A hulking Kyrgyzstani Olympian has officially arrived in the world of MMA. Ayaal Lazarev, a heavyweight wrestler who competed in three Olympic Games, made his debut at a recent event in Northern California, and it only lasted 13 seconds. Lazarev (1-0) dispatched of opponent Mike Morales (7-12-1) in short order as the headliner of a Hard Fought Championship event May 3 in Blue Lake, Calif. In his corner was rising UFC star Raul Rosas Jr. and his sister Kenia Rosas Martinez. It's unclear how long Lazarev, 39, has worked with the family, but he cornered Rosas Jr. in the UFC in March. While he's new to MMA competition, Lazarev has a decorated wrestling career. He appeared in the 2016, 2020, and 2024 Olympic Games. While he came up short in multiple Olympic bronze medal matches, Lazarev has medaled in international competition around the world – including in the Asian Championships, Asian Games, and Individual World Cup. While it's unclear what his aspirations are, Lazarev ran through his first MMA test with ease. Check out full video of the fight above.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Yahoo
Central Asia's longest hiking trail is expanding by over 600 miles - here's how to check it out for yourself
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. When you think of hiking destinations, Kyrgyzstan probably isn't one of the first places to come to mind. But, perhaps it should be. This little-visited nation now boasts the largest hiking trail in Central Asia, and it's only getting bigger. By the end of this summer, the 1,243-mile (2,000km) Kyrgyz Nomad trail will be more than 600 miles (966km) longer, passing more ancient glaciers and iconic peaks. Launched in 2024, this mammoth trail aims to entice trekkers to Kyrgyzstan with miles of unspoilt wilderness and breathtaking natural beauty. It connects 18 long-distance treks and passes through multiple states (oblasts) as hikers travel from north to east or vice versa. Kyrgyzstani authorities are now expanding the trail to offer visitors even more opportunities to explore. Nine new long-distance sections will branch off from the main trail in the historic Arpa Valley. The new routes pass through the alpine valleys and high-altitude villages of the Tien Shen and Pamir mountains, where you're likely to encounter locals who rely on hiking tourism for their income. Marc Foggin, CEO of the Plateau Perspectives charity which supports mountain locals, told National Geographic: "Beyond all the extraordinary landscapes and the natural and cultural heritage that a long-distance trail such as KNT can open up for travelers; it can, and should, also serve the interests of the local mountain communities." The Kyrgyz Nomad Trail isn't for inexperienced hikers. Aside from the hundreds of miles of rugged wilderness, there aren't any companies that offer guided tours of the full trail, so you'll have to do a lot of the planning for yourself. There are seldom direct flights from the US or Western Europe to Kyrgyzstan, so you may have to stop off at a nearby country or two on the way. The good news is that you probably won't need a visa, as visitors from the US, Canada, the EU, and the UK can visit without one for up to 60 days. Public transportation in rural Kyrgyzstan is very limited, so you'll have to hire private transportation to the trailhead in the Chatkal Valley. The best time of year to visit is from June to September, when weather conditions are warm enough to trek comfortably. It's likely to be hot, so make sure to prepare well in advance with the right clothing and plenty of water. You'll also need a dependable backcountry tent. A mountain-ready model like Alpkit Jaran 3 is durable enough to fend off the elements without weighing you down while you trek. A great pair of hiking boots, like the La Sportiva TX5 GTX, is also a must. These sturdy backpacking boots offer plenty of protection and sizable lugs to keep you upright on uneven terrain. For more backpacking advice, check out our expert guide. The best hiking shorts: tested and rated for summer adventures The best hiking pants: don't let winter slow you down with our top trail trousers
