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Time of India
37 minutes ago
- Business
- Time of India
Air India's worst crash in a decade also hits Singapore Airlines; can the aviation giant recover in the Indian market?
Singapore Airlines' stock fell sharply following an Air India aircraft crash in the Indian state of Gujarat on June 12, 2025. The airline holds a 25.1% stake in Air India through its partnership with India's Tata Group. The accident has cast a shadow over the ambitious turnaround plans of India's national carrier, now under Tata's management, and Singapore Airlines ' major stake in it. On Friday, a day after the crash of the Indian carrier's plane, shares of SIA closed at SGD 6.94, down 1.28 percent from its previous close. This also came after Singapore Airlines announced an initiative offering over 100 Air India pilots the chance to join its low-cost subsidiary, Scoot. Air India Flight 171 , a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed shortly after takeoff from Gujarat's Ahmedabad on its way to London Gatwick Airport. The aircraft veered off course and hit a medical college hostel during lunch hour, killing 241 people on board and at least 33 more on the ground. More than 60 others were injured while one passenger, a Briton, miraculously survived. The accident is now India's deadliest aviation disaster in more than a decade and the first fatal crash involving a Boeing 787 since the aircraft's debut in 2011. Live Events The sole survivor of the crash, British-Indian passenger Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, reportedly escaped through a broken door and is currently in stable condition. Following the crash, Singapore Airlines issued a statement offering condolences to the victims. The Straits Times on June 12 quoted SIA stating that it is 'offering full support and all necessary assistance to Air India during this time'. "Singapore Airlines extends our deepest condolences to all passengers, crew members and their families affected by Air India Flight AI171. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone impacted during this difficult time," the news portal published referencing SIA. Its financial exposure and long-term involvement with Air India can come under close investor scrutiny. The company's shares immediately dropped in value. Tata Group acquired Air India from the Indian government in 2022. Founded in 1932 by entrepreneur JRD Tata and nationalised by the Indian government in 1953, it has been working to revive the airline through fleet upgrades, a refreshed brand identity, and a merger with Vistara, another Tata-backed carrier. SIA's Vistara stake converted to 20% in the new Air India group, with SIA purchasing an additional 5.1% for S$360 million and committing S$880 million to support the airline. Led by former SIA executive Campbell Wilson since 2022, the revamped Air India now operates a fleet of 198 planes, has orders for 570 more, and controls about 30% of India's domestic market, positioning it as a key player in a fast-growing aviation sector. Tata Group chairman N. Chandrasekaran called the incident 'one of the darkest days in our history' and promised full cooperation with the investigation. The group held an emergency board meeting on June 13 to address the unfolding crisis and also announced a compensation of 10 million Indian rupees (US $116,200) to families of those killed in the air crash. Investigators from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are being assisted by teams from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Boeing, and GE Aerospace. The flight data recorder has been recovered. Initial reports suggest multiple technical issues, including possible engine failure and incorrect flap configuration. India's aviation regulator has ordered urgent checks across Air India's Boeing 787 fleet to verify safety compliance. The crash has also renewed pressure on Boeing, whose aircraft have recently faced scrutiny over safety and manufacturing concerns. GE Aerospace, which manufactures the Dreamliner's engines, also assists with the probe.
Hans India
3 hours ago
- General
- Hans India
The Seat 11A Mystery: How the lone survivor cheated death!
New Delhi: Only one person walked out of the shattered Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. British-Indian national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, seated in 11A, emerged as the sole survivor of Air India flight AI-171, which crashed just moments after takeoff from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. The crash, India's deadliest single-aircraft disaster in decades, occurred at 1:38 pm on Thursday. The aircraft, bound for London Gatwick, went down seconds after departure, striking a multi-storey hostel housing resident doctors of BJ Medical College in the Meghaninagar area. Among the dead were 229 passengers and 12 crew members. Officials said five medical students on the ground also died. But Ramesh, a 40-year-old businessman based in the UK, walked out of the wreckage dazed, bloodied and burned. His brother, seated in 11J across the aisle, was not as fortunate. "Everything happened in front of my eyes. I thought I would die," Ramesh said hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited him at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital. Seat 11A is positioned in the first row of economy class, directly behind the business cabin and close to the emergency exits on the left side. When the aircraft hit the ground, the front-left section, including 11A, collapsed into the ground floor of the hostel building, not the upper levels where the aircraft's main body suffered its worst destruction. "The side where I was seated fell into the ground floor of the building," Ramesh recounted. "There was some space. When the door broke, I saw that space and I just jumped out." Ramesh was lucky. The section opposite him, where the plane had rammed into a wall, was sealed off by debris and fire. None of the occupants from those rows survived. "The door must've broken on impact," he said. "There was a wall on the opposite side, but near me, it was open. I ran. I don't know how." Photos from the site confirm his account. The midsection and tail of the plane were reduced to charred rubble. But the forward fuselage had partially broken off before catching fire, allowing a narrow exit path. "I don't know how I came out of it alive," Ramesh said. "For a while, I thought I was about to die. But when I opened my eyes, I saw I was alive. And I opened my seat belt and got out of there. The airhostess and aunty uncle all died before my eyes." Ramesh is now in bed 11 of Ward B7 at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, under 24-hour monitoring. His ward is guarded by the Gujarat ATS and the city crime branch. PM Modi arrived in Ahmedabad on Friday and visited the crash site and later the hospital, where he met Ramesh. "He asked me what happened," Ramesh said. "I told him I don't know how I lived. It all happened so fast." The fact that only one person survived has drawn comparisons to past aviation disasters where a single passenger lived. In 1987, four-year-old Cecelia Cichan survived the Northwest Flight 255 crash in Detroit. In 2009, Bahia Bakari, 12, was the only survivor of Yemenia Flight 626 crash near the Comoros Islands. More recently, co-pilot Jim Polehinke survived the 2006 Comair crash in Kentucky.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
What caused Air India Flight AI171 to crash? The key information we know so far
The Indian government is reportedly looking at a number of factors that may explain why Air India flight AI 171 crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad Airport on Thursday, killing all but one of its 242 passengers. The London Gatwick-bound plane - which was carrying 53 British passengers, 169 Indian nationals, seven Portuguese and one Canadian - crashed into a medical college and erupted in a huge fireball on Thursday. The sole survivor was Briton Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40. At least 24 more people on the ground died. One of two black boxes has reportedly been found in a bid to help piece together vital clues that could shed light on the cause of the accident. On Friday, it was reported that Air India and the Indian government were looking at several aspects of the crash, including issues with the jet's engine thrust, its flaps, and why its landing gear remained open. The government is also looking at whether Air India was at fault, including looking at maintenance issues, a source told Reuters. Experts have also raised questions about the plane's landing gear, which was down when it should have been up, as well as the wing flaps. Some have raised the possibility of a power failure or bird strike. Here, Yahoo News UK looks at what investigators are likely to be considering. The Reuters news agency has reported two police sources as saying one of two black boxes from the plane has been found. They did not say whether it was the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder that had been recovered. The black boxes, which are coloured orange to make them easier to find in the event of a crash, will be critical in establishing what happened. There are normally two recorders: a Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) for pilot voices or cockpit sounds, and a separate Flight Data Recorder (FDR). They are mandatory on civil flights, but their aim is not to determine any wrongdoing or fault - they are designed to preserve clues from cockpit sounds and data to help prevent future accidents. According to Reuters, investigators say the FDR helps them analyse what happened, and the CVR can start to explain why, though no two investigations are the same. According to Airbus: "Flight recorders store data (aircraft parameters) and sound (pilot, copilot, radio communications and the cockpit ambient noise). The recording device is crash-protected up to a certain level. It is resistant to fire, explosion, impact and water immersion." Video of the plane before the crash has shown its landing gear was down. Usually, this folds back into the aircraft immediately after it becomes airborne. Former British Airways pilot Alastair Rosenschein told Sky News: "It's clearly got its [landing] gear down and that is not correct... it should have been up." Watch: Moment Air India flight crashes after take-off He added: "I cannot understand why the [landing] gear would have been down... [and] left down. That would suggest, perhaps, a hydraulic problem because it's hydraulics that raise the gear." However, he made clear this was speculation. US aerospace safety consultant Anthony Brickhouse also said of the landing gear being down: "If you didn't know what was happening, you would think that plane was on approach to a runway." Steve Scheibner, an American Airlines pilot, also suggested there were abnormalities with the plane's wing flaps and linked this to the landing gear being down. Pilot Sumeet Sabharwal and his co-pilot Clive Kundar cried 'mayday' as the plane lost altitude, saying the engine was 'losing power'. According to reports, Sabharwal, who had more than 8,000 hours of flying experience, said he had 'no thrust' and was 'unable to lift'. And the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources, that an investigation into the crash was focusing on "whether the aircraft had a loss or reduction in engine thrust". Dr Jason Knight, a senior lecturer in fluid mechanics at the University of Portsmouth, told The Telegraph: 'It appears from the video there is a cloud of dust just after take-off. 'I'm not sure, but it appears as though the cloud of dust could be from the engines as they both fail.' A twin-engine failure is extremely rare. The BBC reported experts familiar with Ahmedabad Airport as saying it is "notorious for birds", which can cause engine failures. Dr Knight also said "the most likely [reason] is a bird strike in both engines". But Scheibner said he didn't think a bird strike is a "likely theory". "We don't see any birds in the picture. It would have to be a lot of birds to foul out both engines and we don't see any indications coming out of the back of the engine that that happened: you'd see flames, you'd see sparks." Who were the British victims of the Air India plane crash? (The Guardian) Heartbreaking final selfie of doctor's young family starting a new life in Britain (The Telegraph) 'She was a ray of sunshine': First British victims of Air India plane crash named after 241 killed (The Independent)
SBS Australia
5 hours ago
- General
- SBS Australia
'I thought I was going to die': Air India crash survivor recounts escape as black box recovered
The sole survivor of the Air India plane crash that killed more than 240 people says he hardly believed he was alive, as he recounted seeing others dying near him as he escaped out of a broken emergency exit. Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who police said was in seat 11A near the emergency exit and managed to squeeze through the broken hatch, was filmed after Thursday's crash limping on the street in a blood-stained T-shirt with bruises on his face. That social media footage of Ramesh, a British national of Indian origin, has been broadcast across India's news channels since the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner erupted in a ball of fire after it plummeted onto a medical college hostel moments after taking off from Ahmedabad. It was the worst aviation disaster in a decade and his escape is being hailed as the "miracle of seat 11A". "I don't believe how I survived. For some time I thought I was also going to die," the 40-year-old told Indian state broadcaster DD News from his hospital bed on Friday local time. "But when I opened my eyes, I realised I was alive and I tried to unbuckle myself from the seat and escape from where I could. It was in front of my eyes that the air hostess and others (died)." He was travelling with his brother Ajay, who had been seated in a different row, members of his family have said. "The side of the plane I was in landed on the ground, and I could see that there was space outside the aircraft, so when my door broke I tried to escape through it and I did," Ramesh said. "The opposite side of the aircraft was blocked by the building wall so nobody could have come out of there." Ramesh suffered burns and bruises and has been kept under observation, an official at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad said. Police said some people at the hostel and others on the ground were also killed in the crash. Ramesh said the plane seemed to come to a standstill in midair for a few seconds shortly after take-off and the green and white cabin lights were turned on. He said he could feel the engine thrust increasing, but then the plane "crashed with speed into the hostel". Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived in his home state of Gujarat to visit the crash site, met Ramesh in hospital on Friday. India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said on Friday it has recovered the digital flight data recorder, or the black box, of an Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad from a rooftop near the crash site. It said the bureau has begun its work with "full force". The black box recovery marks an important step forward in the investigation, Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said in a social media post. Separately, the country's civil aviation regulator issued an order directing Air India to do additional maintenance and enhanced safety inspections of its Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 Dreamliners equipped with General Electric's GEnx engines. The key inspections include fuel parameters, cabin air compressor, engine control system, hydraulic system and a review of take-off parameters, according to the order.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
WATCH: Footage Shows Air India's Harrowing ‘32-Second' Flight Before Tragic Crash
Harrowing footage captures the mere few seconds Air India Flight 171 was airborne before tragically crashing shortly after takeoff. The footage, captured by a CCTV camera at Ahmedabad Airport and shared by Indian news outlet NDTV, shows that the flight only hovered above ground for a short 32 seconds after it took off. NDTV adds that the flight's entire trajectory—from gearing toward takeoff to the time of impact—only amounted to 59 seconds, based on the CCTV footage. The shock footage depicts the plane lifting off before struggling to regain its altitude and quickly descending onto the ground. There is then a visible, large explosion. The aircraft, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, was carrying 242 people—230 passengers and 12 crew members. It was traveling from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad, India to London's Gatwick Airport. Air India has since confirmed that only one passenger survived the plane crash, with all other 241 people on board confirmed to be dead. The plane also hit a hostel for doctors when it crashed, increasing the number of casualties to more than 260 so far. The exact number is still varying among reports. The crash's sole survivor is Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British national of Indian origin, per CNN. He's currently being treated at a hospital near the airport and is in 'not very critical condition,' according to Dr. Rajnish Patel, a professor and head of surgery at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, who spoke to CNN. 'I don't know how I am alive,' Ramesh said according to his younger brother, Nayan Ramesh, quoted in The New York Times. India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has initiated a formal investigation into the cause of the crash, Union Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu announced on X Thursday. Boeing President and CEO Kelly Ortberg also released a statement indicating that the company spoke to Air India's Chairman, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, to offer their support and that the 'Boeing team stands ready to support the investigation led by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.'
