'Many Shortcomings...': Parliament Panel Summons Boeing Over Aviation Safety
New Delhi:
A Parliament committee on transport will meet, likely in the first week of July, on the issue of safety of civil aviation and to discuss aircraft maintenance concerns. Government officials, airline reps, and Boeing executives have been sumoned and are expected to face tough questions, sources said.
Sources told NDTV of 'multiple shortcomings' in the aviation sector, with maintenance of aircraft now a matter of major concern. The committee will also address frequent helicopter accidents.
Topics of discussion will include the role of the Director General of Civil Aviation, or the DGCA, aircraft maintenance schedules, and the mental fitness of pilots, sources said.
The committee's report will likely be tabled in the next Parliament session.
Before this meeting the committee is scheduled to hold a consultation in Gangtok to review air and road connectivity to the northeastern states, with the focus on developing tourism.
Committee members will travel on Air India - despite other options being available - to conduct a first-hand assessment of the airline, its planes, and its staff, sources said.
All of this follows the crash of a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner moments after take-off in Ahmedabad.
On Saturday the DGCA ordered the immediate removal of three senior AI officials, including a divisional vice president, from all responsibilities related to flight crew scheduling and rostering.
The directive is among the sternest interventions in recent months involving a full-service scheduled airline. The DGCA has also asked the Tata Group-owned carrier to initiate internal disciplinary proceedings against the three officials without further delay. Failure to do so would result in severe action, including the possibility of the airline losing its operating permission.
The tail section of AI 171 that crashed into a hostel building near Ahmedabad airport.
The plane that crashed, AI 171, failed to generate enough thrust after clearing the runway and fell into a residential area 2km from the airport. A hostel for college students bore the brunt of an impact that killed 271 of the 272 people on the plane and 33 people on the ground.
The plane's flight data and voice recorders have been recovered but sustained damage in the crash. They will be subject to a forensic extraction process to salvage data.
It is still unclear what caused the crash but the prevailing theory - backed by audio and video of the crash that seems to show deployment of the RAT, or Ram Air Turbine, is either a dual engine malfunction or a system-wide hydraulic or electronic failure.
The airline has, though, said the plane that crashed had regular safety checks and had its right engine changed less than four months earlier. The left had been inspected in April, it said.
Since the crash Air India has cancelled over 100 planes as it scrambles to complete a full safety inspection of its fleet of 32 Dreamliners. In fact, in the days after the crash there were multiple reports of Boeing planes, including those operated by foreign airlines, encountering 'technical snags' and being forced to either return to their points of origin or seek emergency landings.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
US House bans WhatsApp from all staff devices: This is the reason
The US House of Representatives has banned Meta-owned popular WhatsApp messaging service from all official staff devices, effective immediately, a report has said. The move marks a major rejection of one of the world's most widely used communication tools by a key branch of the US government. Citing a memo dispatched to all House staff on Monday (June 23), news agency Reuters reported that the Office of Cybersecurity detailed the reasoning for the directive. 'The Office of Cybersecurity has deemed WhatsApp a high risk to users due to the lack of transparency in how it protects user data, absence of stored data encryption, and potential security risks involved with its use,' the memo, issued by the chief administrative officer, stated. The House memo recommended several alternative messaging apps for official use, including Microsoft's Teams platform, Amazon's Wickr, the privacy-focused app Signal and Apple's native iMessage and FaceTime services. Meta Platforms has opposed the decision. A company spokesperson said Meta disagreed with the move 'in the strongest possible terms,' asserting that its end-to-end encryption provides a higher level of security than many of the approved alternatives. The security of WhatsApp has been a recurring subject of concern. In January, a WhatsApp official acknowledged that scores of its users, including journalists and members of civil society, had been targeted by spyware from the Israeli firm Paragon Solutions. WhatsApp ban follows recent Telegram security lapse The decision comes amidst heightened scrutiny of messaging app security in government circles, particularly following a recent lapse on a rival platform. Earlier this month, a senior editor from a foreign news agency was mistakenly added to a sensitive US government-related Telegram group, potentially exposing internal discussions before the error was rectified. That incident is believed to have accelerated reviews of all third-party communication platforms used by congressional staff. This ban is the latest in a series of actions taken by the House to regulate software on its devices. In 2022, the popular short-video app TikTok was similarly banned due to security concerns related to its parent company's ties to China.
India Today
2 hours ago
- India Today
India's crude oil realignment: How Russia replaced Iran
Iran has fired a fresh round of missiles at Tel Aviv after the US strike on its soil. Iran's Parliament has passed a resolution to shut down the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route through which nearly 20 per cent of the world's oil passes. This could shake up global oil trade and push prices relies heavily on oil exports. According to the US Energy Information Administration, the country holds some of the world's largest proven oil and natural gas reserves. In 2023, it ranked third globally in oil reserves and second in natural gas. The same year, Iran was the fourth-largest oil producer within OPEC or the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting oil ties with Iran?India's oil trade with Iran has shifted dramatically over the past two decades, largely due to global politics and US sanctions. Between 2006–07 and 2018–19, Iran was one of India's top oil suppliers. At its peak in the oil trade with India in 2007-08, Iran had a share of 13 per cent in India's crude oil imports. In 2018–19, imports hit $12.3 billion, nearly nine per cent of India's total oil imports at the time. But following the US exit from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and the return of sanctions, India was forced to scale back. India's tectonic shift in its oil diplomacy saw imports from Iran plunge to $987 million in 2019–20, which further fell to just $12.5 million in 2020–21. By 2024–25, India imported only $70.1 million worth of oil from Iran, a mere 0.04 per cent of its total a consequence, India's reliance on crude oil shifted more heavily towards Russia, whose share in India's oil imports increased from a mere 0.3 per cent in 2006-07 to almost 30 per cent in 2024-25. During the same period, India steadily decreased oil imports from Saudi Arabia too, while increasing its dependence more on Iraq, the UAE, and the is Iran's biggest customer nowIn 2023, Iran exported a whopping 90 per cent of its oil to China. But this wasn't always the 2017, just 25 per cent of Iran's oil exports went to China. Most of this oil was bought by small, independent refineries in China's Shandong province. Other countries like Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela also received Iranian oil, but in much smaller China buys about 90 per cent of Iran's oil exports now, Iran supplies only around 11 per cent of China's total crude imports in 2024, according to the EIA. Still, any disruption could hit China's economy, especially since Iranian crude is 2023, Iran was selling oil to China at discounts of up to $11 per barrel compared to Omanian crude. By 2024, that gap narrowed to $4. For China's independent refiners, who often operate on razor-thin margins, those lower prices make a big a shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz would also be a major blow to China, as about 54 per cent of its crude oil imports come from the Middle East, most of which pass through this key waterway. Other Asian countries could also feel the impact, including India. According to Bloomberg, Asia imports over 80 per cent of its crude oil from the Middle East, and about 90 per cent of that oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz.- EndsTune InMust Watch
NDTV
4 hours ago
- NDTV
'Many Shortcomings...': Parliament Panel Summons Boeing Over Aviation Safety
New Delhi: A Parliament committee on transport will meet, likely in the first week of July, on the issue of safety of civil aviation and to discuss aircraft maintenance concerns. Government officials, airline reps, and Boeing executives have been sumoned and are expected to face tough questions, sources said. Sources told NDTV of 'multiple shortcomings' in the aviation sector, with maintenance of aircraft now a matter of major concern. The committee will also address frequent helicopter accidents. Topics of discussion will include the role of the Director General of Civil Aviation, or the DGCA, aircraft maintenance schedules, and the mental fitness of pilots, sources said. The committee's report will likely be tabled in the next Parliament session. Before this meeting the committee is scheduled to hold a consultation in Gangtok to review air and road connectivity to the northeastern states, with the focus on developing tourism. Committee members will travel on Air India - despite other options being available - to conduct a first-hand assessment of the airline, its planes, and its staff, sources said. All of this follows the crash of a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner moments after take-off in Ahmedabad. On Saturday the DGCA ordered the immediate removal of three senior AI officials, including a divisional vice president, from all responsibilities related to flight crew scheduling and rostering. The directive is among the sternest interventions in recent months involving a full-service scheduled airline. The DGCA has also asked the Tata Group-owned carrier to initiate internal disciplinary proceedings against the three officials without further delay. Failure to do so would result in severe action, including the possibility of the airline losing its operating permission. The tail section of AI 171 that crashed into a hostel building near Ahmedabad airport. The plane that crashed, AI 171, failed to generate enough thrust after clearing the runway and fell into a residential area 2km from the airport. A hostel for college students bore the brunt of an impact that killed 271 of the 272 people on the plane and 33 people on the ground. The plane's flight data and voice recorders have been recovered but sustained damage in the crash. They will be subject to a forensic extraction process to salvage data. It is still unclear what caused the crash but the prevailing theory - backed by audio and video of the crash that seems to show deployment of the RAT, or Ram Air Turbine, is either a dual engine malfunction or a system-wide hydraulic or electronic failure. The airline has, though, said the plane that crashed had regular safety checks and had its right engine changed less than four months earlier. The left had been inspected in April, it said. Since the crash Air India has cancelled over 100 planes as it scrambles to complete a full safety inspection of its fleet of 32 Dreamliners. In fact, in the days after the crash there were multiple reports of Boeing planes, including those operated by foreign airlines, encountering 'technical snags' and being forced to either return to their points of origin or seek emergency landings.
