Watch: Air India CEO says airline ordered to complete Boeing 787 safety checks by regulator
Watch as the CEO of Air India says the airline is 'completing precautionary safety checks on Boeing 787 aircraft as directed by our regulator, the DGCA.' (14 June)
Campbell Wilson also announced that Air India is in the process of 'reuniting next of kin with their loved ones and personal effects.'
All passengers but one on the flight to the UK died — 241 out of 242 — when it crashed in a huge fireball moments after takeoff in India's western city of Ahmedabad.
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The Independent
33 minutes ago
- The Independent
Air India warned over ‘serious violations' of pilot oversight
India 's aviation safety watchdog has criticised Air India for 'repeated and serious violations' of pilot duty time regulations and has ordered the removal of three senior officials involved in crew scheduling. In an order given on 20 June, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) told the Tata Group-owned airline to immediately strip a divisional vice president, a chief manager of crew scheduling, and a planning executive of all responsibilities related to rostering. It also instructed the airline to begin disciplinary proceedings against them without delay. The order raised concerns over 'repeated and serious violations voluntarily disclosed by Air India concerning flight crew being scheduled and operated despite lapses in licensing, rest, and recency requirements'. 'Of particular concern is the absence of strict disciplinary measures against key officials directly responsible,' it said. These breaches came to light during a post-transition review of the airline's switch between two different software systems for managing its crew scheduling, according to the Press Trust of India. Two specific instances of non-compliance, on flights from Bengaluru to London on 16 May and 17, exceeded the 10-hour maximum flight duty limit for pilots, Reuters reported. The airline has been instructed to move the three officials to non-operational roles until corrective reforms in scheduling practices are completed, and to ensure that they do not hold any position with direct influence over flight safety or crew compliance until further notice. Air India confirmed in a statement that it had implemented the regulator's order. 'In the interim, the company's Chief Operations Officer will provide direct oversight to the Integrated Operations Control Centre (IOCC). Air India is committed to ensuring that there is total adherence to safety protocols and standard practices,' the airline said. Earlier this week, Reuters reported that regulators had warned Air India for flying three Airbus aircraft without conducting timely checks on emergency escape slide equipment. The airline is facing heightened scrutiny following the 12 June crash of a London-bound flight shortly after take-off in Ahmedabad, killing 241 people onboard and 29 on the ground. Experts from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are investigating the crash with assistance from US and UK authorities, as well as officials from Boeing. Over the last week, dozens of Air India flights were delayed, diverted, or cancelled amid heightened safety checks ordered by the DGCA. As part of efforts to stabilise operations in the wake of the Ahmedabad crash, Air India on Thursday announced a temporary reduction in its international flight schedule. Between 21 June and 15 July, the airline will suspend flights to three overseas destinations and cut services on 16 international routes. The move, according to the airline, is aimed at restoring schedule reliability and minimising last-minute disruption for passengers. This follows an earlier statement that wide-body flight operations would be reduced by 15 per cent over the same period. Air India was taken over by Tata Sons in 2022, returning the airline to private hands nearly 70 years after it was nationalised. The $2.4bn deal to offload the debt-laden public carrier represented a full-circle moment for the airline, which began as Tata Air Services in 1932. Since the acquisition, the airline has placed orders for hundreds of new aircraft worth over $70bn, unveiled new livery, absorbed Tata's other airline ventures and committed millions to upgrading older planes and digital systems.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Japan pulls out of talks with Trump administration after ‘being ordered to spend more on defence'
Japan has cancelled an annual security meeting with the US after the Donald Trump administration told the country it had to spend more on defence. US secretary of state Marco Rubio and defence secretary Pete Hegseth were set to meet the Japanese defence minister Gen Nakatani and foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya in Washington on 1 July for annual '2+2' security talks, a reference to the two senior ministers involved on each side. However, Japan cancelled the meeting after the US demanded Japan increase its defence spending to 3.5% of GDP, an increase on an earlier request of 3 per cent, according to a report on Friday by the Financial Times. This new demand was made the third-most senior official at the Pentagon Elbridge Colby, the paper added. Without citing any reason, a US official asking to be anonymous confirmed to Reuters that Japan had 'postponed' the meeting several weeks ago. Japan and the US have not discussed these targets for higher spending, a Japanese foreign ministry official requesting anonymity told Reuters. On Saturday, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said US allies in Asia need to spend 5 per cent of their GDP on defence. 'European allies are now setting the global standard for our alliances, especially in Asia, which is 5 per cent of GDP spending on defence. Given the enormous military buildup of China, as well as North Korea's ongoing nuclear and missile developments, it is only common sense for Asia-Pacific allies to move rapidly to step up to match Europe's pace and level of defence spending,' Mr Parnell told Nikkei. In March, Mr Trump had said: 'We have a great relationship with Japan, but we have an interesting deal with Japan that we have to protect them, but they don't have to protect us. 'That's the way the deal reads. We have to protect Japan. And, by the way, they make a fortune with us economically. I actually ask, who makes these deals?' The deal Mr Trump is referring to is the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, signed by Japan and the US in 1951 and revised in 1960, which requires the US to defend Japan if attacked. The deal combined with Japan's post-war pacifist constitution to provide the country with security guarantees, given it was obliged not to have an armed forces of its own. It did not include an obligation for Japan to defend the US in return. As part of the agreement, the US is able to maintain military bases in Japan, key strategic footholds west of the Pacific. Responding during a parliamentary session, Japanese prime minister Shigeru Ishiba said: 'Japan has no obligation to protect the US, that is true, but Japan is obliged to provide bases for the US. I am surprised that President Trump said this.' Japan's previous prime minister Fumio Kishida doubled the country's proposed defence spending from a previous cap of just 1 per cent in 2022, itself a controversial move for many Japanese people who still favour pacifism. One of the Japanese government's top priorities at the start of Mr Trump's second term was to convince him that this was already a big shift in Japan's commitment to defence spending. Mr Colby, who was then the nominee for US defence undersecretary, had said in March that Japan should go further and increase its defence budget to 3 per cent of its gross domestic product. 'It makes little sense for Japan, which is directly threatened by China and North Korea, to spend only 2 per cent,' he had said in a confirmation hearing before the Senate armed services committee. Responding to Mr Colby's statement, Mr Ishiba said other nations would not decide Japan's defence budget. 'Japan decides its defence budget by itself,' Mr Ishiba told a parliamentary committee meeting. 'It should not be decided based on what other nations tell it to do.' Japan's decision to cancel the 2+2 meeting comes while the two nations are in the midst of trade talks to avert Mr Trump's 'reciprocal' tariffs of 25 per cent on Japanese cars and 24 per cent on other imports. The tariffs are currently paused until 9 July. Japan is set to attend the Nato summit on 24-25 June in The Hague, where it is expected that Mr Trump will press his demand for European allies to boost their defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP. No member of Nato currently spends 5 per cent of GDP on defence. That includes the US itself, which commits around 3.4 per cent. Poland is the closest to meeting the figure with 4.1 per cent, while the UK is ninth out of the 32 member states with 2.3 per cent.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Russia's Sechin says China is moving towards exporting energy
ST PETERSBURG, Russia, June 21 (Reuters) - Rosneft ( opens new tab CEO Igor Sechin, one of the most influential men in Russia's energy sector, said on Saturday that China was seeking complete energy independence and that in the foreseeable future it could become a major energy exporter. China's economic and military rise over the past 45 years is considered to be one of the most significant geopolitical events of recent times, alongside the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union which ended the Cold War. Sechin said that a massive increase in electricity consumption was changing the entire landscape of the global energy markets as populations soared in Africa and Asia and the digital revolution triggered massive demand for power. Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Sechin said that China accounted for a third of global investment in the energy sector, was ramping up renewable energy capacity and was now one of the leaders in nuclear power. "China, which has already ensured its energy security, is confidently moving towards complete energy independence, forming a stable energy balance based on its own resources," Sechin said in a speech which referenced both Greek mythology and Niccolo Machiavelli. "There is no doubt, taking into account the persistence and professionalism of our Chinese comrades, that in the foreseeable future they will achieve the desired result, which will turn China from an importer of energy resources into a major energy exporter." China is currently the world's largest importer of crude oil and a major importer of natural gas. Russia is the world's second largest oil exporter and holds the world's largest reserves of natural gas. Sechin, who worked alongside Vladimir Putin in the former imperial capital of St Petersburg and later under the president in the Kremlin, has run Rosneft since 2012. Rosneft accounts for about 40% of Russian oil production, 14% of the country's gas production and 32% of the refinery market. It is also the biggest Russian exporter of oil to China. Sechin said that the decision by OPEC+ to speed up an output increase now looked far-sighted and justified in the light of the confrontation between Israel and Iran. He added that the OPEC+ group could bring forward its output hikes by around a year from the initial plan. He drew attention to the vast U.S. debt pile, warning that great powers from Habsburg Spain and pre-Revolutionary France to the Ottoman Empire and Britain had declined due to high levels of public debt. The expansion of the Western military-industrial complex was diverting enormous resources away from productive sectors and unlikely to be a panacea for the problems in Europe or the United States, Sechin said. "There is always an asymmetrical answer," he added. But his focus was on China's role, giving the example how the growth in the sales of electric vehicles had resulted in significant slowdown in motor fuel demand over the last year. "If this trend continues – it may have a significant reverse impact on the oil market balance," Sechin said. He added than an important part of China's strategy to reduce dependence on energy imports was the processing of coal into synthetic fuels and chemical products. About 40 million tons of coal is used to produce synthetic fuels and more than 260 million tons for ammonia and methanol production, he said.
