Latest news with #Comet
Arabian Post
14-06-2025
- General
- Arabian Post
Calcutta Comet Torn Apart in Fierce Storm
An early-model BOAC Comet jet disintegrated in mid‑air after encountering severe turbulence shortly after departure from Dum Dum Airport near Calcutta on 2 May 1953. All 43 passengers and crew perished as the aircraft burst apart at approximately 7,500 ft and plummeted into a paddy field about 25 miles north‑west of the city. The de Havilland DH.106 Comet 1, operated by British Overseas Airways Corporation, had originated from Singapore and was en route to London, with stops scheduled in Calcutta and Delhi. Witnesses reported the plane climbing before suddenly breaking up and falling in flames—described as 'a huge boulder of fire'—as it plunged amid dense thunderstorm conditions. Investigation reports later determined that structural failure triggered the disaster. The aircraft was overstressed by severe gusts within the thunderstorm, or possibly by pilot over-control while attempting to stabilise the plane amid violent turbulence. ADVERTISEMENT Debris was scattered over a five‑mile radius, with wings and tail sections strewn across villages surrounding the crash zone. Recovery teams reported finding charred fuselage fragments and wing parts up to eight square miles away. Communications were severely disrupted by the storm, delaying rescue operations until the following morning. The loss prompted an immediate grounding of all Comet aircraft worldwide. Subsequent analysis traced design vulnerabilities—specifically fuselage fatigue exacerbated by pressurisation cycles—as contributing to the structural failure. Long‑term remedies included reinforcing cabin frames and modifying hatch and window designs. These measures led to the Comet 2 variant, re‑entering service later in the decade. That afternoon's monsoon squall had been forecasted. Weather advisories issued by Dum Dum airport warned of a powerful north‑wester moving across Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa. The alert reached Calcutta and nearby airfields before departure, but the flight was allowed to proceed, possibly underestimating the severity of the impending storm. The magnitude of the crash and its implications for aviation safety were profound. As the world's first jet airliner disaster, it exposed critical design flaws in high-altitude metal fatigue and pressurisation. Aviation experts have since credited the accident with catalysing a new era of aviation engineering standards and rigorous fatigue testing. BOAC officials, alongside Indian Civil Aviation authorities, conducted detailed on-site investigations. Initial body recovery revealed only 21 victims near the main wreckage; many others were presumed destroyed in the fiery crash. Wreckage and mail bags were recovered over the following days with painstaking efforts hampered by torrential rain and impassable access roads. The tragedy sparked changes beyond engineering: it prompted aviation authorities worldwide to reassess flight clearance protocols in severe weather. Airlines adopted stricter turbulence-avoidance routes, and training for storm penetration tactics was enhanced. Structural testing regimes became more comprehensive, particularly for early-generation jetliners. More than seven decades later, the Comet's collapse north‑west of Calcutta remains a defining moment in civil aviation history. It was a stark reminder that the jet age—so marvelled for its speed—brought with it complex challenges. Engineers and regulators responded with reforms that continue to shape aircraft design and safety standards today. While the Comet's legacy lives on, modern aircraft benefit from lessons learned. Advanced composites, real‑time structural monitoring, reinforced fuselage frames and weather‑avoidance flight planning are now standard features in commercial aviation worldwide—fundamental safeguards born from the tragedy in the skies near Calcutta.
Hindustan Times
14-06-2025
- General
- Hindustan Times
British jet crashes after being caught in Calcutta storm
A London-bound British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Comet crashed in flames into a paddy field about 40km northwest of Calcutta shortly after taking off from Dum Dum Saturday evening, killing 43 people on board, including two infants, ten women and a crew of six. The aircraft, on its Singapore-London flight, made a perfect take-off for Delhi at 4.30pm. The plane, according to all available reports, was caught in a storm and exploded mid-air. When the aircraft was reported overdue in Delhi, where it was scheduled to land at 6.50pm, the authorities alerted all airports and police stations to watch out for the missing Comet. In the early hours of Sunday the Indian Air Force and the BOAC sent out search planes for the missing plane. A BOAC Yorker after a brief search, located the wreckage. Although about two hours after the accident, a police station 32km from Calcutta received reports of the crash, it was not possible to rush aid due to the inaccessibility of the place where the aircraft had crashed, nor could the accident be reported to Calcutta the same night, as the storm had cut communication lines. Indian Civil Aviation (ICA) and BOAC officials visited the site on Sunday. A senior BOAC official from London was expected to arrive in Calcutta on Monday to make an on-site investigation. Mr Malhotra, accidents inspector at ICA, was also expected to arrive on Sunday night from Delhi. The wreckage will not be cleared until the investigation is over. Recovery of bodies will resume Monday. According to witnesses from villages nearby, who were hurrying home due to the impending storm, 'a huge boulder of fire in a terrific speed came exploding through black clouds and dived like a live meteor.' It was the wingless blazing cockpit and the main body of the Comet. The wings of the aircraft, which was trying to gain altitude presumably to fly above the high winds, first broke and scattered across villages spread over an area of eight square miles. The engine fell in a ditch which soon turned into an inferno. A series of explosions and screams were heard, said a villager who lives near the ditch. But the explosion prevented the villagers from rushing or organizing help to the victims. The Jangipara police station received the reports of the crash from three different villages and had accordingly recorded that three planes had crashed in that area the same evening. As the communication lines were dislocated by the storm, the report could not be sent to Calcutta until Sunday morning. The wings and some portion of the tail were found about 6km from where the engine crashed in a dried-up ditch in a vast paddy field. Of the 43 passengers only 21 bodies were found near the tangled mass of aluminium and steel of the fuselage. Quite a few were believed to have been completely burnt in the fuselage blaze which died on its own in the morning when all that was combustible had been consumed by the fire. The crash was reported to the fire brigade in the morning and the service mobilised all its petroleum fire-fighting equipment from various stations and rushed them in five units. The rain muddled the kucha road access and the equipment had to be abandoned mid way. The firemen reached the scene on foot, but found they could only salvage the stack of mail bags still smouldering. Same was the case with the hospital vans and first-aid units. Police called for large carriers of bodies instead of ambulance cars. BOAC officials in Calcutta and the ICA officers reached the spot well after mid-day, travelling 40km by car, rail and on foot. Police officers were the first to reach the spot and begin rescue work. Only after the BOAC chief in Calcutta, Mr Jones, and his staff had reached the place where the plane had crashed, the company could say that all on board the Comet were lost, although all the bodies were yet to be accounted for. Throughout the day about 200 policemen were busy collecting bodies and arranging for their transportation to Calcutta. Eighteen bodies, all gathered from near the main wreckage, were in the first lot to reach Calcutta late in the evening. Later reports said 21 bodies were brought to Howrah by a special train on the Howrah-Amta Light Railway shortly after 9pm. All the bodies except three were recovered, according to the local sub-divisional officer. It was learnt that the Dum Dum airport weather office had alerted all air stations of Bengal, Bihar, UP and Orissa that a strong north-wester with a sweeping velocity was heading towards Calcutta. The alert was signalled an hour before the doomed plane took off. It detailed the path of the wind as having reached Asansol at 2.15pm, expected at Barrackpur aerodrome (about 24km from Calcutta) at 4.30pm and at Dum Dum at 5.15pm. The bodies, brought to Howrah, were carried from the station in police vans, to a 'cool house' where they would be kept overnight before being sent on Monday for postmortem and identification. Cooling arrangements for the bodies were made on special instruction from the chief minister, Dr BC Roy, to prevent decomposition, police officials said.
NDTV
12-06-2025
- Science
- NDTV
Explained: What Is A Black Box In A Plane, And How It Reveals Crash Details
New Delhi: An Air India Ahmedabad-London flight took off at 1.39 pm. Under a minute later, it plummeted from an altitude of 625 feet and crashed into a doctors' hostel, with several casualties feared both inside the aircraft and in the building it damaged. The plane erupted into flames, sending thick smoke into the sky. As firefighting and rescue teams work on the spot of the crash, a deeper look into the reason behind it will likely be clear from a small box sitting in a corner of the aircraft - the black box. Origins Of The Black Box In 1953, Australian scientist David Warren came up with the idea for the cockpit voice recorder, according to the Associated Press. Warren had been investigating the crash of the world's first commercial jet airliner, the Comet, in 1953, and thought it would be helpful for airline accident investigators to have a recording of voices in the cockpit, the Australian Department of Defence said in a statement after his death. Warren designed and constructed a prototype in 1956. But it took several years before officials understood just how valuable the device could be and began installing them in commercial airlines worldwide. Warren's father had been killed in a plane crash in Australia in 1934. What Does A Black Box Do? The black box comprises two devices - the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and the flight data recorder (FDR). The cockpit voice recorder collects radio transmissions and sounds such as the pilot's voices and engine noises, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)'s website. Depending on what happened, investigators may pay close attention to the engine noise, stall warnings and other clicks and pops, the NTSB said. And from those sounds, investigators can often determine engine speed and the failure of some systems. Investigators are also listening to conversations between the pilots and crew and communications with air traffic control. Experts make a meticulous transcript of the voice recording, which can take up to a week. The flight data recorder monitors a plane's altitude, airspeed and heading, according to the NTSB. Those factors are among at least 88 parameters that newly built planes must monitor. Some can collect the status of more than 1,000 other characteristics, from a wing's flap position to the smoke alarms. The NTSB said it can generate a computer animated video reconstruction of the flight from the information collected. NTBS investigators told the AP in 2014 that a flight data recorder carries 25 hours of information, including prior flights within that time span, which can sometimes provide hints about the cause of a mechanical failure on a later flight. An initial assessment of the data is provided to investigators within 24 hours, but analysis will continue for weeks more. It Does Not Appear Black Contrary to its name, a black box is typically orange in colour. This is to allow them to be easily discovered in plane wreckage, which are sometime found in depths of the ocean. The term "black box" was likely borrowed from the field of computing, in which a system has an input and output with an internal mechanism that is often not widely understood by a layperson, an expert told LiveScience. How Does It Survive Crashes? An FDR is usually placed in the tail of an aircraft, considered to be a part that is likely to take the least damage in a crash. When a plane crashes into water, the beacons inside activate and can transmit signals from the depths of 14,000 feet. If recovered from the sea, the black box is first treated to remove corrosive salt and then the inside is dried for up to many days. After electronics and memory are checked, necessary repairs are made, the chips are scrutinised to retrieve flight data. The black boxes are designed to withstand high impact, fire and deep sea pressure, being made from robust materials like titanium or stainless steel. A CVR is placed inside the aircraft's cockpit. What About Helicopters? Helicopters are equipped with a (single) combined recorder, capable of recording all the data needed to characterise the flight (time, heading, altitude, power, temperature, rotor speed, outside temperature, etc.), tracking between 800 and 1,200 parameters, per AirBus. On heavy helicopters (over 3,175 kg maximum take off weight) they can withstand a temperature of 1100 degrees Celsius for one hour. Those on light helicopters must withstand this temperature for 15 minutes. Where Will Data Of Crashed Air India Plane Be Retrieved? Earlier this year, Digital Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder (DFDR & CVR) Laboratory was inaugurated in Delhi, where retrieved flight data from aircraft can be analysed. The state-of-the-art facility will enable Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) to repair damaged black boxes, retrieve data, and conduct thorough analyses of accidents and incidents. Black Boxes Not 100% Reliable Though largely reliable in finding the root cause behind aviation accidents, black boxes have also known to present its limitations. A Jeju Air plane flying from Bangkok to South Korea with 181 people on board crashed on landing Sunday, killing 179 people on board. It black box was recovered, but analysis by the NTSB found that crucial data from the last few minutes of the flight was wiped out. In the case of the notorious downing and disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March 2014, the signals that would emanate from the black box were not detected during search operations.
CTV News
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
New pack of five grey wolves unveiled at Assiniboine Park Zoo
Gigi is one of the new grey wolves at the Assiniboine Park Zoo. Uploaded June 6, 2025. (Assiniboine Park & Zoo/Facebook) A new pack of grey wolves has arrived at the Assiniboine Park Zoo. Gigi, Chinook, Comet, Stella and Virgo have been introduced as the new canines at the zoo. They arrived Thursday from the Greater Vancouver Zoo. 'We're really excited,' said Shane Pratt, the curator of animal care. 'Our team is just really excited to bring in a charismatic northern species.' Comet, Stella and Virgo are the offspring of Gigi and Chinook, Platt said. Comet the grey wolf Comet is one of the new grey wolves at the Assiniboine Park Zoo. Uploaded June 6, 2025. (Assiniboine Park & Zoo/Facebook) He noted Gigi has shown a lot of confidence in the new enclosure already, and it's rubbing off on the rest of the pack. 'Until they come here and we get to know them, we don't really know what to expect. So we kind of assume they're going to be fairly nervous and we try to make sure everything's going to be very comfortable for them, but they've exceeded our expectations.' The zoo had been on the hunt for a new pack since the last grey wolf, Bear, died back in March at 15. Bear and the rest of his pack of five had been at the zoo since 2014. Pratt said they had contacted the Vancouver Zoo quite some time ago, as they had 13 wolves and were looking to move some out. Stella the grey wolf Stella is one of the new grey wolves at the Assiniboine Park Zoo. Uploaded June 6, 2025. (Assiniboine Park & Zoo/Facebook) Wolves are a big attraction at the zoo, Pratt said, adding visitors really connect with the animals. 'There's very few animals that inspire people about wildlife and wild places like wolves do.' When Gigi came out to explore her enclosure on Thursday, Pratt said people got very excited to see her and were in awe of her.
Business Insider
06-06-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Perplexity AI Reports Explosive Growth as Users Look for Browser Alternatives
Perplexity's AI-powered search engine is growing quickly, with CEO Aravind Srinivas reporting a 20% month-over-month increase and 780 million queries in May, according to TechCrunch. Speaking at the Bloomberg Tech Summit, Srinivas said that the platform could hit 1 billion weekly queries if growth continues. He also argued that internet users are looking for fresh alternatives to legacy browsers like Google's (GOOGL) Chrome, and that integrated search tools in a browser can drive even higher engagement. Confident Investing Starts Here: As a result, the company is preparing to launch Comet, which is a new agentic search engine that can help complete tasks for users. In addition, Srinivas noted on X that Comet will soon include features such as meeting recordings, transcription, and search, although these will not be available in the initial release. Nevertheless, Perplexity is working hard to polish the product, with a release expected in about three to five weeks. It is also worth noting that Perplexity is backed by investors such as Nvidia (NVDA) and Amazon (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos, and is reportedly closing a funding round that would value it at $14 billion, up from $9 billion in December. Moreover, the search engine recently added a new feature that allows in-chat purchases via PayPal (PYPL) or Venmo. Still, despite Perplexity's growth, Google still dominates the market with about 90% global market share, followed by Microsoft's (MSFT) Bing at around 4%. Which Stock Is the Better Buy? Turning to Wall Street, out of the stocks mentioned above, analysts think that NVDA stock has the most room to run. In fact, NVDA's average price target of $172.36 per share implies more than 21% upside potential. On the other hand, analysts expect the least from MSFT stock, as its average price target of $514.27 equates to a gain of 9.2%.
