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Indian Express
a day ago
- General
- Indian Express
Air India plane crash: AI-171 probe looks at Gatwick takeoff incident 5 yrs ago for possible clues
Investigators probing the June 12 crash of Air India flight AI-171 from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick are taking a close look at a February 2020 incident in Gatwick, involving an Airbus A321, in which both engines malfunctioned immediately after takeoff. It led to a Mayday call before the aircraft returned to Gatwick 11 minutes later after a turnaround. In its 2020 investigation, the UK Air Accident Investigation Branch (AIIB), which is also in Ahmedabad to probe the June 12 crash, found that the reason for the engine failure was fuel system contamination even though engineers had found no fault prior to clearing it for flying that night. Officers aware of the ongoing investigation into the Ahmedabad crash said a thorough scrutiny of AI-171's technical logs in the 24 hours preceding the crash were being looked into as it was 'clear from visual observation and wreckage' that the flight suffered a power failure. Speaking to The Indian Express Thursday, an officer said the probe agencies, in primary observations from the available visual evidence, statements of the controllers of Ahmedabad Air Traffic Control (ATC), maintenance engineers who cleared the flight on the ground, and initial inspection of the wreckage, estimated that the aircraft experienced power failure of the main electric system within seconds of takeoff. 'The material evidence, which includes the wreckage and the videos of the takeoff as well as the crash, indicate a definite power failure on the flight. The cause will be known only when the black box data is recovered but we can estimate that since the flight was in a takeoff and its nose pitched up for the liftoff, the deployment of the Ram Air Turbine (RAT) could not help the flight make a safe turnaround as it had not even achieved the minimum altitude of 3600 feet for a safe path,' the officer said. The black boxes and the DVR have been recovered but the officer said that the devices were damaged and file extraction would 'be a complicated process'. According to the officer, 'deliberations were on' about sending the black boxes to the US where the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) could help recover the recordings with advanced expertise. The wreckage of the Dreamliner, the officer said, had 'not hinted' at any cockpit error, and the pilots 'may have tried their best to gain manual control' for attempting a turnaround. 'It does not appear to be a cockpit error… The observations are that the power failure occurred as soon as the flight was airborne and was unable to climb to the safe path altitude… the (Boeing) 787 Dreamliner has a provision for a manual reversion control system to allow pilots to regain control of critical systems in the event of a hydraulic failure. This system is a backup, using RAT to generate power, but there was no altitude cushion to ensure a safe glide downward or for the pilot to attempt anything… It just dropped on to the medical hostel building, with the tail being impacted and separated due to its liftoff position. Had it achieved an elevation of about 3600-4900 feet, it could have been a different story as planes can safely make Mayday landings with the RAT,' the officer said. AI-171 had gained an altitude of only 625 feet when it came crashing down. The officer said that while probing the cause of engine failure, the most crucial aspect would be an analysis of the technical log of the aircraft for the preceding 24 to 48 hours to ascertain if any technical abnormalities had been experienced or noted down by the previous captains or maintenance staff. 'The aircraft was incoming from Paris to Delhi and from Delhi to Ahmedabad… In fact, it made a round trip to Paris from Delhi on June 11-12. Just a day earlier, it had returned to Delhi after a round trip to Tokyo. We will check the technical logs to see if any of the engineering teams or pilots of the previous flight left comments on the performance of both engines or experienced any ECAM (Electronic Centralised Aircraft Monitor) message during the flight, accompanied by any thrust issues during flight,' the officer said. 'At this point, we have no reason to speculate a sabotage but if the cause of the engine failure is fuel contamination, which is most likely due to water, the maintenance records of the flight, which are also under scrutiny, will reveal if it was due to oversight or negligence or corrosion in the fuel system, leading to clogging which is rare if the aircraft is regularly serviced. Fuel contaminated with water is the most common cause of power loss in flights and, many times, cannot be detected until the aircraft is actually airborne,' the officer said. Since the Ahmedabad crash is the first involving a Boeing 787, investigators are 'leaving nothing to chance'. 'The Dreamliner has an advanced electrical system… it can cover a sufficient distance safely on one engine as well… In case of dual hydraulic failure, the flight can be on manual reversion and be controlled for safe landing at the nearest available facility. The flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder will reveal what went wrong in about one minute,' the officer said. A chemical analysis of 'important and relevant' parts from the wreckage will reveal any unusually high level of contaminants. 'Since the explosion and the subsequent fire have damaged much of the aircraft, especially the fuel tanks, forensic engineers of the investigating team have gathered as much relevant debris as possible to find traces of elements that could indicate if there had been fuel contamination,' the officer said. The UK AAIB team is comparing notes with the February 2020 Gatwick incident findings. 'The entire duration of the flight was 11 minutes, as per the investigation of the UK AAIB… The incident was almost similar, except that the flight had gained an altitude of almost 3580 feet and was able to make the roundabout and touch down after declaring Mayday thrice… The findings of the investigation had concluded that the reason for the engine failure was fuel system contamination even though the engineers had found no fault prior to clearing it for flying that night,' the officer said. 'However, that investigation had revealed that the three flights, which the aircraft completed prior to the Gatwick takeoff, had experienced unusual signs of one of the engines as it had taken multiple attempts to start… and also relayed stalling messages during the flight… It was later found that the engineers who cleared the flight from Gatwick had not conducted extensive examination of the engine, which resulted in 'no fault' being found,' the officer said.
Indian Express
5 days ago
- Indian Express
US team in Ahmedabad, leads collated for probe teams: teen's video to CCTV footage
As a team of experts from the US reached Ahmedabad Sunday to inspect the site of the June 12 crash of Air India flight AI-171, investigators began acquiring pieces of evidence critical to the probe: 17-year-old Aryan Asari's video of the crash, lone survivor Viswashkumar Ramesh's account of what happened inside the aircraft, CCTV footage of the take-off from the Ahmedabad airport, and footage of the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) recovered from the BJ Medical College premises. Officers of Gujarat Police said that at the request of investigators, police 'formally acquired on record' the video shot by Aryan Asari. On Sunday afternoon, a team of 10 officers from the US National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration reached Ahmedabad to examine the crash site – AI-171 was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. An officer said that records of the Air Traffic Control (ATC), examined by Gujarat Police, show that the aircraft may have taxied at least 300 metres more on the runway which the ATC 'did not find unusual'. 'It took off at 1.38 pm and just after a minute, around 1.39-1.40 pm, the pilot sent out a 'No thrust… May Day…May Day' message, following which communication was lost and a crash was heard,' the officer said. Another officer said aviation experts have also acquired the airport footage of the aircraft in full throttle before it becomes airborne, 'but so far there is no clear footage of what happened between it being airborne and the crash'. Speaking to The Indian Express on the condition of anonymity, a senior officer of Gujarat Police said the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) as well as Air India and Boeing had made requests to 'officially acquire' the video shot by Aryan Asari from a terrace in Lakshminagar, located not far from the crash site. 'The video shot accidentally by the teenager has become probably a rare case where a plane has been filmed going into a crash… The investigators of AAIB as well as officials of Air India and Boeing had expressed deep concern about the leads that they saw in the video and requested that it should be formally documented in order to help the investigations,' the officer said. 'Aviation investigators have also sought the video formally in order to correlate the descent of the flight captured in the video with the eventual findings from the black boxes of the flight… We have been told that while ascertaining the cause of the crash, the footage will lend important technical assistance as the experts have been primarily able to spot some anomalies in the way the aircraft had taken off… Their concern is to establish if it was due to human error or some internal system failure, which can only be concluded by aviation experts. Therefore, the video has been brought on record, for future evidence, if needed,' the officer said. According to the officer, footage from the DVR recovered by the Gujarat ATS from the BJ Medical College hostel mess is also being 'examined' by the Ahmedabad city police in connection with the Accidental Death report filed on the loss of lives at the medical college hostel. 'The footage shows the position of the students, the ongoing lunch at the mess at the time the plane crashed into the building. It is being looked into to piece together the sequence of events for the separate AD that has been lodged in the case of the casualties at the hostel,' the officer said. According to the officer, an aviation delegation has raised concern about a bird strike and will examine the wreckage of the engine for clues. 'However, no other footage of the flight taking off or being airborne is available. The team of the engine manufacturing company is accompanying the delegation to also ascertain if there was indeed any bird strike as concerns have been raised about it,' the officer said. Another senior police officer said teams of specialised units of the Gujarat Police conducted a thorough investigation into the possibility of a sabotage for over 48 hours after the crash, and have so far 'found no leads' that indicate any foul play. 'After the initial focus on rescue, we immediately got on to investigating the possibility of a sabotage as the first line of police investigation. While aviation experts will do their task, the Gujarat Police has examined the minute-by-minute happenings of the airport in the two hours that the aircraft was present on the ground at the SVPIA (Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport)… We have checked where it was parked and how much access was available to anyone,' the officer said. Police also conducted a detailed background check of the ground staff as well as a list of 'usual suspects and past accused' to rule out any possibility of sabotage. 'The plane wreckage and crash site were thoroughly checked for any signs of unusual explosive traces… Even the NSG unit that arrived in Gujarat with the K9 unit concluded that there was no foul play in terms of explosives. The fire that followed the crash was from aviation fuel. We also examined in detail that the flight had landed in Ahmedabad from New Delhi and was standing on the tarmac for around two hours, where it was being readied for the next takeoff. It never went into a hangar or such places where there could have been unauthorised access. In fact, only a limited number of ground staff attended to the flight. We found no suspects… The ground staff that supervised the procedures followed that day has said that no anomalies were reported before takeoff,' the officer said. On Sunday, Gujarat DGP Vikas Sahay, in a post on X, appealed to people not to go near the crash site. 'Extremely grateful to all the local residents and volunteers who immediately joined us at the crash site for the rescue and relief operations. Since last two days, entire area has been cordoned and sealed for quick and easy collection of evidence for purposes of investigation. Appeal to all not to go near the crash site,' the DGP said.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
YouTube TV Review: The Best Channel Selection You'll Find
YouTube TV has solidified its reputation as one of the best live TV streaming services available. The Google-owned platform features an extensive array of channels and is known for its easy-to-navigate user experience. These are important details to highlight, considering the fact that the streamer has steadily increased its price over the years. It now costs $83 a month, which is more than twice its original cost. It may feel like the overall value of the service isn't as clear-cut as it once was, but its price mirrors that of its closest rival, Hulu Plus Live TV. YouTube TV's main strength for cord-cutters is its sheer number of channels. It now offers 78 of the top 100 networks, the most of any streaming service, a count that includes numerous cable staples plus all four local networks -- ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC -- and local PBS stations nationwide. See at YouTube Beyond channels, YouTube TV is easy to use: It's slick and speedy on a variety of TVs and mobile devices. Its cloud DVR is also one of the best, with unlimited storage and pretty much all the capabilities of a hardware DVR. The service also offers a 4K streaming upgrade -- for an additional $10 monthly -- which, importantly, includes unlimited simultaneous streams and downloadable DVR recordings. The big snag is the price, and if you're a cord-cutter, the trimmed-down Sling TV Blue at $46 a month is the best way to save money. At the other end of the spectrum, the $83 Hulu Plus Live TV offers a similar mix of channels, but the addition of the modified Disney Bundle that gives you access to on-demand Hulu, ESPN Plus and Disney Plus, brings some extra value. If you're wanting to stick with a familiar cable tv experience, the myriad of channels and unlimited DVR feature offered by YouTube TV makes the $83 price associated with its base package well worth the money. It's still a good deal for what you're getting. Read more: Best Streaming Devices YouTube TV is different from YouTube, the free video service with more than 2.5 billion users a month. YouTube TV offers an experience similar to cable TV, with live channels and on-demand content available on a variety of devices. It works with Apple TV, Roku, Android TV, Chromecast and Amazon Fire TV, along with numerous smart TVs, phones, tablets, game consoles and web browsers. YouTube TV's channel selection is excellent, with more from CNET's list of 100 top channels than any other competitor (although Hulu isn't too far behind). More channels don't necessarily mean more of what you want. Some services, such as Fubo, lean heavily on sports, while others are increasingly expansive. It's best to check the list at the end of this article, which compares individual channels across services, to ensure you're getting the channels you want. While competitors include several channel upgrade packages, YouTube TV includes everything for one price, with one exception explained below. The service also includes 5.1 surround sound, where available, for all subscribers (most competitors are only in stereo) and an expansion of the DVR search, which can now pick out specific sports, which is most useful for events such as the Olympics. Compared to some services with multilevel interfaces, YouTube TV is fairly simple. There are three main tabs at the top of the interface: Library, Home and Live (on mobile, these tabs are located at the bottom). Library is where your DVR content lives, and Home is where featured and live thumbnails appear. The Live tab is a familiar-looking program grid that displays both currently playing and upcoming shows. You can search for content from the top of any page, making it relatively easy to jump straight to the programming you want. Additionally, viewers can customize the live guide with their favorite channels, or set it to be sorted alphabetically or by the most-watched channels. There's also a button at the top that offers the ability to buy add-on packages and rent or buy movies within the app. A search icon allows you to type in networks or what you want to watch, and we should note that YouTube TV uses your search history for its recommendation engine. If you want, you can delete your searches. You can also perform searches with a compatible voice remote or Google Assistant. This is easier if you have an Android TV streamer, you could also perform searches on your Google Nest Mini and play it on a Roku, for example. The DVR works as you'd expect -- both time-shifting live content and playing back recorded shows -- and the system assigns your recorded content to manageable categories, such as recently recorded and most viewed. The DVR also includes the ability to rewind and fast-forward freely through recordings, even ones that aren't yet completed. The Roku interface offers a 15-second skip by default, while the Apple TV's control system via the Siri Remote is even better. You can use the touchpad to scroll through videos and it's glorious. It's so much fun, and auto-generated thumbnails make it relatively easy to get to the part you want. In the past, when a show appeared in a network's on-demand library, it would automatically replace the version in your cloud DVR, meaning you'd lose the ability to fast-forward through commercials though Google says this should no longer occur. Additionally, YouTube TV's DVR isn't truly unlimited; the shows will expire after nine months (just like Hulu), but this is still much longer than the 30 days you get with most rivals. YouTube TV rolled out a multiview feature in 2023, enabling subscribers to watch up to four separate sports streams on one screen. The functionality has since been expanded to include news and weather channels with the option to watch either two or four streams at a time. It works on smart TVs as well as phones, and all you have to do is scroll to the "Watch in Multiview" section on the home screen. On a mobile phone, the YouTube TV app operates as smoothly as the TV version. I was able to filter by channel and genre to comb through content, and the multiview feature is available on my phone as well. If your phone is connected to a smart TV or media player, you can cast YouTube TV to those devices, which can come in handy if you're watching while away from home. It's also easy to download TV show episodes and movies on the mobile app and stream them right on your phone. Although Google used to integrate YouTube into YouTube TV -- with trailers and related content on a show's About page -- this appears to no longer be the case. The company is continually tweaking the interface, and we may see YouTube content appear again at some point. It depends. The $10 4K Plus upgrade could be useful if you're looking to stream 4K sporting events and on-demand programming, but the amount of content available in 4K is still limited. There is one new feature that may prove the most useful, especially for travelers, and that's the ability to view an unlimited number of simultaneous streams, and the option to save DVR recordings for offline mobile viewing. If you're a frequent flyer or subway rider, the ability to watch prerecorded shows without an active connection is an attractive feature. As per YouTube TV's 4K page, the additional content includes shows from Discovery, ESPN, Fox Sports, FX, NBA TV, Nat Geo, NBC Sports and Tastemade. If you want to watch certain premium content (e.g. South Park), you may need to subscribe separately to premium add-ons for Max, Peacock and other services. The interface includes a 4K button to help find content, but at present, this doesn't constitute enough to stick around for. In addition to a handful of shows, there's Thursday Night Football, "live" Premier League soccer and college football on ESPN. The NCAA adds a bunch of 4K content, but if you want football, 4K or a combination of the two, Fubo offers even more sports for a $90 price tag. The 4K content that is available with the basic subscription, such as the cooking show Make This Tonight or the travel competition show Basic Versus Baller, does look good, with better contrast and color than regular broadcast TV. In context, the top tier of Netflix costs substantially more at $25 per month, but it offers thousands of hours of 4K content alone, plus offline viewing. When it originally appeared for $35, YouTube TV was an exceedingly attractive way to save money over cable. But as the service has piled on more channels, it's added further costs. When you take that $83 monthly fee and apply it to the $55 you're probably already paying for internet service, it means you're paying over $130 a month. Many cable TV providers will give you a TV and internet bundle for around the same money. Prices vary a lot, of course, and with cable, you probably have to pay rental equipment fees, taxes and other extras. Cable providers usually reserve the best bundle pricing for people who sign a contract. The same goes for "streaming" offerings, such as Comcast's StreamSaver, which can be paired with its NOW TV offering. The reason you want to cut cable in the first place remains. Read more here: Streaming vs. Cable: Which One Saves You More Money? Like Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV and others, YouTube TV is contract-free, so you can cancel anytime. Streaming services also have other advantages over cable. They're easier to watch on phones and tablets, for example. At $83 per month, you'll have to be coming from a relatively expensive cable bill to realize substantial savings with YouTube TV. If price is no object, YouTube TV goes neck and neck with Hulu Plus Live TV as the premier live TV streaming service, with a huge array of entertainment options and one of the best DVR/search combos on the market. It offers more channels than anyone else and its 5.1 surround is great for sports and movie fans. If you don't want to be beholden to a traditional cable company, it's a great alternative. Though $83 a month is a tough expenditure for some people, without a contract to worry about, you're free to jump ship to a better deal at any time. The extra $10 is still too much for so little 4K content, even if unlimited streams and DVR downloads are useful for extended families or travelers. If you want more on-demand content for your buck, then Hulu Plus Live TV's Disney bundle is fairly unbeatable. Lastly, if you're a hard-core cord-cutter and determined to save money, Sling TV Blue offers a compelling alternative, especially when paired with an antenna or an AirTV 2. Below, you'll find a comparison of the top 100 channels offered by a few of YouTube TV's competitors. For more information and comparisons with additional services, check out the full article. Yes = The channel is available on the cheapest pricing tier. No = The channel isn't available at all on that service. $ = The channel is available for an extra fee, either a la carte or as part of a more expensive package or add-on. Not every channel a service carries is listed, just the "top 100" as determined by CNET's editors. Minor channels such as AXS TV, CNBC World, Discovery Life, GSN, POP and Universal Kids didn't make the cut. Regional sports networks -- channels devoted to showing regular-season games of particular pro baseball, basketball and hockey teams -- aren't listed.
Time of India
21-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Stock market update: Nifty Realty index advances 1.19% in an upbeat market
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel NEW DELHI: The Nifty Realty index traded positive around 10:46AM(IST)on Wednesday in an upbeat Ltd.(up 2.66 per cent), Phoenix Mills Ltd.(up 1.94 per cent), Oberoi Realty Ltd.(up 1.87 per cent), Macrotech Developers Ltd.(up 1.83 per cent) and Anant Raj Ltd.(up 1.66 per cent) were among the top Enterprises Ltd.(down 1.12 per cent) were the top losers on the Nifty Realty index was up 1.19 per cent at 933.75 at the time of writing this NSE Nifty50 index was up 229.5 points at 24913.4, while the BSE Sensex was up 741.17 points at the 50 stocks in the Nifty index, 48 were trading in the green, while 2 were in the of Vodafone Idea, BEL, YES Bank, Eternal and Suzlon Energy were among the most traded shares on the of AB Infrabuild, Gabriel India, SecMark Consultancy, Stampede Cap(DVR)and Paradeep Phosphates hit their fresh 52-week highs in today's trade, while Music Broadcast, Future Enterprises (DVR), Godha Cabcon & Insul, Transwarr Fin and N K Industries hit fresh 52-week lows in trade.
Time of India
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
Indices: Stock market update: Nifty Auto index advances 1.53% in an upbeat market
Nifty moved in a tight range of 82 points, and ended slightly below the psychologically crucial level of 15,700. The Nifty Auto index was trading 1.53 per cent up at 23890.3. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads NEW DELHI: The Nifty Auto index traded positive around 10:35AM(IST)on Wednesday in an upbeat Auto Ltd.(up 2.31 per cent), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.(up 2.03 per cent), Bharat Forge Ltd.(up 1.64 per cent), TVS Motor Company Ltd.(up 1.53 per cent) and Samvardhana Motherson International Ltd.(up 1.52 per cent) were among the top Investments of India Ltd.(down 0.09 per cent) were the top losers on the Nifty Auto index was up 1.53 per cent at 23890.3 at the time of writing this NSE Nifty50 index was up 232.55 points at 24916.45, while the BSE Sensex was up 712.93 points at the 50 stocks in the Nifty index, 47 were trading in the green, while 3 were in the of Vodafone Idea, BEL, YES Bank, Eternal and Suzlon Energy were among the most traded shares on the of AB Infrabuild, SecMark Consultancy, Gabriel India, Stampede Cap(DVR)and Paradeep Phosphates hit their fresh 52-week highs in today's trade, while Music Broadcast, Future Enterprises (DVR), Godha Cabcon & Insul, Transwarr Fin and N K Industries hit fresh 52-week lows in trade.
