Latest news with #safetychecks
Sky News
16 hours ago
- Business
- Sky News
Air India suspends some long-haul flights after fatal crash and reduces the frequency of others
Air India has confirmed it is suspending some of its long-haul flights from Saturday, including routes using the same type of Boeing aircraft which crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad. The decision follows last Thursday's fatal crash involving a Boeing 787-8 flight from Ahmedabad to Gatwick. All but one of the 242 people on board were killed, with around 30 fatalities on the ground, in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade. It was confirmed on Wednesday that the sole survivor, a British national, had left hospital. Most temporary reductions will last until at least mid-July, affecting both 787 and 777 aircraft types, and includes routes to Gatwick. The firm said in a statement it was cutting international services because of "enhanced pre-flight safety checks" and to accommodate "additional flight durations arising from airspace closures in the Middle East". Routes between Delhi-Nairobi, Amritsar-Gatwick and Goa-Gatwick are being suspended entirely. 0:34 The frequency of other services will also be reduced from Delhi, Bengaluru and Amritsar to certain destinations in North America, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Europe - including Heathrow and Birmingham. The route between Ahmedabad and Gatwick remains unaffected. Air India has apologised and promised to contact affected passengers to offer alternative flights or refunds. The airline's chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran on Wednesday insisted the Boeing 787-8 aircraft had a "clean history". "The right engine was a new engine put in [in] March 2025. The left engine was last serviced in 2023 and was due [its] next maintenance check in December 2025," he told the Indian channel Times Now.. Meanwhile, India's aviation regulator has issued warning notices to Air India for breaching safety rules after three of its Airbus planes flew despite being overdue checks on emergency slides and for being slow to address the issue, according to news agency Reuters. The warning notices and an investigation report were not in any way related to last week's crash and were sent days before that incident. The government has also said there has not been any decision yet on where the flight data recorders, also called black boxes, will be analysed. Indian newspaper The Economic Times reported that they were due to be sent to the US so the data could be extracted, as they had suffered fire damage and could not be analysed in India. The government said in a statement that India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) would decide where the recorders would be examined after making a "due assessment" of all technical, safety and security considerations. Black boxes have two components - the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder - and provide crucial insights for crash investigators. They include altitude, airspeed, the status of controls and pilot conversations which help determine probable causes of crashes.
Travel Weekly
3 days ago
- Business
- Travel Weekly
Air India Dreamliners pass enhanced safety checks
India's civil aviation regulator has completed enhanced safety checks on 24 of Air India's 33 Boeing 787 Dreamliners without finding "any major safety concerns." "The aircraft and associated maintenance systems were found to be compliant with existing safety standards," India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a statement Tuesday. The agency undertook the inspections in the wake of the June 12 crash of Air India Flight 171, operated with a Dreamliner, which killed 270 people aboard and on the ground. The DGCA planned to complete two additional inspections on Tuesday, after the release of its statement, and another one on Wednesday. Among Air India's six other Dreamliners, four are in maintenance hangars for work and two are currently grounded and out of service in Delhi. The DGCA will conduct safety checks on each of those planes before they return to operation. Air India Dreamliner turns back after takeoff On Monday, four days after the Flight 171 crash, an Air India Dreamliner bound for Delhi turned back to Hong Kong shortly after takeoff due to an unspecified technical issue. Air India has canceled 66 scheduled Dreamliner flights since June 12, the DGCA noted, with 432 having been scheduled. The agency recommended that Air India ensure availability of adequate spare aircraft to mitigate passenger delays while maintenance-related issues continue.
The Independent
3 days ago
- The Independent
Multiple Air India flights delayed or grounded in just 24 hours amid heightened checks after Ahmedabad crash
Multiple Air India flights have been delayed, diverted, or cancelled in the past few days amid heightened safety checks ordered by India 's civil aviation authority. This comes in the wake of the deadly Air India crash in Ahmedabad, which killed 241 people on board and more than 30 on the ground, and raised concerns over Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft operating in India. An Air India flight from Delhi to Paris, AI143, was reportedly cancelled on Tuesday after mandatory pre-flight checks revealed an issue, the airline announced in a statement. As a result, the return flight, AI142 from Paris to Delhi scheduled for Wednesday, was also cancelled, NDTV reported. However, Flightradar24 data shows that Air India flight AI142, from Paris to Delhi, has been cancelled for four consecutive days: from 14 June to 17. Hours earlier on Tuesday, Air India flight AI-159 from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick was cancelled due to 'operational issues', an airport official earlier said. However, a spokesperson for the airline later said that the cancellation was 'due to the unavailability of the aircraft, resulting from airspace restrictions and additional precautionary checks, leading to longer than usual turnaround of aircraft'. The Independent has reached out to Air India for comment. Passengers scheduled to travel on the plane told ANI they received little information about the cause or compensation options. An AI-159 flight passenger told ANI: 'I was going to Gatwick, London, by the 1pm Air India flight, but I have just learned that the flight has been cancelled. The crew members could not give any reason for the flight cancellation or details on a fare refund.' An airport official was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India: 'We have been informed that the flight has been cancelled due to operational issues. The original flight from Ahmedabad to London, having code AI-171, resumed operation from Monday with a new flight code AI-159.' The plane was initially rescheduled to depart at 3pm from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujarat. But the Air India website later confirmed that the flight AI-159 to London Gatwick on Tuesday had been cancelled. In a separate incident on Monday, Air India flight AI180 from San Francisco to Mumbai via Kolkata experienced a technical snag in its left engine after landing in Kolkata. Passengers were asked to de-board for safety, and the delay extended over four hours. Flight AI180 arrived at the Kolkata airport at 12.45am, when it faced a technical snag and passengers were asked to disembark. On 16 June, another Air India plane, AI315, a Delhi-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, returned to Hong Kong shortly after takeoff due to a technical issue. The plane had reached about 22,000ft before the pilot decided to turn back due to midair technical difficulties. It landed safely around 3.20pm local time in Hong Kong, and passengers were accommodated with alternate travel plans. 'Due to technical reason we would like to stay closer to Hong Kong. May be, we will come back and land in Hong Kong once we sort out the problem. We don't want to continue further,' the pilot was heard telling the ATC. The Hong Kong-to-Delhi flight took off at approximately 9.30am IST but returned to the airport within 90 minutes, according to data from the flight tracking service Flightradar24. These back-to-back technical issues have intensified scrutiny on Air India's Dreamliner fleet, with aviation authorities urging immediate and thorough pre-flight inspections to ensure passenger safety. On Saturday, civil aviation minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu said that from the nation's aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), 'we have also given an order to do an extended surveillance for the 787 planes. There are 34 in our Indian aircraft fleet today. I believe that eight have already been inspected and with immediate urgency, all of them are going to be done'. DGCA announced on Friday that it has mandated maintenance checks on all of Air India's Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 Dreamliners fitted with General Electric 's GEnx engines. The two-week inspections will focus on the aircrafts' fuel, cabin air, engine control, and hydraulic systems. Air India has completed one-time inspections on nine of its Dreamliner aircraft, with 24 still remaining. The airline cautioned that some of these checks may increase turnaround times and could cause delays on select long-haul routes. Meanwhile, Boeing Commercial Airplanes head, Stephanie Pope, reportedly met with Air India chairperson N Chandrasekaran in India on Monday to discuss the recent crash of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. The meeting, held at Air India's headquarters near New Delhi, was also attended by top executives from GE Aerospace, which supplied the aircraft's engines, sources told Reuters. Air India, one of Boeing's largest customers, has 33 Dreamliners in its fleet, according to Cirium, an aviation data firm, and over 200 new aircraft on order, including 20 additional 787s. The Air India plane that crashed on Thursday was a nearly 10-year-old Boeing 787 Dreamliner with over 41,000 flight hours and around 8,000 takeoffs and landings, normal for its age. The crash came amid ongoing scrutiny of Boeing, which recently avoided criminal charges in a separate case involving two fatal 737 Max crashes. Whistleblowers have voiced concerns about Boeing's South Carolina facility in the US, where the Dreamliner has been assembled for years. One of the most prominent was John Barnett, a former quality manager with nearly 30 years at the company, who publicly spoke out in 2019 about what he described as unsafe manufacturing practices. Barnett died reportedly from a self-inflicted gunshot wound last year amid a prolonged legal battle with Boeing, alleging the company had retaliated against him for exposing these issues. Last month, Boeing reached a settlement with his family in connection with his death.
The Independent
6 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
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.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘You can't do anything about it': Memorial Day boaters looking forward to the end of safety stops
Thousands of locals are hitting the water this Memorial Day, and at least for now, their boats can be stopped for safety checks without probable cause. But boaters will soon be able to breathe a little easier thanks to a new state law set to take effect on July 1st and some law enforcement agencies have already ceased safety check stops ahead of the law's effective date. For boaters like Garrett League and Dylan Batsch, the occasional unprovoked encounter with FWC or other law enforcement officials while out on the water is a familiar occurrence. 'They just kind of roll up and they hop on your boat and you can't do anything about it,' said League. And while they said their experiences didn't lead to any arrests or unrelated citations, they did say something just doesn't feel right about random stops for safety checks. 'So, I mean, it's a little unfair cause when you get pulled over by the police, you're speeding or you roll a stop sign, so it's a little different,' said League. But soon, those safety stops will be a thing of the past. One of Governor Ron DeSantis' top priorities this legislative session was the so-called 'Boater Freedom Act', which only allows law enforcement to stop boats if there's probable cause. >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<< [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] 'And you may have probable cause to suspect something, and then it may turn out that things are fine. That's kind of the way it goes, but to just go in without any basis is not the way we want to do it,' said DeSantis during the May 19th bill signing. While the law doesn't technically take effect until July 1st, some law enforcement agencies like the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office are already complying with it. When we asked FWC whether it had ceased safety check stops, a spokesperson didn't answer directly. 'During Memorial Day weekend and throughout the year, FWC officers play a vital role in protecting lives by promoting safe boating practices, fostering a culture of responsible behavior on the water and ensuring compliance with the law,' the FWC spokesperson told Action News Jax in an emailed statement. For League and Batsch, they're just happy to know going forward they'll be able to enjoy the water without an unexpected run-in with the law when they're not doing anything wrong. 'It's kind of like driving a car. Like, you know, if you're not doing something wrong, you shouldn't be pulled over. You know what I'm saying?' said Batsch. Under the new law, FWC will begin issuing Florida Freedom Boater decals that will show vessels are in compliance with all safety requirements. Those tags will be good for anywhere between one and five years. [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
