Theft key to Calcutta runway light snag

Calcutta: Pilferage of cables of runway visual range (RVR) equipment at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport is the reason behind frequent snags in the system, airport authorities said on Thursday.
“We had suspected that the cables of the RVR equipment were being stolen resulting in glitches in the equipment,” an official said.
The thieves escaped detection by cutting small lengths of the cables. The authorities thought the damage was caused by the gadgets used for construction or repair works.
Emboldened, the thieves tried to sneak out larger lengths and were caught on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, four contract labourers — Sristi Sardar, Ajay Sarkar, Gopal Mondal and Ranjit Oraon — were arrested for stealing about 30 metres of cables of the RVR equipment, worth Rs 10,000.
According to Airports Authority of India officials, the accused evaded detection with the help of a section of drivers engaged by the contractor.
The drivers helped them ferry the stolen cables for a share of the booty.
31/08/07 The Telegraph

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Pilots rest rules: AI yet to take off

Mumbai: Air India and Air India Express, the country’s national carriers, are yet to implement a new rule that allows pilots longer breaks between flights with the objective of reducing fatigue, which accounts for 70% of aviation accidents.
The Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA) deadline for implementation of the new rule was August 16. All the other airlines, including Indian Airlines, have implemented the rule.
A circular, dated August 16, issued by Capt P P Singh, chief operating officer, Air India Charters (the company that owns AI Express) says, "As far as AI Express is concerned, till revised instructions are received from the DGCA, we will be continuing under the provision of AIC 28 of 1992 of flight limitation of 9 hours and 3 landings (the old regulation)."
Director General of Civil Aviation, K Gohain confirmed that the two airlines had asked for more time for implementation of the new rules.
However, the pilots’ unions have not taken kindly to the airlines reluctance in applying the new rules. "It’s in complete violation of the rule. The deadline has not been honoured. We want that all airlines in India should follow the new set of rest rules. They are well-researched guidelines followed by countries like the US and the UK," said Capt R Otaal, general secretary, Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA).
30/08/07 Manju V/Times of India

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Indian plane has narrow escape

Kathmandu: Dozens of lives were saved from an impending accident when the right landing gear of an Indian Airlines Airbus 320 caught fire but landed safely at the Tribhuwan International Airport in Kathmandu Wednesday afternoon.
The Airbus, which was carrying some five dozen passengers, was on a routine Kolkata-Kathmandu flight, and had landed at the TIA at 15:08 hours.
The cause of the fire is still not clear, the airport officials said.
After the landing gear caught fire, the fire trucks based at the airport were immediately pushed into action. Other parts of the Airbus were not damaged after the fire was put out quickly.
29/08/07 Kantipur Online, Nepal

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Unclaimed packet causes panic in Kochi airport

Nedumbassery: An alert given by the pilot of Jet Airways’ flight 9W 401 while approaching Kochi International Airport on Monday, about an unclaimed electronic equipment on board, caused panic in the airport.
The officials noticed the unattended electronic kit after the flight, with 39 passengers on board, left Mumbai.
The Air Traffic Control in Kochi Airport was immediately alerted. The officials of various departments in Kochi airport swung into action.
Fire and rescue services, ambulance units, Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad and Dog Squad were kept ready in the airport.
The officials found that the kit was an electronic gaming equipment.However, the kit was immersed in the bomb cooling pit, for observation.
29/08/07 Newindpress

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Sikh Community Feels Targeted At Airports

America's Sikh community wants another meeting with the Justice Department over a controversial new airport search policy. The Sikhs say they're being targeted for intrusive searches because they wear turbans.
Sikh protestors call a new airport security rule that allows pat-downs of their turbans "racial profiling." The Transportation Security Administration says it's simply trying to search for weapons and explosives and cannot rely only on wands and metal detectors.
On August 4th, the Department of Homeland Security started a new no-hat policy, where airport screeners can ask to search passengers wearing everything from a cowboy hat to a turban even if the metal detector doesn't sound off.
Men of the Sikh religion who wear turbans feel singled out. The United Sikh Coalition has written in protest to Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff - nearly 2,000 people have signed petitions requesting an end to what they call racial profiling.
The Sikhs say having to remove their turban is like being strip-searched -- it's an article of faith, typically only removed in private.
28/08/07 Teresa Garcia/abc7news.com, USA

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Lightning strikes jet plane

Kolkata: The Kolkata-Port Blair Jet Airways flight with 171 passengers was struck by lightning over the Bay of Bengal on Monday. While negotiating turbulent weather, the veteran captain did not even realise that there had been a strike till the scar was spotted on arrival in Port Blair.
"Lightning struck the plane’s rear end. Captain Suman Chowdhury spotted the scar while checking the aircraft after landing at Port Blair. Since it did not affect the aircraft avionics, we assume it was a low-intensity strike," a Jet official said. With the plane passing through heavy cloud cover towards the fag end of the two-hour flight, the strike is likely to have occurred between 7 am and 7.30 am.
On spotting the lightning scar, the captain contacted Jet officials in Mumbai. Over the next four hours, technicians in Mumbai went through the aircraft manual minutely and asked the captain to cross-check all systems that could have developed a snag due to the strike.
Finding none, it was decided to fly back to Kolkata and then to Mumbai for a thorough check. The return flight took off at 1.15 pm with 173 passengers.
28/08/07 Times of India

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Jet Lite Airline Escapes Major Accident

Varanasi: In what could have been a major domestic aviation disaster, a Jet Lite aircraft S2-115 going from Patna to Delhi via Varanasi carrying 71 passengers on Sunday crash-landed at Babatpur airport in Varanasi after its landing gear failed to deploy causing a blowout in one of its wheels.
Thanks to the quick-thinking by the aircraft pilot who immediately applied emergency brakes, the accident was averted with only minor injuries to some of the passengers, officials said.
As reported, the sudden jerk in the movement of the plane caused by the emergency brakes, lights and other fixtures inside the plane snapped and fell on the floor causing injuries to some of the passengers.
The accident caused a commotion at the airport as officials ordered grounding of a few flights. Two airplanes coming from Delhi and Mumbai were also denied landing for nearly two hours further disrupting the normal traffic at the airport.
26/08/07 Patna Daily

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Flight grounded at Varanasi after tyre burst

Varanasi: A Patna-Delhi Jetite aircraft carrying 68 passengers had a close shave today when one of its front tyres burst while landing at the Lal Bahadur Shastri airport near here.
All the passengers were evacuated safely, an airport official said.
He said a front wheel of the carrier of the Jet Airways subsidiary had a tyre burst while landing at 3:55 pm due to a "hydraulic system failure".
A team of engineers were carrying out repair works and the passengers were waiting for alternative arrangements to be made by the airline and airport authorities.
26/08/07 PTI/The Hindu

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Bomb scare at airport

Security was boosted across Calcutta and there were three bomb scares at the airport the day after the Hyderabad blasts.
“Plainclothesmen are on the lookout for anything suspicious at vital installations, including malls and multiplexes. The entry and exit points of the city are being monitored,” said Gyanwant Singh, the deputy commissioner of police (headquarters).
The first bomb scare on Sunday occurred around 11am when the CISF was alerted about a bag lying near the checking counter of the domestic terminal. Security personnel cordoned off the area and sent for the bomb disposal squad.
While the experts were at work, M. Madini, a passenger on an Indian flight to Aizawl at 11.30am, claimed the bag. She said she had left the bag behind and gone to her car to fetch her ticket. Madini was fined Rs 100.
The second hoax occurred around 12.45pm, when CISF personnel spotted another unattended bag near the domestic terminal lounge. Again, the area was cordoned off and the bomb disposal squad called in. Samir Deb, who was to fly to Agartala, claimed the bag. He told the officers that he had gone to the washroom. He, too, was fined Rs 100.
27/08/07 The Telegraph

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Bomb scare in Air Deccan flight

Mumbai: An Air Deccan flight was stalled at the airport here Friday for over two hours following a bomb scare in the aircraft.
The airline received an anonymous call at around 1230 hours, 15 minutes before the flight was to land in Mumbai, which warned that some inflammable material in the flight might trigger an explosion, a CISF official told here.
The Raipur-Mumbai-Ahmedabad flight was thoroughly checked but no incriminating material was found on it. It would leave for Ahmedabad soon, he said.
24/08/07 Zee News

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Smart cards and biometric devices for metro airports

New Delhi: Now smart cards and biometrics-based devices would guard metro airports. The government is planning to invest Rs 346 crore in making airport security foolproof to avoid any attempt of hijacking and terror attacks. It is also proposed to have close-circuit televisions (CCTVs) at all airports.
“It’s easy for terrorists to target an aircraft particularly when they have access to new technologies and devices. To avoid any unwanted and unwarranted incidents we are planning to equip airports in the country with all security devices such as explosive detectors, integrated X-ray baggage systems and bomb disposal equipment,” said a civil aviation ministry official.
Airports Authority of India is planning to introduce integrated X-ray baggage inspection system at all operating airports in the next couple of years. Installing the system would cost about Rs 140 crore. It is spending Rs 70 crore for putting in CCTVs.
24/08/07 Nirbhay Kumar/Economic Times

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New pilot training plan sparks worries

Brussels, Belgium: The international airline industry, faced with a growing passenger load and a shortage of pilots, is ready to graduate its first flight crews from a shortened training program that experts warn may not be good enough. Read On >>

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AAI-air force pilot plan for traffic management

New Delhi: In what could be the first concrete step towards joint management of the country’s airspace by civilian and defence authorities, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) have agreed to launch a pilot project to see if they can manage air traffic together.
The two authorities will, within a month, start jointly controlling all aircraft flying over the southern peninsula by bringing their air traffic controllers together under one roof. The move comes after several rounds of discussions over many years between the civil aviation and defence ministries and could result in opening up of more of currently restricted airspace, leading to more civilian flights.
Currently, 35% Indian airspace is reserved for the defence forces and designated under three heads—prohibited, restricted and dangerous.
The civil aviation sector, which is growing at 40% annually, has pressed for opening up of more such restricted areas.
If more restricted space is opened up, it could result in commercial airlines shortening their routes, which translates into fuel saving and a higher turnaround of planes. The reduced time could also allow airlines to have more flights.
“We have finally been able to unveil a plan of flexi-use of airspace,” confirmed a senior civil aviation ministry official familiar with the process, who did not want to be named. According to the plan, AAI and IAF air traffic controllers will co-locate in the same premises, sharing information, for starters, on the Chennai flight information region (FIR), which includes most of the southern states and the oceanic airspace around it.
22/08/07 Tarun Shukla/Livemint

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AI Express makes emergency landing at Muscat

Mangalore/Muscat: Several passengers bound for Muscat by Air India Express were stranded at the Bajpe airport as the flight bound for Mangalore from Abu Dhabi was delayed today August 21, 2007.
Air India Express IX 832 which took off from Abu Dhabi enroute to Mangalore developed a technical snag while flying over Muscat air space and had to make an emergency landing at Muscat.
According to the AirIndia officials, the flight will now take off at 11A.M. Wednesday morning.
22/08/07 Mangalorean.com

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Sunderbans engines raise concerns

The Air India Boeing 747, called the Sunderbans, is in the news for all the wrong reasons for the second time in two years.
On December 25, 2005, it made an emergency landing at the Los Angeles airport after parts of its lower engine disintegrated on take off.
NDTV has now learnt that it's the same jet that suffered serious engine problems again a few days ago that resulted in a flight delay of eight hours at the same airport. According to sources:
* The aircraft had two defective bleed air systems * As per rules, an aircraft can't fly unless three out of its four engines are functional.
The latest incident follows a series of problems involving the jet.
Other than the fire in 2005, the Sunderbans has also suffered four incidents of tyre burst and three incidents of engine failure.
The aircraft was taken off the fleet early in 2006 and was sent for a overhaul to the Boeing factory in Seattle where it received a clean chit in July last year.
Despite that, it seems the engines are still causing problems.
18/08/07 Kajori Sen/NDTV.com

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Sky Marshal arrested for passing derogatory remarks

Srinagar: Trouble erupted at Srinagar Airport following the arrest of a Sky Marshal posted with Air Deccan for passing derogatory remarks against a woman passenger on a Delhi bound flight, this afternoon.
Eyewitnesses told News Agency of Kashmir that the sky marshal Krishan Kumar made "advances" and passed "lewd" remarks on one of the women passengers, Supriya Agarwal, when the later boarded the Delhi bound Air Deccan flight.

_______________________
"She was in tears"
An eyewitness told
Newsline: “She (the victim) was
in tears, and was trying to leave
her seat. She told other passengers
that the man sitting next to her
was trying to molest her, which
led to a furore inside. Ghulam
Nabi Azad was sitting in the front
row with his wife, and heard the
commotion.” Krishan Kumar’s
identity was revealed only after
senior police officers rushed inside
the plane and arrested him. A
service pistol and a knife were
recovered from Kumar.The flight
was delayed as the pilot was not
sure whether he could fly with
just one sky marshal on board.
17/08/07 Delhi Newsline
_______________________

They said that the woman objected the behavior of the marshal and was soon joined by her co-passengers, who did not allow the flight to take off.
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who was also in the flight, took strong exception of the misbehavior and directed SSP Anti-Hijacking to arrest the official. However, senior police officers said that the chief minister did not intervened in any manner and instead board a Spice Jet flight for Delhi.
"The sky marshal was arrested after the complaint by a passenger that he misbehaved with her," Superintendent of Police (Airport) G A Dar said.

________________________
"Are you feeling the heat
of love?"
The marshal reportedly handed the
women a note saying he loved her
and then made suggestive
comments like: "Are you feeling
the heat of love?" and "Don't be
afraid of me, I'm also young." The 28
year-old marshal has been charged
with verbally harassing the woman,
said G. M. Dar, a senior police officer
at Srinagar airport. Only after he
was arrested did they discover that
he was an air marshal. The woman,
22, was traveling with her parents.
17/08/07 Kashmir Watch, Pakistan
________________________

Originally from the National Security Guard (NSG) the Marshal was posted on the Airways as a measure of anti-hijacking measures.
The official was immediately arrested by the cops and whisked away to a nearby police station, sources said adding, however, this irritated the pilot of the flight, who refused to take off.
Well informed sources claimed that the CM also called minister for civil aviation over phone and reprised him about the matter. Departure of the aircraft - scheduled to leave at 12.45 p.m. - was delayed for more than half an hour.
17/08/07 News Agency of Kashmir

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English, expat pilots hardly fly together

New Delhi: Rising number of expats coming in may have proved to be a blessing for the pilot-starved aviation industry in India, but their high failure rate in oral English tests conducted by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has become a cause for concern. Read On >>

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Bid to board plane with ammo lands man in cop net

Bhubaneswar: A 48-year-old man was detained last night for allegedly trying to board a plane with ammunition.
The airport authorities nabbed Rajiv Dutt Mishra around 8.45pm yesterday and handed him over to Airfield police, who were interrogating him since then.
Mishra, who claimed to be associated with a Delhi-based firm, was detained after his suitcase was placed under the security scanner. The machine indicated that “some objectionable objects” were in the suitcase, following which the ammunition was seized from his possession.
Three 0.32mm cartridges and other accessories were seized from his baggage and sent for forensic tests. “We want to confirm if they are live cartridges,” said Utkal Das, the inspector in-charge of Airfield police station.
The detained person said he had arrived in Keonjhar from Raipur by road on Saturday to seal a deal with some clients and had to board a flight to Delhi from Bhubaneswar last night.
As Mishra left Keonjhar, his nephew, Rajesh Goel, reportedly called him up and asked him to take a packet with him.
Goel is the director of Delhi-based Alliance Metals Pvt. Ltd, where Mishra works as an adviser.
“I picked it up and put it inside my suitcase without checking what was inside,” claimed Mishra.
16/08/07 The Telegraph

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Bag of clothes lost on flight turns up inside Sahar terminal

Mumbai: Airport officials at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International terminal are intrigued by the way a bag that went missing from a London-Mumbai flight turned up the next day in the terminal building.
On August 13, at 8.30 pm, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel raised an alarm when they saw a black suitcase lying near a pillar at gate number two of terminal 2A.
“The suitcase was lying unattended for half an hour and nobody saw anyone come to pick it up, which made the CISF guards suspicious,” says an airport official. The guards informed airport officials, who found a Jet Airways tag and the mobile number of a certain D Parekh on it. It contained clothes.
The officials called up Parekh, who turned out to be Deepak Parekh — the chairman of HDFC Bank. He said the bag belonged to his daughter-in-law, Alice who had returned from London on Sunday by Jet Airways. Alice is married to Parekh’s son, Aditya.
“After she landed in Mumbai,” he says, adding, “she did not found one of her bags and complained to the airline who told her they would find the bag and deliver it.”
What puzzles them is how the bag came to the terminal.
“If some passenger took the bag by mistake, he or she could have returned it to the airline or informed them on the same day,” says the official, adding, “How can they come inside and leave the bag in the terminal just like that?”
16/08/07 Naveeta Singh/Mumbai Mirror

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Unclaimed Suitcase Causes Scare at Bajpe Airport

Mangalore: An unattended and unclaimed suitcase which was found in the visitors' lounge at Bajpe airport here on Tuesday August 14 night caused panic for sometime. The situation remained grim until sniffer dogs were brougnt in and the chances of the suitcase having any explosives were ruled out.
As a precautionary measure, sand bags were stacked around the suitcase pending arrival of the sniffer dogs and bomb detection on the spot. Even Dakshina Kannada SP Satheesh Kumar too rushed to the spot immediately.
However, when the suitcase was opened, only a few clothes and pens were found in it. The suitcase was then handed over to Bajpe police.
Later it came to light that the suitcase belonged to Ibrahim Kunhi Malakad of M M House, Atimila of Manikoth in Kanhagad. He has been working in Egypt Flower Textiles in Abu Dhabi for the last few years and had come down on holidays on Tuesday by the Air India Express flight. He had 3 bags and a suitcase with him.
He was sent to Bajpe police who returned the suitcase after proper identification and verification.
16/08/07 Daijiworld.com

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