Caspian Airlines flight crashes in Iran

A Tupolev aircraft crashed in Iran on Wednesday on its way to Armenia killing all 168 people on board and one senior Iranian official said A part of the tail of the crashed Caspian Airlines plane. The plane had caught fire in the air after suffering technical problems. In the worst crash in Iran for six years, the Russian-built Caspian Airlines plane ploughed into farmland with 153 passengers and 15 crew on board, gouging a deep smoking crater in the ground. The aircraft, travelling to Armenia's capital Yerevan from Tehran, crashed near the northwestern city of Qazvin shortly before noon (0730 GMT) after about 16 minutes in the air. Eight members of Iran's national junior judo team and two coaches were among the dead as well as a former Iranian MP representing Iran's Armenian minority and, reportedly, the wife of the head of Georgia's diplomatic mission in Iran.

Weeping relatives and friends gathered at Yerevan airport where a notice on a wall listed people who were on board. Iran is home to thousands of ethnic Armenians. Doctors treated relatives for shock and heart problems. Fina Karapetian, an Armenian in her 30s, said her sister and two nephews, 11 and 6, were on board the crashed plane. "I heard everyone in the aircraft has died. What will I do without Armen and Vahe," she said, before fainting. "The Tupolev plane has been totally destroyed and the corpses, unfortunately, have been totally burnt and destroyed," Qazvin police commander Massoud Jafarinasab said. Iranian television showed footage of debris and body parts and a smoking trench with mangled pieces of metal scattered around. Smoke rose from the site as police and bystanders gathered around.

Senior Iranian provincial official, Sirous Saberi, said the aircraft had had technical problems and tried to make an emergency landing. "Unfortunately the plane caught fire in the air and it crashed," he said. A witness said he had seen the plane's left engine on fire in the air. But state radio said the pilot had made no mention of any technical problem in a taped conversation with a control tower. "On board the plane there were 151 adults, 2 children and 15 crew members," Caspian Airline's representative in Yerevan Arlen Davudyan said. "Fifteen or sixteen minutes after take-off the plane fell near the Iranian city Qazvin about 150 kilometres (93 miles) north of Tehran," he said, adding it was a Tu-154 and the cause of the crash was not clear nor had the black box been found.

Spicejet aircraft suffers birdhit at Goa

About 170 passengers and crew of a Spicejet flight had a lucky escape, when the plane encountered a bird hit while landing at Dabolim International airport on Tuesday. In a bizarre sequence of events, the dead bird, which was removed from the plane, got sucked into the turbine engine of another Spicejet plane.According to sources at the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the SG 803 plane, which was arriving from Ahmedabad via Mumbai, was landing at Dabolim airport at about 1.20 pm, when a bird got trapped in the landing gear of the Spicejet flight. The pilot alerted the air traffic controller (ATC) that the flight had encountered a bird hit and managed to land the plane safely. Seven other scheduled flights were then asked to remain in the sky, until the bird-hit plane was towed away from the middle of the runway.

Operations at the Dabolim International Airport came to halt for about half an hour, following the incident. “There was a possibility that the bird-hit incident could have turned into a major mishap,” said a source. Within half an hour, airline engineers and navy officers towed the stranded Spicejet flight from the runway to parking bay No 6 at Dabolim airport. Later, all seven flights landed at the airport in quick succession. While the stranded Spicejet flight remained at parking bay till late evening as engineers were inspecting the plane, another Spicejet plane, which had landed earlier in the afternoon, was made available to accommodate the 100 stranded passengers back to Ahmedabad. “However, the dead bird, which was removed from the landing gear of the SG 803 flight, was left on the parking bay,” an engineer said.

The second Spicejet flight was preparing to leave the parking bay, when the dead bird got sucked into the turbine engine of the plane. The second plane was then stranded for about 40 minutes, as efforts were on to remove the dead bird from the second Spicejet plane. Engineers removed the dead bird and inspected the aircraft, before the second Spicejet plane was allowed to take off with the 100 passengers at about 3 pm. An airport official confirmed that two Spicejet planes had been affected due to the bird-hit incident. Sources informed that the AAI and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have ordered an inquiry into the incident.

Air India crew to fly back home after every flight

Air India pilots and air hostesses may soon fly to overseas destinations and come back as passengers on the return leg of the flight to avoid huge hotel expenses abroad. What’s more, the temporary postings of AI engineers abroad to check the aircraft may also be scrapped. The aircraft engineers could also fly on the plane and check it before the return leg and avoid the huge expense of being posted abroad. ‘‘Some unions representing pilots, cabin crew, and engineers have themselves come forward with this cost-cutting move. Hotel tariffs abroad are in the range of $200-400, in addition to $200 as daily allowance. The foreign stay of crew costs a huge amount and if they return on the same flight, the savings will be enormous,’’ said highly placed sources.

This new concept could be introduced on almost all AI international flights except the ultra-long haul Delhi/Mumbai-New York that have a flying time of over 16 hours. This aircraft reaches JFK Airport in the morning and then takes off late evening. Clearly, such a long return trip, within the space of 12-13 hours is not possible for the crew or engineers. Other flights, like India-Frankfurt or London, could however be under the ambit of the proposed change. In fact, Jet Airways has some months back started this policy on nearby Gulf and Southeast Asia sectors. The idea — save hotel accommodation and daily allowances. Apart from this, the problem of having an unduly large number of Indian Airlines pilots positioned in Delhi and Mumbai could also be resolved by an equitable distribution all over the country.

Pilots fly as passengers to other stations from the two metros to operate flights out of those cities. Thy get a certain portion of their flying allowance even while they fly as passengers to operate flights and the airline shells out several crores under this head. While most AI employees blame mismanagement in the past few years and government interference for the mess, they are now actively participating in the process to save the airline. While pilots and air hostesses has approached the management with the return-on-same-flight concept, the junior-level employees are offering to work extra at no extra cost.