India launched a mini unmanned space shuttle on Monday to test the viability of reusable spacecraft. The shuttle will head 43 miles into the atmosphere before dropping down into the sea, the BBC reports. It is not expected to survive in one piece, but will collect data on hypersonic speed and autonomous landing. India has been investing significant rupees in space missions in recent years, l...
A flight operated by budget airline SpiceJet from Kochi to Mumbai nearly took off without 40 passengers, who were still travelling in a coach from the boarding gate to the aircraft. After the pilots realised what had happened, the plane returned to pick up the stranded passengers. As a result of the ensuing confusion, the flight was delayed by over 75 minutes. The passengers were travellin...
More than 160 passengers on a Lufthansa Airbus have escaped injury after four tyres blew out during an emergency landing in Mumbai, India. The flight from Munich, Germany, touched down at 10.50pm on Friday (local time), reportedly 30 minutes earlier after the pilot declared an emergency due to a landing gear issue. It's not clear what caused flight LH764's emergency, or what th...
Air India has reported a modest operational profit for the first time in a decade, two years ahead of the target as per its turnaround plan. This is significant since any profit, even if it is at the operational level, has been generated for the first time since the erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines merged to create the present behemoth. Lower fuel prices coupled with improved operational...
The rule entails that an airline can fly to international destinations only if it has served within the country for five years and has a 20-aircraft fleet. Terming the 5/20 rule which allows Indian carriers to fly abroad as “anarchic”, civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju on Thursday said he was trying to change it so that new airlines can connect with foreign destinations....
India is set to flight test, in June, a home-grown reusable launch vehicle to demonstrate its capability to re-enter atmosphere and return to earth for more space missions, a top official said on Saturday. "The winged vehicle, in the shape of an aircraft, is on way to Sriharikota for the maiden flight test in June from our spaceport there," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) ch...
Facing frequent technical problems in its Dreamliner fleet, the absence of contractual provisions is hindering Air India’s efforts to get financial compensation from aircraft-maker Boeing. National carrier Air India, which is working to turnaround its fortunes, has been grappling with technical glitches with the “game-changer” Dreamliner aircraft since their induction in the f...
Scoot, the low-cost, medium-haul arm of the Singapore Airlines Group, which operates an all-787 Dreamliner fleet, is set to launch operations to India beginning May. Scoot will start operating to Chennai and Amritsar from Singapore on May 24, and begin services to Jaipur on October 2. “Scoot is excited to bring our proposition of value travel and service with Scootitude to gu...
The $8.8-billion Rafale deal has not yet been finalised, but is at an ‘advanced stage’, defence minister Manohar Parrikar said on Thursday, adding that “the intention was to close it quite soon”. The BJP had on Wednesday tweeted a graphic, saying that the Rafale combat aircraft deal has been “finalised” and the Narendra Modi government had saved over `21,000...
Passengers on a SpiceJet flight were forced to spend an entire night stuck in the airplane while it sat on the tarmac of an airport in Nagpur, India. According to the Times of India, SpiceJet Flight SG487 from Mumbai to Kolkata was forced to make an emergency landing Sunday night at Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport in Nagpur due to a technical issue. Unfortunately for passengers,...
It’s sort of scary how often we hear stories about Air India flights being diverted due to rats onboard. For example, this past Saturday an Air India Boeing 787 bound from Melbourne to Delhi was diverted to Singapore after a rat was spotted onboard. It might sound like a joke, or like something out of Samuel L Jackson’s “Snakes On A Plane” movie, but this actually h...
An unused Air India passenger plane that was being road-transported from the Begumpet Airport ‘crashed’ into private property in Hyderabad. No injuries were reported. Police sources revealed the Airbus A-320 was being shifted from the airport to Air India’s cadet training facility at Balanagar when the incident happened. A part of airport wall was removed to facilitate extract...
