The National Aeronautical Laboratories Saras, India's first Indian multi-purpose light civilian transport aircraft crashed at Bangalore today.

Photo credit : Photoyogi. Used with permission.

VT-XRM departed HAL airport at 14:55 (09:25Z) for an "engine off" test with a crew of three. HAL ATC lost contact with the aircraft at 15:30 (10:00Z) and reports the plane crashing were received at 15:40 (10:10Z).

The crash site is in a barren deserted area at 252 radial BBG VOR at 17nm DME, this is near Bidadi and the Wonder La theme park on Mysore Road.

As per eyewitnesses in the vicinity of the crash, the aircraft turned abruptly and started losing height. After a couple of somersaults in mid-air, it crashed.



Wing Commander K. Praveen (pilot), Wing Commander Dipesh K. Shah (co-pilot), Squadron Leader S. Ilyaraja (flight engineer), perished in the crash. The aircraft was completely destroyed.

Praveen (35) was a resident of Bangalore, Ilyaraja (33) was from Villupuram in Tamil Nadu and Shah (34) was a native of Mumbai. This is the same team, and the same aircraft (prototype 2) which performed at the recent Aero India 2009 show, from where the picture is taken.

Villagers from Seshagiri village near the crash site, were all praise for the pilots for their presence of mind.

“They averted a major disaster and saved several lives. The pilots sensed the danger and were searching for a vacant plot for safe landing. That’s why they took two rounds, but it came down crashing.”

“Hats off to the pilots for their presence of mind at the time of crisis. There are more than three petrol pumps and hundreds of houses in the vicinity. Imagine the magnitude of the tragedy had the aircraft crashed in the village."

Bangalore Aviation salutes the three brave souls. Tailwinds and blue skies!!!!!

Air Asia has come up with a rather novel way of attracting candidates who would like to be pilot.

Despite the goofiness displayed in the video, candidates are expected to be "mentally fit". From the terms and conditions, it appears that the positions are only open to young candidates who are Malaysians or Malay in origin, since knowledge of Bahasa Malaysia is required, and the spread of this language is limited to Malaysia and Singapore.



Nevertheless, this sure is a first in terms of recruitment tactics by an airline. May be Air Asia can get away with this thanks to the meltdown in the global aviation industry.

The BBC has a really neat series called Britain from above.

Using GPS, data streams, and other modes of tracking, and then super-imposing some really neat visualisations on to maps of the United Kingdom, they have created these superb videos of the 4 modes of traffic. Air, sea, road, and the information superhighway.

I especially enjoy the way the cross-channel ferries dart and dodge through the main traffic flowing up and down the English Channel.



I hope you enjoy the videos. Please do let a comment expressing your thoughts.

Air Traffic over Britain


Ship traffic in the English Channel


Taxi traffic in London


Data traffic to/from the United Kingdom

The Dutch investigation board headed by Pieter van Vollenhoven, examining the crash of the Boeing 737-800 Turkish Airlines flight TK1951 at Amsterdam Schiphol last week, released its preliminary report.

Simply put it was a combination of a faulty instrument, a breakdown in "artificial intelligence" (AI) of the plane, pilot error, and poor weather.

The instruments and "artificial intelligence"
The plane had a faulty radio altimeter (radalt). At 1,950ft altitude, one of the two radalts suddenly gave a wrong reading which fooled the autopilot into thinking the plane was just few feet above the runway. Since the auto-throttle was also engaged, which is a perfectly normal procedure, the autopilot reduced the engines thrust to 'retard' or 'idle' mode as we normally experience just before touchdown, except this was 2,000 ft up in the air. Naturally the plane started slowing down.

Distracted pilots
In the right seat the co-pilot was receiving training in making a landing by automatic pilot. The investigators say that too much time was spent exchanging information between the instructor and the trainee, and not enough was spent checking the actual readings which would have alerted the crew to the problem in time to override the automatic pilot.

Thick fog and low cloud may also have played a part in their failure to realise their actual height.

The plane slowed down in to a stall, which is when the alarms sounded. The pilots tried to spool the engines back up, but it was too late.

Turkish Airlines' maintenance conflict
Another fact has arisen. Two weeks ago, a serious conflict arose between the union representing maintenance workers and the management of Turkish Airlines. The union warned the management of serious shortcomings in the maintenance system, including inadequate staff to cope with the rapid growth of the airline fleet, which could lead to safety risks in the air.

Sharing the blame
The investigators have concluded that blame for the accident must be shared between Turkish Airlines THY, the pilots, and the manufacturer, Boeing. The involvement of human error means that there will be legal repercussions, civil and possibly criminal, but then the pilots have already paid the ultimate price.



Is time to return to the basics ?
For long airplane manufacturers have tried to reduce the workload on pilots by automating tasks. One could say, they are trying to design the pilot out of the cockpit. The pilots have become increasingly dependent on the computers and their AI. It has become a vicious cycle to the point, many pilots now feel they are flying a computer not a plane.

Since the second radalt was working fine, one would naturally pose the question, why did Boeing build in to their AI some failsafe when the two radalts are giving conflicting information? Should Boeing not have put more thought in to this situation? A simple "whoop whoop" alarm that alerts pilots especially in this situation of conflicting instrument information before putting the engines in to idle?

Across the blogosphere I have seen many Boeing fans criticising the AI on the Airbus "Fly By Wire" system, and citing the June 26, 1988 crash of an Air France Airbus A320 as AI gone haywire.

It appears, that Boeing's AI is not much smarter either. Is it time for both these plane manufacturers to return towards the basics and give more control to the pilots? Machines are fallible, but it is humans who pay the price.

Share your thoughts via a comment.

In the mean while, Turkish Airlines has made an offer of compensation. Full details are in this release.

At a time when the global airline industry is in a tailspin and the premium passengers are moving to the back of the plane in droves, Deutsche Lufthansa has opened an uber-luxurious lounge for its First Class passengers and members of the HON Circle at the new First Class Lounge in Concourse B at Frankfurt Airport. This follows their equally luxurious mega lounge opening at New York's JFK airport in January.

Presenting the lounge as an oasis of calm and relaxation lounge has a spa with extensive bathing area, equipped with six superior-quality shower rooms, two of them with jacuzzi s. For the first time, Lufthansa has introduced two massage rooms in their lounge with a choice of cosmetic treatments and massages.



The new lounge in Concourse B, which has a total floor space of 1,220 square metres, can seat more than 100 guests. With all the business and up-scale amenities including free WLAN access. Quiet rooms, a restaurant and bistro area, bar, and airline services desk are part of the lounge.

Lufthansa has also extended its First Class terminal limousine service, where a limousine transfers passengers to and from "non-aerobridge" aircraft.

Enjoy the images of the lounge. I am drooling.

SpiceJet has announced the return of its successful promotion scheme “Book for 2 pay for 1”.



This scheme is valid for bookings made from March 4 to 6, 2009 and only for bookings made through the SpiceJet website. There are conditions attached to this scheme.

SpiceJet in a bid to compete in the business segment with fellow low cost carrier IndiGo has announced some features:

• Passengers can buy hot coffee or tea with cookies for only Rs 20.
• Busy travellers can now collect their boarding passes for return flight, at the time of check in, provided they are coming back on the same day.
• Guests who land after travelling via an International airline, do not need to spend extra, to carry their “two bags”, while they fly with SpiceJet on domestic sectors
• Music is played as passenger boards and deplanes. This has been composed in-house by SpiceJet employee Moin Wasil.

Fellow low cost carrier IndiGo, has introduced special "all-inclusive" fares of Rs 1,600 and Rs 2,600 for journeys below and above 750 km. The over 750km Rs. 2,600 fare is attractive since, for example, for a Delhi-Mumbai flight the average full fare tickets cost Rs 5,500 or higher. For more details visit the IndiGo website.

India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is carrying out a two-week second phase weapon testing trials of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas at an Air Force base in the north-western sector.

As per DRDO officials

"The focus of the current phase of testing is safe separation and accuracy of weapon delivery. The results from the tests would validate aerodynamic interference data as well as complex weapon release algorithms in different modes of release,"

A composite test team comprising of specialists from Aeronautical Development Agency, Indian Air Force (IAF), Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., and other aerospace agencies is also at the base to evaluate the performance of the aircraft.



DRDO has also linked the air base with the base station at Bangalore enabling designers and other specialists to monitor the activities in real time. In parallel the trials are using the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) GPS Radiosonde to gather accurate upper air data at the trial location.

The first of seven squadrons of LCA's are expected to be delivered to the Indian Air Force by December 2010. PTI.

First posted February 20th, updated March 4th.

Bangalore has introduced a Hop On Hop Off (HO-HO) shuttle bus service for the central business district (CBD) called Kendra Saarige which has been mooted by ABIDe with a view to reducing some of the nightmarish traffic congestion in the CBD.

This service is the first of its kind in India, and covers all the major shopping, entertainment, office, and commercial hotspots in the Bangalore CBD.

The Ho-Ho bus service as it is more commonly called, is operated by the air-conditioned Volvo fleet of BMTC, and charges a flat fee of Rs. 10 ($0.20) valid for a period 2 hours. In my opinion, this is unbeatable value.

The buses are painted in Blue and Orange colour to indicate the loops. Some of the Volvos may still be in the traditional Red, but will say Blue or Orange on the front display boards. The Blue loop runs clockwise, the Orange loop runs counter clockwise. Each full loop will take 40 minutes, and buses run at a 10 minute frequency starting around 7:30am and stopping at 10:30pm.

The stylised map below gives a good indication of the bus stops. You can obtain larger versions of either map by clicking on it.
I have also created a interactive Map with click-able bus-stop locations. Please feel free to use the image or the map and spread the news. Thanks in advance.

A380 MSN017
The 5th A380 for Emirates Airlines, A6-EDE, is on the flight line at Hamburg and expected to be delivered in April. Thanks to the folks at the Hamburg Airport forum, enjoy the picture. Given the slowdown at Singapore Airlines, there is some debate on whether the next A380 out will be MSN026 (Qantas' 4th A380 VH-QQD) or MSN019 (Singapore Airlines' 7th A380 9V-SKG). I suggest following the knowledgeable folks at the A380 production forum.


Airbus delivers 500th A321 MSN3814
Last Friday, Airbus achieved a milestone and delivered the 500th A321 to Air France, who coincidentally received the first A321 delivered in 1994. As of date, Airbus has sold more than 750 A321s to about 65 customers all around the world.

Philippe Durand of Air France (left) and Uwe Schunke, Director Contractual Acceptance at Airbus

Korean Air order for six Airbus A330-200 WV058
Last September, Airbus fired a shot across the bows of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, when it announced a new longer range A330-200. Weight Variant (WV058) A330-200 has a 238 tonne MTOW (Maximum Take Off Weight) providing it a range of 7,200 nm, and thus allowing Airbus a product to take on the first batch of Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners, till the A350XWB came on line.

Korean Air (KAL) has placed a new firm order with Airbus for six more A330-200 aircraft for the WV058 variant. The 7,200 nm range allows the airline to connect its home base at Incheon to almost all continents in the world non-stop with the exception of South America. KAL will use these new aircraft for medium density non-stop routes to North America and Europe.

The aircraft will be in a three-class cabin layout, and is scheduled for delivery from 2010. The new order increases the total number of A330s ordered by Korean Air to 25, comprising 16 A330-300s and nine A330-200s.

One can speculate plenty, but this appears a preventive measure, and part of an on-going trend, due to the delivery delays on the 787, rather than a cancellation of KAL's 10 787-8 order. With significant vendor involvement in the 787, Korea will not risk economic repercussions a cancellation might bring.

It is possible that the ordered 10 787-8's will get converted to 787-9's, which are expected to commence delivery in 2013, and these will replace the existing KAL A330 fleet, but this is idle speculation for now.

March 2nd, the crew of a Singapore Airlines Boeing 747-400 freighter, registration 9V-SFK performing freight flight SQ7344 from Nairobi, Kenya to Amsterdam Schiphol, Netherlands, declared an emergency reporting a fire alert and automatic activation of the cargo fire suppression system and diverted to Munich, Germany.

The aircraft landed safely, and the crew remained on board while the emergency services checked the aircraft after which they could not determine if there has been any fire or not.

The airplane was subsequently towed off the northern runway and subject to a detailed inspection. As per Singapore Airlines, the airplane was carrying flowers, mangos, other fruit and vegetables. It appears that the emanations by the mangos caused the smoke detectors to trigger, resulting in a false alert.

The airplane was allowed to take off again and reached Amsterdam with a delay of approximately 8 hours.

In India, the mango is the king of fruits and thousands of tons are grown, sold, and consumed each year. The Alphonso mango is a prized export in markets as far as the United States. No reported problems with Indian mangos or their emanations.

May be the Dutch importer should buy Indian mangos instead of African ones.

Read the incident report at AVHerald.

The Indian government has approved a ten per cent increase in aeronautical charges at 84 airports across India operated by the state owned Airports Authority of India (AAI).

This at a time when airports across Asia and in many parts of the world, are reducing airport and passenger charges to stimulate air travel.

These charges include landing, parking and terminal area navigation fees that airlines pay for using airports. Naturally, one should expect the airlines will pass on the costs to us passengers, in the form of higher fares, but at a time when airlines globally are in meltdown, will they be able to ? Conveniently, the ministry expect airlines to absorb the increases. They are already bleeding so what difference will a little more make.

Since the start of this year, the Civil Aviation ministry headed by Mr. Praful Patel, has approved increases in aeronautical charges at the now privately operated brownfield airports at Mumbai and Delhi, which account for close to 60 per cent of India's total air traffic.

The three privately operated greenfield airports at Bangalore, Kochi, and Hyderabad can also be expected to increase their charges, since they are allowed, by contract, to charge what AAI charges.

The government is also expected to clear AAI's proposal for charging development fees from departing passengers at places like Thiruchirapalli, Trivandrum, Goa, Amritsar and Ahmedabad. Reflecting a warped thinking at the ministry, as demonstrated by the exorbitant fee differential between domestic and international passengers, we can be certain that airports with higher international traffic will have their development fee proposal cleared cleared first.

Airport developers claim a resource crunch in implementing their development plans during the current economic slowdown. The sharp fall in passengers and freight have affected revenue and business plans. Thanks to its lopsided planning, the government has created monopolies and cartels out of airports. Let us not forget, this is the same government which screamed "cartelisation", just two weeks ago, when private airlines raised their fares.

Risks are inherent in any business, and in a competitive scenario economic downturns are great drivers of efficiency maximisation, leaner organisations and cost effective operations.

Indian passengers have no problem paying for facilities -- once they are built; but asking us to pay for them in advance and cover the business risks of these monopoly airport operators is not acceptable. Instead of protecting passengers, the government is only aiding this huge cartel of monopolies called airport operators.

Qantas' bad luck with its planes continue. On March 2, Qantas was forced to declare one of its flagship Airbus A380 superjumbos "unserviceable" at London Heathrow.

Despite best efforts and making hundreds of passengers wait over 12 hours, Qantas engineers could not repair a leak in the fuel system.

Qantas was forced to transfer its passengers on to a Boeing 747, after making them wait overnight for QF10 from London Heathrow to Melbourne to depart. The 747 flight finally departed 13 hours late.

This is the second embarrassing incident for Qantas in recent times. Earlier on January 19th, another of Qantas' A380's was grounded at Los Angeles LAX airport.

Admittedly the Qantas A380's are brand spanking new, and may have some occasional issues, but neither of the other two airlines operating the A380, Emirates and Singapore Airlines, are reporting this level of failure.

Hopefully the engineers at Airbus and Qantas can resolve the issues soon.

She was always known by just her name. Never an article ahead of it. She was Concorde. Never THE Concorde or A Concorde or LE Concorde; and 40 years ago, she made her first flight from Toulouse in France, where the giant Airbus A380 is made today.

F-WSST took to the skies at 15:40 on March 2, 1969, coincidentally, just three weeks after the 747-100. The second prototype, built at Filton in Bristol, in the UK, took flight in April. 34 years later, the very final flight of Concorde was of G-BOAF as flight 216 on November 26, 2003, when she returned back home to Filton where she was built.


I have always been a great fan of Concorde. When she retired in 2003, BBC TV commentator Jeremy Clarkson called the occasion "A giant leap backwards for all mankind", building on the famous quote by Neil Armstrong when he stepped on the surface of the moon, also in 1969, probably the most influential year in aerospace history.

For 27 years Concorde truly represented the radio call sign of all British Airways flights -- Speedbird. She was "Speedbird Concorde ONE heavy" from London to New York, and "Speedbird Concorde TWO heavy" on her return.

In celebration of Concorde's 40th anniversary, I present a series of videos to celebrate this magnificent bird of the skies. If the Boeing 747 was the queen of the skies, surely Concorde was the graceful swan with her elongated neck, wide wings, and elegant posture.

May I also recommend my previous article which celebrated the fifth anniversary of Concorde's retirement from service, an event we have so sadly forgotten.

These powerful images made on the mobile phone seconds after the Turkish Airlines flight crashed at Amsterdram Schiphol airport. Video from Heart of the Netherlands.

Been to Bengaluru International Airport over the last fortnight, and took some photos early in the morning with planes taking-off and landing in to the sun.

Some of the planes I got; VT-JNV, VT-JGQ, VT-INE, VT-INS, VT-INF, VT-SGE, 9V-SFF, VT-DKA, G-OJIB (Ed Force One), VT-JNZ, Luftwaffe A310 10-27, VT-EPH, VT-JCD and a few others.



Hope you enjoy the shots. You are welcome to use these subject to the Creative Commons license.

As usual your comments are always welcome.

Virgin group Chairman Richard Branson went around the world in 8 days showcasing his airline's world coverage with the launch of V Australia's flights to the United States. Virgin is the only airline group that offers a traveller the ability to circumnavigate the world on one airline brand.

He documented the events with a video blog and we can see the flair, pomp and showmanship he is renowned for, and there is no taking away from the peak Virgin has achieved today, considering its humble start with a second-hand Boeing 747 25 years ago.

Wired has a nice story on the constant efforts by both Airbus and Boeing to increase fuel savings by their aircraft.

The latest technology which appears promising is "moving winglets" or "morphlets" whose configuration can be changed in-flight to suit flying conditions to deliver fuel savings. The two airframe makers are taking different approaches to the same goal.

Read the full story here.