Category: 2. World

An association of Indian pilots has defended the crew of the Air India Flight 171 which crashed in June, killing 260 people.

The Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association (ICPA) said the crew “acted in line with their training and responsibilities under challenging conditions and the pilots shouldn’t be vilified based on conjecture”.

“To casually suggest pilot suicide without verified evidence is a gross violation of ethical reporting and a disservice to the dignity of the profession,” it added.

A preliminary report did not blame the pilots. It said seconds after take-off, both of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s fuel-control switches moved to the “cut-off” position, starving the engines of fuel.

The report released on Saturday gave details of the cockpit voice recording with one pilot asking the other why he “did the cut-off”, to which the other replies that he didn’t. The recording doesn’t clarify who said what. Data shows the switches were then moved to “run” position, but the plane crashed within seconds.

Aviation experts and pilots say the fuel switches are designed to prevent accidental activation and they must be pulled up to unlock before flipping. Protective guard brackets further shield them from accidental bumps.

The preliminary report does not throw any light on how the switches were moved to cut-off, but since its release, sections of media and social media has been awash with unsavoury speculation about the role of pilots.

“We are deeply disturbed by speculative narratives emerging in sections of the media and public discourse – particularly the reckless and unfounded insinuation of pilot suicide,” the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association (ICPA) said in a statement released late on Saturday night.

“Let us be unequivocally clear: there is absolutely no basis for such a claim at this stage, and invoking such a serious allegation based on incomplete or preliminary information is not only irresponsible – it is deeply insensitive to the individuals and families involved.”

The statement added that until the official investigation was concluded and the final report was published, “any speculation – especially of such a grave nature – is unacceptable and must be condemned”.

The preliminary investigation was led by Indian government with experts from Boeing, General Electric, Air India, Indian regulators and participants from the US and UK. A final report is due to come out in a year.

On Saturday, another pilots’ grouping – the Airline Pilots’ Association of India (ALPA India) – had raised concerns over the way the investigation was being handled.

It highlighted that the report also mentions that in December 2018, the US Federal Aviation Administration issued a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) highlighting that some Boeing 737 fuel control switches were installed with the locking feature disengaged.

While the issue was noted, it wasn’t deemed an unsafe condition requiring an Airworthiness Directive (AD) – a legally enforceable regulation to correct unsafe conditions in a product.

The same switch design is used in Boeing 787-8 aircraft, including Air India’s VT-ANB which crashed. As the SAIB was advisory, Air India did not perform the recommended inspections.

Taking note of the bulletin, ALPA India said “it demands clarity on whether the recommendations outlined in the bulletin were implemented before the flight”. (Air India hasn’t commented on the specific issue.)

The pilots’ union said it was “surprised at the secrecy surrounding these investigations” and alleged that “suitably qualified personnel were not taken on board for the probe”.

“We feel that the investigation is being driven in a direction presuming the guilt of pilots and we strongly object to this line of thought,” ALPA India’s president Captain Sam Thomas said in the statement.

The union also urged the authorities to allow it to join the process “even in the capacity of observers so as to provide the requisite transparency in the investigations”.

Following the report’s release on Saturday, Indian Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu told reporters to not “jump to any conclusions at this stage. Let us wait for the final report”.

Describing the pilots and crew in India as the “backbone of this civil aviation”, he said India had “the most wonderful workforce in terms of pilots and the crew in the whole world”.

Flight 171 had taken off from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad for Gatwick in London on 12 June with 242 people on board. The crash killed 241 onboard – one passenger miraculously survived – and 19 people on the ground.

The report says the pilots, based in Mumbai, had arrived in Ahmedabad the previous day and were adequately-rested. They had passed breathalyser tests and were cleared to fly, it adds.

The US aviation regulator has said fuel control switches in Boeing aeroplanes are safe, following their reported involvement in a fatal Air India crash that killed 260 people in June.

The safety of the switches has become a key point of concern after a preliminary report on the disaster was released by investigators on Friday.

That report said fuel to the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner engines was cut off moments after take-off from Ahmedabad airport, and highlighted past FAA reports that suggested the switches should be inspected for safety.

In an email seen by the BBC, Air India’s chief executive warned against jumping to “premature conclusions” following the report’s publication.

The disaster involving London-bound Flight 171 was one of the worst aviation incidents globally in almost a decade.

Switches controlling fuel flow to the jet’s engines had been moved from “run” to the “cut-off” position, hampering the thrust of the plane, according to the preliminary report, which was published by the India Aircraft Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB).

Investigators referred to a 2018 FAA advisory, which urged – but did not mandate – operators of Boeing models to inspect the locking feature of the fuel cut-off switches to ensure they could not be moved by accident.

This step was not taken by Air India, the AAIB said in its early findings.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday told civil aviation authorities that it had seen AAIB’s preliminary report.

It noted that its own 2018 advisory “was based on reports that the fuel control switches were installed with the locking feature disengaged” – but added that it does not believe this makes the planes unsafe.

“Although the fuel control switch design, including the locking feature, is similar on various Boeing airplane models, the FAA does not consider this issue to be an unsafe condition that would warrant an Airworthiness Directive on any Boeing airplane models, including the Model 787,” said the authority, in an internal note shared with the BBC.

“The FAA will continue to share relevant information with foreign civil aviation authorities as appropriate.”

AAIB, which reviewed recovered cockpit voice recordings, reported that one pilot could be heard during the flight asking the other why he cut off the fuel.

“The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” said the report.

Investigators said the fuel switches had almost simultaneously flipped from run to cut-off just after take-off. The report did not say how the switches could have flipped during the flight.

Air India chief executive Campbell Wilson has warned against drawing “premature conclusions” about the cause of the accident in an email to staff seen by the BBC.

He said there was “an ongoing cycle of theories, allegations, rumours and sensational headlines” that had appeared over the past month, many of which had later been disproven.

The report, he stressed, had identified no cause for the accident, and nor had it made any recommendations.

“The investigation is far from over”, he said.

“We will continue to cooperate with the investigators to ensure they have everything they need to conduct a thorough and comprehensive enquiry.

Mr Wilson said the report had “found no mechanical or maintenance issues with the aircraft or engines”, adding that all necessary checks had been carried out before the flight.

Nevertheless, extra checks had been carried out across Air India’s 787 fleet within days of the accident “out of an abundance of caution”. All were found to be fit for service, he said.

Air India Flight 171 was scheduled to fly from Ahmedabad in India to London’s Gatwick airport.

The plane crashed into a medical college near the airport within a minute of take-off, killing 260 people who were mostly passengers. One British national survived the crash.

Investigators are expected to produce a more detailed report in 12 months.

BEIJING/NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India and China must resolve friction along their border, pull back troops and avoid “restrictive trade measures” to normalise their relationship, India’s foreign minister told his Chinese counterpart in Beijing on Monday.

India’s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met Wang Yi in Beijing during his first trip there since 2020 when a deadly border clash between their troops led to a four-year military standoff and damaged ties until a thaw began in October.

“Good progress” in the past nine months for normalisation of relations is a result of the resolution of friction along their border, Jaishankar told Wang.

The positive momentum in bilateral relations is “hard-won and should be cherished”, Wang said, adding that the two countries should enhance political trust, properly handle differences and expand exchanges and cooperation.

“The two sides should trust each other rather than suspect each other, cooperate with each other rather than compete with each other,” Wang said, according to a readout from his ministry.

India and China share a 3,800 km (2,400 miles) border that is poorly demarcated and has been disputed since the 1950s. They fought a brief but brutal border war in 1962 and talks over the decades to settle the dispute have made slow progress.

Last month, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told his Chinese counterpart that the two countries should seek a permanent solution to the border dispute.

“It is now incumbent on us to address other aspects related to the border, including de-escalation,” Jaishankar said, adding that it was also critical that restrictive trade measures and roadblocks be avoided to foster mutually beneficial cooperation.

The minister was speaking against the backdrop of Beijing’s restrictions in recent months on supplies of critical minerals such as rare earth magnets and machinery for manufacturing of high-tech goods.

India holds the world’s fifth-largest rare earth reserves but its domestic output remains underdeveloped.

“China is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with India to jointly safeguard the multilateral trading system and the stability of global industrial and supply chains,” Wang told India’s top diplomat.

Jaishankar, in China to attend the meeting of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, met Chinese Vice President Han Zheng earlier in the day, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.

India and China should steadily advance practical cooperation and respect each other’s concerns, Han told Jaishankar, Xinhua said.

(Reporting by Liz Lee, Qiaoyi Li, Xiuhao Chen and Shi Bu in Beijing, and Sakshi Dayal in New Delhi; Editing by YP Rajesh)

PodcastPodcast, The Take

Iran, Pakistan and the US send Afghan refugees back to Taliban rule, where they risk persecution.

Afghans who fled decades ago are now being forced back to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan as Iran, Pakistan, or the US turn their backs on them. With refugees who were once promised safety now being deported into crisis, why are these countries choosing to abandon them, and what does this reveal about the state of asylum worldwide?

In this episode:

• Obaidullah Baheer (@ObaidullaBaheer), Adjunct Lecturer, American University of Afghanistan

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Remas Alhawari and Marcos Bartolomé with Leonidas Sofogiannis, Kisaa Zehra, Melanie Marich, Sarí el-Khalili, and guest host, Kevin Hirten. It was edited by Kylene Kiang and Alexandra Locke.

The Take production team is Marcos Bartolomé, Sonia Bhagat, Spencer Cline, Sarí el-Khalili, Diana Ferrero, Tracie Hunte, Tamara Khandaker, Kylene Kiang, Phillip Lanos, Chloe K. Li, Melanie Marich, Haleema Shah, Khaled Soltan, Amy Walters, and Noor Wazwaz. Our editorial interns are Remas Alhawari, Marya Khan, and Kisaa Zehra. Our guest host is Kevin Hirten. Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Aya Elmileik is lead of audience engagement.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio. 

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At least 30 people have been killed in clashes in southern Syria as authorities sent forces to de-escalate the situation.

Scores of people were also injured in the violence between Bedouin Sunni tribes and fighters from the Druze religious minority in the city of Sweida.

Syria’s interior ministry said at least 30 people were killed, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, put the death toll at 37.

Fighting between different minority groups has escalated since the collapse of the Assad regime in December.

A new Islamic-led government is working to establish control within the country, which remains in a fragile situation.

At the end of last year, Sunni Islamist-rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) stormed Damascus. They toppled President Bashar al-Assad, whose family had ruled the country for 54 years.

Syria’s interior ministry said early on Monday its forces would directly intervene to resolve the conflict and halt the clashes, which it said had left 100 injured.

The governor of Sweida, Mustapha al-Bakur, called on his constituents to “exercise self-restraint and respond to national calls for reform”.

Spiritual leaders have also called for calm.

In April and May clashes between the new security forces and Druze fighters killed dozens of people.

The Druze faith is an off-shoot of Shia Islam, with sizeable communities also in Lebanon, Jordan and Israel. Under the Assad regime, many were quietly loyal to the state in the hope it would offer protection during the 13-year-long civil war.

Earlier this month, people from the Druze community told the BBC they were not only worried about physical attacks but also not being protected by the new government.

In recent months, hundreds of people have also been killed from the Alawite minority, a branch of Shia Islam, and worshippers inside a church in Damascus have also been attacked.

Western countries have sought to reset relations with Syria. The US took HTS off its list of foreign terrorist organisations this month, while Foreign Secretary David Lammy become the first UK minister to visit Syria since the uprising that led to the country’s civil war began 14 years ago.