On 09-09-09 JetPhotos accepted my 100th photo. On a rainy cloudy evening of August 14th the day before India’s independence day, two F/A-18’s arrived for the trials and evaluation of the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) upcoming Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft procurement. The other US contender is from my neighbourhood in my home county of Tarrant the Lockheed Martin F-16IN …

An Aeromexico Boeing 737 performing flight 576 from the Mexican resort of Cancun has been hijacked and flown to Mexico City, as per news media quoting Mexican officials say. Transport Minister Juan Molinar told Mexican radio the jet had landed safely at Mexico City’s international airport. Local media reported seeing passengers leaving the plane and boarding buses but the numbers …

09-09-09 at 09:09 (9:09AM) Today is a moment in the calendar to enjoy.

Over 40% of the 760 national pilots at India’s second largest airline, Jet Airways, have reported sick today causing widespread disruptions of flights and frayed tempers at airports across India. Since 22:00 (10pm) IST last night, a total of 163 captains and 198 first officers, reported sick leading to cancellation or disruption of over 186 flights – 154 domestic and …

Television news media coverage of aircraft incidents and accidents in India is normally incomplete and poor at best, liberally dosed with sensationalism that would make a Bollywood scriptwriter proud. The recent fuel leak and fire incident involving Air India Boeing 747-437 VT-ESM at Mumbai airport brought out the worst of India’s still nascent private television news channels. The real version …

Two close-ups of Airbus A320-232 nose gear assemblies of VT-INS and VT-IND. Click on the image for a high resolution view. Thanks to IndiGo airlines. The images are my copyright.

RIM appears to have released v 1.0.0 (Build 75) of the Blackberry Desktop for Mac. Before downloading I suggest you read this article at the San Francisco Chronicle. For more detail on RIM’s new BlackBerry software for Mac, including differences between the Mac and PC version, read “Four Things You Didn’t Know About BlackBerry Desktop Software for Mac“. Grab your …

Events of the week have over-taken me and left me with no time to post the return leg story of my Guwahati and Kolkata trip. My apologies. The return flights were smooth but reasonably eventful in other ways. Despite leaving well ahead of time, I got stuck in a traffic jam and barely made it to the airport, thanks to …

One of the most intense searches in Indian aviation history came to a sad end this morning. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, his special secretary P Subramaniam, chief security officer A S C Wesley, pilots Group Capt S K Bhatia and Capt M S Reddy were found dead in the mangled and charred remains of his Bell …

By improving its operational efficiencies, New Delhi based value carrier SpiceJet has introduced four new flights from Mumbai and Bangalore into Dabolim airport serving the state of Goa, one of the most popular tourist destinations in India. SpiceJet has taken its daily departures up from 125 to 129 to capitalise on the upcoming festival and new year season when tourist …

Air India’s latest Boeing 777-300ER VT-ALQ named after the North Eastern state of Manipur was captured by Rick Schlamp as it took off from Boeing Paine field to New Delhi on its delivery flight yesterday. Click on image for a larger view. All rights reserved by Rick Schlamp.

An Indigo Airbus A320-232, VT-INX performing flight 6E-122 from Bangalore to New Delhi with 99 passengers and 6 crew on board, was en-route near Hyderabad, when an engine fire alert activated. The crew decided to divert to Hyderabad, where the airplane landed safely at 18:20. My file photo of VT-INX. Click on image for a larger view. The flight and …