JetLite Boeing 737-300A JetLite Boeing 737-800 performing flight S2-361 from Kolkata to Guwahati, India, returned to Kolkata airport, after the crew declared an emergency after the left hand engine caught fire shortly after take-off at 0629 local 0059 GMT, January 17, 2009. The crew shut the engine down, activated fire extinguisher, and stopped the fire. The plane landed 0648 local. …

The Sunday Times of India has published an article detailing the slamming of the Ministry of Civil Aviation by the Standing Parliamentary Committee on Transport and Tourism. Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr. Praful Patel, frequently flies in to Bangalore HAL airport, on board an aircraft owned by Delhi and Hyderabad airport promoters GMR. HAL airport closure violated In a damning …

The Aviation Herald is reporting the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has issued an updated Emergency Airworthiness Directive (EAD) 2009-0012-E following two incidents involving Qantas Airbus A330 and A340. These incidents were attributed to Air Data Inertial Reference Unit #1 (ADIRU-1) providing erroneous data. The EAD recognizes additional failure modes, that have been discovered in the meantime. EAD 2009-0012-E : …

A video of the US Airways A320 crash on the Hudson river, New York, from the Coast Guard camera. The plane hits the water around 2 minutes in to the video. I reproduce the report from Aviation Herald, which I find to be on the best in terms of facts. A US Airways Airbus A320-200, registration N106US performing flight US-1549 …

We all curse the express companies for wrong deliveries, but this story near my home-town in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, sure had me in stitches. Happy new year!!!!! UPS delivers, but not always to the right address, a Denton man discovered Monday when he found a lot of green inside a package dropped on his porch by the men in …

Airbus yesterday, commenced construction of the A350 XWB (eXtra Wide Body) Final Assembly Line (FAL), completing the second key milestone towards delivering the aircraft in 2013 to launch customer Qatar Airways. Last month Airbus froze the design for the jetliner’s first family member – the A350-900, allowed Airbus teams to begin component-level work, and preparing for the production of tooling …

Passengers departing from Bengaluru International Airport can enjoy wireless internet access. Inside the terminal, using your GSM cell phone, send an SMS “WIFI BIAL” to 56677 and you will receive the wi-fi password on your cellphone. The speed is quite decent. Alternately in the departure hall, fire up your laptop, switch on your wi-fi, open your browser and follow the …

Aviation Herald is reporting that Transport Canada, the Canadian Ministry acting as Aviation Authority, have issued Airworthiness Directive (AD) CF-2008-33R1 on Jan 9th 2009, which addresses the issue of frequent flaps problems encountered on Canadair Regionaljets CRJ-100 and CRJ-200. The airworthiness directive was adopted by the European Aviation Safety Agency EASA on January 13th 2009. The directive states: “An excessive …

Singapore Airlines is reducing operations from Singapore to Mumbai and New Delhi, while Dragonair is cutting back on its Hong Kong Bangalore route. Singapore – MumbaiSQ422/SQ423, service is reduced from a daily to five a week (Daily except Tuesday and Thrursday) from February 9, 2009. Service operates with a Boeing 777-200. Overall frequency to Mumbai reduced to 12 weekly from …

A mere 16 months after launching services with the Airbus A380 superjumbo, Singapore Airlines is expecting to fly its one millionth A380 customer in February 2009. Singapore Airlines was the first airline in the world to fly the Airbus A380 super-jumbo, the world’s largest passenger aircraft, when it began commercial services between Singapore and Sydney in October 2007. The Airline …

Jet Airways procured ten ultra-luxuriously appointed Boeing 777-300ERs for its ambitious international expansion. It even won awards for its international first class, featuring private suites. Now those plans are in tatters, and Jet has abandoned its international ambitions, at least for the foreseeable future. Recently TravelBizMonitor reported Jet Airways, has dropped its expansion plan, especially plans of expanding overseas informed …

A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Boeing 777-300ER, registration AP-BID, performing as flight PK785, from Islamabad (ISB), Pakistan to London Heathrow (LHR), United Kingdom, with 435 passengers on board, had to return back to Islamabad airport, when the captain suffered a cardiac arrest one hour in to the flight, as per reports from Aviation Herald. The landing was safely performed two …

I forwarded my “eureka” moment to Dr. Vijay Mallya about servicing the Kangaroo route via Mumbai, given the imminent withdrawal of Qantas from the Mumbai-Sydney route. He very kind replied, and my thanks to him. Dear Mr. Agarwal, Thank you for your email of 6 January, for your good wishes and compliments on the launch of our international operations. I …

More than 70 million passengers flew with Lufthansa and Swiss during the yearLufthansa bucked the down trend in the industry and carried more passengers in 2008 than in the previous year. In the twelve months from January through December 2008, number of passengers increased by 1.2 per cent over 2007, to about 57 million. Capacity was raised by 4.9 per …

Kingfisher Airlines has announced its alliance with Hilton HHonors, a guest rewards programme for the more than 3000 Hilton Family Hotels worldwide. The new alliance allows members of Kingfisher Airlines’ ‘King Club’ frequent flyer programme to earn both King Miles and HHonors points when they stay at the Hilton Family of hotels. Hilton HHonors is the only guest rewards programme …

Air France-KLM Group, the world’s second largest airline, has agreed to pay 323 million euro ($432 million) for a 25 per cent stake of Alitalia SpA. Alitalia was put into bankruptcy on August 29, after two years of attempts to sell the 49.9 percent state owned airline. On December 12, CAI agreed to buy Alitalia’s main assets and to combine …

On its 15th anniversary, the Airbus A330 is getting a major birthday gift, and from none other, than its major competitor, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Thanks to the 2 year delay on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, airlines who had previously ordered the aircraft, are rushing to fill the gap with the Airbus A330. Qantas which has placed firm orders for …

This is the 501st post on Bangalore Aviation. My sincere thanks to all the visitors and supporters.From today, travellers visiting the United States under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) risk being detained at airports and sent home if they don’t comply with new U.S. immigration rules. The new Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) program has been made mandatory from …

According to a report by DNA, on January 3, 2009, a Kingfisher Airlines Airbus A320, flight IT 335 with 86 passengers on board, landed at New Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) with just about 20 minutes fuel on-board, a mere 5 minutes short of a “Mayday”. As per standard aviation practice, flights always carry enough fuel for it’s planned …

Bengaluru International Airport Ltd. (BIAL), the operator of the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA), has decided to levy the long pending User Development Fee (UDF) of Rs 260 on all outbound domestic passengers, from January 16, 2009. According to an official release by BIAL yesterday, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has given nod for levy of UDF. Albert Brunner, CEO, …