A prototype of the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. Intermediate Jet Trainer HJT-36 Sitara serial number S-3466 crashed near Krishnagiri about 80km (50mi) south-east of Bangalore around 15:10 local (09:40 UTC). HAL HJT-36 Intermediate Jet Trainer S-3466 at Aero India 2011. Photo by Vedant Agarwal. Both pilots Wg Cdr. Patra and Mathur (rank not sure) ejected safely, though one of them has …

Earlier today passengers cheered hearing that the Supreme Court of India ruled that the charging of Airport Development Fee (ADF) by the private airport operators was incorrect. The initial cheer of air passengers flying out of Delhi though is short lived. A detailed reading of the record of proceedings of the case (read page 42 onwards) allows the operators of …

“Message expired by service” For the last two years I have been facing this problem in the SMS service of Airtel when using a Blackberry handset. Today after many attempts with the Airtel technical team, who appear determined to find a solution, I have confirmed this problem with other Blackberry users of Airtel. In normal course, if I send a …

The Supreme Court of India has ruled that the private consortia running the Delhi and Mumbai airports will not be allowed to charge an airport development fee (ADF) on passengers. The stock prices of both the GMR group which leads Delhi International Airport Ltd. (DIAL) and GVK Group which leads Mumbai International Airport Ltd. (MIAL) were hammered on the stock …

Recently, on an on-line forum, there was a great debate on how the legacy domestic carriers could deal with the issue of an empty premium class on many of their flights. Be it Air India, Jet Airways, or Kingfisher, many a time, fliers will observe just about three or four passengers in the premium class which has 20 or more …

After spending a week in bed with severe gastritis, it appears my mind and imagination are stuck in neutral. For the first time in many years, I am stuck for want of ideas for articles. Some suggestions from Bangalore Aviation readers on subjects you would like covered. Thanks in advance Devesh

Sorry for being out of action, but a combination of summer heat, irregular working hours and even more irregular eating, combined with stress and most likely some dodgy food gave me a most severe case of gastritis and left me in bed for five days. Do these conditions sound familiar to fellow frequent fliers? Yesterday, an Airbus A380 superjumbo of …