Praful Patel worked more as a minister for Naresh Goyal (owner of Jet Airways)

Well this is latest on Praful episode on Air India. So sad for a minister to work for one or two company... for the sake of kickbacks... www.outlookindia.com | 11-188819-0-28-20090529-125818

the Niira Radia tapes regarding Air India

Surojit: Praful Patel 'screwed up the airline' and now wants to bring in Ratan Tata to tell the PM that he would do something. 'It was Sharad Pawar who wrote to Vajpayee to allow Naresh Goel to bid for Air India' and these are the people who are now trying to say that they are trying to revive the airline... www.outlookindia.com | #126 Surojit: Jul 08, 2009 09:46:37

www.outlookindia.com | #118 Jaideep Bose, ET: Jul 07, 2009 20:44:12

This is I got from Outlook Magazine - With Jaideep Bose, ET: "The whole intention of Praful Patel was to strip the airline... huge amounts of kickbacks have taken place in various aircraft purchases... but he's raped it, asset-strip so that he could give it away to Vijay Mallya and Naresh Goyal... Praful's a silent partner in Indigo..he's made at least in the vicinity of 15,000 crores.. and they removed Sunil Arora because he had sent a whole dossier to PM and Sonia Gandhi... Praful wanted him out because he wouldn't cut deals". www.outlookindia.com | #118 Jaideep Bose, ET: Jul 07, 2009 20:44:12

Fatal India Crash Pilot Had "Sleep Inertia"

Snoring was picked up by the cockpit voice recorders of an Air India Express 737-800 not long before it ran off the runway at Mangalore Airport in May, killing 158 of 164 aboard, according to a Court of Inquiry probe. The flight's captain had more than 10,200 hours and reportedly slept for much of the roughly three hour flight out of Dubai. He reportedly awoke shortly before attempting to land in heavy rain. Investigators found the captain was likely disoriented due to "sleep inertia" and flew the approach right through warnings from his 3,600 hour copilot "to abort" and "go around." The aircraft touched down roughly 1,500 meters down the 2,400-meter table-top runway at Mangalore and the co-pilot said "we don't have runway left." Investigators believe that had emergency braking been applied, the crew could have stopped the aircraft on the wet runway before sliding off the steep terrain at the runway's end, but concluded the crew attempted to return to the air. The aircraft slid down a steep embankment and exploded in the jungle below.

India's Civil Aviation Minister received the report on Tuesday and told reporters he would study it before taking any action. The civil aviation ministry has asked the Airports Authority of India to extend the runway by another 1,000 feet as a separate issue. Experts are in agreement that the crash had nothing to do with the length of the runway. Work and rest rules, however, are a concern. In June 2008, an Air India plane flew 200 miles past its destination while both pilots slept. Evidence has not yet been provided to support or dispel concerns that the pilot's schedule lacked ample opportunity for sleep prior to the flight.

Indian PM orders Air India to resume Gulf flights...

The Indian government has overturned Air India’s decision to cancel some of its flights to the Gulf.

Indian Prime Minister has directly intervened to reverse the Air Indian decision and assure cabinet members from Kerala that the airline would continue to operate flights to the Gulf.

However, Air India has not yet been made aware of the government intervention. On Saturday, Air India Express announced that it would be canceling 75 flights from Kerala to the Gulf, including those to Muscat, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Air India was also set to cancel 203 flights to the region from India. The airline blamed the decision on a lack of cabin crew to operate the flights.

My Views -

1. Should Govt. intervene in any of the PSU's operations directly overturning their decision.
2. Even so when the Airline is making huge losses in thousand's of crores which is being covered from the tax payer's pocket.
3. Also, the Govt. is not willing to bail off the Airline so easily & paying off its debt. Then, why intervening in its operational decisions.
4. What a mockery Air India has. On one hand it says its highly overstaff (32,000) people which is nearly 200+ people per aircraft & on the other hand its canceling flights due to lack of cabin crew.
5. Even if the Airline is short staff in one particular department how will Govt. make sure that they will operate flights without putting passengers life at stake.

Is the Govt./Airline listening?

Air India Express cancels 203 flights to Gulf...

A shortage of cabin crew is forcing Air India’s budget carrier, Air India Express, to suspend 203 flights between the sub-continent and the Gulf region, a senior official from the airline has warned.

The cancellations would last from next week until the end of October 2010, and would affect flights to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Muscat and Kuwait.

"No passengers will be affected because of the cancellation, there is a rule that cabin crew should not exceed more than 1,000 hours of flying in a year. There is no way we will be able to meet this target unless we cancel some of the services."

Reports from India suggested that the cancellation had also been caused by the lean season following Ramadan holidays.

"Around 203 (73 from Kozhikode, 74 from Thiruvananthapuram and 56 from Kochi) flights stand cancelled. Some of these flights which originate from here, touch Kochi and then fly to the Middle East. Hence this is taken as two flights and hence the number looks so large," an IANS report claimed, quoting an airline spokesperson.

The flight numbers had been exaggerated, with the airline cancelling only one or two flights per destination.New recruitment policies were under way and that personnel were currently being trained up to solve the cabin crew shortage.

The Mangalore Air Crash

The fatal accident of the Air India Express plane is one of the deadliest in Indian Aviation history. I received this email as attachment from one of my close friends, which I thought to share with you :