An ageing aircraft is putting lives of passengers and crew at risk
An ageing Airbus A320 recently landed Air India passengers and pilots in trouble. On February 11, an A320-231 Classic, a pre-liberalisation era procurement of Air India, failed to take off and had to make precautionary landing twice—in Mumbai and Jodhpur—as its landing gear would not retract. The reason cited was technical malfunction. In Jaipur, the aircraft developed a snag again, and it has been stuck there for more than a month now. The Mumbai- Jodhpur-Jaipur flight had 168 passengers on board.
On February 14, 1990, an Indian Airlines Airbus 320 crashed at the HAL Airport in Bengaluru and caught fire, killing 90 passengers and four crew members. Though the accident report cited pilot error, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) claimed the A320-231 had flaws. “The pilots on board were experienced hands,” said T. Praveen Keerthi, general secretary of ICPA. “They had earlier faced issues with the equipment and during landing, flight controls did not react the way they should have. Our views were later incorporated by Airbus and several changes were brought about in flight control mechanisms.”
Both the Indian Pilots’ Guild (IPG) and ICPA had subsequently issued statements refusing to fly the aircraft. “If I recall correctly, our protest was about the take-off and landing operations of the A320 Classics. The hydraulic system was prone to failure. This causes malfunction in retraction of the entire undercarriage assembly and the landing gear. It is dangerous to attempt touchdown like that,” said
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William Dalrymple goes further back
Indian readers have long known William Dalrymple as the chronicler nonpareil of India in the early years of the British raj. His latest book, The Golden Road, is a striking departure, since it takes him to a period from about the third century BC to the 12th-13th centuries CE.
The bleat from the street
What with all the apps delivering straight to one’s doorstep, the supermarkets, the food halls and even the occasional (super-expensive) pop-up thela (cart) offering the woke from field-to-fork option, the good old veggie-market/mandi has fallen off my regular beat.
Courage and conviction
Justice A.M. Ahmadi's biography by his granddaughter brings out behind-the-scenes tension in the Supreme Court as it dealt with the Babri Masjid demolition case
EPIC ENTERPRISE
Gowri Ramnarayan's translation of Ponniyin Selvan brings a fresh perspective to her grandfather's magnum opus
Upgrade your jeans
If you don’t live in the top four-five northern states of India, winter means little else than a pair of jeans. I live in Mumbai, where only mad people wear jeans throughout the year. High temperatures and extreme levels of humidity ensure we go to work in mulmul salwars, cotton pants, or, if you are lucky like me, wear shorts every day.
Garden by the sea
When Kozhikode beach became a fertile ground for ideas with Manorama Hortus
RECRUITERS SPEAK
Industry requirements and selection criteria of management graduates
MORAL COMPASS
The need to infuse ethics into India's MBA landscape
B-SCHOOLS SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT INDIAN ECONOMY IS GOING TO WITNESS A TREMENDOUS GROWTH
INTERVIEW - Prof DEBASHIS CHATTERJEE, director, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
COURSE CORRECTION
India's best b-schools are navigating tumultuous times. Hurdles include lower salaries offered to their graduates and students misusing AI
