The old order changeth

Across the road from my house, stood a two storied old house, built in 1930's. Sometime back, the owners decided to sell off the property. Later, the new owners wanting to construct a commercial building at the spot, decided to demolish the old house. The day, the labourers started to work their sledge hammers on the old house, I must have looked at that house hundreds of times. It is true that I was no way connected or concerned with that house, neither I had any kind of interests theirin, yet I had a feeling of uneasiness that day, feeling that something is being taken away from my life, that I will never see again.

Many people must have felt in similar fashion, when Air India, India's national airline, announced that they would soon replace the Air India's mascot, an iconic portly figure in regal garb and hands folded in “namaskar”, popularly known as the Maharaja. He would be replaced with a younger and trendy figure that would be in tune with the times.

Air India was born as the Aviation Department of Tata Sons ( a group company of Tata Conglomerate) in July 1932. It became a public limited company on 29 July 1946 under the name Air India. The Maharaja was born the same year from imaginations of Air-India's then commercial director Bobby Kooka, and Umesh Rao, an artist with J. Walter Thompson Ltd, as a design meant to be used for memo-pads given to passengers on board Air India flights. However, the figure was so much liked by everyone that Air-India adopted it as its mascot in that year itself and used it all over the place in promoting the airline.

In 1948, after the independence of India, 49% of the airline was acquired by the Government of India, with an option to purchase an additional 2%. In return the airline was granted status to operate international services from India as the designated flag carrier under the name Air India International. Though the constitution, name and share holding along with ownership of Air India changed, the Maharaja did stay put.

  

There has been criticism that the figure of the Maharaja can be interpreted as a symbol of feudal power. However its creator Booby Kooka has maintained, "He may look like royalty, but he isn't royal." In the early years, Air India was considered as one of the best airlines in the world with comfortable aircraft, superb hospitality and punctual service. People of my generation held Air India in certain esteem and ware always proud of it. Air India posters produced throughout this period were fantastic examples of poster art and loved by everyone.

I found a very interesting description of the Maharaja on the website of the the airline. It says;

"The Maharajah began merely as a rich Indian potentate, symbolizing graciousness and high living. And somewhere along the line his creators gave him a distinctive personality: his outsized moustache, the striped turban and his aquiline nose. He can be a lover boy in Paris, a sumo wrestler in Tokyo, a pavement artist, a Red Indian, a monk... he can effortlessly flirt with the beauties of the world. And most importantly, he can get away with it all. Simply because he is the Maharajah!" How true!

Later, things changed as Air India came under more and more control of Delhi. Gone were days of super efficient air service, its place taken by a loss making organization, that did not care much about passengers. In 2007, it was merged with another Government aviation company; India Airlines, that operated domestic flights. Its Mumbai centric culture also was destroyed, when the headquarters was shifted to Delhi in 2013. None the less, Maharaja stayed with the airline perhaps reminding everyone of the past glory.

It became clear last year that the Maharaja would have to go, when the newly elected prime minister of India said in his first meeting on June 21, 2014, with aviation ministry heads, that a new figure that identifies more with a “Common man” should replace the Maharaja, who reminded of a feudal past as Air India's mascot.

The news gives me the same feeling I had, when my neighbour's building went under sledge hammer, as Air India's Maharaja is now being replaced with a younger version of the mascot, sans turban, with spiky hair, wearing jeans and sneakers and has a leaner, young, sporty and more dynamic look. Air India would be using 27 different pictures of the new Maharajah to showcase some of the destinations we fly to, including a fighting fit member of the Indian cricket team wowing everyone with his stroke play.

In the words of Alfred Tennyson, “The old order changeth, yielding place to new.” We must therefore welcome the new avatar of the Maharaja, perhaps sans even withou his title itself. Yet in my heart, there would be always a soft corner for the old Maharaja and the glorious airline he once represented.

21^st January 2014

The Cattle shall stand only!

Many decades ago, when air travel was still a novelty and not many could afford it, India's national airline, Air India used to advertise its planes as “Your Palace in the sky.” Till that time, my scanty experiences with flying machines were restricted to few short hop flights on India's other Government owned domestic airline, Indian Airlines, which essentially operated small aircraft.

Indian Airlines aircraft were small, yet quite spacious with enough leg room and wide enough seats, where one could sit comfortably. Another thing was that the airline had only one class of travel; the economy class. I had no idea of any upper classes like business or first class till I made my maiden international flight from Mumbai to Rome in 1975. That time I flew by Air India Boeing 707 and during this flight I saw for the first time, what was then called as the first class cabin in the aircraft, where the seats were wider and more comfortable and the service was far more personal and better.

As the time went by, first came the Jumbo or wide body jets with much more sitting capacity. With them, another upper class for travel, now called as Business Class was created. The new aircraft had far bigger seating capacity, which brought the airfares down, enabling many rather to fly than travel by train, around the country. With arrival of Business class, the old economy class was now nicknamed as “Cattle Class” by many, referring to new cramped seating.

In spite of more number of passengers, airlines still gave good service to travellers; drinks, good food etc. But the advent of Budget airlines, changed all that. These new airlines offered seats at a much lower cost but all the frills and comforts were gone. It became necessary to buy food and drink on board and airlines kept the prices of food so high that most of the passengers were unwilling to buy it. In earlier days, airlines provided free transport from the city to the airport. That was gone too. In cities like Bengaluru and Hyderabad, the new airports are so far away from the city that taking a cab to go there can turn out to be an expensive and time consuming proposition.

Till this time, most of the budget airlines still offered standard passenger seating plan that full fare airlines offered and travelling by a budget airline for a couple of hours was not such a bad experience as the only difference between full fare and budget airline for all practical purposes remained restricted to free food and drinks on board.

 First class suit on Singapore airlines aircraft

For a economy or cattle class traveller like me, the first indications of widening gulf between first and business class on one hand and economy class on the other hand came when Airlines like Etihad, Emirates and Singapore introduced first class suites, where one could spend his time in total privacy and comfort. Even in Business class, the seats could be converted into flat beds. Since then, these super comforts have become almost the norm in airlines business. Therefore any one would ask the simple question, as to from where the extra space came from? The answer is quite simple; the space was extracted from the economy class cabins, by cramping the seating arrangements there. But how was it done?

 Business class seat in Singapore airlines aircraft

So far, 18 inch wide seats were a standard in economy class. This was reduced to 17 inches. Distance between rows was reduced by 2 inches by using new skinnier seats. Lastly, lavatory spaces were reduced. All this meant extreme discomfort for passengers, not only who are overweight, but also for those, who are taller than the normal. The seats had enough cushioning earlier but now airlines have only slightly cushioned chairs. The armrests also have been made narrower. The leg room now is at a premium. Only first five rows now have extra leg space and these are sold as semi-business class seats at a higher price. Above measures and shifting of the lavatory from front of aircraft to rear, made it possible to add one or two more rows or six to nine more seats in the aircraft. After adopting these new measures, Airbus has increased the maximum seating capacity on its A-320 aircraft from 180 to 189, similarly Boeing offers 197-seater B-737. Airbus is planning to increase the capacity of the bigger A-321 (the aircraft with 240 seats, from current 230.

  Bicycle seat for the future

The problem is that most of the airlines in India are making huge losses and it is doubtful, whether these small changes would bring back them in black. So what next for the poor cattle class travellers like me? If we see the trends in Europe, some leading full-service carriers in the west are offering non-reclining, wafer-thin seats on short-haul flights. Since the seat can not be reclined at all, one more row can be easily fitted.

  Standee seat for the future

Airbus industries has filed for a patent for a seat that is something similar to a bicycle seat with a tiny backrest; no tray tables and armrests. These seats fold back, when not in use. An aerospace engineering professor Fairuz Romali suggests a standing chair, which only has a skeletal support for the body, so that a seat belt can be used. All these ideas, once thought to be weird, may actually come in use. The future of economy or cattle class passengers appears quite gloomy to me. In the future, we may even a sign flashing inside aircraft cabin that will say; The cattle (Economy class passengers) shall only stand. Ha!Ha!

7^th October 2014

Close shaves of the worst kind

There is a web site called as Flightradar24, that keeps track of planes flying at any given moment and at any place in the world. It is a wonderful sight because you can keep track of any of your loved ones, if they are travelling by air. This web site has now revealed, what was happening in the skies over Ukraine in Europe, on that terrible Thursday afternoon of 17^th July 2014 at about 13.21 PM local time. At this precise time, a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft on flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, and carrying 298 people on board, was flying over rebel held eastern Ukraine about 60 Km from the Russian border. Next moment all hell broke loose as the aircraft got hit by a missile, exploded midair, killing everyone on board in an instant. The disintegrated aircraft pieces along with passenger baggage and dead human bodies rained on the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine. Another terrible air disaster caused purposely by humans had just happened.

Investigations and inquiries would now follow to pinpoint how this happened and why this was done. By any standards it is one of the greatest tragedies in aviation history and repercussions are likely to follow. Since the aircraft was flying at an height of more than 10 Km, experts say that use of ordinary shoulder carried missile is out of question and MH17 must have been brought down by a regular military missile unit. Already Russia and Ukraine have accused each other over the incident.

What has been not been noticed by many are some scary facts brought to light by Flightradar 24 image. From the image it is very clear that there were two other airliners in the vicinity of MH17. The image clearly shows that an Air India flight was nearby. This flight, AI 113 from Delhi to Birmingham with 126 passengers on board was flying in the opposite direction and was about 25 nautical miles (40 Km) away from the ill-fated Malaysian Boeing 777. Air India pilots say that this gap would have been covered by AI113 in less than ninety seconds. Which means that AI113 had reached the exact spot where MH17 went down in just about one and half. AI113 pilots probably did not see the flash of the exploding aircraft as they were moving in opposite direction. However, minutes before the crash, the AI pilots had heard the Dnipropetrovsk (local Ukrainian) air traffic controller give the Malaysian aircraft MH17 what is called "a direct routing". This permits an aircraft to fly straight, instead of tracking the regular route which is generally a zig-zag track that goes from one ground-based navigation aid or way point to another. When the MH17 disappeared from Radar screen, because of its closeness, the Dnipropetrovsk controller had asked the AI pilots to try and establish contact with pilots of the Malaysian aircraft who had stopped responding to its calls. The AI pilots did try to contact MH17 with a message: "Malaysian 17, this is Air India 113. How do you read?" There was, of course, no response.

It becomes absolutely clear from the image that AI113 was extremely lucky to have had a very narrow escape. Air India officials however do not seem to be accepting this fact and say:

“Dreamliner operating as AI 113 was to take a different route. AI director (operations) SPS Suri had issued a directive to avoid Ukraine's conflict zone ever since hostilities broke out in the region. We were taking a route that did not fly over the worst affected area that has been recognized as the conflict zone. But after the attack we have decided to avoid Ukraine completely.”

There was yet another airliner on the same path as that of MH 17 again about 25 nautical miles (40 Km) behind the MH17. It was Singapore Airline flight SQ351 flying from Copenhagen to Singapore. Even this flight, no doubt had a close shave. Singapore's Straits Times reports that actually SIA plane was "pretty close" to the Malaysian jet. It says that according to Flightradar24.com, SQ351 and Air India AI113 were both within 25km of MH17.

SIA spokesman however refused to acknowledge this fact explaining that it was against aviation safety and security protocol to provide specific information on the path of any particular flight prior to departure. The official announcement from SIA was:

"We are no longer using the Ukrainian airspace and have re-routed all our flights to alternative flight paths that are away from the region."

When news of this tragic incident reached India, Government of India was dead scared for another reason. It appears that India's new Prime Minister Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flight was in the same area, though about one hour behind the MH 17. He was returning after his trip to Brazil for a BRICS summit. Reports say the PM's Air India-One could have been in the same corridor as MH-17 perhaps an hour later. After news of the shoot down reached Air India, PM's aircraft was promptly re-routed over Black Sea. It was among the many planes that were re-routed after MH-17 was brought down.

Expecting that the needle of suspicion would eventually point to Russia, a story was planted on Interfax news agency, which reported citing sources that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin’s jet plane was travelling almost the same route shortly before the MH17 crash. Mr. Putin also was returning from the BRICS summit. The report from an anonymous source said:

“I can say that Putin’s plane and the Malaysian Boeing intersected at the same point and the same echelon. That was close to Warsaw on 330-m echelon at the height of 10,100 meters. The presidential jet was there at 16:21 Moscow time and the Malaysian aircraft - 15:44 Moscow time,” a source told the news agency on condition of anonymity. The contours of the aircrafts are similar, linear dimensions are also very similar, as for the coloring, at a quite remote distance they are almost identical. "

However no other news agency confirmed this and it became obvious that it was a planted story because of other reports contradicting Intefax’s report and said that Presidential plane was not flying over Ukraine at the same time.

After the close shave both SIA, AI and also Jet Airways have announced that they would no longer fly over Ukraine joining many other airlines such as Air France and Germany's Lufthansa, Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines making the journey to Europe little safer. Air India and Jet Airways pilots were so far used to be doubly careful while flying over Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and would divert if any en route air traffic controls informed them of trouble in those regions. Added to this list is now Ukraine, the route which is actually the shortest.

Whatever preventive steps they may take now, there is no escape from the fact that both Air India and Singapore Airlines had a pretty close shave. They were just plain lucky.

21^st July 2014

Flight AI161; a great job indeed!

About a month ago, as the sectarian civil war broke out in Iraq, 46 Indian nurses working in the state run Tikrit Teaching hospital in the city of Tikrit, found themselves trapped in the sectarian war. As the news broke in India, there were wide spread demands to bring them back from the war zone, a formidable task by any standards. India's foreign office sprang into action and tried each and every way to achieve this.

Four days back, the efforts bore fruit, as the militants controlling the Tikrit city decided to free the nurses. The nurses were asked to get into the bus and were moved to an undisclosed location near city of Erbil-the Kurdish regional capital. India's foreign office people were already there and were waiting at the border point of Autonomous region of Kurdistan and Iraq. After some confusion and misunderstanding, the nurses finally reached safety, where Indian officials were waiting for them. The nurses along with some other Indians, were planned to be evacuated from Erbil international airport and foreign office had entrusted this task to Air India, India's national carrier.

We always view Air India in the negative. I have written number of blog posts about their service, punctuality, dirty toilets and poor cabin maintenance on board of aircraft and crew lethargy to give good and efficient service. This time however, the airline really rose to the challenge and brought the nurses and other Indians safely back home, a credible feat considering the fact that Erbil airport is located quite in the vicinity of the war zone. I find the story of how they did it, really admirable and would like to share it with the readers.

Normally, commercial aircraft do not carry excess fuel because the weight of the fuel, further worsens the fuel consumption of the aircraft during flight. Keeping this fact in mind, Air India officials first checked whether they would be able to refuel the aircraft at Erbil. The initial response of Iraqi authorities was that Air India will have to pay cash for getting the aircraft refuelled there to fly back to India. However minutes later, they changed their stance and said that there will be no refuelling at Erbil as the jet fuel lines were damaged.

This meant that Air India now would have deploy a long range aircraft and they decided on Air India's ultra long range Boeing 777-200 aircraft, fully tanked up with fuel for the rescue operation. The catering for the return flight was also arranged in Delhi itself. Air India put on board four experienced pilots — Captains Pankaj Agarwal and Atul Chandra along with co-pilots S P Sinha and Adhar Puri for the long journey so that one set could operate on the way out and the other on the return leg. The aircraft now bearing official flight code number AI161, finally left on midnight of 4^th July 2014 for Erbil.

The First crisis came around midnight, when aircraft was eight minutes away from entering Iraqi airspace and the pilots tried to establish contact with Iraq. To their dismay, pilots found that Iraqi authorities had turned down their request to enter Iraqi airspace and also denied them permission from flying to Iraq. The pilots had to turn back the aircraft now heading for nearby Kuwait so that they could later fly back to Erbil in the north. An Air India official while describing the situation said:

"The Iraqi ATC was very polite when they informed us of denial of entry into the country. They said it was a decision by their 'higher up politicians'. It was later known to us that Erbil authorities were upset that India had operated this special flight by coordinating with DGCA in Baghdad,"

As pilots radioed back this to Air India authorities, alarm bells started ringing in Delhi. Air India informed about this sudden development to the Prime Minister's office and external affairs ministry, who swung into action and Air India flight was given the clearance finally to fly to Erbil. It landed there at 2.20 am on 5^th July 2014.

Originally it was planned that the aircraft would fly the return flight from Erbil directly to Kochi in south India, as all the nurses were from nearby areas. However considering the logistics, so that the aircraft would have enough fuel, the original flight route was changed and now it was decided to fly to Mumbai for which the aircraft had adequate fuel. Some ground staff from Erbil airport boarded the plane at that point of time. The pilots asked them whether it was possible to get the plane refuelled just to be doubly sure on safety side. The local staffers spoke to some people and told Air India that only a about 3,000 litres could be arranged. The pilots decided to take whatever fuel was being offered.

As nurses and some more Indian wishing to return home boarded the plane, Kurdish authorities were quite amused to see so many people trying to leave because Erbil is a safe heaven and there are no war clouds over there. At one point, the local security officer asked Air India captain, why was he was forcing to take 30-odd Indian-looking people if they did not wish to go. He had to be explained about the real situation that the crew and Indian officials were trying to evacuate as many stranded Indians as possible. After staying on ground for 1 hour, the aircraft took off and on next day (5^th July) the stranded Indians reached home safely, with 46 nurses alighting in Kochi, 73 stranded Indians in Hyderabad and 56 in Delhi.

Kudos to the Air India pilots and crew for flying under uncertain conditions and showing presence of mind to recover from a situation, where they were denied entry into Iraq. The flight took 15 hours including 9 hours international flight, before reaching back its home base of Delhi.

Total cost of the flight was Rs. 12 million, which will be reimbursed to Air India by Ministry of External Affairs . Besides this, the Central government has put in enormous efforts for the release of the nurses and others from the conflict zone. That also may have cost substantial amounts.

But the cost is not important in such issues. What matters is that Government of India was able to bring back its citizens from a war like situation. This would boost the confidence of ordinary people traveling or working abroad, knowing that in case of real emergencies, Government of India would offer them a helping hand. Air India is likely to operate more such flights to Iraq in future to evacuate more Indians depending upon requirement.

7^th July 2014

Incredible Air India

Last week, I flew Air India once again, all the way to Singapore. I had originally booked my flight from my hometown Pune to Chennai and then from there to Singapore. A month later, Air India suddenly e-mailed to me saying that Pune Chennai flight has been cancelled and is being replaced with Pune- Hyderabad and Hyderabad-Chennai flights. I had no option but to take this longer route. Fortunately, Air India did not charge me anything extra for it and finally,  I was  at Pune airport all  braced up for a long haul flight to Singapore, consisting of two stop overs, which meant that I would have to go through three security checks in all.

I was pleasantly surprised as the aircraft that flew me from Pune to Hyderabad appeared to be Airbus 319, a new acquisition by the airline. It had built in TV screens in front of all seats and all other paraphernalia. However the TV screens were never switched on during the flight and I had to resort to my trusted ipod shuffle for in- flight entertainment. The flight, I must accept, turned out to be far better than what I was expecting.

After a halt at Hyderabad that got extended to about 4 hours, due to delayed next flight, I boarded another aircraft, which to my dismay turned out to be old workhorse Airbus 320. These aircraft of 1980’s vintage have been flying with Air India for more than 24 years. Our aircraft was perhaps one of the oldest from the fleet as it showed the battle wounds of its long flying career.  I have flown in these aircraft, 15 or 20 years back and knew that there was no question of expecting superfluous things like in-flight entertainment and all that. The interiors were shabby to put it mildly. The cabin announcements had accompanying creepy sounds. The backrest of the seat that was directly ahead of me, had lost all its control mechanisms and every time, the lady sitting on it moved, the backrest also moved along with her. From the general state of affairs, I could imagine the state in which the toilets would be and hesitated to use them. Luckily the flight was of just an hour’s duration and my disinclination to using them did not cause much discomfiture to me. As a saving grace and perhaps the most important aspect of the flight, the aircraft even when so old, flew beautifully and the skills of the pilot could be felt from landing and take-off.

After a halt of about 3 hours, I flew out again, now on an international flight from Chennai to Singapore. I was bitterly disappointed, when I entered the aircraft, which turned out to be Airbus 330, first introduced in 1990’s. The aircraft, though still produced by Airbus, was again from Air India’s aging fleet. Fortunately it turned out to be slightly better than the earlier A320. The aircraft perhaps had that old flight entertainment system, where screens drop down from the ceiling on which movies are screened. However, the equipment must have been dysfunctional as there was no flight entertainment available. I made just one visit to the loo and found it to be quite not worth the visit. Again on this flight, the catering was quite nice and sumptuous. Perhaps, Air India thinks that if they feed their customers well, everything else would be tolerated by the flyers.

As we landed at Singapore, I had a feeling of relief because the flying was finally over. I asked myself, why did I choose Air India? The only answer I could find was that the flight timings were convenient and above all it was cheap.

Whatever may be my experience and feelings for having flown Air India, they just fade in comparison with what flyers did experience on an Air India- Delhi- Frankfurt flight- on the same day, when I flew in to Singapore.

Air India’s Delhi – Frankfurt flight AI 121, takes off from New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on every day around 1: 35 PM. Air India has introduced its latest acquisition, Boeing 787  Dreamliner on this flight  that lasts about 8 or 9 hours and can carry 214 passengers on board. Air India pampers the passengers on this flight with two full meals, an evening snack and unlimited supply of beverages.

The readers can well imagine the kind of heavy use the four toilets in the aircraft would be subjected to with this kind of feeding to the passengers. Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft provide two toilets in the front for business class passengers and two in the rear for economy class passengers.

The passengers flying on this flight on 31^st May 2014, discovered within hours that all the four toilets were completely choked up as the flushes were not functional at all. The situation became so bad that the pilot decided to abort the flight and return to New Delhi after flying well over three hours.

Just imagine, what kind of problems and chaos, this must have caused among the passengers, besides huge loss of operational costs and image of the carrier. The passengers could not board another aircraft in Delhi because the aircraft would have reached Frankfurt at night and landing at Frankfurt airport at night is prohibited. Many passengers flying to US destinations fly to Frankfurt to catch a flight to US later. It must have been a nightmare for such passengers. 

Air India says that the bad habit of Indian passengers to throw anything they want to discard into the toilet is the reason behind this. However, the airline knows about this habit of Indian passengers very well as it has been flying them for many decades. Air India services technical parts of their craft to acceptable levels. However, when it comes to cleanliness and functionality of things inside passenger cabins, the maintenance is far from satisfactory.

Once upon a time, Air India was considered as one of the best airlines in the world. With the passage of time, came the interference from Government and bureaucratic control of the airline. This has resulted in this sorry state of affairs, where Air India finds itself into a group of airlines that loses lots of taxpayer money and might well be classified as world’s worst.

2^nd June 2014

What is happening in Air India?

In 1960's, and 1970's, Air India, India's national airline, was considered as one of the best in the world in terms of passenger service and comforts. First it operated with a fleet of propeller driven super constellations and later with Boeing 707 aircraft. I still fondly remember my first international flight way back in 1975 from Mumbai to Rome. The aircraft was comfortable and the food and the drinks were really good. The Air India Hostesses those days, also wore sarees like today, but those days Air India saree designs made a fashion statement and many Indian women bought sarees similar to Air India designs in the market. Mr.J.R.D Tata, head of one of India's largest industrial group, used to be Air India chairman too and he personally ensured that the airline would always adhere to greatest standards in airline business.

Things however started degrading around 1975. India's prime minister Indira Gandhi asked JRD to relieve his post and brought some Delhi bureaucrat in his place as the chairman, who knew nothing about airlines business. The standards of service deteriorated and so did punctuality. Government struck another blow to Air India in 2007, when it was merged with L’Enfant terrible of the airlines in India, the state owned Indian Airlines, that was besieged with every possible problem. This merger further brought down the Air India service and standards.

The advent of private airlines in Indian skies, broke the monopoly of the state owned airline and brought further woes to it. Even 6 years later, the merger with Indian Airlines is still only 70% complete and the merged company still has ongoing problems with pay and career progression disparities between two. Air India has a long history of labour problems and big debts. Simmering disputes with staff still continue. Air India today is a huge loss making company with massive debt and can survive only on funds from the Government.

The image of this once immensely popular airline is so bad that people would only think of flying by Air India if there is no other choice. The reasons of this bad image unfortunately have nothing to do with company's bad financial situation or the aircraft it flies. The bad image originates from little incidences that can be easily avoided with a good management systems with proper checks.

In May 2013, an incident was reported in which the autopilot system of an Air India passenger jet, was accidentally switched off. According to news paper reports, a stewardess had accidentally turned it off while two pilots took a break. Later during the same month, an Air India flight was forced to land after the pilot was locked out of the cockpit during a toilet break. He was unable to gain access to the cockpit, because of a jammed door.

Now two more incidences have been reported again showing the extreme carelessness of the service and inspection staff of the airline. A passenger, flying Air India flight from New York to New Delhi on 28^th September 2013, complained that he had found worms in his mid-flight sandwich, which he discovered during the flight. An Air India spokesman tried to shift the blame on the caterers in USA. According to him the subject food item was picked up in the US and not in India and involved a leading caterer who supplies all US airlines. Normally, caterers had very strict hygiene conditions, but Air India would take suitable action against the caterer.

Finally, this week, a large panel in the underneath of an Air India Bangalore-bound Dreamliner jet aircraft fell off in mid-air. Experts say that though the aircraft landed safely, the incident put about 150 passengers on board at a grave risk. Air India officials say and have told the Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation probing the incident that there was no emergency even though there had been a "gaping hole" in the aircraft.

It is obvious that all these incidences could have been avoided by having simple management controls and proper pre-flight inspections done by the staff. It is very common to see broken seats, missing neck towels and cracked internal body panels patched up with scotch tape on Air India aircraft. However, most of the problems originate from Air India's staff, who have become lethargic and inefficient. They are neither shown the carrot nor the stick. No wonder, that India's aviation minister says that he wouldn't mind privatizing the airlines if he has a chance.

I want to end with a little experience of my own with one of the world's best airlines today, Singapore Airlines. On a Singapore-San Francisco flight, I found out that the TV screen in front of me did not work. Since aircraft was full to the brim, the flight steward could not exchange the seats. I had to spend next 15 or 19 hours without any inflight entertainment and I was very unhappy with the airline. Towards the end of flight, a staff member came to me to apologize for the defective TV screen and as a compensation handed over to me a coupon for $150 to buy anything I wish from in flight service. I was quite pleased by this attempt to make up for an obvious service or maintenance gaff. This is what customer service is all about. You would never find Air India staff behaving in such courteous fashion.

Unless Air India improves their customer relations and services and maintain their aircraft properly, they can never regain their lost prestige

18 October 2013

The Jewels in the ice

The night was still warm in Mumbai when 105 passengers bound for New York, boarded an Air India coach at the Santa Cruz airport on that fateful night-day of 23rd-24th January 1966. Not very far from the departure terminal, stood the giant bird, which was going to take them on their long journey to New York. It was the Boeing 707-437 aircraft bearing an identification tag VT-DMN and was named as “Kanchanjunga” after the second tallest Himalayan peak and literally meant a river of gold. The aircraft had first flown on 5 April 1961 and was delivered new to Air India on 25 May 1961. It had just done a total of 16188 hours. Passengers looked forward to a pleasant and comfortable journey as they were travelling by Air India and those ware the golden years for Air India, known for its service and comforts, all over the world.

Passengers were welcomed on board by smiling saree clad Air India hostesses, who made them comfortable on board. Soon a VIP joined them. He was the famous atomic scientist of India, Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha. He was an Indian nuclear physicist, founding director, and professor of physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He was colloquially known as the "father of Indian nuclear programme." Bhabha was the founding director of two well-known research institutions, namely the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and the Trombay Atomic Energy Establishment (now named after him); both sites were the cornerstone of Indian development of nuclear weapons which Bhabha also supervised as its director.

The aircraft touched down later in the night at Delhi, shivering on a wintry night, before it took off for Beirut, where it made another scheduled stop. As the plane took off from Beirut, the pilot found out that one of the VOR's on board (VHF omnidirectional radio range) was not serviceable. He kept this in his mind. VOR is a type of short-range radio navigation system for aircraft, enabling aircraft to determine their position and stay on course by receiving radio signals transmitted by a network of fixed ground radio beacons, with a receiver unit. It is the standard air navigational system in the world, used by both commercial and general aviation even today. There are about 3000 VOR stations around the world.

It was early morning of 24th January, local time, when Control tower at Geneva, Switzerland, told the pilot that they were at Flight Level 190 and should start descent for Geneva International Airport after they had passed Mont Blanc. Soon Pilot announced to the passengers, that they have crossed the highest peak in the Swiss Alps, known as Mont Blanc, and the aircraft started its descent towards Geneva International Airport. Over next few seconds, all hell broke loose and Air India flight 101, bound for New York, just disappeared from Radar screens into oblivion.

It was found later, that the pilot had made a wrong judgment that they have crossed the Mont Blanc ridge and actually were still on the southwest side of the ridge, when he started his descent. Since one of the VOR receivers was not serviceable, he perhaps misjudged his own position and started his descent even before crossing the Mont Blanc ridge. The aircraft crashed into the Glacier des Bossons (Bossons Glacier) on the southwest face of Mont Blanc in France at an elevation of 4,750 metres (15,584 ft). All 106 passengers and 11 crew were killed instantly.

Crash investigators later found out that the pilot-in-command, who knew on leaving Beirut, that one of the VORs was unserviceable, naturally miscalculated his position in relation to Mont Blanc and while reporting his own estimate of the aircraft position to the controller; had told the radar controller that his calculation may be erroneous because of the defective VOR. Geneva control tower had noted the error, determined the correct position of the aircraft and passed a communication to the aircraft which, control tower believed, would enable the pilot to correct its position. Unfortunately, the exact phraseology used by Control tower was not sufficiently precise and the correction was mis-understood by the pilot.

Bits of wreckage of the crashed Boeing aircraft still remain at the crash site on Glacier des Bossons. In 2008, a climber had found some Indian newspapers dated 23 January 1966. Then in August 2012, a mountain rescue worker, Arnaud Christmann was told by some tourists that they had seen something shining on the Bossons glacier. Next day, he and his neighbour went up the mountain in search of, what they hoped would be some shining diamonds or at least a few gold ingots, They however, found only bits of pieces of an aircraft cabin and things like a shoe, cables. Mr. Christmann describes the crash site as a real garbage dump. While returning, he saw a jute bag sitting as if someone had just placed it there. The bag had markings saying "Diplomatic mail" and "Ministry of External Affairs", as the foreign ministry is called in India. Christmann said jokingly that Instead of gold ingots all they got was some soaking wet mail and Indian newspapers dated 23 January 1966.

What mountain rescue worker Arnaud Christmann could not find at the site of the rescue, has been discovered last week, by a French climber, who is not willing to disclose his name. When he was scaling a glacier off Mont Blanc mountain, he stumbled across a treasure trove of about 100 nos. of emeralds, rubies and sapphires that had been buried for decades. The jewels, estimated to be worth up to 246,000 euros ($332,000), lay hidden in a metal box that was on board an Indian plane that crashed in the desolate landscape some 50 years ago. The precious stones were packed in sachets that bore the stamp "Made in India."

There had been a crash in a nearby spot on the mountain, of another Air India Super Constellation aircraft, Malabar Princess, about 15 years prior to this disaster, when this aircraft was pulverized as it went down during a snowstorm in November 1950, killing 48 people on board including 40 Indian navy sailors returning to their ship. Because of the name of the aircraft, a legend grew that the earlier flight had carried a Maharani and her treasure. However, in all likelihood, the gems must have been carried by the Boeing 707 plane in 1966.

The climber honestly turned the haul in to local French police. Local gendarmerie chief (Police chief) Sylvain Merly says, "This was an honest young man, who very quickly realized that they (jewels) belonged to someone who died on the glacier." French authorities are contacting their Indian counterparts to trace the owner or heirs of the jewels if possible. Under French law, the jewels could be handed over to the mountaineer if these are not identified, unless Air India comes up with convincing proof such as bill of lading or air waybill etc. and details of the consignor and consignee, who were lawful owners of the precious stones flown on flight 101, that left Mumbai on 23^rd January, 1966.

1^st October 2013

Fly only if you are slim and fit!

Last year I flew Air India to Singapore and back. It was a pleasant journey no doubt but I noticed many things, which should not have been there. Besides old creaking aircraft with broken seat armrests and torn seats patched up with cello-tape, the quality of in-flight service also needed much improvement. The quality of food was excellent, but the way it was served, left much to be desired. Normally on all international flights, one is asked, whether he wants to have a drink? Here on this flight, the flight crew, never bothered ask and just pushed the meals to us. Only on asking, they would serve drinks. I could clearly see that the serving trolleys were well stocked with drinks. It was just the lethargy and the apathy of the crew.

The problem with Air India is that their flying crew members are mostly matronly ladies well into their 40's and are not exactly agile and fit as their job demands. After the meals were served, I saw all of them retiring to pantry area and actually showed great resentment, whenever any of the passengers pressed the call button. In fact, a lady with a small child, wanted milk for the baby to be warmed. This was done as if she was being obliged. Just compare Air India's matronly ladies flying crew with crews of other airlines and you would notice the difference.

Air India has the highest number of oldest cabin crew in the country, with about one quarter of its 4,000 cabin crew over the age of 40. The sari-clad female flight attendants, also known as air hostesses, are addressed by their younger colleagues as “aunties” because they are of their mother’s age or even older. I have nothing against having elderly ladies working as cabin crew , but it is a fact that their job requirement requires a slimmer and more agile person.

Certain jobs require younger persons only. For example the army soldiers known as 'Jawan' in Indian army, usually retire , when in their thirties. This is done because a man, who has to fight if required, has to have peak physical performance capabilities, which only youth can have. Similarly,  an airline steward's job requires certain physical attributes like slimness, agility, which young crew members usually have in a natural way. Air India asks its cabin crew, to have their weight tested regularly, but are rarely grounded for being overweight.

Everything was nice and fair for Air India flight crews, when it was a monopoly. After liberalization of this sector, the newer entrants in the aviation sector have employed only young, well-groomed stewards and stewardesses. Actually this trend was started by now defunct Kingfisher Airlines. Compared to these new stewardesses, Air India's aunties now look very much out of place and time. They enjoy Indian government benefits, which include maternity leave and retirement at the age of 58.

Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Indian aviation regulator has mandated last year a new rule that all male and female cabin crew members over 40, must pass a battery of medical tests including tests to measure blood pressure, blood sugar, height, weight, waist-to-hip ratio, eyesight and other specifics.

The older crew members feel very unhappy about this new regulation, because if a crew member is grounded after failing the medical tests, he or she could see his/her salaries cut by as much as 70 percent, since they all are paid for the number of hours they fly.

This, no doubt is a welcome step from traveller's point of view, as in flight services are bound to improve with fitter and more agile crew. I do not think that age is an issue here at all. I have seen old ladies well over their 50's working with extreme efficiency and full vigour on aircraft flown by US airlines. On the contrary, they usually give an extra motherly touch of kindness to everything. I am sure that the problem with Air India is that their cabin crews are not physically fit and are overweight.

Having an efficient cabin crew improves the image of the airline, just as better maintained aircraft do. If Air India wants to come out of red and regain their lost market share, they need to improve their image and they might as well start with their unfit cabin crews.

27 March 2013

Only as good as the battery

About fifteen years ago, during my manufacturing business days, we had received a contract from a big public sector corporation to assemble battery packs. The specialized Magnesium batteries, which looked very much like size C dry cells, were supplied by our principles. Our job was to interconnect the dry cells in a particular fashion, stack and seal them in a battery container made from plastic or paper. I heard about Lithium batteries for the first time, during those days. These lithium batteries were much lighter and packed a great power punch compared to Magnesium batteries. Off course, what we handled were non rechargeable batteries, to be thrown away, once used. Even then, one thing I learned during those days, was that however sophisticated an equipment in which these batteries were used might be, it was only as good as the batteries. If the batteries were not good enough, the equipment lost all the high performance and would become worthless.

At least three of the world's big airlines and one of the two major aircraft manufactures of the world; Boeing Corporation have learned this hard fact, as the latest grand airliner from Boeing Corporation, Dreamliner 787, is being grounded all around the world at an enormous cost, for a simple reason. The batteries are not good enough. The 787 relies more than any other modern airliner on electrical signals to help power nearly everything the plane does. It's also the first Boeing plane to use rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for its main electrical system.

Indications of the brewing trouble came on January 7, 2013 when a Japan Airlines 787 jet that was parked at Boston's Logan International Airport caught fire. On January 16^th 2013, another 787 Dreamliner of All Nippon Airways plane made an emergency landing in western Japan after its pilots smelled something burning and received a cockpit warning of battery problems. Following the incident, Japan grounded all 24 Dreamliners owned by two of its airlines; ANA (All Nippon Airways) and Japan Airlines.

An initial inspection by Japanese officials of the 787 found that the battery electrolyte (a flammable battery fluid) had leaked from the plane's main lithium-ion battery beneath the cockpit. It also found burn marks around the battery. The lithium ion battery that was located beneath the 787's cockpit, also showed a blackened mass of wires and other components within a distorted blue casing.

After the incident, The American investigators; one each from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board and two from Boeing Co., inspected the ANA jet on the tarmac at Takamatsu airport in western Japan. After this, the U.S. regulator, Federal Aviation Administration, asked to stop operations of all the 50 such planes delivered so far to various airlines. This also includes aircraft operated by US airlines and Air India, which has taken delivery of 6 aircraft so far. Air India has grounded all 787 aircraft now, 4 in Delhi and one each in Chennai and Bengaluru.

Japanese contractors manufacture about 35% of the Dreamliner. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries built one of the world’s largest furnaces to produce carbon-fibre reinforced plastic for the aircraft. Fuji Heavy Industries is the sole supplier of the Dreamliner’s centre wing box, connecting its wings to the fuselage.

GS Yuasa Corp. makes the Lithium ion batteries.

Considering the similarity of the burned insides of the battery from the ANA flight and the battery in a Japan Airlines 787 that caught fire on Jan. 7, an investigator from Japan's transport ministry now says; "If we compare data from the latest case (January 16, here and that in the U.S., we can pretty much figure out what has happened. The state in which the damaged battery was found indicates that a voltage exceeding the design limit was applied to it. ” The battery manufacturer agrees and says that it was helping with the investigation but that the cause of the problem was unclear. It could be the battery, the power source or the electronics system.

Dreamliner 787, might be the latest high tech, high performance aircraft, that costs as much as US$ 150 Million, truth is that it is only as good as the battery inside it.

20 January 2013

The Mail arrives, 46 years late!

The night was still warm in Mumbai when 105 passengers bound for New York, boarded an Air India coach at the Santa Cruz airport on that fateful night-day of 23^rd-24^th January 1966. Not very far from the departure terminal, stood the giant bird, which was going to take them on their long journey to New York. It was the Boeing 707-437 aircraft bearing an identification tag VT-DMN and was named as “Kanchanjunga” after the second tallest Himalayan peak and literally meant a river of gold. The aircraft had first flown on 5 April 1961 and was delivered new to Air India on 25 May 1961. It had just done a total of 16188 hours. Passengers looked forward to a pleasant and comfortable journey as they were travelling by Air India and those ware the golden years for Air India, known for its service and comforts, all over the world.

Passengers were welcomed on board by smiling saree clad Air India hostesses, who made them comfortable on board. Soon a VIP joined them. He was the famous atomic scientist of India, Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha. He was an Indian nuclear physicist, founding director, and professor of physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He was colloquially known as the "father of Indian nuclear programme." Bhabha was the founding director of two well-known research institutions, namely the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and the Trombay Atomic Energy Establishment (now named after him); both sites were the cornerstone of Indian development of nuclear weapons which Bhabha also supervised as its director.

The aircraft touched down later in the night at Delhi, shivering on a wintry night, before it took off for Beirut, where it made another scheduled stop. As the plane took off from Beirut, the pilot found out that one of the VOR's on board (VHF omnidirectional radio range) was not serviceable. He kept this in his mind. VOR is a type of short-range radio navigation system for aircraft, enabling aircraft to determine their position and stay on course by receiving radio signals transmitted by a network of fixed ground radio beacons, with a receiver unit. It is the standard air navigational system in the world, used by both commercial and general aviation even today. There are about 3000 VOR stations around the world.

It was early morning of 24th January, local time, when Control tower at Geneva, Switzerland, told the pilot that they were at Flight Level 190 and should start descent for Geneva International Airport after they had passed Mont Blanc. Soon Pilot announced to the passengers, that they have crossed the highest peak in the Swiss Alps, known as Mont Blanc, and the aircraft started its descent towards Geneva International Airport. Over next few seconds, all hell broke loose and Air India flight 101, bound for New York, just disappeared from Radar screens into oblivion.

It was found later, that the pilot had made a wrong judgment that they have crossed the Mont Blanc ridge and actually were still on the southwest side of the ridge, when he started his descent. Since one of the VOR receivers was not serviceable, he perhaps misjudged his own position and started his descent even before crossing the Mont Blanc ridge. The aircraft crashed into the Glacier des Bossons (Bossons Glacier) on the southwest face of Mont Blanc in France at an elevation of 4,750 metres (15,584 ft). All 106 passengers and 11 crew were killed instantly.

Crash investigators later found out that the pilot-in-command, who knew on leaving Beirut, that one of the VORs was unserviceable, naturally miscalculated his position in relation to Mont Blanc and while reporting his own estimate of the aircraft position to the controller; had told the radar controller that his calculation may be erroneous because of the defective VOR. Geneva control tower had noted the error, determined the correct position of the aircraft and passed a communication to the aircraft which, control tower believed, would enable the pilot to correct its position. Unfortunately, the exact phraseology used by Control tower was not sufficiently precise and the correction was mis-understood by the pilot.

Bits of wreckage of the crashed Boeing aircraft still remain at the crash site on Glacier des Bossons. In 2008, a climber had found some Indian newspapers dated 23 January 1966. Then in August 2012, a mountain rescue worker, Arnaud Christmann was told by some tourists that they had seen something shining on the Bossons glacier. Next day, he and his neighbour went up the mountain in search of, what they hoped would be some shining diamonds or at least a few gold ingots, They however, found only bits of pieces of an aircraft cabin and things like a shoe, cables. Mr. Christmann describes the crash site as a real garbage dump.

While returning, he saw a jute bag sitting as if someone had just placed it there. The bag had markings saying "Diplomatic mail" and "Ministry of External Affairs", as the foreign ministry is called in India. Christmann says jokingly that Instead of gold ingots all they got was some soaking wet mail and Indian newspapers dated 23 January 1966. He says that it's not the sort of thing you find very often in the mountains: the mail from India is going to arrive 46 years late. The bag is now in the hands of the police in the town of Chamonix at the base of the mountain. Indian embassy in Paris would now try and recover this bag. 

New information received, indicates that the bag contained no diplomatic papers but Air India calendars and newspapers, including copies of the newspaper from Madras; The Hindu, then priced at just 13 paise and  Dated January 21, 1966 
 

January 1966 was a very tumultous period in India's history as a war with Pakistan was just over with signing of the Tashkent Agreement of 10th January 1966. Then ruling Prime Minister of India, Mr. Lal Bahadur Shastri had died the following day, still in Tashkent, of a heart attack. Gulzarilal Nanda had once again assumed the role of Acting Prime Minister.

And on 24^th January 1966 or on very same day when Air India's Big Bird “Kanchanjunga” disappeared on the Mont Blanc ridge. Indira Gandhi was sworn in as the New Prime Minister of India. What a coincidence that a political career that had a stormy end on 31 October 1984 also had such a stormy beginning.

2 September 2012