The families of four passengers who died in the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, have filed a lawsuit in Delaware Superior Court against Boeing and Honeywell, alleging that negligence and a defective fuel cutoff switch led to the crash, which killed 260 people.

The flight had departed Ahmedabad for London on June 12 but went down shortly after takeoff, killing 229 passengers, 12 crew members, and 19 people on the ground. Only one passenger survived.

In a complaint lodged on Tuesday, plaintiffs blamed the aircraft manufacturer and the supplier of the fuel cutoff switch, saying both companies failed to address a known safety hazard.

The families said in their filing that the locking mechanism on the fuel cutoff switch of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was either prone to disengagement or missing altogether. Placed directly behind the thrust levers, the switch could be shut off inadvertently, cutting fuel supply and thrust at a critical point in takeoff.

According to the lawsuit, by placing the switch in such a vulnerable position, Boeing created conditions where “normal cockpit activity could result in inadvertent fuel cutoff.” The filing added, “What did Honeywell and Boeing do to prevent the inevitable catastrophe? Nothing.”

The families allege that Boeing and Honeywell were aware of the potential hazard linked to the switch. They pointed to a 2018 advisory by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) warning about disengaged locking mechanisms on some Boeing aircraft.

The plaintiffs are relatives of Kantaben Dhirubhai Paghadal, Naavya Chirag Paghadal, Kuberbhai Patel, and Babiben Patel. They are citizens of India or the United Kingdom and currently reside in one of those countries.

Boeing, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, hasn’t issued any statement on the lawsuit. Honeywell, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, has not yet responded to media inquiries. Both corporations are incorporated in Delaware, where the lawsuit was filed.

INVESTIGATION INTO CRASH CONTINUES

Authorities in India, the United Kingdom and the United States have not yet determined the definitive cause of the crash. India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau released a preliminary report in July, which depicted confusion inside the cockpit during the final moments of the flight.

Also in July, Bryan Bedford, the administrator of the US FAA, said he had a “high level of confidence” that neither a mechanical malfunction nor an unintended movement of the fuel control system was responsible.

Boeing has faced a series of costly legal challenges in recent years. The company paid out more than $20 billion in settlements, compensation and other costs following two fatal crashes of its 737 MAX aircraft in 2018 and 2019. Those accidents, which killed a total of 346 people, led regulators worldwide to ground the model for nearly two years. (India Today)

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At least 19 people have died and more than 100 are injured after a Bangladeshi air force training aircraft crashed into a school campus in the capital, Dhaka, on Monday, according to authorities.

The Bangladesh Air Force F-7 BGI aircraft crashed onto the campus of Milestone School and College, in Dhaka’s Uttara neighborhood, on Monday afternoon, where students were taking tests or attending regular classes. 

The military said the jet took off at 1:06 p.m. local time and crashed soon after, catching fire immediately.

Bangladesh’s leading English daily, The Daily Star, reported more than 100 injuries based on data from various hospitals. Local media indicated most of the injured were students and were transported to different medical facilities, including a military hospital.

Parents and relatives panicked at the scene as rescuers, using tri-cycle rickshaws or whatever was available, transported the injured.

Authorities have not released details of the deceased.

Rafiqa Taha, a student at the school who was not present at the time of the crash, told The Associated Press by phone that Milestone School and College, with some 2,000 students, runs classes from elementary to twelfth grade. On Monday, she said, some students were taking tests while others attended regular classes. (AP)

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The Cockpit Voice Recorder, or CVR, of the London Gatwick-bound Air India plane that crashed in Ahmedabad last week – losing thrust 36 seconds after take-off and slamming into residential buildings bordering the airport, killing all 274 people, including 33 on the ground – was recovered Monday.

The Flight Data Recorder, or FDR, had been located earlier.

Data from the CVR and FDR – popularly called ‘black boxes’, although they are painted bright orange to help locate it amid debris – should allow investigators to understand what happened to flight AI-171 shortly after it took off from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Airport at 1.39 pm.

The government has launched a detailed inquiry into the crash.

Separately, the United States’ National Transportation Safety Board is conducting a parallel investigation since the aircraft – a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner – was made in that country.

Experts from Boeing are also in India to assist with the investigation.

So what are the CVR and FDR? And how can they help investigators?

Let’s start with the cockpit voice recorder.

A CVR, as the name suggests, records audio from within the plane’s cockpit.

This refers to conversations between the pilots and other crew and also ambient noise – aural alarms, control movements, switch activations, engine noises, and airflow noises – which could provide clues about why a plane, in this case the Air India AI-171, may have crashed.

It also records and stores audio signals from the pilots’ microphones and headsets, which means crash investigators can also listen to conversations with Air Traffic Controls, or ATCs.

According to SKYbrary, an electronic repository of safety knowledge related to all aspects of aviation and aviation safety, modern CVRs record (in a loop) up to 25 hours of audio signals.

This is to allow for substantial data collection on long-haul flights.

The 25-hour rule was approved by the International Civil Aviation Organization in 2016; it was originally passed by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency in 2015.

However, there is a caveat.

The 25-hour rule is for aircraft built after January 1, 2021. And according to flight tracking website Flightradar24, the crashed AI-171, registration VT-ANB, was delivered to Air India in January 2014. Most widely-used CVRs for commercial planes then recorded for two hours only.

Before that CVRs recorded only for 30 minutes.

That, though, should not be a problem for the AI-171 crash investigators, given the plane was airborne for less than a minute. Horrific visuals show the plane failing to gain altitude and falling on residential buildings bordering the airport, with a hostel taking the brunt of the impact.

Newer CVR models combine recording of critical flight parameters like altitude, airspeed, and control inputs by pilots, leading to it being called Digital Voice and Data Recorder, or DVDR.

A more traditional CVR is usually a small and bright orange coloured metal box, with a cylindrical protrusion on one side and a rectangular one on the other. These are roughly six inches high, five inches wide, and about 13 inches deep, and can weigh up to 10kg.

Now the flight data recorders

On planes where the two are separate devices, the FDR records key flight parameters.

Modern FDRs can record from thousands of data points and systems inputs by the pilot or the plane itself, and there are slight variations between different models. All, though, will record a number of mandatory data points and also radio transmissions, to correlate data from the CVR.

Some of the mandatory data points are:

1. Pressure altitude
2. Indicated airspeed
3. Magnetic heading
4. Normal acceleration
5. Microphone keying, which are the radio transmissions

With the help of all this data investigators can even re-create the flightpath of a crashed aircraft, allowing them to see exactly what went wrong and then figure out why.

Like the CVR, the FDR can also record for 25 hours in a loop, and is almost identical to the former in its size and weight. Also painted a bright orange, the FDR looks like a small gas cylinder attached to a large rectangular box.

So where are the CVR and FDR stored?

In the tail section of the plane. This is widely considered the area that suffers the least damage from a crash, allowing for the greatest chance of recovering complete flight information.

These boxes are specially designed – specifically the section that stores recorded data – to survive high-speed impact and fire. They are not, though, unbreakable and can be destroyed

Each also emits a radio signal – which is active for 30 days and can also be located if the box is underwater – that investigators can track in the event of a crash.

What happened to flight AI-171?

There were 242 people, including the pilots and crew, on board the London-bound plane.

Of them only one person – a British-Indian male sitting in seat 11A – survived.

The plane took off June 12 at 1.39 pm, the Civil Aviation Ministry spokesperson said last week, and within seconds, radioed Ahmedabad ATC about a lack of thrust and then went radio silent.

“Mayday! Mayday! Thrust not achieved…” were Captain Sabharwal’s final words. Ahmedabad ATC immediately tried to contact the flight but there was no response. Seconds later the plane crashed into buildings in the Meghaninagar neighbourhood, including the BJ Medical College.

Initial theories suggested birdstrikes in both engines, a major hydraulic or electronic failure, or an error with the flaps, but there has been no confirmation of the cause as yet, and data from the CVR and FDR will go a long way to establishing just what happened to flight A-171. (NDTV)

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A mistake at the hands of the training pilots had resulted in the recent crash of a Sri Lanka Air Force aircraft, Minister of Civil Aviation Bimal Rathnayake said. 

Speaking to reporters, Minister Rathnayake said he had requested and received a copy of the investigation report by the specially appointed technical committee probing the crash. 

He further clarified that per the report, the aircraft and engines were well-maintained and not old.

“Just because old vehicles are allowed to run on the roads, we cannot do so with aircraft. The pilots flying this specific aircraft were under training. A mistake had been made by them. We are relieved that the trainers survived the accident. This is an ordinary incident during training and happens the world over,” he said. 

Minister Bimal Rathnayake stressed this was the only reason for the Air Force aircraft crash last week and this was the finding of the technical report on the crash as well. 

A Sri Lanka Air Force training aircraft crashed in Wariyapola on Friday, 21 March.

A K-8 training jet with two pilots had suddenly gone out of radar contact and later crashed at Minuwangete in Wariyapola.

However, both pilots had managed to safely eject, landing at a school in Padeniya, Kurunegala. (Newswire)

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Video footage has emerged on the Sri Lanka Air Force training aircraft crash reported in Wariyapola early this morning.

A K-8 training jet with two pilots had suddenly gone out of radar contact and later crashed at Minuwangete in Wariyapola.

However, both pilots had managed to safely eject, landing at a school in Padeniya, Kurunegala.

The public has captured videos of moments before the aircraft crashed, as well as the pilots safely ejecting. (Newswire)

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Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) has appointed a four-member committee to investigate the training aircraft crash reported in Wariyapola early this morning.

According to the SLAF, the committee has been appointed on the directive of the Commander of the Air Force, Air Marshal Vasu Bandu Edirisinghe.

A K-8 training jet with two pilots had suddenly gone out of radar contact and later crashed at Minuwangete in Wariyapola.

Both pilots had managed to safely eject, landing at a school in Padeniya, Kurunegala.

The SLAF said the pilots had been admitted to the Kurunegala National Hospital for a medical examination. (Newswire)

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A Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) training aircraft crashed in the Wariyapola area today.

According to the SLAF Spokesman, both pilots on board ejected safely and landed using parachutes.

No casualties or injuries have been reported from the incident, and the crash did not affect civilians in the area.

Investigations are underway to determine the cause of the crash. (Newswire)

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Video footage has emerged of the training aircraft which crashed in the China Bay Air Force Camp in the Eastern Province today.

According to the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF), the two Air Force officers killed in the crash have been identified as a Wing Commander and an Aircraft Engineer/ Flying Officer.

The SLAF stated that Wing Commander Tharindu Herath and Flying Officer Peshan Warnasooriya had embarked on the journey for an air test of a PT 6 aircraft.

The duo departed from the airstrips of China Bay around 11.25 am after which the aircraft had crashed at an area inside the China Bay Camp around 11.27 am.

The SLAF stated that Wing Commander Tharindu Herath who is a student of Maliyadeva Maha Vidyalaya had joined the Air Force in 2006. He is a father of three.

Aircraft Engineer/ Flying Officer Peshan Warnasooriya who is a student of St. Anne’s College, Kurunegala joined the Air Force in 2017 after completing his higher education at the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University. (NewsWire)

A training aircraft that took off from the airstrips of the Sri Lanka Air Force Academy in China Bay in the Eastern Province crashed killing two persons onboard pic.twitter.com/R1Td5KMeWb

— NewsWire (@NewsWireLK) August 7, 2023

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