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Former Air India Chief Ashwani Lohani Appointed as Director of Prime Ministers Museum and Library

Former Air India Chief Ashwani Lohani Appointed as Director of Prime Ministers Museum and Library

The Wire06-06-2025
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Former Air India Chief Ashwani Lohani Appointed as Director of Prime Ministers Museum and Library
The Wire Staff
43 minutes ago
Lohani is an Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineering (IRSME) officer of the 1980 batch.
Prime Ministers Museum and Library. Photo: public domain.
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New Delhi: The Prime Ministers Museum and Library, previously known as the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, has got a new director – former Air India chief Ashwani Lohani – months after the post was vacated earlier this year.
Lohani is an Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineering (IRSME) officer of the 1980 batch.
Before his appointment, Lily Pandeya, joint secretary in the Union culture ministry, had taken over as interim director after the tenure of former power secretary Sanjiv Nandan Sahai ended in March 2025.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved Lohani's appointment on June 4 for a three-year tenure, the Indian Express reported.
Lohani has served as the chairman and managing director of Air India in the past. He was also the chairman of the Railway Board of Indian Railways in 2017 and joined the GMR group as chief executive officer after retiring from government service.
The Union government has also expanded the executive council of PMML from 29 members to 34. The new members include former Union minister Smriti Irani, NITI Aayog former vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar, retired Army General Syed Ata Hasnain, renowned filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, and Vasudev Kamath from Sanskar Bharati, according to a notification issued by the culture ministry.
Former principal secretary to the prime minister Nripendra Mishra has been reappointed as the chairperson of the organisation.
Other new members include Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, archaeologist K.K. Mohammad, who was part of the Babri Masjid excavation team in 1976, and former head of the National Museum, B.R. Mani, the paper reported.
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The big question in Air India Crash: If pilots didn't cut fuel, what caused both engines to shut down mid-air? Experts say 'cockpit conversation is alarming'
The big question in Air India Crash: If pilots didn't cut fuel, what caused both engines to shut down mid-air? Experts say 'cockpit conversation is alarming'

Time of India

timean hour ago

  • Time of India

The big question in Air India Crash: If pilots didn't cut fuel, what caused both engines to shut down mid-air? Experts say 'cockpit conversation is alarming'

MUMBAI: The big questions are: If the pilots didn't cut off the fuel, then how did the fuel supply to both engines cut off during the most crucial phase of flight? Was it a technical problem with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner? The 15-page preliminary report released by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) into the Air India AI-171 crash, which killed 270 people. The report was made public in the early hours of Saturday. You Can Also Check: Mumbai AQI | Weather in Mumbai | Bank Holidays in Mumbai | Public Holidays in Mumbai Fuel cut-off seconds after lift-off About seven seconds after Air India flight AI-171 lifted off from Ahmedabad runway on June 12, the fuel to both engines of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner (VT-ANB) cut off. The shutdown happened within a time gap of one second. "In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why he cut off the fuel supply. The other pilot responded that he did not do so." 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Records indicate that VT-ANB underwent throttle control module replacements in 2019 and 2023, unrelated to fuel control switch faults, and no subsequent fuel control switch defects were documented after 2023, it added. "At this stage of the investigation, no definitive cause has been determined, and no immediate safety recommendations have been issued to B787-8 or GEnx-1B engine operators," it said, adding that the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) of India, supported by NTSB-USA, Boeing, GE, FAA, and other international stakeholders, continues a detailed investigation focused on engineering, human factors, and system interactions. TOI spoke to senior commanders and examiners, and they referred to another service bulletin issued jointly by FAA and GE (engine manufacturer) in 2021. Service Bulletin FAA-2021-0273-0013 Attachment 2 recommends the replacement of the "MN4 microprocessor on ECU" with respect to engine fuel and control. It states: "This recommendation is to address a condition that may affect Flight Safety... Accumulated thermal cycles of the EEC with age causes the solder ball to fail." Timeline of the crash This is the sequence of events from the AAIB report: 08:07:37 UTC – Aircraft began take-off roll 08:08:33 UTC – Aircraft reached V1 speed (153 knots IAS) — the speed at which take-off must continue 08:08:35 UTC – Reached Vr speed (155 knots IAS) — pilots pulled back the control column 08:08:39 UTC – Air/ground sensors switched to 'air' mode — aircraft had lifted off 08:08:42 UTC – Aircraft reached maximum airspeed (180 knots IAS) Immediately after – Engine 1 and 2 fuel cut-off switches moved from RUN to CUTOFF, one second apart Engine parameters N1 and N2 began dropping as fuel supply ceased.\ Air India plane crash "The CCTV footage obtained from the airport showed Ram Air Turbine (RAT) getting deployed during the initial climb immediately after lift-off. No significant bird activity is observed in the vicinity of the flight path. The aircraft started to lose altitude before crossing the airport perimeter wall," the report says. Experienced crew on board The commander had over 15,000 flying hours, including 8,600 on the B787, while the co-pilot had 3,400 hours. The co-pilot was Pilot Flying (PF) and the captain was Pilot Monitoring (PM). Possible link to microprocessor fault Senior commanders TOI spoke to referred to another technical alert: a 2021 joint bulletin by the FAA and GE (the engine manufacturer), recommending replacement of the 'MN4 microprocessor' on the engine's Electronic Control Unit (ECU). 'This recommendation is to address a condition that may affect Flight Safety… Accumulated thermal cycles of the EEC with age causes the solder ball to fail.' The ECU is the "brain" of the jet engine, controlling parameters like fuel flow and managing fault detection. 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"What was happening in the ten seconds after the fuel cutoff switch was off? The report doesn't give information on the conversation in the cockpit. The two sentences from the CVR mentioned in the report about a pilot enquiring who cut off the fuel also don't carry a timestamp." Capt Sam Thomas, President of the Airline Pilots' Association of India (APAI), said, "The conversation between the pilots enquiring who cut off the fuel control switch is alarming." He also flagged another issue: the Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) failed to work. "It should emit signals if the force of impact is between 3.2 to 3.5 G; the impact of the accident would have been exponentially higher." Doubts over investigation expertise Capt Thomas also questioned the makeup of the investigating team: "Who is the expert in this group? It is assumed that some B787 Dreamliner pilots have been... Why the secrecy? We know pilots in India, and none of them have been consulted. IAF pilots are not competent enough to investigate and understand modern aircraft operated by civilian airlines." In response, the AAIB clarified: "The investigation team comprising Mr. Sanjay Kumar Singh as Investigator-in-Charge, Mr. Jasbir Singh Larhga as chief investigator and Mr. Vipin Venu Varakoth, Mr. Veeraragavan K, and Mr. Vaishnav Vijayakumar as Investigators. Experienced Pilots, Engineers, Aviation Medicine Specialist, Aviation Psychologist and Flight Recorder Specialists have been taken on board as Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to assist the Investigation in the area of their domain expertise. " Final report due in 2026 The final AAIB report is expected by June 12, 2026. For now, the root cause of the tragedy that took 270 lives remains undetermined. "At this stage of the investigation, no definitive cause has been determined, and no immediate safety recommendations have been issued to B787-8 or GEnx-1B engine operators," the AAIB said. India, along with the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Boeing, GE, FAA, and other global agencies, continues to examine engineering flaws, human factors, and aircraft systems that may have triggered the dual engine flameout just seconds into flight.

Continue to support investigation: Boeing's 1st statement on Air India crash report
Continue to support investigation: Boeing's 1st statement on Air India crash report

India Today

time2 hours ago

  • India Today

Continue to support investigation: Boeing's 1st statement on Air India crash report

Boeing has issued its first statement following the release of the preliminary report by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) on the Air India Flight 171 crash in Ahmedabad.'Our thoughts remain with the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board Air India Flight 171, as well as everyone affected on the ground in Ahmedabad. We continue to support the investigation and our customer,' the aircraft manufacturer said in a its commitment to the ongoing probe, Boeing added that it will defer to the AAIB for information regarding the incident. 'In adherence with United Nations International Civil Aviation Organisation protocol, we will defer to the AAIB to provide information about AI171,' the statement read. India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) released a 15-page preliminary report on the June 12 crash involving an Air India Boeing 787-8 in Ahmedabad. The report reveals that both engines shut down just seconds after take-off, with the fuel cutoff switches for Engine 1 and Engine 2 shifting from RUN to CUTOFF within a one-second interval.- EndsWith inputs from Reuters.

The fuel switches and the AI 171 crash: Key takeaways from the prelim report
The fuel switches and the AI 171 crash: Key takeaways from the prelim report

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The fuel switches and the AI 171 crash: Key takeaways from the prelim report

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