Latest news with #NatarajanChandrasekaran
Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mirror
Expert details Air India plane's 'problem' she believes led to horror crash
Air India flight AI171 crashed earlier this month - killing all but one of the 242 people onboard - but Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of the airline, defended the plane's "clean" engines A computer glitch caused the doomed Air India flight AI171 to crash earlier this month, an aviation expert claimed today. The snag would have sent wrong information to the engine, potentially leading it to believe the Boeing was on the ground when in fact it was airborne on Thursday June 12 in Ahmedabad, western India. The plane careered into a medical college, killing all but one of those onboard and several more people in the building and on the ground. Mary Schiavo, an experienced professional who has worked on aviation disasters across each continent, said she believes a computer error is the most likely cause following a lack of concrete information shared by investigators so far. The former US Department of Transportation inspector general said: "I believe this crash was a computer problem. There are several 787 components that rely on computer code to tell the plane whether it is in the air or on the ground. If the computer or code malfunctions, the engines spool back and the thrust is reduced, even if in flight. "This happened on an ANA 787 flight in 2019, which suffered a dual engine failure as landing, and I'm afraid it could have occurred on the fatal Air India Flight 171." Ms Schiavo is now an aviation analyst and attorney, working for Motley Rice, a law firm investigating the possibilities of what might have occurred during the 787 Dreamliner disaster. As an attorney, she represented more than 50 of the family members of the passengers and crew of all the planes hijacked on September 11, 2001. But the expert says the Air India Flight 171 disaster shares parallels with the ANA 787 flight tragedy in July 2019, which saw another Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner - operated by All Nippon Airways - suffer an engine oil problem on approach to Haneda, also known as Tokyo International Airport, in Japan. It experienced a dual engine failure, something Ms Schiavo believes could have happened to the Air India jet. However, the airline's chairman, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, last week defended the plane's engines, describing them as "clean". The 62-year-old businessman told Times Now: "The right engine was a new engine put in March 2025. "The left engine was last serviced in 2023 and due for its next maintenance check in December 2025. There are a lot of speculations and a lot of theories. "But the fact that I know so far is this particular aircraft, this specific tail, AI171, has a clean history. I am told by all the experts that the black box and recorders will definitely tell the story. So, we just have to wait for that." The investigation into the crash continues.
Mint
20-06-2025
- Automotive
- Mint
Tata Motors eyes rare earth magnet sources, has enough stocks: Chandrasekaran
Tata Motors Ltd has enough stock of rare earth magnets, and the company is scouting for new sources amid China's export curbs, Tata Sons chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran said. 'As of now, we are OK; we are not facing any issues. We are able to source the magnets we need, and are working on securing alternative sources of rare earth magnets,' Chandrasekaran said at the company's 80th annual shareholders' meeting on Friday. 'We are working with the government (on the issue).' Tata Motors, India's largest automaker by revenue, is among numerous businesses affected by China's export curbs on rare earth magnets, which are critical in automotive, aerospace, and electronics industries. Though the curbs were imposed in April as a trade war between the US and China and flared, the two rivals have since reached a deal. However, exports to India remain blocked, and domestic companies are pushing the government to engage Chinese officials to ease supplies. Chandrasekaran's comments on the rare earth magnet issue come a day after R.C. Bhargava, chairperson of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, India's second-largest automaker and largest carmaker, said his company's stocks of rare earth magnets will last until July. On 11 June, Reuters reported that Maruti Suzuki had cut near-term production targets for its maiden electric vehicle e-Vitara by two-thirds because of rare earth shortages. The e-Vitara was expected to launch before September end. Out of the 54 shareholders who posed questions at Friday's virtual AGM, a fourth referred to rare earth magnets and the situation on the US tariff front. The chairperson also addressed the concerns of shareholders on US tariffs. 'The tariff impact will be primarily on Jaguar-Land Rover. Tariff has gone up from 2.5% to 27.5%, and under the UK-US FTA, the tariff is 10%. The overall impact would have been 1.6 billion pounds. But due to the steps taken by JLR, the impact has gone down to 600 million pounds, which is visible in the margin guidance,' Chandrasekaran told shareholders. JLR, the British subsidiary of Tata Motors, has trimmed its guidance on revenue growth to 5-7% for FY26 from 10% mentioned earlier. The company attributed the reduction to the impact of the tariffs and the slowdown in the Chinese market. In an interview with Mint earlier, Shailesh Chandra, managing director at Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, said that rare earths are required for both internal combustion engine vehicles and electric vehicles. China said on 4 April that companies seeking rare earth magnets must submit applications with end user certificates to the Chinese embassy, which then go to the provinces from where magnets are sourced. After approval from provincial authorities, the Chinese commerce ministry has to approve the applications. So far, no Indian company has received approval to receive shipments of these critical items. As per industry estimates, it takes about 45 days to get approval. Bajaj Auto Ltd's executive director Rakesh Sharma said during the company's earnings call on 29 May that the industry will face production cuts starting July if the situation is not resolved. However, Tata Motors' leadership remains confident that the situation is under control and will likely be resolved. Chandrasekaran said the Tata Group will continue its investments in the electric vehicle business, and will likely achieve the 30% penetration target in its overall portfolio before 2030. This was Chandrasekaran's first appearance at a Tata Group company annual general meeting this year. Earlier, he skipped the AGMs of Tata Consumer Products Ltd (TCPL) and Tata Consultancy Services on 18 and 19 June, as top Tata Group officials attended to the crisis over the Air India crash in Ahmedabad on 12 June. The AGMs of TCPL and TCS were presided over by board members P.B. Balaji and Keki Mistry, respectively. Chandrasekaran also condoled the deaths from the AI accident, and requested the board members and shareholders to observe a minute of silence. 'My thoughts are with family and friends who lost their loved ones and I know, we have the same feeling,' Chandrasekaran said in his opening address. 'This has been a long and unsettling week for all of us as a nation, as a group and at a very human level, navigating a very deep sorrow, grief and uncertainty all at the same time.' The chairperson also spoke of Ratan Tata, the group's chairman-emeritus who died last October. 'I had the opportunity to constantly share updates with Ratan Tata about the business in the last few years. While we all miss him, I want you to know that he would have been very proud of the turnaround of the business as Tata Motors was very close to his heart,' Chandrasekaran told shareholders.
Sky News
19-06-2025
- Business
- Sky News
Air India suspends some long-haul flights after fatal crash and reduces the frequency of others
Air India has confirmed it is suspending some of its long-haul flights from Saturday, including routes using the same type of Boeing aircraft which crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad. The decision follows last Thursday's fatal crash involving a Boeing 787-8 flight from Ahmedabad to Gatwick. All but one of the 242 people on board were killed, with around 30 fatalities on the ground, in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade. It was confirmed on Wednesday that the sole survivor, a British national, had left hospital. Most temporary reductions will last until at least mid-July, affecting both 787 and 777 aircraft types, and includes routes to Gatwick. The firm said in a statement it was cutting international services because of "enhanced pre-flight safety checks" and to accommodate "additional flight durations arising from airspace closures in the Middle East". Routes between Delhi-Nairobi, Amritsar-Gatwick and Goa-Gatwick are being suspended entirely. 0:34 The frequency of other services will also be reduced from Delhi, Bengaluru and Amritsar to certain destinations in North America, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Europe - including Heathrow and Birmingham. The route between Ahmedabad and Gatwick remains unaffected. Air India has apologised and promised to contact affected passengers to offer alternative flights or refunds. The airline's chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran on Wednesday insisted the Boeing 787-8 aircraft had a "clean history". "The right engine was a new engine put in [in] March 2025. The left engine was last serviced in 2023 and was due [its] next maintenance check in December 2025," he told the Indian channel Times Now.. Meanwhile, India's aviation regulator has issued warning notices to Air India for breaching safety rules after three of its Airbus planes flew despite being overdue checks on emergency slides and for being slow to address the issue, according to news agency Reuters. The warning notices and an investigation report were not in any way related to last week's crash and were sent days before that incident. The government has also said there has not been any decision yet on where the flight data recorders, also called black boxes, will be analysed. Indian newspaper The Economic Times reported that they were due to be sent to the US so the data could be extracted, as they had suffered fire damage and could not be analysed in India. The government said in a statement that India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) would decide where the recorders would be examined after making a "due assessment" of all technical, safety and security considerations. Black boxes have two components - the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder - and provide crucial insights for crash investigators. They include altitude, airspeed, the status of controls and pilot conversations which help determine probable causes of crashes.
Telegraph
19-06-2025
- General
- Telegraph
Air India crash jet had new engine
The Air India chairman has defended the engines of the plane that crashed last week killing 270 people. Natarajan Chandrasekaran claimed that both engines had 'clean' histories, adding that one was new in March and the other was not due for servicing until December. All but one of the passengers and crew died when the Boeing 787 Dreamliner plunged into a built-up suburb last Thursday, less than a minute after take-off from Ahmedabad airport. The circumstances have led to speculation the engines failed after leaving the runway. However, in an interview with an Indian news channel, Mr Chandrasekaran advised against jumping to conclusions. Mr Chandrasekaran told Times Now: 'The right engine was a new engine put [in] in March 2025. The left engine was last serviced in 2023 and due for its next maintenance check in December 2025. 'There are a lot of speculations and a lot of theories. But the fact that I know so far is this particular aircraft, this specific tail, AI171, has a clean history. 'I am told by all the experts that the black box and recorders will definitely tell the story. So, we just have to wait for that.' In response to the crash, all Indian-registered Dreamliners are undergoing special inspections. However, neither Indian nor US aviation regulators have demanded the grounding of all 787s until those checks are carried out. Mr Chandrasekaran's comments came after India's aviation watchdog demanded the training records of the pilots. Stephanie Pope, the head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, is said to have met the chairman to discuss the crash at the airline's headquarters near New Delhi. Since the crash, Air India has been blighted by technical issues on a number of its flights. Investigators have recovered two black boxes from the wreckage, which will contain vital information about what went wrong. Vishwash Kumar Ramesh was the only survivor of the crash. Sitting in seat 11A, on an exit row next to a door, he was able to escape from the wreckage before it was consumed by the post-crash fire.
Hindustan Times
16-06-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
‘Seen many crises, nothing like this': Air India chairman Chandrasekaran on plane crash
Tata Sons chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran on Monday said that he had seen many crises, adding that the Ahmedabad plane crash was the 'most heartbreaking' of his career. Chandrasekaran said this while speaking to Air India staff, according to sources cited in a PTI news agency report. His statement comes days after the plane crash in Ahmedabad, which led to the deaths of 241 of the 242 people onboard and reportedly 29 on ground. One passenger had a miraculous escape after the crash. Air India on Saturday announced an interim payment of ₹25 lakh to the affected families. The aid, announced by Air India CEO and managing Director Campbell Wilson, is in addition to the ₹1 crore compensation announced earlier by Air India for the families of the victims. Tata Sons and Air India Chairman N Chandrasekaran on Monday urged airline's employees to stay on course in the wake of the airline's plane crash in Ahmedabad last week, terming the accident the most "heartbreaking" crisis of his career, according to sources cited in the PTI report. Addressing close to 700 employees and the leadership team across the Air India headquarters and Air India Training Academy in Gurugram, Chandrasekaran said the employees need to show resilience and use this incident as an act of force to build a "safer airline". "We have to make sure that we stay the course. Be more determined in everything we do. We need to wait for the investigation to find out," the sources quoted Chandrasekaran as saying. "I've seen a reasonable number of crises in my career, but this is the most heartbreaking one which I never thought I would see," the sources quoted Chandrasekaran as saying. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner lost altitude under a minute after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport, crashing into the hostel of the BJ Medical College. Air India CEO Wilson had earlier said that families of the victims were also granted access to trained caregivers, who would provide them with "dedicated assistance, counselling and other such services. He also said that the airline's teams were working with the authorities and the families to provide assistance in the reunification process.
