Latest news with #VishwashkumarRamesh
Mint
18-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Boeing 787 crash: What we know and what comes next
Next Story Al Root , Barrons Investigations are focused on the engines and why the plane lost lift shortly after takeoff. Investigative officials stand at the site of Air India Boeing 787, which crashed on June 12 in Ahmedabad, India. Gift this article Boeing stock was wavering on Wednesday as investors slowly pieced together what happened to the 787 jet that crashed in India almost a week ago. Boeing stock was wavering on Wednesday as investors slowly pieced together what happened to the 787 jet that crashed in India almost a week ago. Investigations are focused on the engines and why the plane lost lift shortly after takeoff. Shares of the commercial jet maker were flat in premarket trading on Wednesday at $200.31 a share, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively. Boeing shares traded as high as $205.31 on Tuesday, but closed down 0.8% at $200.26. Shares hit their high shortly after 11 a.m. Eastern time, jumping about $4, after reports that Air India had completed its 787 safety inspections without any material findings. The stock gave back gains relatively quickly, though. Air India operates more than 30 Boeing 787 jets. Inspections and an extra focus on safety have disrupted some flights in recent days. Coming into Wednesday trading, Boeing stock was down almost $14, or 6%, since Thursday, when Air India Flight 171, bound for the U.K., crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 241 of the 242 people on board. As of Tuesday, the death toll had risen to almost 280, including people in the area where the plane went down, and was likely to rise further. The sole survivor of the crash, 40-year-old Vishwashkumar Ramesh, said he heard a loud noise and saw flickering lights before the crash, according to reports. The pilots made a 'mayday" call, reporting no lift. No official statements have been made yet, but videos appear to show the 787 deploying its Ram Air Turbine, or RAT, shortly before the crash. RATs are an automatically deployed emergency system designed to provide some electricity and hydraulic power in the event of significant power loss. Essentially, it's a twin-prop turbine that spins in the headwind, generating power. Boeing and GE Aerospace, the maker of the planes engines, didn't comment on the deployment. That shouldn't surprise investors. Companies defer to investigating authorities, in keeping with global airline regulations. The RAT deployment could signal dual engine failure or a major electrical failure, but no cause of the problem has been determined. It is incredibly rare to lose both engines. A 787 can fly with only one. Only theories exist about how a modern jet could lose both engines. Theories range from fuel problems to heat to damage. It's still too early to say. Both of the jet's black boxes, the flight-data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, have been recovered. They should yield more insight in the coming days. The plane was a 12-year-old Boeing 787, powered by GE engines, that had accumulated 41,700 flight hours over 7,800 flights. Before Thursday, the twin-aisle 787 jet, introduced in 2011, had never been involved in a fatal crash. Coming into Wednesday trading, GE Aerospace stock was down about 4% since the crash, while the S&P 500 was off about 1%. The jet underwent a 'C check," which is a comprehensive inspection done every 20 to 24 months, in 2023, according to reports. The engines were overhauled earlier in 2025 in accordance with typical operating procedures. Monday, an Air India Boeing 787 flight experienced an unspecified technical issue. Flight 315 leaving Hong Kong turned around and landed safely shortly after takeoff, according to flight tracker data. The exact cause of the turnaround hasn't been disclosed. There is no reason to expect the issues are linked, beyond an increased focus on flight safety. Air India and Boeing didn't immediately respond to requests for comment about the issue. Indian aviation authorities are leading the investigation. Official statements will come from them. Investigations continued as the Paris Air Show opened on Monday. The biennial show is a chance for Boeing and Airbus to collect customer orders and for investors to meet with aerospace management teams. Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg canceled his plans to attend, and GE Aerospace delayed its Paris analyst event. Topics You May Be Interested In Catch all the Business News , Corporate news , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
BBC News
18-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Air India: Lone survivor lays brother to rest at emotional funeral
The British man who was the sole survivor of last week's Air India plane crash has helped lay his brother to rest at a funeral in western Ramesh's brother Ajay was also on the ill-fated flight but did not survive the tragedy.A visibly upset Ramesh was one of the pall bearers who carried his brother's coffin to the crematorium in the town of Diu, his arm and face still covered in white bandages. He's spent most of the past five days in London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed seconds after taking off on Thursday from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. At least 270 people were killed, most of them passengers. Mr Ramesh's mother walked with the coffin in a blue sari along with other mourners, as he held it on his right people from the town - which lost 14 other people to the crash - came out for the funeral even as the rain lashed the one is clear how Mr Ramesh managed to survive. He even tried to go back to the blazing plane to search for his brother, one of the first responders at the scene told the BBC. In a new video that emerged earlier this week, ambulance driver Satinder Singh Sandhu is the man seen guiding Mr Ramesh to safety as he walks out of the crash site with flames and thick smoke billowing into the air behind him. Mr Sandhu, a supervisor with the emergency ambulance services in Ahmedabad, says he had no idea who he was helping, or that Mr Ramesh had escaped from the plane. He only found out later that day on the news that the man was the sole survivor of the crash. Vishwashkumar Ramesh, 40, was in seat 11A on the flight. His brother is reported to have been sitting a few seats other passengers and crew were killed and nearly 30 people also died on the ground after the plane hurtled down and crashed into a doctor's hostel. But Mr Ramesh miraculously survived, managing to get out of the wreckage through an opening in the new video shows Mr Sandhu, who's wearing a blue turban, walk up to Mr Ramesh and guide him to Sandhu said he was having lunch with his colleagues when he first noticed a "massive fire with thick smoke rising into the sky"."At first, we thought it might be a car accident or a gas cylinder blast. Soon, we learned it was a plane crash. I immediately instructed my team to bring an ambulance, and rushed to the site." Speaking to BBC Gujarati, Mr Sandhu said that he was just trying to do his job. In his decades-long career, he said he had encountered many challenging what surprised him that day was how Mr Ramesh, after being rescued, kept trying to go back to the site of the crash."He had no idea what he was doing. He kept going in and out of the complex. We told him to stop, and dragged him away to an ambulance so that he could receive medical care," Mr Sandhu said."That's when he said to me that his relative was trapped inside and he wanted to go save him. We did not speak a word after that."Mr Ramesh later told India's DD News that he was trying to go look for Ajay. At the scene, Mr Sandhu spotted a security guard who seemed to have been injured in the impact. His clothes were partially burnt and Mr Sandhu first helped him."I also saw a woman. She was screaming in horror. Her son who ran a tea stall had been killed in the crash."Moments later he saw Mr Ramesh emerge from the crash site in a white had injuries on his face and burns on his arms and looked visibly upset, Mr Sandhu said."At that point, we had no idea who the injured man was. I thought he was one of the doctors who lived in the college. Later, when we saw the news, we realised he was the lone survivor of the crash."Chirag, a member of Mr Sandhu's ambulance team, told PTI news agency that Mr Ramesh was telling someone on a video call that his relatives were at the crash first responders treated him for his injuries and rushed him to the trauma centre of a hospital his interview with DD News, Mr Ramesh had said he could not believe that he came out of the wreckage alive."For a moment, I felt like I was going to die too, but when I opened my eyes and looked around, I realised I was alive."I still can't believe how I survived. I walked out of the rubble."The cause of the crash is not yet known. Officials are trying to decode the cockpit voice and flight data recorders - collectively known as the black box - recovered from the wreckage to piece together what reporting by Zoya Mateen in DelhiFollow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
CBC
16-06-2025
- General
- CBC
2 different plane crash survivors say they sat in seat 11A — does where you sit actually matter?
Two different doomed flights, two different survivors with one thing in common: seat 11A. Vishwashkumar Ramesh, the sole survivor of the Air India crash that killed 241 people on board and several more on the ground after the plane crashed minutes after takeoff last Thursday, has made headlines around the world. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner struck a medical college hostel in a ball of flames when it crashed into a residential area of the northwestern Indian city of Ahmedabad. Most bodies of those aboard the plane were burned beyond recognition. But police say Ramesh was seated near the emergency exit of the plane and managed to jump through it after the crash. U.K. media have dubbed it the " miracle of seat 11A," after Ramesh's boarding pass confirmed that's where he was sitting on the flight bound for London's Gatwick Airport. Sole survivor of Air India crash has an incredible story — but he's not unique But Thai singer and actor James Ruangsak Loychusak, who was one of the survivors of a deadly 1998 Thai Airways plane crash, is calling it an "uncanny coincidence." "Survivor of a plane crash in India. He sat in the same seat as me. 11A," Loychusak wrote on Facebook Friday. According to the Aviation Safety Network, the Airbus A310 Loychusak was aboard in 1998 crashed during its approach to Surat Thani Airport, killing 101 people. The plane crashed in heavy rain, after its third landing attempt at the airport 500 kilometres southwest of Bangkok. But 45 people survived, including Loychusak. In a further explanation, written in Thai, Loychusak wrote that he doesn't have his ticket or boarding pass from the flight, but he said he knows his seat number based on online seating charts for his aircraft, which he shared in his post. In a further explanation, Loychusak wrote in Thai that he doesn't have his ticket or boarding pass from the flight. As such, CBC News is unable to verify his exact seat. But he claimed to know his seat number based on online seating charts for his aircraft, which he shared online. "That was an uncanny coincidence," he told India's The Telegraph Online Monday. "The kind that gives you goosebumps." Just a coincidence? After Loychusak shared his post, the story began to go viral, and some people commenting online have wondered if there's something about seat 11A that makes it safer than others. Not according to aviation and disaster medicine experts, who tend to agree that all crashes are unique, and there are a number of random factors that could improve your chances of survival, so it's more about all those variables aligning. "Each accident is different, and it is impossible to predict survivability based on seat location," Mitchell Fox, a director at Flight Safety Foundation, a U.S.-based nonprofit, previously told Reuters. Plus, seat 11A is located in different spots on different planes, depending on the configuration of the aircraft. In Ramesh's case, seat 11A on the 787-8 Dreamliner was the first row in economy class, directly behind the emergency exit. But in an Airbus A310, according to photos on the Seat Guru website and a graphic of a seating chart shared on Facebook by Loychusak, 11A is a few rows ahead of the emergency exit. In general, sitting near an emergency exit can improve chances of evacuation, especially in survivable crashes involving fire or smoke, said Stephen Wood, an associate clinical professor at Northeastern University in Boston and an expert in disaster medicine and EMS. However, in a high-energy impact crash, like the one in India, survivability based on seat location becomes far more complex, he told CBC News. Exit row seats are often near reinforced parts of the airframe, Wood explained. They are also adjacent to structural components like the wing span which can be sites of significant destruction. "In this case, the fact that the survivor was seated there may have been fortuitous, but it's not a guarantee of safety in most crashes," Wood said, speaking specifically about Ramesh's experience. "So yes, his seat may have helped, but survival likely depended on much more than that alone." WATCH | Survivor of Air India crash walks away: British national was sole survivor of Air India crash 3 days ago Duration 4:43 Vishwashkumar Ramesh, a British national of Indian descent, was the only passenger who survived the crash of an Air India plane bound for London that killed at least 240 people on Thursday in Ahmedabad. Social media video appeared to show him walking away from the crash; CBC News has not independently verified the video. Every crash is different In short, it doesn't really matter where you sit since every accident is different, experts say. "It all depends on the crash dynamics," Daniel Kwasi Adjekum, an aviation safety researcher at the University of North Dakota, told Live Science earlier this month. A 2007 Popular Mechanics study of crashes since 1971 found that passengers toward the back of the plane had better survival odds. Some experts suggest the wing section offers more stability (while also acknowledging the danger of being over the fuel tanks). A study conducted by Time magazine in 2015 concluded the middle seats in the rear of the aircraft had the highest survival probability. Sitting next to an exit door, as Ramesh did, gives people an opportunity to be one of the first passengers to get out in the event that a plane goes down, although some exits don't function after a crash. For instance, Ramesh has said the opposite side of the plane was crushed against a wall of the building it crashed into. This could have prevented anyone who may have survived the impact on the right side of the plane from escaping through that emergency exit. "From a technical perspective, survival in these kinds of events is usually due to a confluence of rare but explainable factors including the aircraft's breakup pattern, impact dynamics, the survivor's position and condition and sometimes just seconds of timing," Wood told CBC News. 'Beyond seat numbers' On Facebook Sunday, Loychusak noted that his story is "now going viral across many countries." "But what I truly want to share goes beyond seat numbers," he said. "I want to tell the world what this experience gave me — not just survival, but a completely new perspective on life." The Thai Airways flight that crashed on Dec. 11, 1998, was carrying 132 passengers and 14 crew. Hundreds of rescue workers waded through a muddy swamp to pull charred bodies from the wreckage. Loychusak survived, but endured severe injuries, including fractured ribs, spinal trauma, and brain hemorrhaging. He spent over a year in recovery, he told India's The Telegraph. Though he was a recognizable pop star, he said he had to get used to a different type of spotlight from his hospital bed. That included families of victims asking "Why you?" Loychusak told the news site. "I didn't have an answer then. I still don't."
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First Post
16-06-2025
- First Post
Air India plane crash: Is flying risky business?
Catastrophic events such as the Air India crash affect us deeply. The thought of going down in an aircraft may feel more frightening than dying in other ways. All this taps into the emotions of fear, vulnerability and helplessness, and leads to an overemphasis on the risks. However, air travel is still arguably the safest method of transport read more Members of Indian Army's engineering arm prepare to remove the wreckage of an Air India aircraft, bound for London's Gatwick Airport, which crashed during take-off from an airport in Ahmedabad, India. Reuters On Thursday afternoon, an Air India passenger plane bound for London crashed shortly after takeoff from the Indian city of Ahmedabad. There were reportedly 242 people onboard, including two pilots and 10 cabin crew. The most up-to-date reports indicate the death toll , including people on the ground. Miraculously, one passenger – British national Vishwashkumar Ramesh – survived the crash. Thankfully, catastrophic plane crashes such as this are very rare. But seeing news of such a horrific event is traumatic, particularly for people who may have a fear of flying or are due to travel on a plane soon. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD If you're feeling anxious following this distressing news, it's understandable. But here are some things worth considering when you're thinking about the risk of plane travel. Dangers of flying One of the ways to make sense of risks, especially really small ones, is to put them into context. Although there are various ways to do this, we can first look to figures that tell us the risk of dying in a plane crash per passenger who boards a plane. Arnold Barnett, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, calculated that in 2018–22, this figure was one in 13.7 million. By any reckoning, this is an incredibly small risk. And there's a clear trend of air travel getting safer every decade. Barnett's calculations suggest that between 2007 and 2017, the risk was one per 7.9 million. We can also compare the risks of dying in a plane crash with those of dying in a car accident. Although estimates of motor vehicle fatalities vary depending on how you do the calculations and where you are in the world, flying has been estimated to be more than 100 times safer than driving. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The tail of the Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane that crashed is seen stuck on a building after the incident in Ahmedabad. Reuters Evolution has skewed our perception of risks The risk of being involved in a plane crash is extremely small. But for a variety of reasons, we often perceive it to be greater than it is. First, there are well-known limitations in how we intuitively estimate risk. Our responses to risk (and many other things) are often shaped far more by emotion and instinct than by logic. As psychologist Daniel Kahneman explains in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, much of our thinking about risk is driven by intuitive, automatic processes rather than careful reasoning. Notably, our brains evolved to pay attention to threats that are striking or memorable. The risks we faced in primitive times were large, immediate and tangible threats to life. Conversely, the risks we face in the modern world are generally much smaller, less obvious, and play out over the longer term. The brain that served us well in prehistoric times has essentially remained the same, but the world has completely changed. Therefore, our brains are susceptible to errors in thinking and mental shortcuts called cognitive biases that skew our perception of modern risks. This can lead us to overestimate very small risks, such as plane crashes, while underestimating far more probable dangers, such as chronic diseases. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Why we overestimate the risks of flying There are several drivers of our misperception of risks when it comes to flying specifically. The fact events such as the Air India plane crash are so rare makes them all the more psychologically powerful when they do occur. And in today's digital media landscape, the proliferation of dramatic footage of the crash itself, along with images of the aftermath, amplifies its emotional and visual impact. The effect these vivid images have on our thinking around the risks of flying is called the availability heuristic. The more unusual and dramatic an event is, the more it stands out in our minds, and the more it skews our perception of its likelihood. Another influence on the way we perceive risks relevant to flying is called dread risk, which is a psychological response we have to certain types of threats. We fear certain risks that feel more catastrophic or unfamiliar. It's the same reason we may disproportionately fear terrorist attacks, when in reality they're very uncommon. Plane crashes usually involve a large number of deaths that occur at one time. And the thought of going down in a plane may feel more frightening than dying in other ways. All this taps into the emotions of fear, vulnerability and helplessness, and leads to an overweighting of the risks. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Another factor that contributes to our overestimation of flying risks is our lack of control when flying. When we're passengers on a plane, we are in many ways completely dependent on others. Even though we know pilots are highly trained and commercial aviation is very safe, the lack of control we have as passengers triggers a deep sense of vulnerability. This absence of control makes the situation feel riskier than it actually is, and often riskier than activities where the threat is far greater but there is an (often false) sense of control, such as driving a car. Passengers gather in front of the ticket counter of Air India airlines. File image/Reuters In a nutshell We have an evolutionary bias toward reacting more strongly to particular threats, especially when these events are dramatic, evoke dread and when we feel an absence of control. Although events such as Air India crash affect us deeply, air travel is still arguably the safest method of transport. Understandably, this can get lost in the emotional aftermath of tragic plane crashes. Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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First Post
16-06-2025
- General
- First Post
How is the Air India investigation unfolding? Why are UK, US involved?
At least 270 people were killed after a London-bound Air India flight, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner (AI 171) crashed at the Ahmedabad airport on June 12 just moments after taking off. The Centre has constituted a high-level committee to examine the causes of the crash and experts from Boeing as well as teams from the UK and the US are aiding the investigation read more Parts of an Air India plane that crashed on Thursday are seen on top of a building in Ahmedabad, India. AP The investigation into the Air India plane crash is on. At least 270 people were killed after a London-bound Air India flight, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner (AI 171) crashed at the Ahmedabad airport on June 12 just moments after taking off. Two-hundred and forty-one people of 242 aboard were killed in the incident. The lone survivor, Vishwashkumar Ramesh, a British national of Indian-origin, is currently being treated in a hospital. This was the first Dreamliner crash since its commercial debut in 2011. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Experts from Boeing and teams from the UK and the US are also aiding the investigation. But how is the probe unfolding? Why are teams from the UK and US involved? Let's take a closer look: What do we know? The Centre has constituted a high-level committee to examine the causes of the crash. The committee, which will be headed by the Union home secretary, will also submit a list of recommendations within three months on how to prevent such accidents in the future. The committee is comprises of people from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Indian Air Force, as well as aviation experts. 'A High Level Multi-disciplinary Committee is constituted for examining the causes leading to the crash of the Air India Flight AI-171 from Ahmedabad to Gatwick Airport (London) on June 12, 2025. The Committee will examine the existing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and guidelines issued to prevent and handle such occurrences and suggest comprehensive guidelines for dealing with such instances in the future,' the order issued by the Ministry of Civil Aviation on Saturday read. Experts from Boeing and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) arrived in Gujarat on Sunday to examine the crash site. So did a 10-member team from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The (AAIB), which probes aircraft accidents and incidents, found the black box – which comprises the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) – of the plane 28 hours after the tragedy, according to Union Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu said. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD After a plane crash, the black box becomes the most important tool for investigators. Reuters Their contents, which are currently being analysed, could help unlock the mystery of the crash. Graham Braithwaite, an aviation professor at Cranfield University in England, told The Guardian, 'The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder will tell us a lot – assuming they are undamaged … and help the industry know how best to react in the short term.' He said the focus would be on 'making sure they don't lose evidence from the site during recovery efforts, or from the hangar, airport or training records'. 'The team can involve specialists from the manufacturer or operator … but under very strict controls to ensure the independence of the investigation.' Investigators are also looking at CCTV footage from BJ Medical College as well as Ahmedabad Airport. Footage of the crash recorded by a local named Vijay is also being looked at. While bird hit remains a possible theory, investigators are yet to find any proof of it. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD A source on Friday said the probe is narrowing in on the plane's engine, flaps and landing gear . The source said that the plane's engine thrust, flaps, and landing gear are all under scrutiny. It is also examining whether Air India is to blame as well as any issues with the plane's maintenance. Why are teams from US and UK involved? This is because of international aviation regulations. Annex 13 defines an accident as 'an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft: in which a person is fatally or seriously injured; in which an aircraft sustains damage or structural failure requiring repairs; after which the aircraft in question is classified as being missing'. Officials from the US are joining the investigation because the Boeing was manufactured there. 'The AAIB has launched a detailed investigation, and the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is conducting a parallel probe under international protocols, since the aircraft is American-made,' US officials said in a statement on Sunday. Meanwhile, experts from the UK are joining because of the large number of British citizens on board the aircraft. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'Maybe we will be able to speak later. We saw what you guys can see. It's just the same, as you can see from here,' one of the team members said. Daksha Patni mourns for her relative Akash Patni, 14, who died when an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft crashed during take-off from an airport, outside the postmortem room at a hospital, in Ahmedabad. Reuters Boeing's chief Kelly Ortberg in a statement said the company 'stands ready to support' the AAIB in its investigation. Meanwhile, the toll from the plane crash touched 270 on Saturday. 'Around 270 bodies have been brought to the civil hospital so far from the plane crash site,' Dr Dhaval Gameti,president of Junior Doctors' Association of BJ Medical College, said. The plane that crashed on Thursday flew for the first time in 2013 and was delivered to Air India in January 2014, Flightradar24 said. The passengers included 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian. With inputs from agencies
