DGCA initiates probe in turbulence at SpiceJet and IndiGo flights

Radhika Bansal

20 Jun 2022

A probe has been initiated into the fire in a Delhi-bound SpiceJet aircraft after take-off from Patna and two other air incidents, involving the IndiGo and SpiceJet flights, a senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said on Monday, June 20.

On Sunday, June 19 a Delhi-bound aircraft of the SpiceJet airlines carrying 185 passengers caught fire soon after taking off from the Patna airport and made an emergency landing minutes later.

"The aircraft landed safely in Patna and the passengers de-boarded safely. Post-flight inspection showed bird hit, with three fan blades damaged," the airline had said in a statement. In another incident on Sunday, June 19 a SpiceJet flight for Jabalpur had to return to Delhi due to a "pressurisation" issue. The SpiceJet Bombardier Q400 aircraft with registration no. VT-SUU, operating its flight SG-2962 (Delhi-Jabalpur) was involved in air turnback due to pressurisation snag.During the initial climb, the crew observed the cabin pressure differential was not building up along with rising in cabin altitude. The aircraft was levelled off at 6,000 feet, and non-normal checklist actions were carried out but pressurisation was not regained and airturn back was initiated."DGCA Official

The aircraft landed safely in Delhi. SpiceJet, in a statement, confirmed the safe mid-air return of its Delhi-Jabalpur flight on account of "cabin pressure differential".

In another incident on Sunday, the pilot-in-command of an IndiGo-operated Airbus A320neo plane, VT-ITB, operating flight 6E-6394 from Guwahati to Delhi, decided to take the flight back to Guwahati on a single-engine after the aircraft suffered a bird hit, which resulted in one of the engines getting damaged when the aircraft was at an altitude of 1,600 feet, the official said.

DGCA initiates probe in turbulence at SpiceJet and IndiGo flights

"The aircraft could not climb to 6,000 feet. After clearance maintained 2,000 ft and (flight crew) did ECAM (Electronic Centralised Aircraft Monitor) actions. Engine 01 was shut down per ECAM," he said. The aircraft, however, landed back safely at runway 20 of the Guwahati Airport, he added.

The ECAM is a system on Airbus aircraft for monitoring and displaying engine and aircraft system information to the pilots. In the vent of a malfunction, it will display the fault and may also display the appropriate steps of the remedial actions.

The ECAM is a system on Airbus aircraft for monitoring and displaying engine and aircraft system information to the pilots.

The official also said that the flight crew initially declared a 'Mayday' call on board the IndiGo airline's flight, which was later cancelled and changed to a "Pan-Pan" call.

"IndiGo Airbus A320neo (VT-ITB) operating flight 6E 6394 from Guwahati-Delhi returned to Guwahati airport, due to a suspected bird hit after take-off. All passengers were accommodated on another flight to Delhi," IndiGo said in a statement.

ALSO READ - IndiGo aircraft suffers engine damage after hit by a bird; returns safely to Guwahati

A probe has been instituted in all three incidents, the DGCA official said.

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IndiGo aircraft suffers engine damage after hit by a bird; returns safely to Guwahati

Radhika Bansal

20 Jun 2022

A Delhi-bound IndiGo flight from Guwahati returned to Guwahati airport due to a suspected bird hit after the takeoff on Sunday, June 19. All passengers were accommodated on another flight to Delhi and the aircraft was inspected.

"IndiGo Airbus A320neo (VT-ITB) operating flight 6E 6394 from Guwahati-Delhi returned to Guwahati airport, due to a suspected bird hit after takeoff. All passengers were accommodated on another flight to Delhi. The aircraft is being held on the ground for necessary inspections," the IndiGo said in a statement.

“Engine number 1 of the aircraft (VT-ITB) got damaged due to a bird hit when it was at an altitude of 1,600 feet. The crew then performed ‘ECAM’ actions. Engine number one was shut down. The aircraft returned to Guwahati safely,” said a senior DGCA official probing this case.

Instances of bird hits increase during monsoon as water-logged ground drives insects to the ground, attracting birds.

According to the aviation website Skybrary, ECAM is the “Airbus version of an enhanced engine indicating and crew alerting system (EICAS) system. It presents data on the engine/warning display and system display inclusive of primary engine indications, fuel quantity, flap and slat position.”

Instances of bird hits increase during monsoon as water-logged ground drives insects to the ground, attracting birds.

This was a third such incident in a day when a flight made an emergency landing. Earlier on Sunday, June 19 evening, a Jabalpur-bound SpiceJet flight landed back at the Delhi Airport after it failed to regain the cabin pressure differential even after attaining a height of 6,000 feet.

SpiceJet flight landed back at the Delhi Airport after it failed to regain the cabin pressure differential even after attaining a height of 6,000 feet.

According to a statement by the spokesperson of the airline, the cabin pressure differential was unable to be built up as the altitude of the cabin rose from the ground.

Earlier, in another incident concerning the airline, a SpiceJet Boeing 737 with about 185 people on board passengers returned safely to Patna soon after an emergency landing on Sunday, June 19 afternoon following the reports of a fire in one of the engines.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) officials said that the plane (VT-SYZ), prima facie, was involved in air turnback as the cabin crew informed PIC about sparks coming out of the engine.

During the rotation, the cockpit crew suspected a bird hit on the engine. Later, the crew did not observe any abnormality and the flight resumed further climb.

During the rotation, the cockpit crew suspected a bird hit on the engine. Later, the crew did not observe any abnormality and the flight resumed further climb.

"The flight returned back after a bird hit and due to one engine shut in the air, all on-board passengers safe," the officials added.

On Sunday, June 19 afternoon, a Delhi-bound Spice Jet aircraft made an emergency landing at Patna airport after there were reports of a technical glitch which prompted fire inside the plane. All the passengers were safely rescued.

ALSO READ - Significant increase in bird and animal strike incidents in 2021 at Indian airports

ALSO READ - Bird Strikes | How common are they and what is done to prevent them?

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Air India eyes Multiple Hubs, International Expansion

Jinen Gada

20 Jun 2022

Air India to focus after its transfer to the Tata group in January has been on improving safety, cleanliness and on-time performance. Now comes the hard part – expansion to international routes and acquisition of new aircraft.

Setting the stage for the turnaround of Air India, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran laid down a roadmap with four core areas for the new management to focus on - providing “best in class customer service”; making Air India the “most technologically advanced airline in the world”; upgrading aircraft, bringing in new fleet and expanding the airline’s network; and ensuring in-flight and off-flight hospitality is “the best”.

Air India Eyes Multiple Hubs, International Expansion

Air India plans to open multiple hubs across India over the coming years to help capture the surging demand in the country’s domestic market and drive an ambitious international expansion strategy under its new owner TATA group.

Air India has the strategy already in place where they have a hub in Delhi for all our long-haul and our short-haul markets. This is expected to grow because going forward, management’s thought and vision are to create several hubs in India, which would facilitate growth in each of the regions.

“We have seen the Indian market being catered to by one-stop product for a long time now. It is time with the new management and the new vision to take back the market to direct offerings so that our customers have options and direct offerings to take them to their destinations."North America is an important market for us, and we see in the next few years with our expansion plans, we will be tripling our capacity into North America."Jinesh Papdiwal, Senior Manager, Tata Sons

According to data provided by OAG Schedules Analyser, Air India is the fifth-largest player in India’s domestic market during June 2022, with a 7.6% capacity share of all departure seats. LCC IndiGo is the largest, commanding 55.4%, followed by Go First on 9.9%, SpiceJet on 9.2% and Vistara on 8.4%.

Expanding its international footprint means acquiring more aircraft. International aircraft manufacturers have started wooing Indian carriers with their latest offerings.

Air India is the fifth-largest player in India’s domestic market during June 2022, with a 7.6% capacity share of all departure seats.

For instance, Airbus recently flew the Airbus A350 Extra Wide Body aircraft to India. The aircraft is capable of flying non-stop between Bengaluru and San Francisco, a route that Air India had been looking for a long time. 

ALSO READ - Air India to add A350 aircraft to its fleet; first aircraft likely by 2023

An Air India commander said that the A350-900 ULR can fly non-stop between Mumbai and Buenos Aires, Mumbai and Panama City (which if it is launched will be the world’s longest flight) and Delhi-Auckland; it can even connect Thiruvananthapuram with Tel Aviv.  

Air India is planning to scale up its fleet by more than 200 planes in the next 5 years. Of this, 70% of the orders would be narrow-bodied planes while 30% would be wide-bodies. 

Air India already serves 50 domestic destinations but wants to increase the number to 200.

The carrier is said to be considering an order for the European company’s A350 wide-bodied planes. If that happens, it would be its first aircraft order since 2006 by the recently privatised airline. It would also make Air India the first Indian airline to order the A350, which is gaining popularity among global carriers for fuel-efficiency. 

Air India already serves 50 domestic destinations but wants to increase the number to 200. Through codeshares and partnerships, the airline also serves 75 international destinations but hopes to grow to more than 125 points.

Air India wants to double its capacity to Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Central CIS countries, as well as ramp up operations to Australia and markets in Southeast Asia and Far East Asia. Of course, direct flights to the US also remain a high priority for the carrier.

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South Korean fighter hawk, the KF-21, gets ready to take off soon - Here's what we know

Prashant-prabhakar

19 Jun 2022

The KAI KF-21 Boramae (formerly known as KF-X), is a fighter aircraft development program between the South Korean and Indonesian air forces with an 80:20 split between Seoul and Jakarta.

Popular Mechanics

The fighter craft derives its name from the historical term describing one-year-old hunting hawks specifically trained for traditional falconry and is projected to form the future backbone of the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) and the Indonesian air force (TNI-AU).

Touted to be a 4.5-generation fighter, the airframe is reportedly stealthier than any fourth-generation fighter. However, it does not carry any weapons in internal bays like fifth-generation fighters although internal bays could be introduced later in development.

From the vault

First announced in March 2001, the KF-X advanced multi-role jet fighter project was initially intended to replace South Korea's ageing F-4D/E Phantom II and F-5E/F TIGER II aircraft.

McDonnel Douglas F-4D/E Phantom II | Wikipedia

After weathering numerous delays and postponements, on 15 July 2010, a partnership was made with Indonesia, which would provide 20% of the funding for the KF-X project and cooperate with technological development through state-owned Indonesian Aerospace.

In April 2021, the first prototype was completed and unveiled during a rollout ceremony at the headquarters of KAI (Korean Aerospace Industries) in Sacheon.

Tech and specs

The initial goal for the program was to develop a single-seat twin-engine multirole fighter with stealth capabilities exceeding both the Dassault Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon but less than those of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. 

Representative | Quora

Despite its apparent similarities to the F-35, it is not designed to be as low-observable as the F-35 and the overall design architecture features fuselage shaping, canted tails and edge alignment that is touted to reduce radar cross-section (RCS)- which is reported to be down to 1-.1 square meters.

The radar is the culmination of a decade-long effort and a three-year development program by the R&D. It involved operating a test radar from the open rear ramp of a C-130 Hercules, as well as using a South African-registered Boeing 737-55S (ZS-TFJ), which had a KF-21 radome grafted onto its nose.

Representative | AVIATIA

The fighter bird features an active electronically scanned array radar (AESA), developed in collaboration between Hanwha Systems and Israel's Elta Systems. Israel's Elbit Systems is supplying the terrain-following/terrain-avoidance system to Hanwha, who is also developing the nose-mounted infrared search and track sensor based on Leonardo's SkyWard system.

Aviation International News

Powered by two General Electric F414-400K engines, each producing 22,000 pounds of afterburning thrust, they feature axisymmetric nozzles.

Aviation Week

In comparison to the later F-35s that feature more stealthy, driverless supersonic inlets, the KF-21 features F-22 style caret inlets with boundary-layer diverters.

KF-21's integrated electronic warfare suit is being developed by S.Korea's LIG Nex1, which includes radar jamming, warning and flare systems. Additionally, it is also developing the digital flight computer and the low-profile heads-up display (HUD) building on waveguide-optics technology by BAE.

South Korea is reportedly acquiring air-to-air missiles from European companies MBDA and Diehl BGT for the first batch of KF-21s, which will carry its weapons externally. The Block 2 variant is proposed to carry precision-guided munitions and indigenously developed stand-off cruise missiles.

Representative | aviacionline.com

The KF-21 being the most advanced aircraft program for the country to date has six flight prototypes and two rescue prototypes of the KF-21 is currently used for ground tests-according to an official publication of the South Korean Ministry of National Defense.

Serial production is slated to commence by 2026 while the program aims to deploy 40 and 120 aircraft by 2028 and 2032 respectively.

With 50% of the ground tests completed, the remaining tests are expected to be completed soon and the first flight is tentatively set for July 2022.

SOURCE(s)

COVER: CNN

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In a first, Groupe ADP and Air Liquide collaborate to develop airport hydrogen infrastructure - Here's what we know

Prashant-prabhakar

18 Jun 2022

According to reports, the global hydrogen aircraft market is valued at $23.71 billion in 2030 and is projected to reach $144.53 billion by 2040, registering a CAGR of 20.5% from 2030 to 2040.

With so many players betting big on the game, recent studies on the potential of hydrogen-powered aviation have shown that such planes could enter the market as soon as 2035.

Representative | VINCI Concessions

In what can be termed the first engineering joint venture between Groupe ADP and Air Liquide, the two companies have agreed to form a 50:50 joint venture (JV) dedicated to facilitating airports in their bid to integrate hydrogen into their infrastructure.

The global aviation industry has a significant contribution of about 2.5% of carbon emissions across the globe. The rising focus of the aviation industry to de-carbonize the aircraft is significantly fueling the adoption of hydrogen aircraft across the globe.

Representative | Airport Technology

The group’s collaboration to act now to pave the way for decarbonized air transport worldwide exemplifies their ambitions for greener, cleaner and sustainable travel in the years ahead.

As the first hydrogen-powered commercial aircraft are expected by 2035, this collaboration will provide airports in France and across the world with the engineering and services they will need in their transition to hydrogen.

Airports will have to start considering their development strategy well in advance, if they are to welcome the arrival of hydrogen-powered aviation, especially regarding hydrogen volumes needed over time and the optimal hydrogen supply chain, which depends on an airport’s unique location and characteristics.

Hydrogen is necessary to tackle the challenge of the energy transition. Studies carried out with Groupe ADP over the last year have confirmed hydrogen can have a major contribution to decarbonize the airport sector. Airports have to be ready for hydrogen-powered aircrafts by 2035, and to foster the emergence of a hydrogen mobility ecosystem at large. This is why now is the time to work on adapting infrastructures. Air Liquide and Groupe ADP therefore project to create the first joint venture specialized in this field, building on our initial collaboration and pooling the complementary expertise of our two Groups. In line with our commitments, our ambition is to actively contribute to the emergence of a low-carbon society.Matthieu Giard, Vice President, member of the Air Liquide Executive Committee notably supervising hydrogen activities, said

Twitter (March 2, 2021)

Apparently, the latest collaboration follows a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that was signed last year to conduct feasibility studies for the arrival of hydrogen-driven aircraft. In 2021, Air Liquide and Groupe ADP initiated the first collaboration, together with Airbus, to carry out a year-long study into the configurations of 30 airports worldwide, with a particular focus on Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly.

FuellCellsWorks

Having worked together with Air Liquide to produce studies over the past year, this joint venture was a logical next step. With it, we expect to have the first ground-based hydrogen technology use cases in place at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly airports in 2023. Our collaboration with Air Liquide is a long-term one and is based on the complementarity of our respective expertises : the hydrogen supply chain for Air Liquide and airport infrastructure and operations for Groupe ADPEdward Arkwright, Groupe ADP Deputy Chief Executive Officer, said

Edward Arkwright | Group ADP

Air Liquide will cash in on its expertise in hydrogen-from production through electrolysis, liquefaction, and storage to the distribution of hydrogen to aircraft whereas Groupe ADP will contribute its expertise in airport engineering and know-how in airport operations.

Representative | 2Luxury2.com

Air Liquide-a world leader in gases, technologies and services for Industry and Health, is present in 75 countries with approximately 66,400 employees and serves more than 3.8 million customers and patients.

Groupe ADP, formerly Aéroports de Paris or ADP, is an international airport operator based in Paris. It is one of the few airport operators to be present in all aspects of the airport value chain, from upstream studies in engineering, master planning and design, to the commissioning and operation of complex infrastructure. Its alliance with TAV Airports and with GMR Airports give rise to the world's leading airport network and is currently active in 125 airports in 50 countries around the world.

SOURCE(s)

COVER: Groupe ADP

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Bengaluru Airport Named Best Regional Airport in India and South Asia 

Jinen Gada

17 Jun 2022

In the 2022 Skytrax World Airport Awards, Kempegowda International Airport, Bangalore (BLR Airport) was named the best regional airport in India and South Asia. 

The SKYTRAX World Airport Award is the largest passenger satisfaction assessment and the most prestigious among all the surveys measuring the excellence and quality of airports. 

Bengaluru Airport Named Best Regional Airport in India and South Asia 

The award is based on a customer satisfaction survey conducted globally, that reflects passengers’ endorsement of BLR Airport’s services. The survey evaluates the consumer experience across airport service and key performance factors including check-in to arrivals, transfers, shopping, security, immigration, to departures at the gates.

“It brings us enormous joy in accepting the award as the Best Regional Airport in India and South Asia. Our constant commitment and relentless efforts are to provide the greatest airport experiences for our passengers. The awards that we receive year on year is an acknowledgment that we continue to get this right.”Hari K Marar, MD & CEO, Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL)

The Awards ceremony was held at Passenger Terminal EXPO in Paris, France, on Thursday, June 16, 2022. The event is one of the most prestigious quality awards for the airport sector, with CEOs, Presidents, and senior management from airports across the world in attendance.

The Kempegowda International Airport was in the news recently when it achieved a vital sustainability goal by becoming 100% water positive, which signifies that the BLR airport replenishes more than it consumes. The water positive journey started in 2019 when the Water Positive Index (Water replenished / Water consumed) was measured at 1.37.

In July 2021, the airport achieved 100% water positivity. On August 7, 2021, the KIA added another feather to its hat when it started using IoT (Internet of Things) tech to monitor temperature-sensitive cargo in one of its terminals.

 In just a short span, Bengaluru international airport has already become the busiest airport in South India and the third-largest in the country. It caters to over 22 million passengers annually and is growing at 22.5% year on year.

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