Senior Air India pilot shows up for flight with expired licence

Mumbai: Last week, Air India had come under fire from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA) as it let a commander who held an expired pilot license operate a flight. Air India's general manager (flight operations), Capt N K Beri, evidently did not learn any lessons from the incident.
On Saturday, Capt Beri, also a Boeing 747 commander, flew as a passenger from Delhi to Kozhikode to operate AI's Kozhikode-Jeddah flight, only to realize on landing in Kerala that his pilot license had long expired and he had forgotten to renew it. The airline had to scamper for a replacement and the flight departed 15 hours behind schedule. AI GM Capt Beri's callousness added to the ailing airline's expenses as it had to provide food and accommodation to passengers as the Saturday evening flight AI 963 departed only on Sunday morning.
11/09/12 Manu V/Times of India

Jet aircraft skids off apron area as maintenance staff lose control

New Delhi: A Boeing 737 aircraft of Jet Konnect skidded off the apron area at the IGI airport here as the maintenance staff lost control of the aircraft while taxiing it from hanger but no one was injured in the mishap.
The incident happened around 10.30 PM last night. After four-and-a-half-hours, the aircraft was finally pushed back to the hangar with the help of tow tractor, sources said, adding airport operations were not affected and quick action by airport personnel avoided any damage to the aircraft.
The Jet Airways maintenance staff are said to have lost control of the steering and the brakes due which the plane skidded off the tarmac and its nosewheel crossed a drain beside the apron near the fire station four of the airport, they said.

10/08/12 PTI/Business Standard

Planes to soon have onboard system to scare birds

New Delhi: With bird strikes costing the aviation industry millions of dollars, plane manufacturers are now working on a system that will be installed in the aircraft to scare off the avians.
Aircraft manufacturer Airbus is developing a system under its Bird Impact Repellent and Deterrent sYstem (BIRDY) programme that will scare away almost every species of birds.
"Challenge is to develop a system that is effective for large number of species of birds found across the globe," Nathalie Papin, an expert with Airbus Industries, said here.
According to estimates, airlines in the US suffer loss of USD 68.3 million per year while worldwide the carriers have lost USD 1.3 billion in direct damage and associated costs in terms of aircraft down-time.
In India, airlines have lost about Rs 18 crore in 2011 due to bird-hits and incidents of runway incursions by stray animals.
22/07/12 ZeeNews

E.K.Bharat Bhusan gets extension as DG Civil Aviation

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the extension of additional charge of the post of Director General, Directorate General of Civil Aviation to Shri E.K.Bharat Bhusan for a further period of one year with effect from 01.12.2011 or till the appointment of a regular incumbent, whichever is earlier with the direction to the Ministry to fill up the post within this period. Shri Bhusan is Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser in the Ministry of Civil Aviation. The Cabinet has observed that the appointment of a regular person to the post of DG, Civil Aviation has been held up for too long a period of time and that this post should be filled up without loss of any further time.
03/07/12 Press Information Bureau

Kingfisher endgame: Mallya’s hold is now almost zero

Should we be calling Vijay Mallya the owner of sinking Kingfisher Airlines anymore? Consider the evidence to the contrary.
With debt of over Rs 7,500 crore, Mallya has pledged nearly 95 percent of his shareholdings in the airline to lenders. According to Business Standard, the total current market value of Kingfisher is Rs 960 crore, but Mallya owns only Rs 30 crore worth of shares that are unencumbered. This means his lenders are the real owners of the airline.
But now even the lenders are bailing out. On Monday, ICICI Bank announced that it had dumped its entire Rs 430 crore loans to Kingfisher in favour of Srei Infrastructure Finance at par – along with the collateral. The bank, which held 5.68 percent of Kingfisher’s shares through loan conversions, now holds about 3 percent. Other bank lenders apparently own around 21 percent. They may also be in a mood to bail out like ICICI Bank.
03/07/12 First Post.com