Air India’s Mangalore Plane crash [Video] is eleventh big air disaster of India

New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) The Air India’s plane collapse at the Mangalore airfield in which over 160 persons died Saturday is the eleventh big air disaster that includes Indian carriers or in the nation’s air field since 1962.
- July 7, 1962: Alitalia Flight 771 from Sydney crashed into a hill about 84 km north-east of Mumbai while on approach, killing all 94 people on board.
- Jan 1, 1978: Air India Flight 855 bound for Dubai crashed about 3 km off the coast of Bandra in Mumbai, killing all 213 people on board.

Lumpur and Chennai crashed at Sahar International Airport in Mumbai, killing two of 12 crew members and 15 of 99 passengers.
- June 23, 1985: Air India Flight 182 bound from Montreal to Mumbai, via London and Delhi, was blown up over Irish air space, killing all 329 on board.
- Oct 19, 1988: Indian Airlines Flight 113 from Mumbai crashed on its final approach to Ahmedabad airport, killing 130 people.
- Feb 14, 1990: Indian Airlines Flight 605 from Mumbai crashed on its final approach to Bangalore airport, killing 92 people. The crash had 54 survivors.
- Aug 16, 1991: Indian Airlines Flight 257 from Kolkata crashed into a hill, some 40 km south-west of Imphal, killing all 69 occupants.

April 26, 1993: Indian Airlines Flight 491 on its connecting route from Delhi to Mumbai, with stops at Jaipur and Udaipur, collided with a truck during take off from Aurangabad, killing 63 people. Fifty-five people survived.
- Nov 12, 1996: Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 763 and Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907 crashed mid-air at Charkhi Dadri village near Delhi, killing all 349 people on board on both flights.
- July 17, 2000: Alliance Air flight CD 7412 crashed at Patna Airport killing 60 people.

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Scorcher

Just as a US-based weather site predicted and Mirror reported five days back, mercury touched 46 degrees on Friday.

Desert-ed: Hot roads, killing heat, almost-nil greenery. Ahmedabad is burning

What Met Dept’s Kamaljit Ray told Mirror on May 15


There is no chance of temperature reaching 46 degrees Celsius. The IMD is official, and may I add, most reliable when it comes to predicting weather. Don’t rely on such websites, American or whatever, for information

Agni varsha, fire rain... call it what you may, but it was Killer Friday as Ahmedabad recorded 46.8 degrees Celsius, its highest in 40 years, which took 6 human lives by 7.30 pm. Just 100 km away, in Idar, the mercury touched 48.5 degrees Celsius, making it the hottest place in the country yesterday. Ahmedabad was third in the list, while Jaisalmer was placed second.

In Ahmedabad, two senior citizens, Mohammad Ayub Noor (71) and Mohammad Yunus Menon (62), and a 45-year-old man, Raman Vaghela, succumbed to heat stroke in V S Hospital. Noor was from Sarkhej, Menon from Kalupur and Vaghela was a Behrampura resident.

In Ahmedabad, two senior citizens, Mohammad Ayub Noor (71) and Mohammad Yunus Menon (62), and a 45-year-old man, Raman Vaghela, succumbed to heat stroke in V S Hospital. Noor was from Sarkhej, Menon from Kalupur and Vaghela was a Behrampura resident.


At Civil Hospital, a 35-year-old man, Jayesh Arora died in the afternoon while the dead at Sardaben Hospital have been identified as Mansoor, aged 38, from Rakhial and 75-year-old Meera Damani from Krishnanagar.
Including those who died on Friday due to the heat, close to 30 people were admitted in various hospitals for heat stroke treatment. Across state on Friday, Bhavnagar recorded three heat stroke deaths, two persons died in Bhuj, two in Vadodara, one in Idar and one in Malpur.

On Sunday, this newspaper had reported a reputed American weather website’s prediction of 46 degrees Celsius for the city on May 21 and 22 (Will it touch 46 degrees Celsius? AM, May 16). The website, www.weather.com, was proved accurate when Friday’s temperature was recorded at 46.8 degrees Celsius.

There is going to be no respite from the heat for the next few days. It was way back in 1970, when the city was more hotter than this. In May 1970, Ahmedabad had reached 47.3 degrees Celsius. We only pray that an all-time high of 47.8 degrees C, set in 1916, doesn’t get surpassed.

The meteorological department official had on Saturday asked us not to believe “irrelevant” sources of information when we had told them about weather.com’s prediction for May 21-22. Insisting that temperatures would come down, Kamaljit Ray, director for Gujarat region, Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), had told this newspaper, “There is no chance of the temperature reaching 46 degrees Celsius.”

Ray had said, “The IMD is official, and may I add most reliable, when it comes to predicting weather. Don’t rely on such websites, American or whatever, for information.”

On Friday, Ray called weather.com’s accuracy a “coincidence.” She said, “The temperatures would have come down but for Cyclone Laila.

“The heat wave is all across the state and central India due to the northwesterly winds blowing from dry regions and this will prevail for the next 2-3 days.”

Indeed, citizens from all walks of life are crying out for respite. While the homeless, and the lower middle-class have no option but to surrender to the elements, even the privileged class is losing sleep over heat. ACs are failing, fans are of little use and homes are as hot as tin roofs.

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Plane lies laid bare

This picture clicked by a villager minutes after a Cessna crash-landed near Gota on May 14 proves conclusively that there were only two girls in the aircraft.


That there were two women in the Cessna plane that crash-landed in a field near Gota on May 14 can no longer be called just a supposition. In all probability, it’s a fact.

Mirror — which, on the basis of witnesses’ account, had disputed the official theory that a female trainee pilot and a male instructor were on board — has a picture showing two females in pilots’ uniform beside the partly mangled plane.
The Truth

 This image, taken by a witness to the May 14 crash-landing, shows two females in pilots’ uniform beside the partly mangled plane. It appears to have been clicked just moments after the plane hurtled to the ground. There are hardly any people around except the two women and a man, a clear indication that it is one of the initial scenes after the
emergency landing.

While the picture, taken by a witness to the incident, does not show the two exiting the light aircraft, it confirms the presence of another woman in uniform at the site of the dramatic landing. The image appears to have been clicked just moments after the plane hurtled to the ground. There are hardly any people around except the two women and a man, a clear indication that it is one of the initial scenes after the crash-landing.

The picture raises two pertinent questions: what was another putative trainee pilot doing at the site and why did she disappear when airport officials turned up to take a stock of the situation. Officials of Ahmedabad Aviation & Aeronautics (AAA) Ltd, which owns the Cessna 152, have repeatedly stated that trainee Gayatri Sardeshpande was on a training sortie with her instructor, captain Naresh Devjani, on May 14.

They have vehemently denied that there was another female trainee with Gayatri, who has clocked over 190 flying hours, in the two-seater aircraft whose engine failed in mid-air. However, people who rushed to the spot near Chainpur immediately after the crash-landing claim Devjani was not on board the

Cessna when it hit the ground. They allege that there was another woman with Gayatri. The picture with Mirror partly proves this.

When claims of the presence of another female trainee pilot beside Gayatri were first made by ‘witnesses’, AAA general manager colonel V V Nagar had offered a perfectly logical explanation. He said that after the crash-landing, Gayatri had called her friends from AAA to the spot. “One of them was a woman,” he had stated. The emergence of the new image, however, casts doubt over this foolproof theory.

Even if one believes that Gayatri called her friends, the question is how did they reach the spot before people living nearby did? If one considers witnesses’ accounts, it seems quite improbable that the unidentified female in a pilot’s uniform arrived at the spot after the aircraft came down. Take, for instance, the detailed statement of one such witness, Hitesh Patel.

“I heard a loud whir in the air. I immediately realised a plane was coming down. It landed and skidded for some time before coming to a halt. I was surprised to see two females, aged around 22 and in uniform, emerge from the ‘smoky’ plane,” Patel said.

“I spoke to them, they appeared dazed, but in control. One of them even asked me to step away as there was a possibility of the plane exploding.”

Seven villagers — Vijay, Bhavna Patel, Chandrabhan, Chetan, Pravin Sindhav, Kamu and Kersinh — have also given a

similar account. They claim they spoke to two female pilots and that there was no male on board the Cessna.

The other intriguing question is that if flying instructor Devjani was with Gayatri, why didn’t he take control of the light aircraft when its engine failed. According to the flight plan submitted by AAA on May 14, Gayatri was the pilot in command of the Cessna 152. She apparently continued to be in charge even after its engine failed. Why did Devjani risk his and her life by allowing her to pilot the plane in the moment of such grave crisis?

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Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)

Future Innoversity
(An initiative of future human development ltd)

Invite applications for admission to MBA

MBA: Retail; Entrepreneurship

2 year full time masters degree programmes designed by industry experts from India’s leading retail enterprise and the world’s largest open university

Unique features of the programme: MBA degrees awarded by IGNOU are recognized by AICTE; certificate of field training awarded by the future group; full time on campus programmes at state-of-the-art centres at Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata; theoretical concepts combined with relevant contemporary practices developed by future group; assured placement for all successful students at big bazaar, pantallons and central outlets across the country

Eligibility: Graduate in any discipline with a minimum of 50% aggregate marks from a UGC recognized university. Those who have appeared for the final year examination of graduation can also apply

Selection process: All eligible applicants will be required to appear for a written test, group discussion and a personal interview for final selection

Candidates with valid score in (2009-10) CAT/MAT/OPENMAT/ATMA or any other state level recognized management entrance test need not appear for the written test

Short listed candidates will be called for the group discussion and personal interview

Centres for written test: Visit website for the list of centres

Location of MBA centres: Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Delhi

Application forms: Available at select Big Bazaar, Pantaloons and central outlets and select IGNOU regional centres across the country and online on www.fhdl.in, www.ignou.ac.in

Important dates

Application form (hard/soft copy) will be available from: May 10th, 2010

Last date for receipt of application form: June 10th, 2010

Date for written test: June 20th, 2010

Date for group discussion/personal interview: 1st week of July, 2010
Classes commence from: Last week of July, 2010

Contact details

Ahmedabad, Naman Patel, 9376368795; Bengaluru, Venkatraman Ak 7760088353; Kolkata Sanjeev Ganguly 9051086009; Mumbai, Kunal 022-67424142; New Delhi, Anil Kalia 011-64999206

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Sachin comes to aid of bed-ridden friend

The battle between optimists and pessimists has been decided in the former’s favour, and man of the match is Dalbir Singh Gill. When Ahmedabad Mirror broke the story of this man, who was rescued by cops from his wife’s year-long captivity in his own house (One year as wife’s hostage, April 4), the conscientious among us prayed that God should not put even enemies through such an ordeal.
Mentally and physically shattered Dalbir was rescued from his dilapidated, termite and cobweb-ridden house in Gandhinagar. He was starving, stinking for want of a bath, and so deranged, he was unable to speak. His injuries, a result of an accident in 2002, had worsened. It was said he would never ever walk again.

Who would have believed at the time that this man once shared a room with the great Sachin Tendulkar as junior cricketer? In a matter of 47 days — between April 2 when Dalbir was rescued and May 19 when he underwent total hip replacement surgery — his life changed from pit dark to sunshine peaks. He found support in the man entire country worships as cricketing God. He will walk again.

Tendulkar was right by his bedside post surgery; he has already taken care of the Rs 6-lakh medical bill. From hopelessness, Dalbir has become a symbol of hope. Tendulkar has played his part in Dalbir’s innings, but the bigger message is, a turnaround is always round the corner.

On Wednesday, even Tendulkar was smiling at his immaculate timing, but if he had his way, he would have preferred to remain far, far away from Ahmedabad, when his teammate from under-17 days, Dalbir, underwent a successful surgery.

Nobody was more grateful than Dalbir and his family, and nobody was more embarrassed than Tendulkar, when the media went to town over the legend’s monetary assistance that made this surgery possible.

Tendulkar, a firm believer in destiny, would have marvelled at his own, considering he should be in Ahmedabad on the very day Dalbir, who is fighting on despite numerous blows by fate, got a second, third or fourth lease of life. “Please downplay my role, it’s the doctors really and it’s Dalbir’s fighting spirit,” he told this correspondent, and every other journalist who managed to catch him in simmering hot Ahmedabad.

Media’s excitement — after all, not everyday you get a Krishna-Sudama story — amused the people who got Tendulkar to Ahmedabad in Friday in the first place. He was here to attend one of his sponsors’ in-house meet, a part of the ongoing series which is taking him to different Indian cities, and it turned out to be a mayhem.

At Shalby Hospital where Dalbir underwent surgery and where his family expressed their gratitude to Tendulkar before the cameras, to quote-hungry reporters and a small gathering of people related to Gujarat cricket, Tendulkar arrived around 6 pm.

He had requested the hospital staff to ensure his entry, and his exit, remain a secret. The entry did remain a secret. Some say he entered the hospital from a back door, some say it was through the parking. Everyone agreed it was not from the main entrance.

Tendulkar’s involvement in Dalbir’s life is a very interesting story in itself. Aware of his son’s association with Tendulkar, and hopeful of his benevolence, Dalbir’s mother Sukhdayal couriered Tendulkar the pictures of her unfortunate son, his worsening medical condition, and a letter, praying for help.

Said Sukhdayal, “I was shocked when Sachin himself, and Anjali, together contacted me. Sachin’s words to me were, ‘He is my friend, and I will see to it that he gets well’. That day, we will again see happy days.”

Tendulkar swung into action. A call was played to long-time confidante Dr Anant Joshi, the Indian cricket Board doctor. Dr Joshi recommended the treatment, and safe hands of Dr Jawahar Pachore at Shalby Hospital. The Rs 6 lakh (approximately) needed for the treatment was no big deal, said Tendulkar.

In the middle of all this, Dalbir was in hell. He was locked inside his house by his wife. He was beaten up, starving, and close to death. His wife from a second marriage, Rajvinder, denies it all but the fact remains that when the cops rescued him from Meghdhanush Society in Gandhinagar, he was found alarmingly frail because of starvation, he smelt because nobody bathed him for days, and was disoriented.

Now with his mother and sister, Dalbir says he dreams of the day when he will walk up to Tendulkar to thank him. Doctors attending him say that day is still three months away, but definitely a possibility. “He will surely walk normally in few months,” said Dr Pachore.

As for Tendulkar, he spent some quiet moments with his friend and his family, before flying off to Mumbai to be with his wife and tell her, “Mission accomplished.”


                                                                                                            

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Delhi serial blasts accused given copy charge-sheet

A city court Thursday handed over a copy of the charge sheet to the two suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists accused of involvement in the 2008 Delhi serial blasts.
Delhi police filed the charge sheet against Salman Ahmed and Mohammad Shahzad May 15.
The defence will give its reply on the charges to Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja May 24.
Baweja May 5 allowed police 10 days' time to file a charge sheet against Shahzad and Salman, arrested in February and March this year respectively.
Of the 14 arrested, Shahzad, Salman and Hakim are in Tihar jail here. Nine other accused arrested in this case are at present in a Gujarat jail for investigations into their alleged roles in serial blasts in Ahmedabad.
A series of bomb blasts rocked the capital Sep 13, 2008, killing 26 people and leaving 135 others injured.

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Will it touch 46 degree Celsius?

City will see the mercury rise to 46 degrees Celsius on May 21 and 22, according to an American weather website; Met dept says no chance

If an American weather website is to be believed, May 21 and 22 will see the city at its hottest worst. According to www.weather.com, reputed as the most comprehensive and accurate weather guide for the world, it’s going to be a merciless 46 degrees Celsius on May 21 and 22 (Friday and Saturday).

The hottest day ever recorded in Ahmedabad sizzled at 46.2 degrees Celsius, way back in 1958. This summer, the temperature has already touched 45 degrees Celsius, and that happened on Friday, May 14.

The meteorological department, however, rubbishes the website’s forecast; in fact, saying the mercury will no longer touch 45 degrees Celsius mark. Said Kamaljeet Ray, director of Indian Meteorological Department (Gujarat), “There is no chance of the temperature reaching 46 degrees Celsius. In fact, the temperature will start coming down now.”

Ray was scathing in her criticism of what she calls “irrelevant” websites. She said, “The IMD is official, and may I add most reliable, when it comes to predicting weather. In a matter of a few days, monsoon will arrive in Kerala. Don’t rely on such websites, American or whatever, for information.”

But weather.com says there is no respite for Amdavadis in the days to come. On May 23 too the city will simmer at 45 degrees Celsius. Things will get back to normal, if one can call it that, from May 25, when maximum temperature will settle at 41 degrees Celsius.

The 40-degree torture will not end till June 4. Only on June 5, the temperature will go below 40 degrees Celsius. The website further states that on May 21 and 22, the length of the day (from sunrise till dusk) will be an amazing 13 hours, 19 minutes (May 21) and 13 hours, 21 minutes (May 22). Who will get it right? The American technology, or our good old met department? We will know come May 21.

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