Chance Encounter In Evading Death
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| Parts of an Air India plane that crashed on Thursday are seen on top of a building
in Ahmedabad, India, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) |
"The police found one survivor in seat 11A. He has been in the hospital and is under treatment."
"The death toll may increase, as the flight crashed in a residential area."
Ahmedabad Police Commissioner G. S. Malik
"I can't believe myself how I came out of it alive, because for a while I thought I was going to die as well."
"But when I opened my eyes, I saw that I was alive. So I tried to open my seat belt, and I was able to get out."
"After takeoff, after 5-10 seconds, it seemed like the aircraft was stuck."
"When my door broke, I saw there was a bit of space. So I tried to get out and I was able to get out."
"I just walked out."
Viswashkumar Ramesh, sole survivor, Air India crash
"Typically in an airplane accident, being in the back of the airplane is
better because you sort of have the front of the airplane as a shock
absorber to take some of the impact loads."
"Because the tail hit first it would have then caused the whole fuselage
to rotate forward and slam into the ground, and that would cause
breaking of the fuselage."
"If he said he went through a
break, that was what caused that break."
"In some cases you can survive the impact damage, but then the fire can be what actually ends up being the problem."
"Put your seat belt on tight, know where the exits are. And
as was shown in this case, getting out quickly is really important. So
don't wait and grab your stuff, just … get away as quickly as you can."
John Hansman, professor of aeronautics and astronautics, MIT
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Viswashkumar Ramesh, the sole survivor of Thursday's Air
India crash, meets with Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah at a hospital
in Ahmedabad. Indian Ministry of Home Affairs/AP
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Air
India Boeing 787-8 commercial passenger jet had just lifted off from
Ahmedabad airport, in a city of four million people, in transit to
London, with a full passenger load and crew on a routine flight. Barely
clearing the airport, the plane's nose failed to lift and instead it
appeared almost as though it was landing. And land it did in a sense,
but not on an airstrip, but into the side of a building just outside the
airport perimeter. As it hit the building, a fireball exploded, and all
aboard were lost in the explosion. Except, miraculously, for one
passenger, 40-year-old British citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, seated in
the first economy-class row behind business class, in a window seat.
Local
video revealed a man wearing a stained white T-shirt walking away from
the crash limping, headed toward an ambulance. He had injuries and blood
on his face left side, where he would have faced the window. He had
with him his folded boarding pass, matching the passenger name, flight
and seat assignment in the plane's manifest. Proof was sought simply
because it seemed impossible that anyone could walk away from such a
catastrophic crash.
"Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly."
"When
I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and
ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me."
"Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital."
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh
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| Reuters |
At the hospital he was taken to, medical authorities found he had suffered "impact injuries"
to chest, face and feet. He was placed in a general ward bed, the
impression being that his injuries were of a relatively minor nature.
Somehow, astoundingly, out of all those aboard the plane who perished,
this man's life had been spared and the explanation why he survived
eludes experts. While he survived, however, there was still a family
tragedy in that he was travelling with his older brother Ajay Kumar
Ramesh. Seated in a different row, his brother's crash outcome was the
same as all other passengers and crew: death.
Onboard
the plane were 169 Indian citizens, 53 British citizens, several
Portuguese and one Canadian passenger destined to arrive at Gatwick
Airport in London. Aboard there was a dozen crew members, along with the
230 passengers. Among the passengers were twelve children. None but
Ramesh survived. Additionally there were other people on the ground
killed and injured. The tally is rising. The jet had smashed into a
hostel used by local doctors. At least three young doctors living in the
hostel lost their lives.
Less
than a minute after take-off air traffic controllers had received a
Mayday call from the plane, as it sank to the ground, burst into flames
and clouds of dark smoke were sent up, visible from the airport. In a
video, the plane is seen sinking through the lower atmosphere -- in
appearance like a planned landing, not an errant crash. As it smashed
through the building, the front of the plane penetrated deep into the
building.
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| The plane struck a doctors' hostel after crashing into the residential area of Meghani Nagar on Thursday Reuters |
In
the general aura of grief and disbelief, the plane's crash is under
investigation as authorities attempt to discern what could have caused
the plane to descend when it should have ascended, more seconds
following takeoff. And with that mystery waiting to be understood,
another that might be more difficult to discern; how out of the hundreds
who perished, one man was able to walk away in a state of shock,
suffering relatively slight injuries from the massive concussion.
Labels: Air Disaster, Air India, One Survivor, Sudden Descent
Russia's Passenger Jet Safety Record
"The stewardesses saved me."
"The girls were standing near us. In the area where there was fuel, where it was dark, where the temperature was the highest, they brought people out and helped them get down the slide."
Dmitry Khlebnikov, 10th row passenger, Moscow flight disaster, Sukhoi Superjet 100
"We took off and flew into a cloud. It was hailing heavily."
"At that moment there was a bang, this kind of flash, like electricity."
"It all happened very quickly."
Tatyana Kasatkina, Aeroflot flight attendant
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| Black smoke billows from the burning plane on the tarmac at Sheremetyevo airport AFP |
It had, said the plane's commander, Denis Yevdokimov, all started when lightning knocked out their radio and electronic guidance systems. The pilots, as a result, were forced to fly manually. The flight had left Moscow on Sunday en route to Murmansk, in northern Russia, a regular and popular flight. Shortly after takeoff the Sukhoi Superjet's pilots signalled distress, and circled back to return to Moscow for an emergency landing.
Under most such circumstances, a returning aircraft is instructed to rid itself of fuel. With communication down and instructions not forthcoming and time short, the plane arrived to the airport its fuel intact. As the plane bounced on landing, the tail struck ground causing it to burst into flames and that fuel fed the flames as the plane sped its course along the runway of Sheremetyevo International airport.
That the fuel was leaking and burning was the reality seen as flames spread on the tarmac. Even while passengers were descending via the inflatable emergency slides, attempting to flee from the blazing wreck. Of the 78 people on board the plane, 41 died, among them two children. A 22-year-old flight attendant, Maxim Moiseyev, stationed himself with the intention of assisting passengers toward the front doors.
He refused to leave himself -- as long as passengers remained on board. He had worked as a flight attendant for 14 months after passing a correspondence course in civil aviation which followed his completion of a military academy course and service in the Russian army. He died in the fire, one of the 41 victims.
Kommersant FM radio station reported that among the passengers, some insisted on retrieving their hand luggage from overhead compartments. Which served to slow down the evacuation. People behind were clamouring to exit the plane as it burned. But a handful of the passengers groped for their baggage, creating a lethal bottleneck in the single aisle.
Most of those who died had been seated at the rear of the plane. An investigative committee is considering three possible causes of the tragedy; inadequate crew and ground personnel training, technical malfunction, or bad weather. And it is conceivable that all three issues contributed to this disaster. The fuel tanks remained full because the pilots were unable to contact the tower.
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| The rear of the Aeroflot plane was completely burnt out Reuters |
Otherwise they might have been given the option to dump the fuel, or to circle over the airport in an effort to burn through the fuel. Coded signals were sent via transponder indicating the radio had failed. And four minutes before the disastrous landing, it was communicated that the pilots were facing an on-board emergency.
Over four thousand people signed an online petition for Russia to halt the flight of Superjets in the wake of eight safety incidents occurring in the past year in the face of denials by the transport minister that there might be any reason to ground the passenger airliner, the main domestically- produced plane.
It is a plane representing the nation's first newly designed, post-Soviet passenger plane introduced in 2008. At the plant in Siberia where the plane is manufactured, dozens of its employees were discovered to have false university engineering diplomas. A Superjet crashed into a mountain in Indonesia in 2012 during a sales demonstration flight, with all 50 people aboard killed. Attributed to pilot error.
The plane has been sold to a few other countries, among them Mexico. In Mexico 15 of its 22 Superjets were grounded this year by Interjet with complaints the plane's engine, a joint venture between French and Russian manufacturers, required too-frequent remediation work. Russia's air industry has a history of crashes, often attributed to pilot fatigue or error.
Statistically four times more dangerous than the global average for safety.
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| The plane had just taken off from Sheremetyevo airport when it caught fire Getty Images |
Labels: Air Disaster, Flight Catastrophe, Investigation, Russia
The Profit Motive Sidelining Corporate Responsibility and Safety -- Boeing Dereliction
"As the pilots of the doomed Boeing jets in Ethiopia and Indonesia
fought to control their planes, they lacked two notable safety features
in their cockpits. One reason: Boeing charged extra for them.
For Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers, the practice of charging
to upgrade a standard plane can be lucrative. Top airlines around the
world must pay handsomely to have the jets they order fitted with
customized add-ons."
"Sometimes these optional features involve
aesthetics or comfort, like premium seating, fancy lighting or extra
bathrooms. But other features involve communication, navigation or
safety systems, and are more fundamental to the plane’s operations."
Many airlines, especially low-cost carriers like Indonesia’s Lion
Air, have opted not to buy them — and regulators don’t require them."
"Now, in the wake of the two deadly crashes involving the same jet
model, Boeing will make one of those safety features standard as part of
a fix to get the planes in the air again."
The New York Times
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63249936/1135361222.jpg.0.jpg) |
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Boeing 737 Max 8 planes have been grounded in the UK.
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images |
"They’re
[manoeuvring characteristics augmentation system (MCAS)] critical, and
cost almost nothing for the airlines to install."
"Boeing charges for them because it can. But they’re vital
for safety."
Bjorn Fehrm, analyst, aviation consultancy Leeham
"[The 737 Max will be grounded until] the problem is
solved. This country was
one of the first to ground the 737 Max planes. That is absolutely the
right thing to do. There are clearly some very alarming circumstances
around the two accidents [Lion Air flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines flight 302] that have taken place."
"It is something that Boeing clearly have to deal with because,
unless and until the problem is solved, I can’t see countries like ours
allowing those planes to fly again."
UK Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling
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| A Lion Air Boeing 737 Max 8 plane parked on the tarmac of Soekarno–Hatta international airport near Jakarta, Indonesia
Photograph: Reuters
|
It has become standard for manufacturers such as Boeing not to include
upgrades that can be critical to a plane's performance and ultimately
the survival of its passengers and crew unless the purchaser is willing
to pay an additional, hefty fee. Typically, low-cost airlines will
consider upgrades as non-essential and opt not to spring for them. In
the instance of both the Indonesian and Ethiopian carriers this has
proven to be a massive error in judgement.
Almost as serious as the decision by Boeing to extract every last dollar
possible out of their customers even if the end result might be
airborne carnage.
Upgrades that in fact represent essential standard safety features
eliminated because the buyer feels they're unnecessary and the seller
feels their product can be used to squeeze every last bit of profit out
of a reluctant buyer or they can face the consequences. It's hard to
imagine that a 'reputable' manufacturer with global sales could not
foresee that it too would face fallout as a consequence of their
unwillingness to be responsible unless they're paid to be.
Now that the worldwide fleet of this model of a popular passenger jet is
grounded and its future unknown after the entirely preventable mass
deaths of two failures in air transport safety, the company deserves the
censure coming its way. The company made the decision not to include a
critical safety process leaving it up to airlines whether to pay to
upgrade a standard plane and regulators are certainly at fault for
enabling manufacturers to get away with a situation where low-cost
carriers can opt not to buy 'optional' extras.
Safety is not optional.
The stunning communications failures all around demonstrate just how
careless all major actors involved have been. When the downed Lion Air
plane in a flight previous to the disaster exhibited the threat in its
erratic performance and its pilots had no idea how to respond, an
off-duty pilot who happened to be flying with them leaped to the rescue,
diagnosing the problem, instructing the crew how to respond to disable
the malfunctioning flight-control system, saving the jet and its
passengers and crew
That this air crew and the helpful pilot failed to report the incident
and the plane once again took off with another crew having as lax
training as the previous one, leading to a similar malfunction and the
crash into the Java Sea where all 189 aboard were killed is beyond
belief. But as hostile to reason as this event was, it evidently has
aided investigators in understanding what happened to the Ethiopian
airliner March crash and why it is some 737 Max pilots have no idea how
to respond when the plane malfunctions.
Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee's report on the
November crash contained no data that might have been useful to other
carriers with this plane in their fleet, and their pilots inadequately
trained in its operating details. The Lion Air crash on its second
malfunctioning flight reveals through the cockpit voice recorder on
investigation that the pilots desperately checked their quick reference
handbook to attempt a response before crashing as the Indonesian officer
called "Allahu akbar" as the plane hit the water.
Airline mechanics with Lion Air attempted to fix issues on the plane
four times after reports from pilots of incorrect displays of speeds and
altitude in two prior flights, replacing a key sensor. Both the plane
manufacturer and Indonesia's safety committee are guilty of malfeasance
in failing to tend to due diligent safety procedures. In requesting
maintenance for the plane that had come close to disaster on its October
28 flight, no mention was made by the pilots of the stall warning and
faulty sensor, still delivering false readings when it took off the next
morning then crashed.
The March 10 crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 followed the same
trajectory of events. Now questions are emerging over Boeing's design of
the new 737 model, and how they were even approved. The inspector
general of the U.S. Transportation Department is undergoing a review of
the plane's certification while the U.S. Justice Department has struck a
grand jury seeking records in a potential criminal probe of that
certification.
The U.S. pilot's unions speak of the potential risks of the system, the
Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System as having not been
sufficiently explained in training. Boeing, required by the FAA to
notify airlines about the system in the wake of the Lion Air crash, sent
a bulletin to its customers with the Max in their fleets reminding them
of the disabling process in response to an emergency.
Had their clients, including the Ethiopian Airlines disseminated that
'reminder' to upgrade the expertise of its pilots, why would the pilots
on the March flight not have known how to disable the system?
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| Priests
swing incense over empty caskets draped with the Ethiopian flag at a
mass funeral at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa on March 17. (Mulugeta Ayene/Associated Press) |
Labels: Air Disaster, Boeing, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Malfeasance, Profit
All Systems 'Go' ... And Then ...
"Last night, we were chatting together about his wife who is now seven months' pregnant, his plans and his dreams with his own small family until we fell asleep."
"Now he's gone. We can't believe that he left us this way, we can't believe that his plane crashed."
"That's something we only see on TV news, now it happened to my son. We want to see his body, his face, his remains."
Latief Nurbana, Jakarta, Indonesia
"What’s most peculiar to me is the
fact that they didn’t declare an emergency. They just simply said, 'we’re going back'."
"But
when I look at the track of the aircraft after that, the aircraft made a
very steep dive after that which is not typical of what they would’ve
done."
"They would have maintained altitude and made that turn and come back to it."
David Soucie, former safety inspector, Federal Aviation Administration
What could go wrong? A one-hour flight, strictly routine. A new plane. Experienced pilots. Perfect weather. Passengers boarded, 181 altogether including a child and two babies and an eight-member crew. Then, takeoff. Now hundreds of people; soldiers, police, fishermen remain involved in the search for bodies and aircraft debris. Personal items like cellphones, ID cards, carry-on bags are being retrieved from the seas northeast of Jakarta. They will be returned to grieving family members. No one survived the impact with the sea. No one.
Family members, beyond distraught at the sudden tragedy where one moment they hugged their loved ones off on a journey, the next they stood there, stunned, as news of the tragedy came to them gathered at crisis centres at airports, the one where the plane departed from and the one where it was meant to arrive at, an hour later. The possibility of miracles flash through peoples' desperate minds; a hoax, an accident not as serious as reported, the passengers would be injured, but alive. But no.
An investigation has been ordered by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, but his people, he said, should "keep on praying"; for what is unknown. The Boeing 737 Max 8 was only two months old. Perhaps this was inevitable for despite its newness, there had been a previous recent problem with the same plane. But that problem was examined and corrected and the plane was good to go. Only evidently it wasn't, at all, by any stretch of the imagination. Which may or may not indict Indonesia's reputation over air flight safety concerns of the past.
The pilot, having made a "return to base" request barely two to three minutes post-take-off, was cleared to return. Instead, it plunged into the sea some ten minutes later. Lion Air took possession of the rented plane in August, the very plane where an unspecified technical issue was caught before anything awry could result. A reprieve for those earlier passengers. A death sentence for the later passengers and crew.
Jakarta and Pangkal Pinang airports saw people hugging one another frantically as though demonstrating love and compassion might instantly heal a gaping wound. People wept and they wailed and nothing changed. According to Muhammad Syaugi, chief of the country's search and rescue agency, the hull of the aircraft and its black box would be soon discovered where it had settled in the shallow 25 to 30 metre depths of the ocean where it had plunged. Search ships were headed to the location of the crash.
The Flight 610 pilot had over 6,000 flying hours; his co-pilot, an Indian national, had over 5,000 hours to his credit, according to the budget carrier, Lion Air, Indonesia's largest. Thirteen minutes after its 6:20 a.m. takeoff, the plane crashed after reaching an altitude of just 5,200 feet. Boeing Co., "deeply saddened" by the crash, was ready to provide technical assistance to the crash probe of the 737 Max 8 leased from China Minsheng Investment Group Leasing Holdings Ltd.
Labels: Air Disaster, Indonesia
Puzzles, Mysteries, Intrigues
"He was killing himself."
"Unfortunately, he was killing everyone else on board. And he did it deliberately."
Larry Vance, veteran aircraft investigator, Canada
"Put bluntly, the MH370 'crash' is undoubtedly a crime of the unlawful killing of 238 innocent people."
"[Clinging to the MH370 accident theory akin to] complicity of a crime."
"The Australian government has also been remiss, they should have put pressure on the Australian Transport Safety Bureau to listen, and act, on professional advice from the aviation community."
Mike Keane, former military pilot
/https://public-media.smithsonianmag.com/filer/a5/74/a5748b35-3ec1-408a-90ad-e8728b7a34d4/12i_sep2016_ap_956729934020_live.jpg) |
A Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 searches the
Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia for debris after the
Malaysian airliner vanished.
(Kim Christian/AP)
|
"What they fail to understand is that while you don an oxygen mask and prevent the worst of the hypoxia situation, you are flying an aircraft at 40,000 feet."
"You are taking an aircraft from sea level to [Australia's highest mountain] Mount Kosciuszko in 20 minutes, then you are taking it over the course of a couple of minutes to the height of Mount Everest plus 1,000 feet. You'll get decompression sickness too."
"During the climb-out [on a cargo plane 25 years ago in the U.S.] the flight crew was unable to pressurize the aircraft and the captain elected to proceed with the flight."
"The crew donned their oxygen masks and shortly thereafter the captain became incapacitated from decompression sickness. The first officer took command and they landed the plane."
Peter Foley, spokesperson, Australian Transport Safety Bureau
"Captain Zaharie dipped his wing to see Penang, his hometown. If you look very carefully, you can see it's actually a turn to the left, and then start a long turn to the right. And then [he does] another left turn."
"So I spent a long time thinking about what this could be, what technical reason is there for this, and, after two months, three months thinking about this, I finally got the answer; Someone was looking out the window."
"It might be a long, emotional goodbye. Or a short, emotional goodbye to his hometown."
Simon Hardy, senior pilot and instructor on the Boeing 777
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| Malaysia Airlines MH370 went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Photograph: Laurent Errera
|
The investigators with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau are certain that their theory about the mysterious downing of the never-found Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, is correct, that the entire disaster was an unplanned and horribly unfortunate accident. It's neat and final and they have no wish to have it re-opened, scrutinized and open their minds to the clarifying findings of other seasoned experts whose investigation has led to other explanations.
The most certain of which appears to be that the airlines captain of the flight, Zaharie Ahmad Shah's personal life was in shambles and he was depressed, finding the meaning of life eluding him leading to his wish to end it all. And though there are innumerable ways in which that ending could have been accomplished, it seems that this man did not wish to depart life singly, on his own, but planned instead for a spectacular ending that would take the lives of 239 people, none of whom beside himself would have any inkling that this flight would be their last.
A Canadian professional air transport investigative team of which Mr. Vance is a part has written a book detailing their minute examination of all records and evidence and interviews to construct their theory that this was a suicide and a mass murder combined; that one man deciding to end his life decided at the same time to deprive 238 other people who had no share in his feelings or his thoughts of theirs as well. What kind of satisfaction that might serve up to someone launching himself on a death mission will never be known.
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| The Boeing 777 aircraft took off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, headed for Beijing, China |
The man at the controls of Flight MH370 conspired with himself to murder a planeload of passengers and crew. The official theory is that the captain, co-pilot other crew members and passengers were all unconscious and the plane, uncontrolled, simply ran out of fuel, plunging into the Indian Ocean. And then the Australian version of
60 Minutes invited airplane investigators who had launched their own research project to come up with a different version. to appear on the show and discuss the situation.
They posit that the veteran pilot of MH370 depressurized the plane himself, turning off its transponder and while everyone was affected by oxygen deprivation and was unconscious, he was not, and carried out his nefarious plot to ferry the plane and passengers to a watery grave. The question of how it might be possible that a modern aircraft tracked by radar and satellites could disappear is at the crux of the matter. And their theory is that Zaharie simply wanted it to disappear and engineered it to be so.
Peter Foley with the ATSB, spoke to lawmakers in Canberra at a hearing, that he has serious doubts that the pilot could have plotted suicide and murder given the difficulty of flying a depressurized plane. He had, as it happened, led the ATSB's search for MH370 that had failed despite all efforts and grim determination. His disinclination to give the new theory any credit aside, he did concede that the suicide-by-pilot theory was, nonetheless
"plausible". The ATSB had been apprised by experts supporting the
"controlled ditching" theory.
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| Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 (similar to the plane pictured) disappeared somewhere over the Indian Ocean March 8, 2014
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Labels: Air Disaster, Malaysia, Theories
Air India, Unresolved, Injustice
"There has been no evidence of communication with any negative associates who may hold extremist views or be involved in political activity."
"[Inderjit Singh Reyat was so loyal to Ripundaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri] that you were willing to lie for them in court."
"As a result of your committing perjury, the co-accused were not convicted of any criminal offences."
Laura Hall, Parole Board of Canada
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Citing a low risk to reoffend, Ms. Hall on January 27, removed the special conditions that Reyat must live in a halfway house in a British Columbia community. He is the sole individual ever convicted in the horrific 1985 Air India bombing, his participation in the plot and his enabling of it to succeed notwithstanding, he is now free to live in his family home. He was released from prison a year earlier, with two-thirds of his sentence for perjury at the trial of two co-accused, served. His lies during the trial of the two men accused of carrying out the plans that destroyed 329 lives meant that they were acquitted for lack of evidence, and he was given a five-year prison sentence for perjury.
Reyat, a mechanic by trade, produced the bombs that were meant to blow up two Air
India Flights. In June of 1985, CSIS agents found traces of a rudimentary bomb after a test demonstration Reyat had conducted for his friend Parmar. Bomb fragments found in Tokyo after the death of two baggage handlers matched items that Reyat had acquired before the Narita explosion; Micronta timers from Radio Shack, batteries, an FM tuner casing as a bomb housing, and a VCR. The bombing of Air India Flight 182, however was a complete success for the three co-conspirators, killing all aboard.
As a Crown witness against Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagro, Reyat repeatedly lied, to protect them from being found guilty of a horrendous atrocity. As a result, both men were acquitted of the crimes that they had committed. Parmar was a Sikh cleric, born in Punjab, who migrated to Canada in 1970. In 1978 he founded the terrorist group Babbar Khalsa, whose aim was the formation of an independent Republic of Khalistan in Punjab State, India. India wanted him for the murder of a Punjab village policeman.
CSIS placed him under investigation after he had sworn to avenge the assault of the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984. And Reyat became a member of Babbar Khalsa, as a fundamentalist Sikh. The Sikh separatists followed Babbar Khalsa's leader, Talwinder Parmer, who was the plot mastermind. He had left British Columbia for India in 1992 where he was killed by Indian police. Reyet had been found guilty of manslaughter resulting from the bomb he built which exploded at Narita; for that he earned a ten-year sentence.
He had pleaded guilty to manslaughter, acknowledging his role in the Air India Flight 182 bombing. But he chose to lie repeatedly rather than implicate his co-conspirators. For the deaths of 331 people, the flight's passengers and the two Narita baggage handlers, there isn't much to show for justice on behalf of the families of those Canadian citizens who died at the hands of fundamentalist terrorists. Who have been able to resume their lives, untroubled by conscience as mass murderers.
Even the one man who had confessed and been convicted, managed to pay a less-than-steep price for destroying so many lives. The conspiracy involved others as well, none of whom had to pay the price for their collaboration in a horrendous scheme meant to assault India by killing innocent people who just happened to be on an Air India flight.
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| The mastermind of the Air India Kanishka bombing, was arrested in 1991
in Bombay, where he was - so says the police - killed in a police
encounter. Babbar Khalsa chief Talwinder Singh Parmar(R), who had by
then started his own terrorist outfit, was gunned down. |
Labels: Air Disaster, Air India 182, Canada, Justice
Searching for the Cause . . . .
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| The Kremlin says the experienced pilot could have been to blame for the deadly crash : East2WestNews |
"Possible malfunctions . . . certainly wouldn't have prevented the crew from reporting them."
Vitaly Andreyev, former senior Russian air traffic controller
"We will conduct a thorough investigation into the reasons and will do everything to support the victims' families."
Russian President Vladimir Putin
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| Source:
YEKATERINA SHTUKINA/AFP/Getty Images |
Now, there's an uncomfortable place to be for the Russian authorities. It is tantalizing in a sense to blame terrorism for yet another Russian air disaster when a previous one with a Russian airliner taking off from Sinai really did result from an explosive device claimed by Islamic State jihadists. If there was a responsible target, some shadowy group to blame for a viciously malevolent act of sabotage it might somewhat ease the pain of this dreadful loss of 92 Russian lives, many of them people of official substance.
On the other hand, the dreadful pain of the loss is there, yet another trauma for the Russian people to bear and the administration to bear up under. Along with the haunting reality of a previous 17 major Tu-154 plane crashes responsible for killing over 1,760 people. Most of which have been attributed to human error, and others to technical malfunctions. That's a lot of dead people. That's a lot of plane crashes attributable to one plane. Designed, engineered and manufactured in Russia.
Russia prides itself on its engineering and manufacturing capabilities of technologically advanced weaponry. Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted only a few days ago of the technological feats of engineering and manufacturing that Russia has perfected, that its military is now second to none, prepared and capable of responding to any threat, conventional or nuclear. If the Kremlin could identify an attack by terrorists having caused the latest plane to disintegrate with all aboard sacrificed, anguish could be directed there.
But Russian failed technology? Russian pilots not up to the job of flying Russian planes safely? Unthinkable! The three-engine airliner was designed fifty years ago. Over one thousand were built, and used throughout Russia and worldwide. The Tu-154 that crashed on Sunday was built in 1983 and tested in factory check-ups with maintenance carried out in 2014 and only months earlier in 2016, according to the Defence Ministry.
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Members of the Aleksandrov Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian
Army perform at the concert marking the Day of the Union State at the
25th International Art Festival Slavonic Bazaar in Vitebsk. (File) © Sputnik/ Viktor Tolochko
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Security in Sochi, according to Russian authorities is tight. It is, after all, where Vladimir Putin had a palace built for himself nearby, where he is able to entertain foreign leaders. Which hasn't stopped murmurs of dissent that the crew failed to report any type of technical malfunction. And that the fact that the plane itself disintegrated, the parts flying off in all directions appeared consonant with an explosion. And the ongoing search covers a massive ten square kilometres.
For all the technical advances that Mr. Putin is so proud of, the plane's flight records had no radio beacons for locating purposes. A critical oversight. One might imagine more care would be taken to preserve the lives of so many people, 84 passengers and eight crew members. Not just any passengers but 60 members of the famed Red Army chorus heading to Syria to perform for Russian troops. Among the passengers, nine journalists and a Russian doctor honoured for her war zone ministrations.
The crash into the Black Sea took place two minutes after takeoff, and weather could not have been a factor. Over three thousand rescue workers from 32 ships have been tasked in a futile rescue attempt because there was no one to be rescued. Eleven intact bodies initially recovered, and plenty of body parts; death was likely instantaneous for all aboard. Helicopters, drones and submersibles all responding to the need for action, to retrieve bodies and debris.
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| A search-and-rescue operation begins after a Russian Defense Ministry
plane, with at least 92 people aboard, crashed into the Black Sea after
taking off from the city of Sochi on Dec. 25.
Artur Lebedev/TASS/ZUMA Press |
Labels: Air Disaster, Black Sea, Russia
Airborne Vehicles of Death
"If you analyze the situation properly the possibility of having a terror attack is higher than the possibility of having a technical [problem]."
Egyptian Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy
"A major technical fault -- the explosion of a motor, for instance -- seems improbable. [The Airbus A320 was] relatively new [entering service in 2003]."
Gerard Feldzer, French aeronautics expert
"There are many events that can create this type of problem, even if it is very rare, whether a stall, depressurization, a technical event inside the structure of the plane that would see an ever greater fall rate, or obviously foul play."
"Engine failure would show a relatively low fall rate. Depressurization would show a much higher fall rate of around five to six thousand feet per minute. But obviously without this data it is difficult to provide credible scenarios."
Francois Suchel, French airline pilot
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| Graphic: The Washington Post |
Whatever the cause, it will be of scant comfort to the families who have lost loved ones. There is nothing, no revelations as to cause and who might be responsible that could conceivably alleviate their bleak sense of loss. As for Egypt, that country was already in dire economic straits, while being militarily engaged in trying to stifle the attacks against its government, police, military and civilians, let alone protecting tourists from the atrocities perpetrated by Salafist militias, the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda and the Islamic State groups in the Sinai.
Patrick Calvar, head of France's domestic intelligence agency had just days earlier given warning that France was an especial target of the Islamic State looking for "new ways" in which to strike the French who are obviously in an insufficient state of terror despite given the past deadly attacks, to satisfy the Islamist jihadis. Egypt, as it happens, is another favourite target of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or as Egypt would prefer addressing them: "Daesh".
Flight MS804 was on a routine trip from Paris to Cairo. It went off course through circumstances beyond the current knowledge of any authorities; speculation is leading the way. The absence of data of which Francois Suchel spoke, in the event that the fuselage and flight recorder might be recovered, leaves only hypothesis; no tangible clues but ample recourse to speculation that terrorists may
have targeted the Airbus A320. There is a relatively recent precedent, of course in the Russian airliner Metrojet exploding over Egypt.
The A320 itself is considered representative of the safest passenger planes in service. A safety analysis undertaken by Boeing in 2015 concluded that the A320 was known to have registered a mere 0.14 fatal accidents per million takeoffs. Worldwide, around four thousand A320s are in operation, one of the most popular planes in service around the world at the present time. The location of the plane's descent into the Mediterranean has now been confirmed.
An intense search has discovered a seat, personal luggage and what is described as a "body part" reported to have been sighted. And according to the European Space Agency, a satellite has detected what appears to be an oil slick in the same area, about 115 miles from the plane's last radar-tracked position, in a very deep area of the Mediterranean, with a seabed basin over ten thousand feet below the surface in areas and where strong currents may make it difficult to find the submerged wreckage.
And while the likeliest scenario involves terrorist activity, more likely a bomb placed aboard the jet, similar to what occurred with the Metrojet airliner taking off from the Egyptian Sinai, the suspected agency, Daesh, usually swift to take credit for such atrocities, as evidence of their far-reaching bid for recognition as the world's premier terrorist group, has thus far remained silent even in the face of the general consensus that terrorism was the EgyptAir's likeliest cause of the crash.
What is beyond dispute is that 56 passengers and ten crew are presumed dead. A matter that raises attention toward airport security in Paris. Where, since the November terrorist attacks in Paris, security was heightened, particularly in the wake of the Brussels March airport bombing. Greater numbers of police were deployed at the Charles de Gaulle airport where EgyptAir flight MS804 departed from.
Airport staff and some baggage handlers were suspended or fired from their jobs, reflecting they had come under suspicion as having links to radical Islam. Authorities are interviewing all airport and airline employees who might have accessed the plane or luggage before takeoff. If the plane, according to French aviation experts, was on the ground for only an hour or so before taking off for Cairo, it is conceivable it hadn't been fully inspected by Paris security.
So the possibility that a bomb could have been placed aboard before it reached the French capital has been posited by French airport authorities. Egyptian authorities, on the other hand, state that while in Paris, the EgyptAir plane had been thoroughly inspected by their own personnel. None of which stopped it from dropping over 22,000 feet, then spinning 360 degrees and finally spiralling into the Mediterranean on Thursday morning.
Labels: Air Disaster, Egypt, France, Islamic State
ISIL's Bold New Phase
"Poison their food. Surveil them at home and in the street ... destroy their homes with explosives if you can [speaking of attacking Egyptian judges]."
"We are the ones who downed it [Russian Airbus A321] by the grace of Allah, and we are not compelled to announce the method that brought it down."
"[The success of the attack represented a] blessing of our gathering under a single banner and leader [ISIL and Abu akr al-Bagdhadi]."
Abu Osama al-Masri, Egyptian Salafist cleric
GETTY
The choice of a Russian airliner is thought to have been an attempt to goad President Putin
Now Wilayat Sinai ["Sinai Province"], the Bedouin Salafist jihadis were initially named Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis; "champions" of the "holy house", whose obvious mission was to free Jerusalem from the grip of Israel. And aside from planning attacks on Egyptian police and military, the terror group launched attacks across the border into Israel as a demonstration of their eagerness to clasp to their bosoms the self-appointed task of Jerusalem-deliverers.
It could be posited that when the group released a video where they emulated the glorious exploits of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant by beheading four Bedouin accused of passing information to Israeli spies to enable success in drone strikes, it could be taken as a signal that they had deviated from their original adherence to al-Qaeda in favour of becoming an Islamic State affiliate. ISIL evidently appealed more favourably to the Bedouin Salafists' sense of righteous outrage against their enemies.
It no longer then sufficed for calls to target local violence. Now the local Bedouin populace clasping a rather severe line of Islamist political theology are exhorted to be more ambitious and think internationally. And although uncertainty still hovers over the cause of the jet crash that killed 224 mostly Russian holidayers, it is al-Masri, a 42-year-old who had studied at the elite Cairo-located Sunni al-Azhar University who has become their
"person of interest" in the bombing.
Britain is therefore offering their elite forces to aid Egypt and Russia in a
"kill or capture" mission. And Egyptian investigators had finally themselves stated their
"90-percent sure" opinion in one of those 360-degree turnabouts that a bomb aboard the Airbus A321 broke the liner up in midair 23 minutes out of Sharm el-Sheikh en route to St.Petersburg.
During the protests that eventually brought down President Hosni Mubarak, jailed militants managed to break out of prison. Among them was the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi, who later became president for a year before being himself deposed. However, while the Muslim Brotherhood agenda was being pursued by Egypt's new President Morsi, the extremist groups were given free reign in the Sinai, growing in presence and in threatening strength and intent.
The internationalization of the threat posed by Islamic State is becoming clearer day by day. The pounding they are receiving by the U.S.-led coalition doesn't appear to have done too much damage to them. The U.S.-backed Kurdish militias appear to be the only meaningful on-the-ground opposition. The Russian forces have been up to the present, focused mostly on the Syrian rebels. Perhaps at this juncture Moscow is re-thinking their target; on the other hand, perhaps it's considering abandoning its venture into Syria's rescue from regime collapse.
"A closer analysis of that material has identified London and Birmingham accents among those numerous voices."
“There
has also been some internet traffic suggesting that there was British
involvement in the attack. This was a very sophisticated, carefully
planned operation involving many moving parts."
“We know there are
British jihadis in Egypt fighting with members of Islamic State. They
were trained in Syria and are now hardened terrorists. Some of the
Britons have an electronics background and have been developing some
very sophisticated bombs."
“They have been experimenting with
different-sized charges and different types of explosives but there was
nothing prior to this attack to suggest that they were going after
airlines."
GCHQ, British Government’s secret listening centre
Labels: Air Disaster, Egypt, Islamic State, Russia
