Air India Express Pilot

A report of hydraulic failure from a Tiruchirappalli-Sharjah Air India Express flight and its subsequent holding pattern may have caused panic on the ground, but things were always under control inside the cockpit, senior sources told NDTV.

A Dubai-bound Air India Express flight from Karipur international airport here was diverted to Kannur on Wednesday around an hour after take-off following the pilot noticing a fire warning light in the aircraft's cargo hold, airport sources said.

To mark International Women's Day, Air India, along with Air India Express and AirAsia India, has scheduled more than 90 all-women crew flights, and the carriers have been operating these all-women crew flights on international and domestic routes since March 1.

The report into the crash of an Air India Express aircraft in Kerala last August has indicated the possibility of a medical factor regarding the pilot in charge, which could have had a role in the aviation disaster.

The probable cause of the Air India plane crash at Kozhikode airport last year, which left 21 people dead, was non-adherence to standard operating procedure by the pilot flying the aircraft, a government report released on Saturday stated.

A team of officials from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation visited the Vijayawada Airport at Gannavaram on Tuesday and conducted a preliminary investigation into the accident involving an Air India Express Boeing aircraft on February 20.

A gust of wind, wrong decision by the pilots, the condition of the air strip and even faulty indication by the instrument landing system could be possible reasons for the crash of the Air India Express on Friday in Kerala's Kozhikode, according to aviation experts.

Wing Commander (Retd.) Deepak Sathe, pilot-in-command of the Air India Express plane that crashed in Kerala last week, was cremated in Mumbai today with state honours.

Akhilesh Kumar Sharma, the co-pilot of the Air India Express plane that crashed in Kerala's Kozhikode two days ago, was cremated in Mathura on Sunday.

"The ATC had briefed the pilots about the weather condition... the call has to be taken by the commander to go around or to land," Mr Kumar told NDTV in an exclusive interview.

The bodies of the pilot and co-pilot of the Air India Express (AIE) flight that crashed while attempting to land at the Karipur airport in Kerala's Kozhikode, were handed over to their families on Saturday.

Constructed on elevated terrains and mostly having little space for last minute manoeuvre, tabletop runways at airports at times pose challenges for pilots while landing their aircraft. And Air India Express planes have crashed at least twice on such runways in little over a decade.

Captain Deepak Sathe, the pilot of the Air India Express flight who died along with 17 others after the plane crashed in Kerala's Kozhikode airport, had survived an air crash in the early 1990s when he was in the Indian Air Force, his cousin has said. He was hospitalised for six months then, his cousin said.

The Air India Express Boeing 737-800 aircraft which fell into a gorge at Kozhikode airport had landed more than 1 kilometre down the length of the runway in windy and rainy conditions.

Captain Deepak Sathe, pilot of the ill-fated Air India Express flight who died along with 17 others after the plane crashed at Kerala's Kozhikode airport, had planned to pay a surprise visit to Nagpur on his mother's birthday on Saturday, his relative said.

A report of hydraulic failure from a Tiruchirappalli-Sharjah Air India Express flight and its subsequent holding pattern may have caused panic on the ground, but things were always under control inside the cockpit, senior sources told NDTV.

A Dubai-bound Air India Express flight from Karipur international airport here was diverted to Kannur on Wednesday around an hour after take-off following the pilot noticing a fire warning light in the aircraft's cargo hold, airport sources said.

To mark International Women's Day, Air India, along with Air India Express and AirAsia India, has scheduled more than 90 all-women crew flights, and the carriers have been operating these all-women crew flights on international and domestic routes since March 1.

The report into the crash of an Air India Express aircraft in Kerala last August has indicated the possibility of a medical factor regarding the pilot in charge, which could have had a role in the aviation disaster.

The probable cause of the Air India plane crash at Kozhikode airport last year, which left 21 people dead, was non-adherence to standard operating procedure by the pilot flying the aircraft, a government report released on Saturday stated.

A team of officials from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation visited the Vijayawada Airport at Gannavaram on Tuesday and conducted a preliminary investigation into the accident involving an Air India Express Boeing aircraft on February 20.

A gust of wind, wrong decision by the pilots, the condition of the air strip and even faulty indication by the instrument landing system could be possible reasons for the crash of the Air India Express on Friday in Kerala's Kozhikode, according to aviation experts.

Wing Commander (Retd.) Deepak Sathe, pilot-in-command of the Air India Express plane that crashed in Kerala last week, was cremated in Mumbai today with state honours.

Akhilesh Kumar Sharma, the co-pilot of the Air India Express plane that crashed in Kerala's Kozhikode two days ago, was cremated in Mathura on Sunday.

"The ATC had briefed the pilots about the weather condition... the call has to be taken by the commander to go around or to land," Mr Kumar told NDTV in an exclusive interview.

The bodies of the pilot and co-pilot of the Air India Express (AIE) flight that crashed while attempting to land at the Karipur airport in Kerala's Kozhikode, were handed over to their families on Saturday.

Constructed on elevated terrains and mostly having little space for last minute manoeuvre, tabletop runways at airports at times pose challenges for pilots while landing their aircraft. And Air India Express planes have crashed at least twice on such runways in little over a decade.

Captain Deepak Sathe, the pilot of the Air India Express flight who died along with 17 others after the plane crashed in Kerala's Kozhikode airport, had survived an air crash in the early 1990s when he was in the Indian Air Force, his cousin has said. He was hospitalised for six months then, his cousin said.

The Air India Express Boeing 737-800 aircraft which fell into a gorge at Kozhikode airport had landed more than 1 kilometre down the length of the runway in windy and rainy conditions.

Captain Deepak Sathe, pilot of the ill-fated Air India Express flight who died along with 17 others after the plane crashed at Kerala's Kozhikode airport, had planned to pay a surprise visit to Nagpur on his mother's birthday on Saturday, his relative said.