Pilot of crashed AIE flight one of the most experienced: Union civil aviation minister
Kozhikode: Pilot in-command of the crashed Air India Express flight Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe, among those killed in the accident here, was one of the most experienced commanders with more than 10,000 flying hours and had landed aircraft 27 times at the Karipur airport in the past, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Saturday.
The Minister was speaking to media persons after arriving here to take stock of the crash of the Dubai-Kozhikode AIE flight with 190 people on board here on Friday night that left 18 people dead and scores injured and the relief measures.
"The aircraft was captained and operated by one of our most distinguished, experienced commanders, Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe. In fact, the Captain had more than 10,000 hours of flying experience. He has landed on this very air piece, I think as many as 27 times including this year", Puri said.
He Appreciated the local airport authority officials, all other agencies and local people who participated in the rescue operations soon after the accident which also killed co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar. The Minister said they acted in an exemplary manner.
The Boeing 737 aircraft overshot the tabletop runway at the airport here while landing in heavy rains and fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two portions.
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Rahul Gandhi calls Great Nicobar Island project a ‘major threat’ to environment, tribal heritage
Sri Vijaypuram (Port Blair)/ Nicobar: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticised the Centre’s development initiative in Great Nicobar Island on Wednesday, On his maiden visit to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Gandhi alleged that the project will lad to large-scale environmental degradation and displacement of local communities.
The Rae Bareli MP, in a post on X after visiting the island, said the project would lead to extensive deforestation and adversely impact indigenous populations.
“So I will say it plainly, and I will keep saying it: what is being done in Great Nicobar is one of the biggest scams and gravest crimes against this country’s natural and tribal heritage in our lifetime,” Gandhi added.
“The government calls what it is doing here a ‘Project’. What I have seen is not a project. It is millions of trees marked for the axe… It is communities that have been ignored while their homes have been snatched away,” Gandhi said.
Describing the initiative as “destruction dressed in development’s language”, he termed it one of the “biggest scams” against the country’s natural and tribal heritage and called for it to be stopped.
Gandhi also claimed that nearly 160 square kilometres of rainforest could be affected, raising concerns over ecological damage.
