Bengaluru pilots call for grounding of Boeing 787 aircraft over safety concerns
Bengaluru: Members of the pilot community in Bengaluru have raised serious safety concerns and called for the Air India Boeing 787-8 being grounded at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA).
On Monday, an Air India Boeing 787-8 aircraft operating a flight from London’s Heathrow Airport to Bengaluru was grounded at KIA after one of the pilots detected an error with the aircraft’s fuel control switch during operations, The New Indian Express reported.
The fact that after the Ahmedabad tragedy, another Boeing 787-8 aircraft of Air India developing an issue with its fuel switch, forces one to think beyond coincidence.
“All 787s across the world should be grounded at once considering the safety of flyers. I will never fly on a 787 again,” said Captain Gurudath Kavalu, a former Air India pilot.
Another former pilot, Captain Arvind Sharma, said as a pilot, one can do little in this situation. “If you find an issue, you can bring it to the notice of the maintenance crew and speak with your operators. If maintenance personnel find no problem, there is little you can do. You will be treated as a whistleblower at the peril of your career,” he said.
On Tuesday, Air India issued a statement which implies that the incident is rooted in little more than a possible (yet consequential) design flaw. “Both left and right switches were checked and found satisfactory, with the locking tooth/pawl fully seated and not slipping from RUN to CUTOFF.
When full force was applied parallel to the base plate, the switch remained secure. However, applying external force in an incorrect direction caused the switch to move easily from RUN to CUTOFF, due to the angular base plate allowing slip when pressed improperly with finger or thumb (sic),” the airline said.
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Explosive device kills 13, injures 38 on bus in southwestern Colombia as violence persists
Bogota (Colombia) (PTI): An explosive device killed 13 people travelling on a bus in southwestern Colombia on Saturday, an attack the country's army chief described as a “terrorist act" that also left at least 38 injured as violence linked to drug trafficking in the region escalates.
Octavio Guzman, the governor of the region of Cauca, said on X that the device was set off while the bus was travelling along the Panamerican Highway in the municipality of Cajibio. Five children were among the injured, Cauca Health Secretary Carolina Camargo told Noticias Caracol, a TV news program.
Gen. Hugo Lopez, commander of Colombia's Armed Forces, told a news conference that it was a “terrorist act" and blamed the network of a man known as “Ivan Mordisco” — one of Colombia's most wanted figures — and the Jaime Martínez faction. Both are dissidents of the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that operate in the region.
Neither Ivan Mordisco nor the Jaime Martínez faction abide by the peace agreement signed with the state in 2016.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro condemned the attack on X.
“Those who carried out the attack and killed seven civilians — and wounded 17 others — in Cajibío — many of them Indigenous people — are terrorists, fascists, and drug traffickers,” he wrote.
The attack is the latest in a spate of explosions that have attempted to target public infrastructure. At least 26 incidents have taken place in the past two days in southwestern Colombia, which Lopez said have only affected civilians.
They included a shooting at a police station in the rural area of Jamundi, and an attack on a Civil Aviation radar facility in El Tambo, where authorities took down three explosives-laden drones earlier on Saturday. No one was hurt.
On Friday, two vehicles rigged with explosives were detonated near military units in Cali and Palmira, causing material damage.
The escalation of violence in that region — a territory contested by illegal armed groups linked to drug trafficking — prompted the mobilisation of high-ranking officials on Saturday. Led by Defence Minister Pedro Sanchez, the delegation that includes regional governors and local authorities, was meeting in Palmira when the deadly explosion occurred.
“These criminals seek to instil fear, but we will respond with firmness,” Sanchez said on X.
Meanwhile, Francisca Toro, governor of Valle del Cauca, has called upon the national government to provide “immediate support.” In a message on X, Toro called for a reinforcement of public security forces, enhanced intelligence operations and “decisive actions” against crime in the face of a “terrorist-level escalation.”
According to authorities, Cauca and Valle del Cauca serve as a critical hub for illicit activities of illegal armed groups vying for control over sea and river access routes leading to the port of Buenaventura — a key transit point used to traffic drugs to Central America and Europe.
The government has also offered a reward of more than 1 million dollars for information leading to the capture of “Marlon,” who is identified as the leader of the region's dissident group. On Friday, local authorities offered more than USD 14,000 for information leading to the identification and location of those behind the attacks in Cali and Palmira.
