Yesterday, after some women called out comic associated with All India Bakchod Utsav Chakraborty’s unwanted sexual advances and harassment, more women have come forward narrating their experience and also calling out other popular comics on social media for having crossed the boundaries.
More accusations of predators and enablers, those who knew of their friends being predators and stayed silent, surfaced. Standup comics, journalists, social media celebrities, past twenty-four hours have been triggering for most. A woman accused social media celebrity Anurag of having sent her inappropriate ‘snaps’ on SnapChat, a photo-sharing social media network. We have blanked out the names of the women who have come forward with their stories in the below screenshots.
Twitter user narrating her experience of having received inappropriate message from social media celebrity Anurag
Another Twitter users also came forward and confirmed that he did something similar to her as well.
Another Twitter user coming out and saying how Anurag behaved in same manner with herTwitter user calling out social media celebrity Anurag for his indecent behaviour
Many, many women came out narrating their experience about Anurag, who late last night apologised for his behaviour.
I had posted a video where I pulled a packet of biscuits from my shorts and sent it to a ton of people on my snapchat. Which I now realise is not funny and very much crass. I didn’t send any unsolicited picture of genitals. I want to apologise for making people uncomfortable.
However, Utsav Chakraborty tried to justify how getting nudes from a person was ‘instant rush’, and blamed his illness for his behaviour.
To me, getting nudes from a person was an instant rush. I was not in pain for that brief moment. Someone trusted me with that information. I would feel honoured and not ugly. But this caught me into a weird spiral. Where I would ask anyone who was nice to me in the slightest.
Sapan Verma, another standup comic, accused of inappropriate behaviour.
Another Twitter user accused Sapan Verma, a standup comic, of inappropriate behaviour, which Verma denied. Even as people were coming to terms with this, more skeletons tumbled out the closet as a few journalists accused Mayank Jain, a journalist associated with Business Standard and formerly with Scroll.in, of unwanted advances and of being a sexual predator.
A journalist calling out inappropriate behaviour by Mayank Jain, a journalist with Business Standard who formerly worked with Scroll.in
Another woman also shared screenshots of her conversation with Mayank Jain where he sent her suggestive messages which made her uncomfortable. Last year, too, he was accused of being sexually abusive, where he had even accepted his behaviour.
Guys, this needs the same amount of attention. Person concerned here works for Scroll, a reputed News organisation. pic.twitter.com/OFAeM9dALZ
At the time of this report, Mayank has neither denied nor apologised for the allegations.
However, the anger in people is not only against the allegations against sexual predators but also against those in power who knew but did nothing to call them out. Multiple people had come out saying that All India Bakchod heads knew of Utsav’s behaviour as multiple women had complained to them, but they still continued his patronage. Similarly, Kunal Kamra, another so-called ‘comic’ allegedly knew of Utsav’s behaviour but kept mum.
Twitter user claiming that stand up comic Kunal Kamra knew of Utsav’s behaviour
It is indeed unfortunate that most of the accused above identify themselves as feminists and regularly ‘call out misogyny and sexism’ in the country. But when it comes to crimes committed by their friends, they maintain uncomfortable silence.
Recently, several women displayed insurmountable courage when they came out in the open to call out the sexual predators who walk among us. Several accounts of unsolicited lasvicious behaviour, to put it mildly, came to the fore. Many took to Twitter to condemn and express utter shock at the allegations being levelled. As accounts after accounts of churlish behaviour by the victims poured in, the anger among the readers was palpable.
However, for some, their being a part of the ‘fraternity’, or that, the ones accused share the same ideology was perhaps far more important than the tales of the victims. The very liberals who scream the loudest about ‘feminism’, ‘gender equality’ etc, maintained a stoic silence. The few who spoke up did so with nonchalance. The lukewarm outrage from the liberal cabal would perhaps ease an aching back, not mend the battered soul of the victims.
It all started when Twitter user @AGirlOfHerWords, in a series of tweets, accused a stand up comic, Utsav Chakraborty, who was previously known as @Satan_Bhagat on Twitter (as Chetan Bhagat’s parody), of sexually predatory behaviour. This included allegations of advances he made towards minor girls. She also said that All India Bakchod (AIB), people who regularly hire him for their sketches, were made aware of the accusations levelled against him.
After these several allegations, AIB issued a statement. An apology saying his videos are being pulled down. The natural question to ask would be if their apology was enough considering the victim has explicitly said that the AIB management knew about Utsav’s predatory behaviour. But the very ‘stars’ who stood with placards and regularly talk about how women’s rights should be held paramount decided to pat AIB on the back. A job well-done indeed. The pat on the back was in turn ‘liked’ by veteran journalist Barkha Dutt.
The accused, Utsav came up with a cock and bull story that basically aimed at painting himself as the victim. What’s worse? He tried to justify his predatory behaviour by saying he has Attention Deficiency Disorder (ADD). I know of people who have ADD and none of them molests girls and forgets about it. The deficiency doesn’t compel one to behave like lecherous, predatory psychopaths.
Perhaps the first principle of condemning any sort of sexual misconduct towards a woman is to not psychoanalyze why the predator did it. There is absolutely nothing in the world that justified treating a woman as a mere body. A piece of meat to be devoured at will. Ab object to be used, abused and discarded. Trying to understand the perpetrator’s reasons for molesting a woman is the same as blaming the woman’s ‘short’ clothes for her being raped. It is a slippery slope that is used to justify the molester’s behaviour. Feminist and journalist Rituparna Chatterjee did exactly that. In a motherly tone, with her pinned tweet talking about ‘sisterhood’, she gently asked a predator why he did what he did. Asked him to help her understand.
Dear @Wootsaw, since July I’ve volunteered personal time to hear women privately when they needed to vent. I’ve lost count of the phone calls from women who felt lost, angry. I’ve broken down myself. Not one of those women abused men. Help me understand why you did what you did.
Another comedian who is known for his brash behaviour, Kunal Kamra, in a fit of consciousness realised that all men need to introspect. Because calling out people from his own fraternity was a burden his comic shoulders just couldn’t bear. Calling out AIB for knowing about it and not doing anything was too tall an ask.
We as a scene, specifically the men here, need to reexamine everything right now. I myself am guilty of being part of a culture where we haven’t listened to the women. And this is the wake up call we need.
We are listening.
And we believe you.
This, when there are claims that Kamra already knew about the allegations against his colleagues.
When I moved to Mumbai in 2015, one day Kamra told me that her friend Mahima got a dick pic from Utsav. I was shocked. Honestly, Coz he used to come across as very woke and why you shouldn’t send a dick pic is too easy to understand- Decency which I thought he had.
These were just some of the reactions that were indicative of the all-pervasive moral bankruptcy of the ‘left’. The ones mentioned here have often taken grandstands with respect to women’s rights.
Kunal Kamra has often dragged the Prime Minister into women’s safety issues. He has often used women’s issues to take potshots at the Prime Minister, which, as a citizen is his right. However, today, when people from his own fraternity are being accused of gross sexual misconduct, he shifts the blame to all men without having the moral courage to call out his colleagues.
Sonam Kapoor has spoken extensively about how women should speak out when they are harassed. How men, who make women feel unsafe and vulnerable should be taken to task. However, today, she pats AIB on the back for taking down a predator’s ‘comedy’ videos while never once questioning why they did so today when it has blown up in their face, rather than earlier when they were alerted about their man’s predatory behaviour by the victim.
My views on sexual harassment are not only restricted to Bollywood, but for women around the world. We all have a responsibility to speak out against abusers and it is society’s responsibility to stand by us and hear our voices. https://t.co/ft1b54fPDt
Ironically, the very AIB that Sonam lauds have made despicable “jokes” about child rape and the likes. Hell, they have even objectified Sonam Kapoor herself.
One wonders then, what is it about these ‘woke’ feminists that compel them to pursue such hollow ideals? What is it that makes them call themselves ‘liberal feminists’ and yet shy away from calling out their own in unequivocal terms? What it is about the ‘left-liberal’ ideology that this sort of predatory behaviour is so rampant even among men who pretend to espouse the cause of ‘feminism’ publicly and what is it about the ‘feminist’ women who stand by and do nothing?
One wonders why nobody really spoke up when this journalist with the left-leaning propaganda website The Wire compelled a woman to commit suicide. Or when a journalist with The Wire was sexually assaulted by ‘Dalit activists’ and the Editor’s of Wire asked her to ‘let it go’ because verbalising it would only hurt the ‘Dalit cause’. Why these feminists, male and female, kept quiet while the comedians of AIB made sexist, abusive ‘jokes’ even about child rape. Why they were silent when the Republic TV journalist was heckled and sexually harassed. Why they celebrated when the NBSA supported the molester and not her. Why they held placards for Kathua and not for Mandsaur. Why they are happy to use women’s issues to proclaim Modi is the problem, but keep mum when it doesn’t suit their political agenda?
Perhaps it is the dichotomy of left-liberalism. It encourages lascivious behaviour and looks down on conservative men who still uphold chivalry. Many fall prey to this behaviour which is considered “woke”, and before you know it, they spiral into predators. The ‘fraternity’ knew about this behaviour all along and chose to stay silent. Not just in the case, but in several other cases as well. The left-liberal coterie institutionalises predatory behaviour by giving free passes as they did in the case of Tarun Tejpal or even RK Pachauri.
They often maintain silence or justify predatory behaviour when it comes from on their own because it doesn’t suit their politics. One imagines that the concept of ‘third wave feminism’ that the ‘left-liberals’ seem to espouse is about enabling and encouraging women to shed the boundaries they have set for themselves so the men can eventually take advantage of them, and through it all, the ‘feminists’ keep quiet.
The Left’s approach to sexual harassment slights the cause of every woman who has experienced the prying eyes of lecherous men. The cause for women who battle sexism on a daily basis and the women who have been survivors of the violence of men.
The ‘left’ believes in tribalism. And the left in intrinsically anti-individualism and seeks to conform the society to its worldview. Where tribalism exists, principles have paltry space. Principles are often sacrificed at the altar of politics and the larger interest of the tribe. The left will never call out its own. Women be damned. Victims be damned. Ideals be damned.
The NDA Government has come down hard on Indian porn websites promoting child pornography and selling rape and gang-rape videos of Indian women and children.
Five such websites have been shut down by the central government on receiving tip-offs from the cyber portal of National Crime Records Bureau. Five separate FIRs have been lodged against these websites under various sections of the Information Technology Act.
The case is being probed by a special cell of Delhi police. The police said that they have lodged FIR under sections 67/67A and 67B of the Information Technology Act. Though the police have lodged cases no arrest was made since the people involved in this business have not been identified as they have been using a fake identity to get the URL and licence to run the websites. However, it was clear that these websites are being run from India.
The complainant, which in this case is the government, said in its FIR that the websites are promoting objectionable videos that are harmful to the society. The FIR lodged by the government read, “The websites are promoting rape and gang rape videos and should be urgently shut down. Please do something fast or else they will gain prominence.”
“These websites were also getting high traffic which was an alarming situation. We have informed police and have also written to Google and other companies who are providing and selling space to run websites,” confirmed sources.
The action is being seen as a big step to curb sexual harassment cases.
A few days back the Uttarakhand High Court, taking suo motu cognisance of a recent gang rape of a school student in Dehradun by her fellow students and ordered strict implementation of the ban on websites offering pornographic content. According to reports, the HC has asked the centre to cancel the licenses of websites that offer obscene content.
This decision came in the wake of a class-10 schoolgirl being gang-raped in a school in Dehradun by her seniors after they allegedly watched pornographic videos. The case had generated massive outrage after the school was accused of withholding information regarding the crime and violating several rules.
Taking cognisance of the case the Uttarakhand HC division bench comprising of acting chief justice Rajiv Sharma and justice Manoj Tiwari observed that unlimited access to pornographic websites should be blocked or curbed to avoid adverse influence over the impressionable minds of youngsters.
In 2015, the ministry of communications and IT, the department of telecommunications and the central government had listed over 800 websites and had issued an order to restrain service providers from transmitting them as their contents were found to be pornographic in nature.
The influential Imam of Kolkata, Pirzada Taha Siddiqui of Furfura Sharif has slammed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for granting funds to Durga Pooja.
According to the reports, the Imam said, “Those who accuse the BJP of provoking communal feelings, sometimes they themselves get involved in it.The Trinamool has blamed the BJP for the recent blasts at Dum Dum, which is an example”, said Imam. This criticism by the influential Imam comes in the wake of the decision of the Mamata Banerjee’s government to assign Rs. 28 crore state funds to the Durga Pooja committees.
The Imam, while speaking at a rally organised at the Tipu Sultan Masjid in front of the hundreds of Muslim youth to protest against the government’s decision said, “We’ve not come here with swords and lathis, We came to voice our demands. What’s wrong with that?”. He went on to criticise both the Chief Minister and the state police for trying to stop him from expressing his concerns.
Addressing the Muslim youth, Kamaruzzaman, the General Secretary of the Bengal Minority Youth Federation, said, “India is a secular country. The government should not sponsor any religious program”. At the same rally, he also reportedly demanded the Mamata Government to provide two lakh rupees for each madrasa for its maintenance and convenience.
Imam Pirzada went on to say that, “I have no objection to the money given by the Mamta Government to celebrate Durga Pooja, but the government should also help other communities”. Siddiqui called the Mamta as a ‘guardian of Bengal’ and asked her to treat all the citizens in a similar manner. He warned Mamata Banerjee for playing divisive politics by referring to the recent Damdam bomb blasts. “I am against riots and divisive politics. The Left had voted for our votes by showing fear of riot among Muslims. Now Trinamool BJP is scared of us playing cards”, said the Imam.
The Mamata Banerjee government is known for her proximity towards the Muslim leaders and often accused by the opposition parties for playing divisive politics. In a recent incident, a group of influential Imams and scholars from across the state, extremely close to the Chief Minister, had taken out a protest rally against the government and demanded hike in stipend to Imams and State funds for at least 10,000 Madrasas across the state.
Avinash Das, director of the movie Anarkali of Arrah, which released in 2017 with Swara Bhaskar in the lead role shared a fake image from his verified Twitter handle on 3rd October. The photoshopped image quotes Sambit Patra saying in a press conference aired by ABP News, that farmers protesting on Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border are all being ‘Gadar’ or ‘traitor.’
The attached image seems manipulated at the first glance. Against the headline, ‘BJP’s press conference’ image of Rahul Gandhi is pasted. The text also seems to have been imposed superficially.
The farmers protesting near the national capital recently belonged to Bharatiya Kisan Union, who have been on Padyatra since 23rd September. They were stopped from entering Delhi.
BKU had called off the protest after the government allowed them to visit Kisan Ghat and later stated that the central government has agreed to meet most of their demands.
Sambit Patra, the national spokesperson of BJP, debunked the fake image and said that no such press conference was ever held. He also asked Twitter India, to take ‘stringent action’ against the director.
No such Press Conference was ever held by @BJP4India
This is a photoshopped,fake news propagated by a verified Twitter handle to further vested interests & cause disharmony in the country
I sincerely request @TwitterIndia to take stringent action against the verified handle! https://t.co/tU0w2SCrpL
Surprisingly, even though he was caught spreading fake news, director Avinash Das, instead of apologising for posting fake news and imagery, chose to justify it by giving it a political twist.
माननीय @sambitswaraj बेशक मैंने आपके नाम की एक फोटोशॉप्ड इमेज ट्वीट की, लेकिन क्या ये सच नहीं है कि “बहुत हुआ किसानों पर अत्याचार, अबकी बार मोदी सरकार” का नारा देने वाली आपकी सरकार आज सबसे बड़ी किसान-विरोधी सरकार बन गयी है? 2019 के लिए किसानों पर आपकी पार्टी का नारा क्या होगा? https://t.co/KtJNdOaeVl
Social media is a powerful platform for communication but many people with vested interests use it to manipulate public sentiments and score political goals. Recently, prominent leftist leader Kavita Krishnan was also caught sharing an old image from 2013 as being that of the recent farmers’ protest.
In a major embarrassment for the Congress party, the Election Commission told the Supreme Court today that Congress has misled the court by producing fabricated documents, and the petitioners should be punished for that.
Earlier this year, Congress had alleged that there are 42 lakh duplicate voters in the Gujarat voter list. They had cited a study conducted by thepolitics.in, which was commissioned by the Congress party. Party had made similar allegations for Madhya Pradesh also, saying they have detected nearly 60 lakh fake voters in the state.
Making this allegation, Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot had filed a petition in the Supreme Court. Following this, the apex court had issued a notice to Election Commission to respond to the allegations. Election Commission had denied the allegations and said that these are “misleading and misconceived”. The Commission had asserted that it had always upheld the integrity and purity of the electoral process and was committed to holding “free and fair elections”.
Today, the Election Commission told the supreme court that the petition of the Congress party is based on fake evidence. The poll panel said that the voter lists available of the EC’s website were tampered with and then presented before the court as evidence. They informed the court that lists submitted by the Congress had photos and names that were fudged.
The Election Commission also said that the Congress party leaders should be punished for furnishing fabricated voter list.
Congress party has denied the allegation, its advocate Kapil Sibal said that the list was published on a private website, and tried to shift the blame for fabricating voter lists by asking why EC has not started an investigation against the website.
The apex court has fixed October 8 as the next date for hearing in the case.
On September 28, a five-judge constitution bench, headed by the chief justice Dipak Mishra lifted the ban on entry of women of menstrual age into the shrine. Hours after the honourable Supreme Court of India announced the verdict, Congress central leadership came out in its support stating that it fully supports SC’s decision but left a fig leaf when it said that Kerala state unit is free to express its opinion based on the “sensitivities” involved.
Despite the party welcoming the verdict, Congress ministers of Kerala state unit have announced to observe a day-long fast at Pathanamthitta on Friday, October 5 and launch a campaign to protect the customs of the Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple. Congress has, however, downplayed the vexatious issue & said that the state units are well within their limits to stage such protests.
Earlier on September 28, Congress Spokesperson, Randeep Surjewala, had “wholeheartedly” welcomed the “progressive” verdict:
We wholeheartedly welcome this progressive and far reaching decision in case of entry into #SabrimalaTemple .
Suoreme Court decision has given a fresh expression to the rights of women and how they cannot be subjugated to any religious practice, no matter how sacred.
Not willing to comment on the seething rage among the Kerala Congress leaders, Mallikarjun Kharge, senior Congress leader also echoed Surjewala’s stand and said to the Indian Express that his “personal view” is that he welcomes the SC decision.
The dichotomy in the views of Congress central leadership & Kerala state unit only suggests that Congress’ aim is to confuse the masses and simultaneously mollify the unhappy protestors and give a semblance of fighting for their grievances.
Congress initially welcomed the SC decision but it was probably not clairvoyant enough and perhaps a little insensitive towards the feelings of their own ministers. As the pressure from the Kerala state unit intensified, Congress had to give in & within a week of the declaration of the verdict, Congress is found to be eating its own words and is now organizing a one day protest against the Sabarimala verdict. One can only guess what is Congress’ actual stand on Sabarimala verdict or is it playing it safe by confounding the public?
The Indian Railways, amidst a massive restructuring project, has decided to upgrade its rolling stock infrastructure in the next two years by developing 640 ‘Utkrisht rakes at a cost of Rs 400 crore. According to reports, the first batch of the Utkrisht rakes has been rolled out as Kalka Mail from Howrah station and reached Delhi on Wednesday.
The project to develop new rakes, which will consist of 20-22 coaches, are being designed as ‘green’ rakes. The responsibility to develop these green rakes has been given to Eastern Railways and is being built in Liluah workshop, at a cost of Rs 60 lakh for each rake.
Rajesh Agarwal, Member of Rolling Stock, Railway Board, reportedly said, “Our aim is to develop 140 rakes by March 2019 after which we are planning to roll out 500 more by March 2020”. He further said that the new rakes will provide better facilities to passengers, including LED lightings, odourless toilets.
Reportedly, the coaches in the rake are installed with LED tube lights and LED light panels along the gangway and doorway to be energy efficient. The new coaches are fitted with dustbins in the toilets and AC coaches have been provided with integrated basin-cum-dustbins.
The rakes are also being given a new colour scheme of beige and maroon. In addition to this, the toilets are fitted with improved fittings and doorways have been vinyl wrapped. The coaches have night glow stickers and Braille signages inside them.
Swachh Rail Toilet, which is a hybrid design of the bio-toilet system, has been installed in the coaches. These toilets consume less water, do not choke, odourless and maintenance free.
Recently, the Indian Railways had adopted ‘green’ initiatives when they introduced the first of its kind non-AC coaches which come fitted with solar panels, which will be used to operate lights, fans and mobile charging points. According to the report, the solar panel’s installation is expected to save about Rs 3 crore for the railways over a 25 year period.
“We have both our radio altimeters failed, TCAS failure, ILS is out of service on both sides of planes, no wind shear system either, no auto land, auto speed brake failure and the APU is unserviceable as well”. On 11th September, Captain Rustom Palia piloting AI 101 had to radio this unfortunate catastrophic series of failures to the tower at JFK, New York. While en route from Delhi to New York in a long haul flight of 15 hours onboard the modern Boeing 777-300 ER (Extended Range), the crew faced an unprecedented situation of instrumentation failure compounded with bad weather and low fuel.
Every pilot trains for emergency situations like these but they hope not to see it in an actual operational aircraft in their lifetime. The able team of Captain Rustom Palia, Captain Sushant Singh, First Officer Vikas Singh and First Officer DS Bhatti held their nerve and landed the giant bird with 370 souls on board with no eventuality.
On 11th of September, Air India flight AI 101, a Boeing 777-300 ER, took off from Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi to John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, one of the elite Air India nonstop service. After flying for 15 hours, the captain started their descend to JFK. However, the weather God had other plans. The weather turned very bad with visibility as low as 200 feet. And to compound the problem, the cloud ceiling also got very low; this means when the aircraft breaks out of clouds, it would be very close to the ground. However, with modern avionics, navigational aid and CAT III B ILS, it should still have been possible to do a safe landing. But to further add to the problems, multiple instruments onboard AI 101 started failing, leading to a potential disaster.
The first instrument to fail was the radio altimeter. Radio altimeter measures the altitude of the aircraft from the ground. It’s a crucial instrument as the output from radio altimeter readings are fed into several other instruments, ILS (Instrument Landing System) being one of the most crucial among them.
What is a radio altimeter and how does it work
A radio altimeter is a simple device consisting of 2 antennas. A transmitting and a receiving antenna. It transmits a radio wave, the wave reflects from earth’s surface and receiving antenna receives it. From the time taken to cover the distance, the altitude is calculated.
For example, say the total time taken is 0.000005 seconds. Radio waves travel at the speed of light. In aviation, distance is measured in feet. The speed of light in feet per second is ~983571087 feet/sec.
Distance = Speed * Time.
983571087*.000005 = 4917 feet.
This is the total distance travelled i.e. from the aircraft to ground and back to receiving antenna on the aircraft.
Dividing it by 2, we get our altitude i.e. 4917/2 ~ 2500 feet.
Instrument Landing System or ILS consists of 2 main component which aids in safe landing of an aircraft. A localiser antenna, which helps in the lateral displacement and aligns the aircraft to runway centre line and a Glideslope antenna telling the aircraft to maintain the glide slope. Consider glide slope as an imaginary line from aircraft to the touchdown zone indicating the height aircraft must maintain at different points till touchdown.
How does ILS aid in landing
ILS consists of 2 components
Localizer – This is an array of the antenna at the far end of the runway along the breadth of the runway. Every airport has its own ILS frequency. Once the aircraft tunes into a said ILS frequency, antennas to the left of runway centre line emit a particular signal and antennas to the right emit another signal. This helps the ILS receivers in the cockpit to correct course and align the aircraft to the centre line.
Localizer Antenna Array
Glideslope Antenna – This is an antenna installed somewhere on the side along the approach to the runway. This works on a very simple principle of height and distance in Trigonometry we learned during high school. For a smooth and comfortable landing, most airports maintain a 3° downward descend.
Say, the aircraft is at 3 nautical miles from the runway touchdown zone.
p = 6076*3 = 18228 feet
From basic Trigonometry, tanθ = p/b
tan3° = p/18228
0.0524 = p/18228
p = 18228*0.0524
p = 955
So at a distance of 3 miles from the runway, to maintain a glide slope of 3°, the aircraft must be at a height of 955 feet. This information is relayed from the glide slope antenna to the cockpit ILS instruments and flight computers correct the height of the aircraft from inputs that are received from altimeters as well as glide slope antenna. In case the radio altimeters don’t work, this automatic height correction won’t work either.
One failure led to another. As radio altimeter failed, ILS receivers couldn’t work. As ILS didn’t work, auto land and auto speed brake also failed, which meant, the pilots would now have no aid from flight computers and have to do the entire landing manually. To add to the woes, bad weather and low cloud ceiling ensured almost zero visibility. In these conditions, pilots use the most sophisticated landing category called ILS CAT IIIB. But in this case, the entire ILS was missing. The pilots did try to land the plane manually but the poor visibility forced a missed approach and go around. This left very low fuel on board for any alternate airports nearby which had better weather.
At this point, captain Rustom Palia decided to divert it to Newark (EWR), another international airport in NYC Metropolitan area, located in New Jersey. AI 101 asked for permission to land at EWR after describing the ordeal; here is a conversation snippet between Newark tower and captain Palia.
Tower – When you get a chance, can you tell me a number of pax and fuel onboard
AI 101 – We have 370 people and roughly around 7200 KGs of fuel on board. Is there anything else that you need from me
Tower – That will be all.
AI 101 – Thank you very much. We are good. Thanks for this approach
Tower – No Thank you, I wish I could do more for you
With a low cloud ceiling, the crew tried a non-precision approach (VNAV/LNAV). Once they broke out of the cloud, the aircraft was now flying at 400 feet at around 300 KMPH. It was then that the crew physically saw the runway and realised they were close to a touchdown but not aligned yet.Also, the PAPI lights indicated that they were flying too high to miss the touchdown zone. The problem with jumbos like 777 is, they eat up a lot of runway while braking. Hence, they need the complete runway for landing. Touching down beyond threshold can be catastrophic with a runway overshoot. Captain had to snap correct the altitude of the plane, flying at a speed of 300 KMPH, 1.5 miles away from the runway and 400 feet above ground with no automated altitude readout as radio altimeters had failed.
What is PAPI
PAPI stands for Precision Approach Path Indicator. It’s a set of 4 lights mounted on a stand elevated at a particular angle. The lower half of the light emits a Red beam whereas the upper half emits a Whitebeam. The lights are fitted at a particular angle, which aids the pilot visually to correct his height. The angle ensures that at the correct height, the pilot should always see 2 reds and 2 whites. If there are more than 2 Whites, the aircraft is flying higher than the designated height. If the pilot sees more than 2 Reds, the aircraft is flying low.
PAPI lights
Newark airport had declared an emergency with rescue vehicles on standby. Eventually, 38 minutes after the first missed approach at JFK, at around 08:43 hours local time, Captain Palia was able to land the plane safely on runway 04R of Newark Liberty International Airport with all 370 people onboard safe. Just to revisit the ordeal, there were multiple instrumentation failures, no navigational aid for flight computers, low fuel, bad weather and zero visibility. Despite all these odds, what the crew pulled off was a miracle of sorts.
While AI has refused to comment on the issue pending an investigation, the crew must be applauded for the amazing feat it achieved.
After conceding defeat in the contentious presidential election & making way for the joint opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, the outgoing Maldives President Abdullah Yameen is using every trick in the book to extend his president reign. According to reports, he has discredited the poll results now and has refused to acknowledge Solih’s candidature for president’s position.
On Wednesday, Yameen’s party, PPM, passed a resolution that they would not accept Ibrahim Solih as the new president. According to local reports, PPM resolution against Solih was passed quickly on Tuesday night with just a handful of members in attendance. When asked why the resolution was passed with such a few people, Ibrahim Muaz Ali, Yameen’s spokesperson said that these were the only people willing to face media to speak for their rights.
According to a report by Al-Jazeera, Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), anti-money laundering body of the Maldives has said, “Yameen received 22.5 million Maldivian rupiahs ($1.5 million) in hard currency days in advance of a contentious presidential election”. The report quoted the letter saying “president received the money in two instalments to a private bank account at the Maldives Islamic Bank”. The police have been briefed about the incident.
“When the bank asked about the source of the money and its use, the bank was told the money was donations from private companies and various others to be used in the 2018 presidential elections,” the report further stated, without specifying who spoke on behalf of the president. If these corruption charges are proved true, it might well backfire Yameen’s attempts to continue being in power. With the new government just a month away, Yameen might find defending his stake at presidential position increasingly difficult.
But it is being expected that, in the next few weeks, Yasmeen will use every possible trick at his disposal to sabotage the political situation in the Maldives. This could include violent clashes, which might give him a semblance of legitimacy in reimposing emergency in the Maldives & continuing with his reign.
However, Solih’s victory has been welcomed by a host of nations such as the USA, India, UK & other global powers. This will make it difficult for Yasmeen to overtly employ his machinations for remaining in power. It will be interesting to see how India & other concerned nations react to this political turmoil unfolding in the Indian Ocean Island State.
