Landing Gears feeling the heat !

Did the Aviation Minister say that the Indian Civil Aviation Industry is about to touch its pinnacle or I overheard it. Guess so. In the past 4 months the Landing Gears of Indian Aircrafts have failed to show up as many times. The failures started with the Air-India flight at Los Angeles followed by Indian Airlines at Patna, Air Deccan in Bangalore and Air-India again, this time in Delhi / Mumbai. Let’s not forget the Air-Sahara Kolkata – Mumbai flight overshooting the Mumbai runway. Thankfully, all these mishaps ended with minor injuries.

Today the Los Angeles bound Air-India flight from New Delhi, carrying 256 passengers and 15 crew members, made an emergency landing at Mumbai airport on Monday after a snag developed during take-off. The aircraft landed safely and all passengers and crew were safe, an A-I spokesperson said. The AI officials confirmed, “The aircraft, AI 317, landed safely at Mumbai airport at 1:25 pm hours after being recalled as pieces of rubber from the tyre (read landing gear) came out at the time of take-off from Delhi.”

Two days before on 11^th march, An Air Deccan ATR flight (Coimbatore – Bangalore) , carrying 40 passengers and four crew members, crash landed at the Bangalore airport four passengers have suffered minor injuries. This happened as the nose wheel came off by the impact of the crash and the main wheels too were damaged. The impact was such that the propellers also got cut in the process. It led to the closure of the Airport for around 4 hrs and 60 flights were either cancelled or diverted to Chennai.

In the month of January, an Indian Airlines Delhi-Patna Airbus flight had lost its landing year while landing. Though there were no injuries but the Airport was closed for a couple of days as the craft got stuck on the runway.

On 20^th December 05, a New Delhi-bound Air-India flight made an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport after blowing a tyre during take-off. All 267 people on board escaped unhurt, it was officially announced then. Before landing the carrier dumped fuel over the ocean and circled back to Los Angeles International Airport to land in a spray of sparks in the absence of landing gear, shedding 200 pounds of rubber and metal on the runway.

Its time that safety standards are adhered to. Hope, the Aviation Ministry is not sleeping.

Record books danced to the tunes of Wanderers !

Does one need to comment on this? The Records tumbled and fumbled on the New Wanderers Stadium at Johannesburg with the Porteas beating the Kangaroos by a wicket by scoring over 400 runs in just 299 deliveries. Seven years after the semi-final of the 1999 World Cup, this match has helped the Porteas to loose their Chokers tag. The ghosts of the match has been finally burried.Phew! What a match. Unbelievable Stuff.

Till yesterday (2348 One Day Internationals), no team had ever achieved a score of 400 and today on the 2349th ocassion it was done twice. The highest cumulative total for an ODI stood at 693 when India beat Pakistan by five runs in Karachi in March 2004. However, no respect was shown to history as the teams went on to score a total of 872 runs. Mike Lewis' bowling figures of 10-0-113-0 must have provided Murali with some comfort as his most expensive bowling analysis in a LOI was shattered. He conceded 10-0-99-0 against Australia in Sydney in February and was the worst (in terms of most runs conceded) bowling performance in the LOI history.

However, one of my batch mates found one more Murphy's law: All good cricket/football matches and F1 races happen one day before ur exams begin... And I second that. Have end terms beginning tomorrow. So, time to put an end to this post now. More to follow.

Days are still Blue as Alonso grabs 10 on 10 !

Did one feel that the Schumi days are back? In fact I did for sometime as Schumi lad Ferrari ended up with the First row after the qualifiers. Neways, the feel din last long and the blue flags held high this season also with Fernando Alonso clinching 10 points, finishing first on the podium followed by Schumi and Raikkonen. Briton Jenson Button finished fourth on Honda followed by Columbian juan Pablo Montoya for Mc Laren. They were followed by Mark Webber and rookie Nico Rosberg, son of 1982 world champion Keke, both on Williams. Nico became the 54th driver in the history of the sport to score on a race debut.

Earlier Massa's first race with Ferrari was wrecked as he spun on lap eight, narrowly missing Alonso's Renault, and then pitted. There was confusion in the Ferrari pits as mechanics struggled to remove the rear right tyre with a faulty pneumatic wheel gun. He was kept waiting 46.8 seconds before rejoining the race among the tailenders, but managed to finish ninth.

For the first time since 2002, when Toyota entered the sport, 22 cars and 11 teams lined up on the starting grid with the arrival of newcomers Super Aguri. The fastest lap went to Rookie Nico Rosberg who clocked 1 min 32.408 secs in the 42nd lap with an average speed of 210.838 followed by Schumi and the Alonso.

The countdown to Kuala Lumpur begins with just 6 days and 11 hrs remaining!

Are gud old days for Schumi led Ferrari back ?

The much awaited F 1 2006 season kicks off tomorrow with Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix, Bahrain. Its gonna be an all Ferrari front row 21 hrs from now. Michael Schumacher equalled the late Ayrton Senna’s record for pole positions when he took his 65th Pole here in Bahrain this afternoon during Formula One racing’s first knockout qualifying session. Fellow Ferrari racer Felipe Massa will start alongside him, with Honda’s Jenson Button and Renault world champion Fernando Alonso on row two.

Though Schumi managed the Pole, he (1min 31.431seconds) could not match Alonso's ,the champ of the last season, second session best of 1min 31.215seconds. With the tempreature rising by almost 10 degree centigrades on the Bahrain track, one needs to wait for the kick off tomorrow to witness the premium challenge. The bigger question however is "Are the days for Schumi back, or its again blue and yellow (F Alonso) all the way ?"

The First 10 Grid Positions,

1. Michael Schumacher, Ferrari
2. Felipe Massa, Ferrari
3. Jenson Button, Honda
4. Fernando Alonso, Renault
5. Juan Pablo Montoya, Mclaren-Mercedes
6. Rubens Barrichello, Honda
7. Mark Webber, Williams-Cosworth
8. Fisichella, Renault
9. Christian Klien, Red Bull
10. Nick Hiedfeld, Sauber

Air Deccan : It can not get more bizzare than this !

Ask a common man about his travelling plans for the summer. 9 out of 10 times one would get to hear about Air Travel. Thanks to the Low Cost Carriers. However, a twist in the story !

Over the past week, a sizeable number of passengers turning up at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Airport, Dumdum, Kolkata have been told that the Manipur bound Air-Deccan flight DN-581 on which they are booked and holding tickets simply does not exist. Similar treatment waited scores of Kolkata bound passengers in Imphal for DN-582. The passengers are stunned by the soft reply of the staff at the Check In counter that Air Deccan does not operate to Imphal at all. On production of the e-ticket, they are told that the same is result of a technical glitch on our server. Please proceed to the booking office for the refunds.

On further enquiry, Air Deccan chief revenue officer John K Kuruvilla informed that the airline had planned to launch a daily ATR service on the Kolkata-Imphal sector from March 1 but was unable to do so due to operational reasons. And that they will rectify the fault at the earliest.

Great work guys, Keep the stone rolling !

Kumble enters the magical hall of 500 Test Wikkis !

The English danced to the tunes of Jumbo as the braveheart from Bangie stormed into the elite 500 Test Wickets Club. He becomes the fifth bowler in the world to achieve his feat and more importantly the second fastest. However, the journey this far has been a long and uncomfortable one with some fond as well as bitter memories. Today on this very day, the one man Demolition of Pakistan at Feroz Shah Kotla; and the first day of the Indo Aussie Test, Chepauk, Oct 04 is worth mentioning. Not to forget the appearance of The Mummy in the Antigua Test where inspite of a broken jaw, with no support the man bowled 14 overs and took the prized wicket of Brian C Lara. What a fightback by a true warrior after witnessing the dressing room for couple of tests! Ignoring all the medical advises after getting the jaw fractured by a Dhillon delivery, entered the ground with his jaw supported by a surgical guaze. Imagine the pain and on top of it the determination.

There has been numerous ocassions when Kumble's armoury has been compared to the ripping leggies of Warne, and the doosras of Murali, but his nearly straighter ones with varied pace and bounce have dated with a generation of batsmen since 1990 with the same lust.

I must sign off by endorsing "Form might be temporary, but Class is Permanent". Thanks Jumbo for your services to the nation.