UAE: Passengers Face Consequential Delays As Six Air India Flights From UAE Affected By Software Glitch

Flights in the Gulf region were minimally affected by the massive disruption experienced by Air India due to a server crash yesterday, an airline official said, adding that only six flights were delayed, with passengers being duly notified.

Thousands of passengers across the world were stranded after the Indian flag-bearer’s server crashed at around 5am local time, halting its global operations.

Though the services were restored after around five hours of delay, dozens of flights were affected with the breakdown not allowing passengers to check in.

According to Air India’s regional manager, Mohit Sain, most of the flights from the region had departed before the disruption happened.

Here in the UAE we have had a limited impact of the disruption because the server crashed after most of our flights had departed from Dubai and Sharjah, said Sain.

However, he added the global crash led to delays of six flights and passengers were alerted in time, and notified about the change in timings.

Among the affected flights were AI934 Dubai to Kochi, which was rescheduled to 5.35pm, experiencing a three-hour delay.

Another flight facing significant delay was AI938 Dubai to Calicut, which was rescheduled to 8.45pm.

The airline’s budget carrier Air India Express also faced disruptions, with two flights from Sharjah rescheduled, including IX536 to Thiruvananthapuram which was scheduled for a 1pm departure, running late by more than an hour and IX354 was rescheduled for a 4pm departure, delayed by one hour 20 minutes.

According to a statement by Air India, a glitch in its passenger services system developed by aviation IT solutions firm SITA hampered the airline’s check-in and other passenger services.

At least 35 flights were affected when the system was down between 5am and 10am, however, the cascading effect of the disruption delayed more than 150 flights both domestically and internationally.

Air India has had previous issues of system failures with the most recent being in June last year when its passenger check in software crashed due to unexpected network connectivity issues.

As of 3.05 pm, Saturday, April 27:

The national flag-carrier Air India had managed to restore its system following a check-in software glitch that caused massive delays across its domestic and international operations.

The carrier tweeted that the temporary glitch was restored at 8:45 am, but expected that passengers were to face consequential delays.

Between 3:30 to 4:30 am Saturday, passenger services system of Air India that is run by SITA was taken for maintenance and after that it remained down till 8:45 am, it has just come back.

System restored. During the day we will see consequential delays, Air India chairman Ashwani Lohani said.

Air India's flight operations were affected across India and abroad since early morning on Saturday due to knock-effect of the server shutdown. Air India earlier said the server breakdown affected its flights all over the world.

Air India chairman Ashwani Lohani, in an interview with the local channel NDTV, attributed the problem to shutdown of SITA software. SITA (Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques) is a multinational IT company providing telecommunication services to the air transport industry.

Thousands of Air India passengers were stranded at airports across the world Saturday, after a software glitch left those travelling with the state-run airline unable to check in, officials said.

More than 155 domestic and international flights were delayed for several hours because of a problem with the company's check-in software that brought operations to a halt causing further flight delays across the globe.

Our check-in software experienced a glitch following a routine software upgrade. It was resolved after six hours, Air India spokesman Praveen Bhatnagar said.

Bhatnagar said most of the delays were on its domestic circuit and they were doing everything possible to clear the backlog.

There were no flight cancellations and the airline expects operations to be back to normal by early evening, the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, CMD Air India Ashwani Lohani said that the glitch has been rectified.

The airline issued a statement on Twitter, saying: Our server system SITA, which faced a temporary glitch, this morning was restored at 08.45hrs. Air India senior executives, including CMD, Directors, Station Heads rushed to airports to take control of situation and facilitate pax.

Earlier, one user, R Vasundara, posted a picture of a crowded Mumbai airport, labelling the whole incident a nightmare.

Another user with the handle Priyam expressed anger at the failure with operations, saying What to expect if that’s the condition of a national carrier.

Priyanka Gulati posted a video of a crowded airport, calling the process a waste of time.

After hours at the the Chandigarh airport and under threat of missing a connecting flight, Twitter user Mukhtiar Singh uses social media to ask authorities for answers.

He wrote: Hi authorities what’s happening. I am on the Chandigarh airport with family from 5:30 am waiting for flight to delhi and then From delhi to london. It’s a real shame authorities are not updating us what’s happening.

An Air India spokesperson issued a statement, explaining: The SITA [IT] server is down. Due to which flight operation is affected. Our technical teams are on work and soon system may be recovered. Inconvenience is deeply regretted.

India's aviation industry is in choppy waters after one of the country's largest private carriers, Jet Airways, last week halted its operations indefinitely following refusal by lenders to pay it cash to run day-to-day operations.

The state-owned loss making Air India operates more than 450 fights a day across the globe, with a majority of them flying domestically.

Saturday's software malfunction is a repeat of a similar outage in June last year that caused flight delays globally.


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INDIA: Air India Flight From Ahmedabad In Emergency Landing At Mumbai Airport, Reason Hydraulic Failure

An Air India A321 aircraft flying in from Ahmedabad carried out an emergency landing at the Mumbai airport on Wednesday.

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Air India flight AI-985 took off from Ahmedabad with 131 passengers on board at 7.30 pm, but the aircraft developed a hydraulic failure en route which forced the pilots to opt for an emergency landing, said a source.

A Mumbai airport spokesperson said that full emergency was declared at 8.15 pm for AI 985 arriving from Ahmedabad due to hydraulic failure.

With fire engines and ambulances on standby, the aircraft landed safely at 8.35 pm, after which the emergency was withdrawn.

Air India spokesperson was not available for comment.


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INDIA: Jet Airways Hostess Protects And Saves Baby From Accident At Mumbai Airport

Airline crew are trained to save lives in any onboard emergency.

Jet Airways air hostess Mitanshi Vaidya did just that on the ground when she threw herself on the ground at an airport to protect a toddler who had accidentally fallen from his mother’s arms.

While she fell flat on her face, she managed to reach out her arms to the baby to ensure that he did not hit the ground and remained safe.

This good samaritan act was witnessed at Mumbai airport last month when a woman was flying with her less than a year-old baby to Ahmedabad.

After completing check-in formalities and while approaching the security check counter, the baby accidentally slipped from the mother’s arms.

Fortunately one young girl a Jet air hostess Mitanshi Vaidya saved the 10 month old baby boy from this accident.

The Jet air hostess without worrying about her life helped me and just jumped and caught my son the mother of the baby said.

She also suffered injuries in her face in the process, and may have also received a permanent scar on her nose.

The mother Gulafa Shaikh, who is the MD of a private company, has written to Jet Airways while thanking the air hostess who saved her baby.

Shaikh was travelling by another private airline.

Jet Airways confirmed this act of Mitanshi Vaidya, where she did not even worry about getting a scar on her face that might have affected her job as an air hostess.

We are very proud of Mitanshi, who has been working as a cabin crew with us since June 2016.

She is trained on the Boeing 737 aircraft, a Jet Airways senior official said.

The mothers letter says: I asked for her mobile number but the innocent girl just smiled and said it’s against company policy. She is an angel for me. I had my child after 14 years of marriage and she saved my child.

I wanted to thank her in anyway but she refused to take anything and just said ‘duaon mein yaad rakhna or remember me in your prayers.

The Hostess Mitanshi Vaidya then proceeded to operate on her flight after getting first aid.

Vaidya’s acrobatic leap may have been enabled by the fact that she is taking Judo classes.

She is a fun loving girl, passionate about singing and dancing, the Jet official said.



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INDIA: IndiGo Makes Emergency Landing After ISIS Speech

A Kozhikode-bound Indigo airlines flight from Dubai made an emergency landing at Mumbai airport after a passenger made a speech in support of the dreaded terror outfit Islamic State on Thursday morning.

The man, who is suspected to be a Keralite, started speaking for the ISIS and its ideals when the the flight was airborne.

He refused to yield to the requests from co-passengers to stop. He was overpowered by fellow passengers when he turned violent.

The passenger is being interrogated by the CISF at Mumbai airport. More details are awaited.

INDIA: Air India Technician Dies After Getting Sucked Into Plane Engine

In a freak accident, an aircraft technician died after being sucked into the engine of an Air India aircraft during push back at the Mumbai airport this evening.

The mishap occurred when the co-pilot of Mumbai-Hyderabad flight 619 mistook a signal for starting the engine and the victim, Ravi Subramanian, who was standing close, got sucked into it at bay 28 of the Chhatrapati Shivaji domestic airport around 8:40 pm.

Confirming the incident, Air India Chairman Ashwani Lohani said the incident is being investigated.

"During the pushback, the co-pilot mistook a signal for engine start. As he switched on the engine, it sucked in the technician standing nearby," Air India sources said.
Lohani said he was deeply saddened by the tragic incident.

"We are deeply saddened and regret the tragic incident at Mumbai airport this evening when an Air India technician died in a mishap during pushback of flight AI 619. The incident is being investigated. Our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family," Lohani said.