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NEW DELHI — Indian airports were on high alert Friday after intelligence services received information that Al Qaeda-linked militants were plotting to hijack a plane. Such an attack would be the first major terror strike against India since 10 militants rampaged through the city of Mumbai for three days in November 2008, killing 166 people. Aviation spokeswoman Moushumi Chakravarty said that the airports were placed on alert Thursday after the government received warnings from the intelligence agencies.(continued)

In a major security breach, an Indian national working as a cleaner at Medina airport in Saudi Arabia managed to travel on an Air India flight, carrying 273 Haj pilgrims from Saudi Arabia to India, hiding in the toilet of the aircraft. Habib Hussain, 26, from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, told the police that the contractor who employed him there had taken away his passport and harassed him. Finding no other way out to return home, he sneaked into the Air India flight to Jaipur. Habib's presence came to light about half an hour after the flight took off...

Former Boeing instructor pilot Anthony Keyter has filed a federal civil lawsuit against Boeing, alleging that the Chicago-based aerospace company plotted to murder him. Boeing test pilot Anthony Keyter says that Boeing plotted to kill him. The lawsuit indicates that Keyter lives in Gig Harbor and that he is representing himself. The suit, filed Monday with the U.S. District Court of Western Washington, charges that Boeing plotted to kill Keyter after Keyter filed another civil complaint against President George W. Bush. "President Bush, via his agents, contacted high level executives of The Boeing Company and initiated a criminal plot to...

MUMBAI: US aircraft manufacturer Boeing on Wednesday said it would compensate Air India for the delay in the delivery of Dreamliner 787 aircraft to the Indian carrier. "We will compensate Air India for the delay in the delivery of Dreamliners," Boeing Senior Vice-President Dinesh Keskar told reporters on the sidelines of an aviation summit. In 2005, the national carrier had placed orders with Boeing for 68 aircraft costing $11.6 billion. Of the 68 aircraft, 27 are Dreamliners. The first Dreamliner was scheduled to be delivered by end-this year, but the deliveries are now expected to be delayed. "There have been...

Air India Starts Talks With Boeing, Airbus; Eyes A380-Sources September 21, 2007: 01:52 AM EST NEW DELHI -(Dow Jones)- State-owned Air India has begun talks with Boeing Co. (BA) and Airbus to buy new planes including the A380 superjumbo, people familiar with the development said Friday. In July, Air India said it plans to buy about 60 new passenger jetliners over the next few years and aims to start the selection and purchase process by mid- August. "The airline is in touch with both Boeing and Airbus on the types of aircraft available and what will be required in the...

THE SIKH EDUCATIONAL TRUST Box 60246 University of Alberta Postal Outlet EDMONTON, AB T6G 2S5 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SIKH AFFAIRS (An official organ of The Sikh Educational Trust) The Editor Letters to The Edmonton Journal and Letters, The National Post Canada 9th May, 2007 Dear Sir, AIR INDIA FLIGHT 182 (TORONTO – MONTREAL – LONDON – DELHI), 23rd JUNE, 1985: ENQUIRY OF JUSTICE JOHN MAJOR My writing to you relates with some minor and major comments related to the subject, and also on “Air India’s Shared Tragedy Lost in the ‘SILOS’ between two nations by George Abraham (The Edmonton Journal,...

The Air India bombing inquiry has been told of a hint of coming disaster 11 days before Canada's worst mass murder. A former Vancouver police officer, Don McLean, testified Tuesday at the inquiry in Ottawa about an exchange between two men he described as Sikh militants on June 12, 1985. He quoted the first as saying: "No consuls have been killed. No ambassadors have been killed. What are you going to do? Nothing?" The reply, he said, was: "You will see something be done in two weeks." The conversation took place in the basement of the Vancouver-area home of a...

A court in India has sentenced to death seven men convicted of attacking the American cultural centre in Calcutta in January 2002. Those convicted include Aftab Ahmed Ansari, who the judge said had planned the attack in which five policemen were killed and nearly 20 others injured. Two other men were acquitted for lack of evidence. The attack heightened tensions in South Asia, coming just weeks after a bloody raid on India's parliament. India accused Pakistan of having a link to both attacks which was strongly denied by Islamabad. Although India still supports the death penalty it is rarely carried...

Where would we be if we did not have Liberals to remind us Canadians are racists? Take the ongoing Air India inquiry and this gem from Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh. "Maybe it's harsh coming from me at this day and age," the former Liberal cabinet minister said recently. "But I genuinely believe if you had 329 white, Anglo-Saxons killed in an Air India disaster, you would have had an inquiry in no time. I've never spoken so harshly before, but that's the truth and Canadians have to, we have to, confront that truth." Nonsense. The reason it took so long...

What Rajiv Gandhi told Canada PM after A-I blast May 03, 2007 09:54 IST In a phone call just after the bombing of the Air India plane in 1985, then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had asked his Canadian counterpart why all the baggage on the flight was not removed and rechecked in Montreal when three pieces were found to be suspicious. Gandhi had suggested to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney that Canada had breached international procedures by not re-screening the luggage on Flight 182. Details of the emotionally-charged exchange were revealed on Wednesday in declassified government documents released at the...

Non-stop US flights: AI to buy planes Saurabh Sinha [26 Apr, 2007 l 0237 hrs ISTlTIMES NEWS NETWORK] NEW DELHI: The Maharaja is not satisfied with the 68 new generation aircraft it had ordered earlier. Air India's top officials have begun deliberations to see how many more Boeing 777-200 long range (LR) aircraft it would need for direct Indo-US services. This stems from two reaons — the airline now anticipates higher passenger traffic and wants to connect more US cities like Washington and Houston to India. "From June we will launch non stop India-US flights on the Boeing 777-200 long...

Harper pulls some Liberal whiskers Only possible recourse of the Dion crowd is to scream in unison at the PM Lorne Gunter, The Edmonton Journal Published: Friday, February 23, 2007 So the Liberals are outraged at Prime Minister Stephen Harper? I'm not surprised. No one manufactures outrage better than they do. Did the PM go too far in the House of Commons Wednesday when he (almost) raised the possibility that the Liberals' recent opposition to Canada's anti-terror laws was motivated by the self- interest of one of their own rising-star MPs? Probably. Yet, the Liberals also responded too unanimously...

India sets sights on cruise missile market By Siddharth Srivastava NEW DELHI - Long considered among the top importing nations for defense hardware, India is now looking to access the fast-growing international market for cruise missiles, considered a lethally efficient weapon. US forces used almost 1,000 such missiles when they first entered Iraq in 2003, and the total worldwide market is expected to be more than US$10 billion in the next decade. An inventory of more than 80,000 such missiles is estimated already to exist around the world. Indian Defense Minister A K Anthony has said New Delhi is holding...

LONDON: A British company on Wednesday launched a specially-designed stainless steel "anti-terror" cutlery range for use on board aircraft. Arthur Price cutlery manufacturers and retailers claimed to be the first firm to design such a set, targeted for use by Business Class customers who expect better than plastic cutlery. The knives, forks and spoons have been created to exact specifications based on new British Department for Transport guidelines amid heightened security fears. The knives have a rounded rather than a sharp end and measure no longer than 2.36 inches, while the forks have prongs no longer than three centimetres. Air-India...

India's national airline, Air India, is to take action against 14 crew members for allegedly stealing alcohol from the prime minister's plane. The incident is said to have taken place in April during a visit by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Germany. Angry officials from the civil aviation ministry had questioned why it took Air India so long to report the incident accusing them of a "cover-up". The BBC's Sunil Raman says it is now being seen as a major security breach. During the visit last April, the prime minister's security detail on board India's equivalent of Air Force One...

MUMBAI/ BOMBAY: In the largest commercial airplane order in India's civil aviation history, national carrier Air-India today signed an agreement with US aerospace firm Boeing for purchase of 68 modern aircraft at an estimated cost of Rs 35,000 crore. The agreement was signed between Air-India Chairman V Thulasidas and Boeing Commercial Airplane President and CEO Alan Mulally in the presence of Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel at the Air-India office in south Mumbai. Air-India's order consists of 23 Boeing 777s, including eight Boeing 777-200 LR (longer range) worldliners and 15 777-300 ERs (extended range), and 27 787-8 Boeing dreamliners. Besides,...

Breaking local news is showing the Air India 747 parked on runway with local Los Angeles Fire Department on scene. The 747 left LAX and on takeoff had multiple tire blow-outs leaving debris on the runway. The 747 flew out over the ocean, dumped fuel and then returned to LAX. No injuries are reported while they are waiting for passengers to be led off the plane.

NEW DELHI: Air India, the country's flag carrier, will begin receiving the first of its 35 mint new Boeing aircraft from 2006, with the last plane being delivered in 2013. Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday announced the cabinet's approval of Air India's fleet expansion plans and said a group of ministers would work out the pricing with the manufacturer "in as quick a period as possible". In addition, subsidiary Air India Charters Limited that operates the no-frills Air India Express, will start taking delivery of the first of its 18 new Boeings from 2006 and the process will be...

NEW DELHI: In a new twist to the controversy over the purchase of aircraft by the Air-India at an estimated cost of over $7 billion, Europe-based aircraft manufacturer Airbus has sough fresh evaluation for the 18 189-seater planes that have been selected for Air-India Express, a fully-owned subsidiary of the national carrier. In a letter to the airline, Airbus has said that selection of aircraft should be done on a typical low-cost configuration. A-I had evaluated the deal on a two-class configuration but finally chose to buy the 18 planes with an all-economy configuration. The Maharajah has favoured purchase of...

With Air-India eyeing the Texas market for its newest on-ground hub, Houston and Dallas are engaged in an aerial dogfight to determine which city will land the India's national airline. Houston has an advantage in demographics with 120,000 residents of Indian descent, and aviation officials in the city estimate that bringing Air-India to Bush Intercontinental Airport would generate at least $200 million in economic benefits to the area. The Houston Business Journal, however, quoted John Massey, manager of Air-India's marketing programme in New York City as saying that "Right now, there are no definite plans." "There are no formal decisions...