Air India to commence normal ops to US from Friday
Darpan News Desk IANS, 20 Jan, 2022 11:24 AM
New Delhi, Jan 20 (IANS) National carrier Air India will commence normal operations to US from Friday, the airline said.
On Tuesday, the national carrier said that it will not be able to operate a number of US-bound flights due to the deployment of 5G communications in the US.
As per industry insiders, the 5G network technology might cause certain crucial flight instruments to malfunction.
The airline informed passengers via its official Twitter handle: "#FlyAI : Flight operations to/from destinations in USA were affected during last two days.
"We would like to inform our passengers traveling to/from destinations in the USA that effective 0001hrs of 21st January 2022 normal flights operations will recommence to/from USA."
Earlier in the day, Boeing had cleared AI to operate to the US on Boeing 777 aircraft.
Accordingly, the first Air India flight left from New Delhi to JFK airport on Thursday morning.
Besides, Air India is expected to operate other flights to Chicago and San Francisco.
"Arrangements to carry stranded passengers are being worked out," the airline said.
The US air transport regulator, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has been concerned that a version of 5G could interfere with some airplane instruments.
Earlier, aviation industry groups had shared those fears. This is despite reassurances from federal telecom regulators and well as wireless carriers.
Specifically, the FAA has been worried that 5G cellular antennas near some airports - not air mobile devices - could throw off readings from some aircraft equipment designed to tell pilots how far they are from the ground.
The systems, radar altimeters, are used throughout a flight and are considered critical.
At present, Air India operates to 5 destinations in the US.
Lieutenant Colonel Harjinder Singh who died in the tragic helicopter crash along with the Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat and others, had been married to Prafulla from Karnataka. Prafulla is the native of Salmaru village near Karkala town in Udupi district. A pall of gloom descended on the family after the news of the tragedy broke out.
The force said that positive identification of only three mortal remains -- Gen Rawat, Madhulika Rawat and Brig L.S. Lidder -- has been possible as of now, and their mortal remains will be released to the next of kin for final rites as desired by the respective families.
Almost 15 months after the farmers' agitation began against the (now scrapped) farm laws and other issues, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of farmer unions that led the protest, said on Thursday that it has suspended the agaitation after receiving positive assurances from the government on their demands, adding that the borders of Delhi will be cleared by Saturday.
India's civil aviation regulator, the DGCA, on Thursday extended the ban on scheduled international commercial flights till January 31.Earlier, India had announced plans to allow resumption of scheduled commercial international passenger services from December 15 with certain conditions.
The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with the country's top security officers held a meeting on Wednesday over the situation arising out of the IAF chopper crash in Tamil Nadu that killed Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 others onboard the ill-fated helicopter.
