AirAsia captain left seat before jet lost control - sources

SINGAPORE/JAKARTA/PARIS (Reuters) - The captain of the AirAsia jet that crashed into the sea in December was out of his seat conducting an unusual procedure when his co-pilot apparently lost control, and by the time he returned it was too late to save the plane, two people familiar with the investigation said.

Details emerging of the final moments of Flight QZ8501 are likely to focus attention partly on maintenance, procedures and training, though Indonesian officials have not ruled out any cause and stress it is too early to draw firm conclusions.

The Airbus A320 jet plunged into the Java Sea while en route from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore on Dec. 28, killing all 162 people on board.

People familiar with the matter said earlier this week that investigators were examining maintenance records of one of the automated systems, the Flight Augmentation Computer (FAC), and the way the pilots reacted to any outage.

One person familiar with the matter said the captain had flown on the same plane with the intermittently faulty device days earlier. There was no independent confirmation of this.

After trying to reset this device, pilots pulled a circuit-breaker to cut its power, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

People familiar with the matter said it was the Indonesian captain Iriyanto who took this step, rather than his less experienced French co-pilot Remy Plesel, who was flying the plane.

AirAsia said it would not comment while the matter was under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) of Indonesia. The NTSC has said it is too early to say what role either human factors or equipment may have played in the crash, which is still being investigated.

Experts say the loss of the FAC would not directly alter the trajectory of the aircraft but would remove flight envelope protection, which prevents a pilot from taking a plane beyond its safety limits, and require the crew to fly it manually.

The decision to cut off the FAC has surprised people following the investigation because the usual procedure for resetting it is to press a button on the overhead panel.

"You can reset the FAC, but to cut all power to it is very unusual," said one A320 pilot, who declined to be identified. "You don't pull the circuit breaker unless it was an absolute emergency. I don't know if there was one in this case, but it is very unusual."

It is also significant because to pull the circuit breaker the captain had to rise from his seat.

"STARTLED"

The circuit breakers are on a wall panel immediately behind the co-pilot and hard or impossible to reach from the seated position on the left side, where the captain sits, according to two experienced pilots and published diagrams of the cockpit.

Shortly afterwards the plane went into a sharp climb from which investigators have said it stalled or lost lift.·         It appears he (the co-pilot) was surprised or startled by this," said a person familiar with the investigation, referring to the decision to cut power to the affected computer.

·         The captain eventually resumed the controls, but a person familiar with the matter said he was not in a position to intervene immediately to recover the aircraft from its upset.

·         "The co-pilot pulled the plane up, and by the time the captain regained the controls it was too late," one of the people familiar with the investigation said.

·         Tatang Kurniadi, chief of Indonesia's NTSC, told Reuters there had been no delay in the captain resuming the controls but declined further comment.

·         The head of the investigation, Mardjono Siswosuwarno, told reporters this week it was too early to say whether the accident involved pilot error or a mechanical fault.

·         Indonesia has issued some of the factual circumstances, but not released its preliminary accident report.

·         The NTSC said on Thursday the jet was in sound condition and all crew members were properly certified.

·         Airbus declined to comment.

·         Lawyers for the family of the French co-pilot say they have filed a lawsuit against AirAsia in Paris for “endangering the lives of others” by flying the route without official authorisation on that day. Investigators have said the accident was not related to the permit issue.

·         AirAsia did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit. Air accidents typically give rise to conflicting liability claims, and the 2009 crash of an Air France jet is still working its way through the French judicial system.

·         Although more is becoming known about the chain of events, people familiar with the investigation warned against making assumptions on the accident's cause, which needed more analysis.

·         Safety experts say air crashes are most often caused by a chain of events, each of which is necessary but not sufficient to explain the underlying causes of the accident.

Black money case: Modi govt reveals 3 names in Supreme Court

The Central government disclosed the names of three Indians holding illegal foreign bank accounts in an affidavit submitted before the Supreme Court on Monday. The three names are Dabur chairman Pradeep Burman, Rajkot-based bullion trader Pankaj Chalamanlal Lodhia and Goa-based mining baron Radha Timloo.
Other Indians being investigated for allegedly stashing black money in foreign banks in Switzerland are four from the Congress, according to reports on Monday. Among them is a former minister in Manmohan Singh's government who lost the Lok Sabha election in May.
In its manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had promised to bring back the black money alleged stashed in foreign banks. However, a controversial application submitted in the Supreme Court earlier this month expressed the NDA government's inability to reveal the names because of bilateral double taxation treaties India has signed with many countries - an argument that the previous UPA government had also used when the case was heard during their tenure.
The Modi government's U-turn on black money was severely criticised by the opposition parties, especially the Congress, which accused the Centre of doublespeak and politicising the issue.
The Centre's stand also prompted senior Supreme Court lawyer and main petitioner in the black money case, Ram Jethmalani, to write a scathing letter to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, accusing him of taking an "ill-advised" stand on the issue in the apex court.
When asked about the letter, Ram Jethmalani told reporters that he did it as a citizen of India. "I don't care about the BJP. I care about the people of India, it is your money," he said.
Jethmalani's sharp reactions on the black money row came shortly after the Congress said it will not be embarrassed if a name belonging to the party figures in the list of Indians holding illegal foreign bank accounts, calling it an "individual transgression".
Jaitley had warned the Congress of embarrassment when the list of Indians hoarding black money in other countries is revealed. "Whatever name is there will embarrass the individual, the party won't be. These are individual transgressions," Jaitley's predecessor as Union Finance Minister and senior Congress spokesperson, P Chidambaram, told a TV channel on Friday.

Grieving father of MH17 victim pens open letter to Putin

A grief-stricken father whose 17-year-old daughter was a passenger on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 has penned an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In the letter posted to Facebook, Hans de Borst wrote that his daughter, Elsemiek de Borst, had planned to become an engineer.

"Elsemiek would next year take her final exam, along with her best friends Julia and Marina, and she did well in school," de Borst wrote. "She then wanted to go to TU Delft to study engineering, and she was looking forward to it! She is suddenly no more! From the air she was shot in a foreign country where a war is going on."

Elsemiek, he wrote, was traveling from The Hague to Malaysia with her mother (de Borst's ex-wife), brother and stepfather on MH17. She was one of 193 Dutch victims of the crash. The Boeing 777 en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam was shot down over the Russia-Ukraine border, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

"Many thanks to the Separatist leaders of Ukrainian government for the murder of my dear and only child," de Borst wrote. "Gentlemen of the above, I hope you're proud of including her and her young life was shot up too, and you can look in the mirror!

"Thanks again," he added, signing the letter: "Sincerely, Elsemiek's father, Hans de Borst from Monster, whose life is ruined."

De Borst wasn't the only grieving Dutch parent to address Putin.

"Mr. Putin, send my children home," Silene Fredriksz-Hoogzand, whose son Bryce and his girlfriend, Daisy Oehlers, were among those killed in the crash, told Sky TV. "Send them home. Please."

Fredriksz-Hoogzand told the Associated Press she was appalled at the way the crash site was being handled.

"I am not a politician," she said on Sunday. "But I know for sure that Mr. Putin can do something.

"No words can describe it," Fredriksz-Hoogzand continued. "Bodies are just lying there for three days in the hot sun. There are people who have this on their conscience. There are families who can never hold the body of a child or a mother."

Al Qaeda plans final jihad in India

NEW DELHI: In India Al Qaeda is at the gates, and there are enough jihadis within already. Intelligence agencies say the terror network is making inroads into India, sowing the seeds of a “final war” across the country.

Information gathered on the Al Qaeda’s India plans point to a mobilisation of its resources for jihad. The ideological goal of the group, as detailed in the report, is chilling: Ghazwa-e-Hind, or the final battle in India.

Ghazwa-e-Hind refers to an indoctrinated view of a final apocalyptic war in which India will be conquered by a jihadi army. All soldiers of this army are guaranteed a place in heaven. This term is freely used in jihadi circles and on the web, but is considered bizarre by others.

Sources say the security establishment has been on the trail of launch-pads being set up within the country, and is also in touch with its counterparts in West Asia in order to crack the growing network. An intelligence report on India being used a hunting ground for global jihad reveals al Qaeda’s diabolic roadmap. To begin with, the terror group that was created and led by Arab fighters now has recruits from Kashmir-centric groups. “Not only Kashmiri groups but Taliban and al Qaeda affiliates have stakes in the larger scheme of Ghazwa-e-Hind where India is regarded as next battleground in the End of Times’ battle. This ideology is likely to be used to drive Taliban and Al Qaeda affiliates into Kashmir,” says an intelligence report.

The Al Qaeda nexus with Kashmir-centric groups indicates it has a readymade jihadi framework in India. There is other proof too of Al Qaeda using its nexus with Indian groups to spread its ideology. An online English publication of Al Qaeda called Azan which is not available to the general public but is circulated through changing e-mails and encryption tools is being downloaded by Kashmiri groups. Sources say this only underlines the trend of terror groups within India getting attracted to the Al Qaeda and global jihad ideology.

Agencies fear that the Azan tactic of spreading the terror group’s ideology can spawn anonymous and isolated modules that will be difficult to detect but potent enough to carry out big attacks. Intelligence reports also state that groups like Tehreek-e-Taliban have also declared they will open ‘offices’ in Kashmir. It has been revealed that a Taliban flag was hoisted at a point overlooking Srinagar last year and the walls of Hari Parbat fort were painted with slogans like ‘Welcome Taliban.’ Sources say there is an urgent need for the home ministry and intelligence agencies to understand the threat. “Indicators need to be monitored to prevent the situation from worsening,” said one global jihad that can later be used wage war against India.

There are also distinct inputs on Qaeda running a separate terror module in India as the home grown terror outfit IM is making efforts to global and establish strong links with groups like Al Qaeda, Taliban and Hizbut Tahrir. There is also evidence of Al Qaeda keeping a close watch on activities in India.

The chargesheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against Bhatkal says that organisations al Qaeda and Taliban are helping IM. It also mentioned that the investigation revealed that some IM members fighting on the Afghanistan- Pakistan Border. NIA has said in the chargesheet that Riyaz Bhatkal, a top IM commander based in Pakistan, travelled to tribal belts on the Af-Pak border for establishing contact with al Qaeda. “After the meeting, which was very fruitful, al Qaeda gave specific tasks to the IM for execution and agreed to train their cadres in terrorist activities,” the chargesheet says.

Bhutan is vegetarian during Modi visit

Thimphu (Bhutan), June 14 (ANI): So all of Bhutan is vegetarian these days. Isn't that the perfect time for India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, a very strict vegetarian, to visit Thimphu!

He doesn't need to ask his hosts if there is any meat in his dish, because, even the most avowed meat eater in Bhutan observes strict vegetarianism for the month of Parinirvana.

On Friday the 13th of June, Bhutan observed Buddha Parinirvana as the day when the Buddha was conceived, born, subdued evil and attained Nirvana.

The main celebration is held at the Tashichhodzong Temple in Thimphu every year, where thousands of people gather to receive blessings and perform public veneration. The observation of vegetarian diet however begins a few weeks earlier. From 28th May to 27th June to be precise.

People visit Buddhist temples, light incense sticks and observe a pious way of life in keeping with Buddhist principles of simple living. Many elders begin their day by circumambulating the nearest temple to their homes and chanting hymns.

Buddha Parinirvana or the Dhuechen-Ngazom is observed on the 15th day of the fourth month of the Bhutanese calendar.

Bhutan's cuisine consists of a lot of chicken, pork, mutton and yak meat. But since both Prime Minister Modi and the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj are vegetarian and neither are particularly keen on experimenting with cuisines, they will probably enjoy the simple fare of red rice khichdi of sorts called the Zow Shungo.

There are many vegetarian preparations which are simple, without addition of too many spices. Since the visit is just for a day, the Indian delegation will barely get to sample the local cuisine.

OMG!! Preity Zinta Files Sexual Harassment Charges Against Ness Wadia

Preity Zinta, has filed a police complaint against her former boyfriend Ness Wadia, alleging that he molested, abused and threatened her inside Wankhede Stadium in south Mumbai. Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia had broken their five-year long relationship sometime back.

In her complaint, Preity Zinta said that she was molested by Ness Wadia inside Wankhede stadium on May 30, 2014, the day an IPL match between KingsXI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings was played in Wankhede Stadium.

Preity was at Wankhede stadium when Ness Wadia allegedly pulled her hand and abused her in front of many people. She also claimed that after their break-up, Wadia used to often harass her.

The FIR was registered against Ness Wadia under IPC sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman).

Preity Zinta gave an application to the police on Thursday, June 12, 2014 which was converted into an FIR on Friday, June 13, 2014. Her full statements could not be recorded as she had to take a flight out of the city.

“The actor claimed that she had to go out of the city and hence she could not approach the police earlier. As soon as she returned, she lodged a complaint,” a police officer said.

The moment Ness Wadia got to know of this he was shocked and upset. “The allegations are totally false and baseless. It is disgusting that she would stoop to this level.” stated Ness Wadia

Well, as always there are two sides to a story. On one hand, Preity’s friends feel that she is totally justified in doing what she did, while on the other, the well wishers of Ness feel that Perity is doing all this to garner publicity out of whatever is left of her relationship with Ness Wadia.

All we can say is, the truth shall eventually prevail and we shall get to know the true story sooner or later.