Air India Strike

Air India Strike or Air India Employees (crew, engineers) on flash strike going on today May 25, 2010 Tuesday for better working conditions, quicker disbursement of salaries and apparently a gag order on speaking out on the Mangalore plane crash.

At least seven domestic departures were cancelled owing to the flash strike. The striking employees were also protesting the alleged poor working conditions of the cabin crew.

An Air Corporation Employees Union spokesperson said the strike was against delay in salary payment and poor condition of the cabin crew on the flights.

An investigation team of Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has recovered Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) commonly known as Black Box, the most vital source of information, from the crash site of Air India Express aircraft at Mangalore.

Three days after the air crash in Mangalore that killed 158 people, the main part of the missing black box of the Dubai-Mangalore Air India flight was found.

Out of the 166 people inside the aircraft, eight escaped miraculously. But some of the survivors are in critical condition.

Earlier on Saturday, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said: “Preliminary reports say that it (the plane) overshot the runway, unable to control the speed and since there was less spillover area, the crash occurred.”

“Mangalore runway does not have much of run over area unfortunately. Apparently it has not been able to stop despite the normal spillover area. Preliminary findings say except for touchdown all other things appeared to be normal. The runway was also in order. This runway was meeting all friction quotients. It was only made operational in 2006.”

As per the Montreal Convention to which India is a signatory, the families of the deceased could be paid up to $160,000 and the injured will not only be treated but also compensated.