A KLM flight headed for Hyderabad in India's south skipped its destination and flew across India because the pilot was unaware the city had a brand-new airport, a report said yesterday.
The confusion occurred barely hours after the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in the Hyderabad suburb of Shamshabad became operational after midnight on Saturday, the Times of India said.
`WHAT'S THAT?'
The pilot of the KLM flight, which had taken off from Amsterdam, at first headed toward Hyderabad's old airport and was informed by air traffic control the facility had been shut, the report said.
When directed to fly to the new airport, the unnamed pilot replied: "What's that?"
The pilot flew instead to New Delhi first and then directed the plane to Mumbai after being declined permission to land, the report said.
DELAYS
The plane had 230 economy and 13 business-class passengers on board when it approached Hyderabad at 1:45am on Sunday.
It had been due to fly out of Hyderabad to return to Amsterdam at 3:35am with more than 230 passengers.
The Times of India cited an anonymous source as saying that the Dutch airline's pilot had been reluctant to land in Shamshabad because its headquarters in the Netherlands had not received a notice about the closure of the old and the opening of the new facility.
The new airport, built at a cost of more than US$600 million, opened for flights after a week's delay prompted by airline requests for more time to switch to the new facility and operational reasons such as shifting of equipment.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion