The crash occured so close to the coast, some residents of Mumbai’s Bandra suburb reported that they had heard an explosion. Twenty two seconds later, Emperor Ashoka hit the water. “Happy New Year to you, sir,” he greeted the control tower. The pilot, Madan Lal Kukar, with more than 18,000 hours of flying time under his belt, asserted that he would.
Two minutes after take-off, the Mumbai airport departure controller had asked the pilot to report back after the plane crossed 8,000 feet. All 213 people on board the flight to Dubai died in the deadliest flight accident in Air India’s history. On January 1, 1978, minutes after taking off from Mumbai’s Santacruz airport at 8 pm, the plane crashed into the Arabian Sea barely 3 km off the city’s coast. Seven years later, the Emperor Ashoka was involved in a New Year’s Day tragedy. They were advertised as a “palace in the sky”. It was the first in a fleet of several Maharaja-themed luxury airplanes that Air India acquired in the 1970s. In 1971, Air India bought its first Boeing 747 – a prestigious “Jumbo Jet” – and named it after the Mauryan ruler Emperor Ashoka.
Comfort zone: Rediscovering the joys of gardening and beautiful flowers.
Ramachandra Guha: On the 20th anniversary of the Gujarat pogrom, will Modi finally apologise?.Why do Ola drivers cancel rides after accepting them? CEO Bhavish Aggarwal explains.
0 kommentar(er)
