In TN, institutional quarantine must for flyers from abroad

In TN, institutional quarantine must for flyers from abroad

Shanmughasundaram.J@timesgroup.com

Chennai: 10.08.2020

Passengers who arrive by Vande Bharat flights from abroad at Chennai airport will continue to undergo seven-day institutional quarantine as the state government has not implemented the new standard operating procedure (SOP) put out by the Union ministry of health that allows home quarantine for thosewith a Covid-19 negative certificate. The new SOP is valid from August 8.

The state government says it will examine the SOP and will decide on it later.

However, several passengers who did not know that the state government is not following the new SOP by the Centre arespending money to get Covid-19 negative tests abroad to avoid institutional quarantine.

This absence of uniformity in policy is impacting especially those who are returning after losing their jobs from the Middle East. The tests are expensive abroad and people are forced to spend their savings for a certificate.

"Peoplespend around$200 for Covid-19 test and wait for four days to get the results. When they land here and learn that the report is of no of use, they get disappointed,” said an official.

A senior bureaucrat said that they would examine the advisory from the Centre and deliberate on it and arrive at a decision. Based on this, a report will be submitted to the chief secretary K Shanmugam. Following this, TN government would take the final call.

“There is no change in the quarantine rules yet. Though passengers have certificates, a swab test is taken and they are taken to a hotel or a government facility. Only one or two international flights arrive now every day,” said an airport official, noting that the state health officials, who screen international passengers, continue to send them into institutional quarantine.

However, the new SOP issued by the union government will be useful when scheduled international flights begin, said the airport official. In that case, there will be more flights per day and finding accommodation for all the passengers who arrive willbedifficult.Oneflightcan bring at least 250 to 300 passengers.

Though the second test is supposedtobetaken after seven days, in some cases there is a delay because there may be too many passengers. However, a 23-year-old medical student who arrived from Kazakhstan was lucky as she was sent to her hometown for institutional quarantine. “My swab sample was taken and I was in a quarantine centre in Chennai for two days. After that they sent me to Perunthurai for a week. The second sample was taken on the seventh day there. After the second sample returned negative, I was asked to be in home quarantine."

‘Human error may have led to crash’

‘Human error may have led to crash’

Ramavarman T TNN

Thrissur:09.08.2020

A combination of infrastructure inadequacies and human errors could have contributed to the plane crash at Kozhikode on Friday evening, said E K Bharat Bhushan, former director-general of civil aviation (DGCA).

Hitting out at the successive state governments for not completing land acquisition for extending the airport’s runway, he said: “The Kerala government should be clearly told that this airport cannot function unless adequate land is provided.”

The aircraft touched down almost at the middle of the runway, so it has be found out whether there was any human error as well, he said. “There are reports that the pilot had landed the aircraft after the second or third attempt because of the bad weather. Then the question arises as to why was the flight not diverted to Kannur or Kochi, if the pilot was finding that the weather was bad,” Bhushan said.

He said there was no doubt that the flight was being manned by a seasoned pilot, with more than 10,000 flying hours to his credit.

“He was also a test pilot. It is the best pilots who are made test pilots. But these pilots were on rest for quite some time as the aircraft were remaining grounded because of Covid-19. They are being given re-induction training, but it has to be found out whether the training has been effective,” the former DGCA said.

Low visibility, wet runway must have led to poor braking action

Low visibility, wet runway must have led to poor braking action

Manju.V@timesgroup.com

Mumbai:09.08.2020

Flight IX-1344’s problems appear to have begun during its descent in heavy rains, with difficulty in spotting the runway from the cockpit. What followed was a host of factors which could have forced the pilots to opt to land in unfavourable tailwinds on a wet runway and face problems with the braking action, leading to the crash.

It began well with the pilots overflying the runway to line up for an approach to land on runway 28, according to data from flightradar24, a live flight tracking app.

The norm is to land an aircraft into the wind and runway 28 had headwinds, favourable for safe landing. But during the descent, the pilots appear to have encountered their first problem with weather. Aviation weather report (METAR) for that time showed few light clouds at 300 feet. “The pilots probably couldn’t spot runway 28 by the time the aircraft descended to 265 feet above ground level. For Calicut airport, this is the height at which pilots have to discontinue the descent to land and carry out a go-around if the runway isn’t in sight,’’ said a senior commander.

The pilots then decided to land from the opposite end, that is on runway 10. They have to seek permission from the air traffic controller, who in turn, consults METAR for wind speed and direction.

“If the runway has tailwinds of 15kt or higher, it isn’t considered safe for landing,” said a senior commander. Other pilots said a tailwind of more than 10kt for a table-top runway should be considered unsafe for landing. The METAR report for the time of accident showed a windspeed of 12kt from ‘direction 260.’ It essentially translates to a tailwind of 11kt for runway 10. But they also spoke about possible inaccuracies in the METAR report.

For instance, in August 2017, a SpiceJet aircraft went off the runway during landing at Calicut airport. The investigation report noted that METAR showed zero winds at the time of the incident, but the flight crew experienced winds over 12-15kt. “From the position of the wreckage it does look like the aircraft landed in tailwinds that were stronger than what METAR reported,” said an examiner on B737 aircraft.

There are other crucial questions. The photographs of the wreckage shows the aircraft wings with speed brakes not deployed. The senior commander said: “Were the spoilers, the flaps that lift over the wing to slow down an aircraft, deployed during landing? If they are not deployed, the aircraft won’t slow down. But the AIX commander appears to have switched off the engines. After all, he was an IAF pilot, he would have had the presence of mind to switch off the engine and prevent a possible fire following the impact.’’ Another factor that a number of pilots spoke about was ‘aquaplaning’, which refers to a condition wherein a layer of water builds between aircraft wheel and runway surface leading to loss of braking action.

“Apart from aquaplaning, if there are significant rubber deposits, then the braking action would be really poor,” said the examiner.

Pilot fatigue is another crucial aspect that needs to be looked into, said AIX pilots who added that Vande Bharat Mission flights, by their very nature of being repatriation flights, involve doing extra duty time.

Mother gets news of pilot death on her 83rd birthday

Mother gets news of pilot death on her 83rd birthday

Shishir.Arya@timesgroup.com

Nagpur:09.08.2020

It was Neela Sathe’s 83rd birthday on Saturday when she received the tragic news of the death of her son Deepak in an air crash in Kozhikode.

Neela’s daughter Anjali Parashar, who lives in Mumbai, had planned to give her parents a surprise by coming to Nagpur. Instead, she had to rush to Kozhikode to collect Deepak’s body. The Sathes have been residing in the city’s quiet Bharat Nagar area since the 1950s when Deepak’s father Brigadier Vasant Sathe (now 87) retired from the army education corps.

The couple lost their elder son, 2nd Lieutenant Vikas Sathe, in an accident. He was returning to his unit after a military exercise in 1981. Deepak, too, had met with a major accident in Chandigarh, soon after joining the IAF and many thought that would be the end of his flying career.

“The news of Vikas’s death and Deepak’s recovery almost came together,” said Suvarna Sathe, a relative.

A tenant of the Sathes said that they got the news about Deepak’s death on Friday night itself, “but we waited till morning to inform his parents”. Suvarna shared the reaction of Sathe’s parents, saying, “The mother said why should God take them both the same way, but remained stoic. The father has been blank since he was told. He hasn’t spoken much and has not even shed a tear.”

Captain Sathe’s mortal remains will be flown to Mumbai on Sunday to his home in Nahar’s Zinnia, Powai. His wife Sushma Sathe travelled to Kozhikode by a special flight on Saturday morning and his younger son, Dhananjay, too joined his mother from Bengaluru. Captain Sathe’s elder son Shantanu who works at Amazon will also fly in from Seattle and return home on Sunday, relatives said.

(With inputs from Hemali Chhapia in Mumbai)

This was the second tragedy for Deepak’s parents (above), who had lost their elder son, second lieutenant Vikas Sathe, in an accident in 1981. Deepak’s wife and son arrived in Kozhikode on Saturday (left)

Counmcil of Architecture

 

Shocked to learn of e-pass corruption: HC

Shocked to learn of e-pass corruption: HC

‘Staff Involved Are Similar To ‘Blood-thirsty Wolves’

Sureshkumar.K@timesgroup.com

Chennai:09.08.2020

Coming down heavily on corruption in issuing epasses to travel during lockdown, the Madras high court has said ‘cut-throat’ officials who behave like ‘blood-thirsty wolves’ should be dealt with an iron hand.

“For the past few months, people are unable to do their work or travel from one place to another for various purposes and they are put to untold misery. Though the government is not responsible for the present situation, some of the corrupt officials involved in issuing epasses are bent upon making booty even in this worst scenario,” said a division bench of Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice V M Velumani.

The bench was making the observations while hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Tamil Desiya Makkal Katchi to trace and rescue several hundred children taken from Tiruvannamalai to be engaged as child workers in private textile mills in Tirupur.

“This is a classic case that could demonstrate how corrupt government servants utilise any situation to make illegal gain,” the judges said.

When the petition filed by C M Sivababu, who heads the petitioner-forum, came up for hearing, the state Child Welfare Committee, which had raided one such mill and rescued children, informed the court that the girls had been transported from Tiruvannamalai across various districts to Tirupur without an e-pass. This apart, the children were not subjected to Covid-19 test, CWC officials told the bench.

Taking a serious view of the same, the court said, “It is not known as to how without proper e-passes, it has been possible to bring the children from one district to another. It only implies that if money is paid, the authorities would bend and flout rules, and without e-passes, people are travelling by bribing the authorities.”

The current case is only the tip of an iceberg. There are allegations that there are brokers available to get e-passes by bribing authorities while people who apply through due process are unable to get them. The bribe ranges from ₹500 to ₹2,000 according to media reports, the bench added.

Noting that the issue has been widely reported in the media, the judges said, “This aspect has to be looked into seriously by the government. It is very shocking to know about such incidents and also about cut-throat corrupt officials in the system.”

The bench then directed Chenniyappa Yarn Spinners Private Limited, which transported the children, to file an affidavit explaining as to how they were able to bring children to work without e-passes.

This is a classic case that could demonstrate how corrupt government servants utilise any situation to make illegal gain

MADRAS HC

Anna university gives 75 days to wind up next semester, colleges seek more time

Anna university gives 75 days to wind up next semester, colleges seek more time

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:09.08.2020

The new academic schedule issued by Anna University gives 75 days to engineering colleges to complete syllabus for the next semester while engineering colleges seek more time as they may have to conduct the entire semester online.

As per the new academic schedule released by Anna University, the colleges need to begin next academic year on August 12 and the last working day would be October 26.

"The online classes for all the higher semesters shall be conducted for the theory courses till the normalcy returns and the class room teaching is restored. After restoration, the laboratory classes shall be conducted or any other alternative methods if devised will be intimated in due course," the circular from Centre for Academic Courses of Anna University to colleges said.

It also asked the colleges to maintain attendance for the online classes. The semester exams will commence from November 9 and next semester will begin from December 14.

The new schedule gives the colleges roughly two and half months to complete the semester. But, colleges said they need 90 working days or 450 hours to complete the syllabus including the lab classes. "It is not possible to take more than three hours per day in online classes. Students don't have data plans and many students are not able to concentrate beyond three hours," said a college principal.

The university asked the colleges to take classes even on Saturdays. "If we leave out the Sundays, then there are only 60 working days. It is not practically possible to cover the syllabus with online classes," another principal said.

"Anna University should call for an online meeting with the principals to discuss various issues including online classes and academic schedule," said B Chidambararajan, principal of Valliammai Engineering College.

However, M A Maluk Mohammed, director and correspondent of MAM College of Engineering and Technology in Trichy said it is possible to finish the syllabus within the period provided with cooperation from students and faculty members. When asked, officials from the university said the schedule was drawn as per the instructions from the state government. "Being the election year, the state government wanted to complete all academic activity before the end of March. So, the schedule was prepared accordingly," they said.

TIGHT SCHEDULE: With 2021 being an election year, the state government wants to complete all academic activity before March and prepared the syllabus accordingly, university sources said