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Air India says one engine on crashed plane was new
One of the engines of the Air India plane that crashed last week was new, while the other was not due for servicing until December, the airline’s chairman has said.
In an interview with an Indian news channel, N Chandrasekaran said that both engines of the aircraft had “clean” histories.
“The right engine was a new engine put in March 2025. The left engine was last serviced in 2023 and due for its next maintenance check in December 2025,” he told Times Now channel.
At least 270 people, most of them passengers, were killed last Thursday when AI171, a London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed less than a minute after taking off from Ahmedabad airport in western India.
Investigators are now sifting through debris and decoding recorded flight data and cockpit audio – from the aircraft’s black boxes which have been found – to reconstruct the flight’s final moments and determine the cause of the incident.
“There are a lot of speculations and a lot of theories. But the fact that I know so far is this particular aircraft, this specific tail, AI171, has a clean history,” Mr Chandrasekaran said, cautioning people against jumping to conclusions.
“I am told by all the experts that the black box and recorders will definitely tell the story. So, we just have to wait for that,” he added.
Kishore Chinta, a former investigator with India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, told the BBC that the condition of an aircraft engine is not necessarily linked to its age – particularly in the case of the Genx-1B engines used on the Boeing 787-8.
“The age of the engine has no bearing on the health of the engine, especially for the Genx-1B engines,” Mr Chinta said. In other words just because an engine is new, does not necessarily mean it is healthy, or vice versa.
Unlike older models, the Genx-1B engines, which are made by GE Aerospace, don’t follow a fixed overhaul or maintenance schedule. Instead, they are equipped with a system called the Full Authority Digital Engine Control or FADEC that continuously monitors engine health and performance. The decision to service or replace the engine is based on this data and physical inspections.
However, Mr Chinta pointed out that certain components of the engine, known as Life Limited Parts (LLPs), still have a fixed lifespan typically between 15,000 and 20,000 cycles.
“Every start and switch-off of the engine counts as one cycle,” he explained.
While the investigation continues, Air India has also announced a 15% cut in its international operations on wide-body aircraft until mid-July as it grapples with the fallout from the crash.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the airline said the decision was driven by “compounding circumstances” – including enhanced safety checks, increased caution by crew and ground staff and tensions in the Middle East.
Separately, the airline said that inspections have been completed on 26 of its 33 Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 aircraft, all of which have been “cleared for service”.
India’s aviation regulator had ordered additional safety checks on Air India’s Boeing 787 fleet after the deadly crash as a “preventive measure”.
The remaining aircraft are expected to be examined in the coming days, Air India said, adding that the airline’s Boeing 777 fleet would also “undertake enhanced safety checks”.
“The curtailments are a painful measure to take, but are necessary following a devastating event which we are still working through and an unusual combination of external events,” it said.
Meanwhile some experts say the crash will likely have an impact on Air India as it tries to transform from a troubled state-owned carrier to a privately-owned company.
Tata Sons, a conglomerate which also owns big brands like Tetley Tea and Jaguar Land Rover, bought the airline – formerly India’s national carrier – from the Indian government in 2022.
(BBC)
Donald Trump said he hoped to reach phase two of the Gaza peace plan “very quickly”, as he warned Hamas would have “hell to pay” if it did not disarm quickly.
The US president, whose 20-point peace plan requires the militant group to disarm, made the comments as he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida for talks on Monday.
During a press conference with Netanyahu after their meeting, Trump said Israel had “lived up to the plan 100%”, despite continuing attacks by its military in Gaza.
The US president also said his country could support another major strike on Iran were it to resume rebuilding its ballistic missile or nuclear weapons programmes.
Asked how quickly Hamas and Israel should move to phase two of the peace plan, Trump said: “As quickly as we can. But there has to be disarmament.”
Speaking about Hamas, he said: “If they don’t disarm as, as they agreed to do, they agreed to it, and then there will be hell to pay for them.
“They have to disarm in a fairly short period of time”.
Trump also said reconstruction in Gaza could “begin pretty soon”.
The Gaza peace plan came into effect in October. Under the second phase, a technocratic government would be established in the devastated territory, Hamas would disarm and Israeli troops would withdraw. The reconstruction of Gaza would then begin.
But critics have suggested Netanyahu could seek to delay the process of the plan and instead push for Hamas to disarm before Israeli troops withdraw.
The Israeli prime minister has been accused of not wanting to engage seriously with the issue of a political future for Palestinians.
Hamas officials have said a full disarmament should take place alongside progress towards an independent Palestinian state.
Asked if he was concerned Israel was not moving quickly enough to phase two of the plan, Trump said it had “lived up to the plan”.
“I’m not concerned about anything that Israel’s doing, I’m concerned about what other people are doing or maybe aren’t doing,” he added.
[BBC]
Bangladesh’s first female prime minister Khaleda Zia has died at the age of 80 after suffering from a prolonged illness.
“Our favourite leader is no longer with us. She left us at 6am this morning,” Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) announced on Facebook.
Physicians had said on Monday night that Zia’s condition was “extremely critical”. She was put on life support, but it was not possible to provide multiple treatments at the same time given her age and overall poor health, they said.
Zia became Bangladesh’s first female head of government in 1991 after leading the BNP to victory in the country’s first democratic election in 20 years.
Zia returned to the post of prime minister in 2001, stepping down in October 2006 ahead of a general election.
Her political career had been marred by corruption allegations and a long-standing political rivalry with Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted from premiership last year.
Zia, who was the wife of Bangladesh’s late president Ziaur Rahman, was jailed for five years in 2018 for corruption.
[BBC]
President Volodymyr Zelensky has denied allegations by Russia that Ukraine launched a drone attack on one of President Vladimir Putin’s residences, and accused Moscow of trying to derail peace talks.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed Kyiv had launched an attack overnight using 91 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on Putin’s state residence in Russia’s northwestern Novgorod region.
Russia said it would now review its position in peace negotiations. It is not yet clear where Putin was at the time of the alleged attack.
Zelensky dismissed the claim as “typical Russian lies”, intended to give the Kremlin an excuse to continue attacks on Ukraine.
He said that Russia had previously targeted government buildings in Kyiv.
Zelensky added on X: “It is critical that the world doesn’t stay silent now. We cannot allow Russia to undermine the work on achieving a lasting peace.”
In a statement shared on Telegram on Monday, Lavrov said all of the 91 drones he claimed were launched at Putin’s residence were intercepted and destroyed by Russian air defence systems.
He added that there were no reports of casualties or damage as a result of the attack.
“Given the final degeneration of the criminal Kyiv regime, which has switched to a policy of state terrorism, Russia’s negotiating position will be revised,” he said.
But he added that Russia did not intend to exit the negotiating process with the US, Russian news agency Tass reported.
The claim by Moscow comes after talks between the US and Ukraine in Florida on Sunday, where Presidents Trump and Zelensky discussed a revised peace plan to end the war.
Following the meeting, Zelensky told Fox News on Monday that there was a “possibility to finish this war” in 2026.
But he said Ukraine could not win the war without US support.
“My feelings of President Trump’s sanctions and economical steps, shows that he’s ready for very strong steps,” Zelensky said. “In this situation, the United States can move the situation to peace quicker.”
The Ukrainian president told Fox News there was no indication that Putin wanted peace and that he did not trust Putin.
“I don’t trust Putin and he doesn’t want success for Ukraine,” Zelensky added.
Zelensky said the US had offered Ukraine security guarantees for 15 years, and Trump said an agreement on this point was “close to 95%” done.
Ukraine’s leader described territorial issues and the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant as the last unresolved matters, and there was little sign of progress on the future of Ukraine’s contested Donbas region – which Russia wants to seize in full.
Moscow currently controls about 75% of the Donetsk region, and some 99% of the neighbouring Luhansk. The two regions are known collectively as Donbas.
Russia has previously rejected key parts of the plan under discussion.
The White House said on Monday that President Trump had “concluded a positive call” with Putin, following the US-Ukraine talks.
Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin foreign policy aide, told reporters on Monday that during the call, Putin had pointed out the alleged attack on his residence happened “almost straight after what the US had considered to be a successful round of talks”.
Ushakov said: “The US president was shocked by this information, he was angry and said he couldn’t believe such mad actions. It was stated that this will no doubt affect the US approach to working with Zelensky”.
During a later press conference, Trump initially appeared to say he did not know about the alleged incident, but later told reporters that he was told about it by Putin and was “very angry” about it.
Asked if the US had seen any evidence supporting Russia’s claim, he responded: “Well we’ll find out. You’re saying maybe the attack didn’t take place – that’s possible too, I guess. But President Putin told me this morning it did”.
Trump hopes to reach phase two of Gaza ceasefire ‘very quickly’
Bangladesh’s first female prime minister Khaleda Zia dies aged 80
Ukraine denies drone attack on Putin’s residence
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