Foreign News
Investigators find cockpit voice recorder from crashed Air India flight
Investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from the crashed Air India flight, a key step in uncovering what caused last week’s deadly accident.
The London-bound Air India aircraft, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed soon after taking off on Thursday from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. At least 270 people have been killed, most of them passengers.
The CVR captures audio from the cockpit, including pilot conversations, alarms and ambient sounds.
The flight data recorder (FDR), which logs crucial flight parameters like altitude, speed and engine performance, had been recovered from the debris on Friday.
Both the CVR and FDR collectively form what is commonly known as the “black box” of a plane. It is a vital tool in air crash investigations, helping experts reconstruct the flight’s final moments and determine the cause of the incident.
The black box, unlike the name suggests, is actually two bright orange devices – one for the CVR and the other for the FDR – painted with reflective strips for easier recovery after a crash. Both these devices are designed to survive a crash.
India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is leading the inquiry into the cause of the crash, helped by teams from the US and the UK.
On Sunday, officials from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) surveyed the site of the plane crash.
“The AAIB has launched a detailed investigation, and the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is conducting a parallel probe under international protocols, since the aircraft is American-made,” a statement released on Sunday said.
Indian media outlets have reported, citing sources, that officials from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) – the US aviation safety agency – also visited the site.
Separately, a high-level committee set up by the Indian government to examine the reasons behind the crash is expected to hold its first meeting on Monday.
The committee will submit a preliminary report within three months, the Air India radio said, and will propose new standard operating procedures (SOPs) to help prevent similar incidents in future.
As the investigation continues, families on the ground are still grappling with disbelief and trauma.
Less than a minute after taking off from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, the AI171 flight crashed into a doctors’ accommodation building at the BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital.
All but one of the 242 passengers and crew members were killed. Officials have also been trying to establish how many people were killed on the ground and continuing the slow process of matching DNA samples to confirm the victims’ identities.
Over the weekend, doctors said 270 bodies had been recovered from the site of the crash.
More than 90 victims have been identified through DNA matching, Dr Rajnish Patel of Ahmedabad’s Civil Hospital said on Monday. He added that 47 of the identified bodies have been sent to their families.
Among the identified victims is Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of Gujarat, whose funeral will be held on Monday. Rupani, whose political career spanned more than 50 years, will be laid to rest with full state honours in Rajkot city.
For many other families, the agonising wait continues.
Officials told the BBC that the identification process has been slow and painstaking, as many of the bodies were badly burned in the crash and are being processed in small batches.
Mistry Jignesh, waiting outside the hospital for updates on his niece, told the BBC on Saturday that officials told him that it might take longer for them to hand over his niece’s remains as the search for bodies is still ongoing. He had earlier been told that the body would be handed over by Sunday, after the 72 hours it normally takes to complete DNA matching.
“When people are still missing, how can they complete the DNA process by tomorrow? What if my niece’s remains haven’t even been found? The wait is killing us,” he said.
(BBC)
A long lost painting by Rembrandt has been rediscovered and authenticated by experts, after its whereabouts were unknown for decades.
Rembrandt’s Vision of Zacharias in the Temple, from 1633, was excluded from a list of the Dutch master’s works in 1960, and disappeared after being sold to a private collector the following year.
But it resurfaced when its owners presented it for tests at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which undertook a two-year examination.
“When I saw it in our studio when it was restored, I was immediately struck by the incredible power it has,” Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbits said.
The Rijksmuseum receives many emails from people asking for information about paintings they have inherited or bought, Dibbits said. In this case, they knew it could be something special.
“It came to us via email and one of our curators thought, this is really an interesting image, we’ve known about the painting for over 100 years but we’ve never seen it.”
The museum confirmed the authenticity after studying the paints, which fit with those used by Rembrandt during that period, and the painting technique and build-up of layers, which are also comparable with his other early works.
The signature is original and the wooden panel dates from the correct period, the researchers said.
“Materials analysis, stylistic and thematic similarities, alterations made by Rembrandt, and the overall quality of the painting all support the conclusion that this painting is a genuine work,” the gallery said.
The painting has all the hallmarks of Rembrandt at the “peak” of the early part of his career, Dibbits said.
“It’s very high quality. Sometimes with Rembrandt’s portraits you feel that he’s producing in quantity, but with this painting you really feel that he dedicated his soul to it.”
The museum will put the painting on public view from Wednesday.
Its value is not known, but the world record auction price for a Rembrandt painting is £20m, set in 2009.
Other Rembrandt paintings to be sold in recent years include one for £8.6m in 2019, a self-portrait for £12.6m in 2020, and another once-lost Rembrandt work for £11m in 2023.
In 2015, a Rembrandt painting was given a price tag of £35m by the UK government after being sold privately.
Last month, a drawing of a lion by the artist sold for $18m (£13m).
[BBC]
Rembrandt was 27 when he created the painting, which depicts the Biblical scene when priest Zacharias is told by the Archangel Gabriel that despite their age, he and his wife will have a son, John the Baptist.
The museum said Rembrandt had given the Biblical story an innovative twist. Instead of depicting the Archangel Gabriel visibly, he only suggested his presence. In doing so, he departed from established visual traditions and introduced a new way of representing this subject.
Rembrandt deliberately chose the decisive moment, just before Gabriel reveals his true identity.
It is one of the few history paintings Rembrandt created during this period. At the time, he was primarily producing portraits, which were highly lucrative.
[BBC]
Tributes have been paid to the war photographer Paul Conroy who has died at the age of 61.
He covered conflicts around the world and was wounded in the Syrian army’s bombardment of Homs, which killed his Sunday Times colleague Marie Colvin in 2012.
Their fateful assignment was depicted in the 2018 movie A Private War, with the actor Jamie Dornan playing Conroy.
The Liverpool-born photographer died from a heart attack on Saturday in Devon, where he had lived, his brother Alan told the BBC.
“He did all his life what he wanted to do to make a difference – he found great pleasure in exposing wrongs,” Alan added.
BBC newsreader Clive Myrie posted that he was “utterly devastated” by the news, describing Conroy as “a wonderful photojournalist and a wonderful human being”.
“I counted him as a friend and a decent, principled and kind man. My brutha you will be sorely missed. RIP”
Lindsey Hilsum, international editor at Channel 4, added: “All of us who knew and loved him are devastated.”
Conroy also spent seven years with the Royal Artillery as a soldier before becoming a professional photographer and was a trustee of the Frontline Club for media professionals, diplomats and aid workers.
Its founder Vaughan Smith, who was also in the Army, said: “He was one of the characters – those people who stand out because everybody adores them and they make you feel better.”
The 2018 documentary Under the Wire was made about Conroy’s escape from the 2012 bombardment of a makeshift media centre in Homs, where his colleagues Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik were killed.
Referring to the Syrians who were killed in the area, he said: “These beautiful people who were being slaughtered, I wanted to tell their story.”
He only realised how badly injured he was when he returned to the UK.
“Obviously I knew I had a huge hole in the back of my leg,” he said.
“But in London I found out I also had a great big piece of shrapnel wedged under my kidneys. I had 23 operations on my leg and others on my abdomen and back. I was in hospital for five months.”
Conroy worked in Libya and Ukraine and had recently returned from an assignment in Cuba.
He also took photos for the British singer Joss Stone and wrote music with her.
She said she was “so grateful to have known him and honoured to call him my friend”.
“I wouldn’t be the person I am today without Paul. Paul Conroy was a legend. A wonderful person through and through. Always standing up for what was right. Always there for those in need.”
He leaves behind a wife, three sons and grandchildren.
[BBC]
Iran has begun 40 days of mourning after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in ongoing attacks by the United States and Israel, according to Iranian state media.
Top security officials were also killed in Saturday’s strikes, along with Khamenei’s daughter, son-in-law and grandson. The killings mark one of the most significant blows to Iran’s leadership since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned the killing as “a great crime”, according to a statement from his office. He also declared seven days of public holidays in addition to the 40-day mourning period.
Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi said people were pouring into the streets of the capital following the news of Khamenei’s killing.
“There will be expected ceremonies,” he said, noting they would likely take place amid continuing bombardment across the country.
Protests denouncing Khamenei’s killing were also reported elsewhere, including Shiraz, Yasuj and Lorestan.
Footage aired by Iranian state media showed supporters mourning at the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad, with several people seen crying and collapsing in grief.
The killing also led to protests in neighbouring Iraq, which declared three days of public mourning. In Baghdad, protesters confronted security forces in the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses Iraqi government buildings and foreign embassies.
Videos verified by Al Jazeera showed demonstrators waving flags and shouting slogans, with witnesses saying some were attempting to mobilise towards the US Embassy. Footage also showed protesters blocking vehicles at a roundabout near one of the entrances to the area.
There was also a protest in the Pakistani city of Karachi, where footage, verified by Al Jazeera, showed people setting fire to and smashing the windows of the US consulate.
However, there have also been reports of celebrations in Iran, with the Reuters news agency quoting witnesses as saying some people had taken to the streets in Tehran, the nearby city of Karaj and the central city of Isfahan.
Meanwhile, the official IRNA news agency reported that a three-person council, consisting of the country’s president, the chief of the judiciary, and one of the jurists of the Guardian Council, will temporarily assume all leadership duties in the country. The body will temporarily oversee the country until a new supreme leader is elected.
Khamenei assumed leadership of Iran in 1989 following the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who had led the Islamic revolution a decade earlier.
While Khomeini was regarded as the ideological force behind the revolution that ended the Pahlavi monarchy, Khamenei went on to shape Iran’s military and paramilitary apparatus, strengthening both its domestic control and its regional influence.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) pledged revenge and said it had launched strikes on 27 bases hosting US troops in the region, as well as Israeli military facilities in Tel Aviv.
[Aljazeera]
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