An Air India flight bound for New Jersey in the United States returned to New Delhi after a bat appeared in business class. Reuters
An Air India flight bound for New Jersey in the United States returned to New Delhi after a bat appeared in business class. Reuters
An Air India flight bound for New Jersey in the United States returned to New Delhi after a bat appeared in business class. Reuters
An Air India flight bound for New Jersey in the United States returned to New Delhi after a bat appeared in business class. Reuters

Bat in business class forces US-bound Air India jet to turn back


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An Air India flight from New Delhi to the US state of New Jersey was forced to turn back after a bat flew  around the passenger cabin.

The Boeing 777-300ER was about 30 minutes into its flight from New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport on Thursday when the animal appeared.

Video taken by a crew member showed the bat hitting the cabin ceiling in the business class section.

Officials said the sighting caused panic among passengers and prompted the pilots to request an emergency landing.

Airport authorities declared an emergency as the plane dumped fuel while circling over Delhi for two hours before touching down.

India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said the aircraft was fumigated after the passengers disembarked. The bat's body was found in Row 8 of the cabin. The regulator has asked for a detailed investigation into the incident.

The passengers continued their journey on another Air India plane.

An airline official told The National that the bat could have entered the plane through a loading vehicle such as a catering lorry.

India’s flag carrier has regularly hit the headlines for the appearance of animals on board, mostly rats which pose a serious threat to the safety of flights as they can chew through wires and damage internal controls.

Last year, passengers raised the alarm after spotting a rat in the cabin on a flight to Delhi from the northern city of Varanasi city.

The aircraft turned back to Varanasi, but the rat was not found.

In 2019, an Air India flight from Hyderabad to Visakhapatnam was stranded on the tarmac for 12 hours as pest control staff hunted for a rat.

Another rat sighting forced an Air India plane carrying more than 200 passengers to return to Mumbai almost three hours into a flight to London in December 2015.

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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi

From: Dara

To: Team@

Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT

Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East

Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.

Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.

I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.

This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.

It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.

Uber on,

Dara

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Engine: 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 plus rear-mounted electric motor

Power: 843hp at N/A rpm

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Transmission: 9-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 8.6L/100km

On sale: October to December

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Teams

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Al Amerat, Muscat

 

Results

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