A Tribute to Structure Engineer

Time passes with its own pace; very slowly but yet very fast to our imagination. In a moment the present become past, future to present and so on. Infinitesimal changes in universe gives an impression that nothing has changed in those 35 years but the time was changing every moment.

No one can believe that 35 years have passed and we all are ready to bid a farewell, to say him good bye. All eyes are wet in the hangar. After all this is an end of a long association, end of a chapter in structure, especially closely related to B 737-200.

On 31^st at 40 mts past 16hrs in our clock and a usual site of Ch-II hangar which was blessed with for years, a most disciplined, spiritual, courteous and affable person of Check II will be missing now onward. A person with a bag in his hand, smile at his face enters into Check II at sharp 0830hrs daily ;is now a matter of past. But every one is definitely going to miss him. He is none other than Sh U K Achan, a jewel of engineering whose glitter we will not allow to fade away easily.

It was a beginning of 1980; a lad join to engineering then no one knew that he is going to do many wonders in his career.

He is an authority in A/C structure in South East Asia. He saves crore of rupees by doing Lap joint modification of Boeing, Stabilizer modifications, L/G Fitting kit modification and fitting replacement. These were one of the biggest achievements to him and to his prestigious organisation.

Air Force will never forget his contribution to their fleet of Boeing as a person behind to keep that A/C a float in air. Many lectures on structure were won a standing ovation.

When he was entrusted to undertake the maintenance of A-320, once again he did it successfully by their team of dedicated persons in record time. Soon, Ch-II hangar was known for A-320 maintenance.   

He has many more feathers to express as his achievements in structural engineering to the company and to the Nation.

Air India is definitely going to loose one of the expert in structure who is even endorsed by the Boeing company and being considered as open TSM with regard to structure.

I on behalf of all the engineers wish him every success in his retired life and I am sure sir; you will be our source of inspiration forever not only professionally but spiritually too.

We will miss you.

PAGE 2

Once upon a time, come 28^th day of a month and it was a merry day for IA Employees when we used to get our two page salary slip. Salary was being ECS to our account by every 30^th day of a month, gone are the days; even bank employees get envy of ours.

Time passes and we became riches to rags. Every one, deep in debt, is struggling to meet the EMI before 10^th of every month.

Those who have access to Internet keep logging AME Times every 5 minutes for any new update of Sumit Halder with regards to PLI.

His updates are also missing like our 2^nd page of salary slip.

The state of bankruptcy now seems knocking our door step. Even small companies who would have dreamt of extending their facilities to national carrier are coming up with their dues bill.

Fuel companies, AAI, Wipro, etc each one has warned Air India to pay the bill or go on cash and carry business. They have threatened to stop cooperating Air India w.e.f 1^st June.

Post pilot strike, Air India bounce back so soon with more than 92%occupancy in Y-Class, it was beyond everyone’s expectation.

Employees are yet to receive their 2/3 rd of salary for the month of April, the question still remain where the money has gone?

Is it a deliberate move to xxxvoke further ----?

What is next?

A Road to Varanasi Airport

                                                 Work in Progress
For last one year work of underground sewage construction is in progress in all along the city.None of the city roads are clean and free to drive.
One can experience a long traffic jam and make it difficult to drive any vehicle.It is very difficult to walk even on the pathway.
This is to advise any of the traveller who intend to get their flight must start 2hours prior to departure of flight.
Airport distance from city centre is approx 30Km.
It is a 40 mts drive to The Babatpur,LBS Airport at Varanasi.

I.5 km stretch between Bhojubir to Atulanand takes almost 30mts to pass through as work is under progress and one can get trapped in heavy traffic congestion.

25 th Day of May-A Total Recall

(…….On the eve of the 25^th day of May –this was end of an era, we received one SMS and after that “A total recall”…)

No one related to aviation industry will forget this magic numeral in the history of National carrier, neither of engineer nor Pilots.

Ever since May 2007, number 7(25=2+5=7) haunt us (All the cadre).

No one should forget the circular, a turning point, which withdrew the SOD ticket and it was valid only for the staff on flight duty. May be this was the first mistake where we could not understand and united to retaliate though later on it was withdrawn.

Many instances of withdrawal of our flights from lucrative sectors, like Bangkok, Kualalumpur, Doha, Bahraine and Colombo, keep on provoking employees but in the beginning everyone kept quite. Damage was being done systematically.

We were heading for the disaster. Till now 25000 employees of erstwhile IA were not happy since many months. Mentally they were not at peace. Occasional incidents of tired pilots, pilot sleeping in the cockpit and overshooting of runway did make the breaking news.

Electronic media to its own reason magnified minor snags of national carrier and made it breaking news where as big accidents of Private carrier were ignored to such an extent that it was projected as a minor incident. Print media too reported against us results in lower market share day by day.

Someone of vested interest was getting his plan through to his satisfaction. Air India routes were being given to other carrier, bilateral agreement (No country in the world has such a liberal bilateral agreement as we have today) was killing our airlines, AAI literally discriminating in allotting the bay (Remote bay) and in prioritising arrival and departure sequence to Air India. Nothing was in its favour and the worst of Air India yet to come as an Air India Express Air Plane crash at Manglore in the early morning of May 22^nd, 2010 (2+2+2+1=7).

Bad days for Aircraft engineers were about to knock their doors. Series of incidents post accident happened. A plane from Banglore took off carrying the kin of crashed plane and landed Manglore with all the officials except Engineer. At Manglore no engineer was there to certify the aircraft and management somehow got the certification from Kingfisher engineer who was apparently not qualified to certify that aircraft. This was a violation of the CAR and GS of AIAEA reported that matter to the appropriate authority and spoke to media in a brief interview.

Management was upset for speaking to media and charge sheeted GS of AIAEA. Engineers went on flash strike against this gag order asking for revoking of this order. Soon, ACEU also joined the stir and 25000(2+5=7) employees of erstwhile IA (This was the figure quoted during the strike. The figure of employee keep changing on every reporting) joined in. GS of ACEU also charge sheeted. Later on both this union were de recognized by the management.

All the members of AIAEA unitedly and spontaneously reacted to Flash Strike; as a result Aircrafts were on ground for ours which were later on recovered by officers. Aircrafts flown back to the base and thereafter a disaster was waiting to follow Engineers. Many engineers were terminated and suspended, remaining was asked to proceed to the transit station for one year posting. All the facilities which were availed till now withdrawn. People within humiliated us saying it was not a right moment for strike. Outside we lost the public sympathy. Our family life shattered. Engineers who were terminated and suspended faced the real challenge of life. Unity has strength and we showed it first time ever. Soon we broke down by calling off the strike after the High Court order.

Humiliation does not end here, Pilot were accepted to do the PF(Though they are authorised only to do PF in case of diversion thereafter flown back to base where a higher inspection schedule is to be carried out by Engineers) and started giving the message to other employees that our contribution was not required. At one occasion one of the Captains flown to a station leaving flight engineer at ground.

After a lot of struggle beyond the boundary of airport, except few, many of us were taken back. Engineers are lying low with low level of confidence. Memory of the past still not faded away and it will take a longer period to recover.

Is not it seems that we are now haunted by number 7 or 25 or 2007? But still there is one hope----

----“Nothing last forever in this universe and so the troubles in one’s life too”. A change, a light in the darkness, all of us is waiting for a morning after a long dark night.

The Ganga Arti at Varanasi

The City of Varanasi is situated at the bank of the Ganga. The ganga arti is performed here also as it is done at Haridwar,in U.P.

One must visit to see the Arti being performed at Dusashwamegh Ghat at 1900hrs.
This can be enjoyed best by hiring boat @Rs.10/= to Rs.15/=per person.

ATM Machine at Varanasi

The holy city of Varanasi is a place of pilgrimage to hindus and buddhist.Round the year tourist from all part of our country and neighbouring country eg Nepal,China,SriLanka,Indonesia and Japan keep visiting this place.
They face many problem in the ciy.
Withdrawal of money is one of them.
Most of the ATM Machine in the city are placarded Machine not working since saturday afternoon till Monday morning.
If you are in the city and require money please take care of it.
Use ATM to avoid inconvenience in the city on Saturday before 1300hrs.

Embarrassment

A new batch of our colleague are all set for going to resume their offices at outstation, there is a cause of worry too. List of engineers for outstation posting are still awaited and more likely to be declared within days.
This piece of information is just to inform all of us that please take the necessary steps to minimize the cause of embarrassment which we encountered soon we get our relieving order.
The last para of the Relieving Order reads as under:-
“They (Engineers) are advised to report to Station Manager of respective stations for further assignment of duties.”
Our leave and passage are being maintained at the base and to avail this one has to take permission from our DGM. For any purpose and every purpose we are reporting to our GM/DGM.
Even for our movement to attend any training/or QC related queries, he is not authorised to issue a SOD ticket as he does for other categories of staffs unless we get a letter from DGM.
For any technical problem pertaining to the Aircraft we alone are the authority next to DGCA on behalf of our GM (E-QA&TS).
Thus, it seems a typographical error on part of secretariat who could not edit the last para of our relieving order and it may be copied from the personal department R O which are issued to traffic/security/personal staffs while on 1 year posting to outstation as they report to SM.SM is authorised to do all above said job for rest other categories of employees.
If it is so please get it corrected.
Our letter must be in line with approved CAME whereby we should be designated at outstation as BASE MAINTENANCE MANAGER instead Station Engineer and on resuming duty one should report to GM (Engineering) and CC to Station Manager (Stating that he has joined as BMM and Mr X has been relieved)