MUMBAI: An Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner en route from Bengaluru to London had to be diverted to Jeddah Monday after its crew encountered a series of unexplained warnings across different aircraft systems, sources said.Flight AI-133, operated by the 13-year-old aircraft registered as VT-ANI, had been flying for more than six hours when pilots decided to divert as a precautionary measure. The aircraft landed safely at Jeddah around 8 pm IST, Air India said in a statement. “The aircraft is currently undergoing comprehensive technical inspections in accordance with established safety protocols,” AI added.The same aircraft, VT-ANI, was under regulatory scrutiny three months ago with Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issuing a show-cause notice to Air India for operating it despite repetitive faults.Air India said the Monday flight was diverted over a “suspected technical issue”. According to sources, the defects flagged included auto-throttle disconnect, which forces pilots to manage speed manually; fuel jettison system fault, which meant the fuel cannot be jettisoned to lower the landing weight of the aircraft. Then there was an overweight landing advisory. Other warnings were about abnormal fuel pressure on the right engine and “aft outflow valve problem”, a fault in the rear cabin pressurisation valve that helps control air pressure inside the passenger cabin.“These warnings appeared across seemingly unrelated areas such as engines, fuel, flight controls, and pressurisation. This pattern suggests an issue with the aircraft’s common core system (CCS),” sources added.The CCS is like the B787’s “central nervous system”, the aircraft’s main computer network that shares data between almost every major system on the aircraft, including flight controls, engines, hydraulics, fuel, electrical power, and cabin pressure. A host of warnings from unrelated areas would mean CCS wasn’t presenting a clear picture of the aircraft’s condition.Capt C S Randhawa, president of the Federation of Indian Pilots, also stated that the aircraft encountered multiple system faults which pointed to a serious issue deep within the Boeing 787’s common core system. The system faults could be related to the fiber optic translator – which converts light signals travelling through the plane’s fibre-optic cables into electrical signals so computers can understand them – or the sensor data concentrator, which collects information from sensors across the aircraft and feeds it into this network, Capt Randhawa said. When these components become unstable, different systems begin receiving inconsistent or conflicting data, triggering a cascade of unrelated warnings.“Diversion was the only correct response to an aircraft that was no longer presenting a single, reliable state,” he said. “This is precisely why the June 12 (2025) B787 Ahmedabad accident cannot be dismissed as an isolated anomaly. When the same critical architecture layer surfaces again, the question is no longer what failed, but whether the system design itself permits such cascading ambiguity under certain conditions,” Capt Randhawa added.

LATUR: A 25-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly impersonating a police officer to cheat people under the pretext of helping recover stolen property in Maharashtra’s Latur district, officials said. The accused, identified as Vijay Aniruddha Kadam (25), a resident of Parbhani, was apprehended on Monday by the Local Crime Branch following a probe into multiple complaints of cheating in the district, a police release said Tuesday. Police said Kadam tracked theft cases reported in newspapers, obtained victims’ contact details and approached them posing as a police officer. To gain their trust, he showed a video of himself purportedly attending a UPSC interview and used fake documents, including a forged panchnama with a false identity. The Crime Branch team received a tip-off about a man near New Renapur Naka who was impersonating a police officer and duping people. Acting on the input, police laid a trap and apprehended him. A search led to the seizure of Rs 4.3 lakh in cash from his possession. During interrogation, Kadam told police that he promised victims recovery of their stolen valuables and extracted large sums of money from them. In one such case, a complainant from Ahmedpur was duped of Rs 5 lakh on March 19 after being assured recovery of stolen gold, police said. Of the amount, the accused had spent Rs 70,000, while the remaining Rs 4.3 lakh was recovered. He also admitted to committing similar frauds over the past two years in Nanded and Parbhani districts, police said, adding that teams from these districts are coordinating to probe his involvement in other cases. A case has been registered against him at Ahmedpur police station in Latur under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Police have appealed to the public to remain vigilant and verify the identity of anyone claiming to be a police officer before engaging with them.

GHAZIABAD: A 38-year-old man shot dead his wife and a close friend at his home in Tronica City’s Rampark Colony after he came to know that the two were having an affair for the past two years and his wife was planning to leave him.The accused had allegedly invited the friend over for dinner on Monday evening. The three ate together and smoked before a heated argument broke out, ending in the fatal shooting.According to police, the couple’s seven-year-old son was an eyewitness to the double murder. While police are yet to record his statement, the minor is said to have told police that his father, Rashid (38), took out a gun from an almirah in their bedroom around midnightand first shot his friend, also a colleague of several years at his furniture shop, Faheem (32), before turning the gun towards his wife, Shabnam (36).After the murders, Rashid apparently turned towards his son and said, ‘ab sab thik ho jayega’ (now everything will be fine) and left the house.An FIR has been registered against Rashid under Section 103 (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, based on a complaint filed by Faheem’s father. Police teams are conducting raids to trace the accused. They are also trying to locate the weapon used in the murder and ascertain how and when Rashid got his hands on it, which could reveal if the murder was premeditated.Police have also found that both Rashid and Faheem had prior criminal records. Multiple cases, including attempt to murder, theft and violations of the Arms Act, were registered against Faheem at local police stations. Rashid had previously been arrested in a theft case in 2023.DCP (rural) Surendra Nath Tiwari said the two were shot in the head, possibly from close range, and were declared dead on being taken to a hospital by neighbours. The bodies were sent for autopsy, but the reports are awaited, police said.The couple, police said, were married for several years and had seven children, aged 1.5 to 20. During the initial rounds of inquiry, family members and neighbours told cops that Shabnam and Faheem had been in a relationship for more than two years. Tensions in the household had escalated in recent months, particularly after Rashid learned of the alleged affair around the time of their eldest son’s wedding six months ago. Officers said Rashid had objected to the relationship and asked his wife to end it, but the dispute persisted.

About a week before the killings, Rashid and Faheem were involved in a confrontation over the issue, police said. On Monday evening, Rashid allegedly called Faheem to the house for dinner and confronted him and Shabnam after he thought all his children had retired to bed.Loni ACP Siddharth Gautam said Rashid had already concealed a pistol inside the home. After the meal, an argument broke out between the three. The seven-year-old, who had been watching television, entered the room on hearing raised voices and witnessed the shooting.A senior police officer added that Shabnam had wanted a divorce and intended to sell the house, which she owned. It may have also led to the murders, police said.