Air India gets first Dreamliner from Nikki Haley's state

Washington/North Charleston, April 28: The first of four Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft for Air India to be assembled in South Carolina, a state governed by Indian American Nikki Haley, has rolled out of final assembly with great fanfare.

Haley and US Representative Lindsey Graham joined a crowd of nearly 7,000 Boeing employees and guests at the festive rollout ceremony in North Charleston Friday featuring aerial displays, music and entertainment.

The airplane next goes to the flight line, where it will go through systems checks and engine runs in advance of taxi testing and first flight. The airplane remains on schedule for delivery to Air India in mid-2012.

"We'll celebrate today, and tomorrow we begin the process of getting the airplane ready for delivery to our Air India customer," said Jack Jones, Boeing South Carolina vice president and general manager.

The aircraft for Air India is the first completed at the $750 million plant that opened last year.

Jones said sale of the first four of the South Carolina aircraft to Air India has nothing to do with Haley, who was born Nikki Nimrata Randhawa to Sikh immigrant parents from India. "That was just the way it worked out."

"This is a proud moment for Boeing as we roll out an airplane from our third final assembly site," said Jim Albaugh, president and chief executive officer, Commercial Airplanes.

By the end of 2013, the plant should be producing about three-and-a-half of the speedy, light aircraft made half of composite material of carbon fibre-reinforced plastic.

"It's the fastest-selling plane going into production that Boeing has ever had," Jones said noting the company already has 854 orders from 59 customers.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

Spain blocks arms ship from India to Israel amid ongoing Gaza genocide

News Network

May 18,2024

In a humanitarian move, Spain has refused entry to a ship carrying arms from India’s Chennai to Israel to dock at one of its ports, its Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares has said.

The Denmark-flagged cargo ship Marianne Danica sailed from Chennai on April 8 when people in Gaza were observing Ramadan fasting, and was headed to the port of Haifa in Israel, according to maritime tracking portals and Spanish media.

Spain has been extremely critical of the rising civilian casualties due to the Israeli offensive in Gaza and, along with Belgium, has suspended arms exports licenses to Tel Aviv.

Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Randhir Jaiswal, at the weekly press conference, only said that they have seen the report of the ship and will revert with more information.

Meanwhile, a source said, “Investigation will reveal if the items on board were cleared for export and if the end user is the same as reported by The Guardian because there are items that are not banned for exports.”

Speaking to reporters in Brussels on Thursday on the issue, Mr. Albares had said, “This is the first time we have done this because it is the first time we have detected a ship carrying a shipment of arms to Israel that wants to call at a Spanish port.”

“This will be a consistent policy with any ship carrying arms to Israel that wants to call at Spanish ports. The Foreign Ministry will systematically reject such stopovers for one obvious reason: the Middle East does not need more weapons, it needs more peace,” he stated.

The ship was carrying 27 tonnes of explosives according to local reports. It was to make a port call at Cartegena in Spain.
In February, Mr. Albares said that they had suspended arms export licences to Israel since October 7, which he said made them “realise” the importance of a “fair and lasting solution” to the Palestinian cause.

The incident comes amid an ongoing row between Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s party and his coalition partners over another ship, Borkum, that was due to dock at Cartegena port on Friday over allegations that it was carrying arms meant for Israel. However, the Spanish government has said that the arms it is ferrying are meant for the Czech Republic.

Belgium had suspended two arms export licences to Israel.

“We welcome the decision of the Spanish government to deny the transit authorisation of the vessel Marianne Danica, in accordance with Tratado (treaty) on Arms Trade and Spanish law,” Amnesty International Spain said on social media platform ‘X’.

The timing also coincides with the Israeli ground offensive inside Rafah. According to the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) at least 6,30,000 Palestinians have been forced out of Rafah since the launch of the incursion on May 7.

Comments