Four of the passengers who were killed in the Air India Boeing 787 crash on June 12 filed a lawsuit alleging that allegedly defective fuel switches, which the US Federal Aviation Administration claimed do not appear to have caused the incident, which left 260 people dead.
Boeing and Honeywell, the makers of the switches, are held responsible for the crash seconds after Flight 171 departed Ahmedabad from India, according to the lawsuit filed on Wednesday in Delaware Superior Court.
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The plaintiffs point to a 2018 FAA advisory that advised, but did not instruct, operators of a number of Boeing models, including the 787, to check the locking mechanism of the fuel cutoff switches to prevent unintentionally moving them.
According to Air India’s (AAIB) preliminary investigation report into the crash, the aircraft’s pilot had not carried out the recommended inspections and maintenance records indicated that the throttle control module, which included the fuel switches, had been replaced on the aircraft involved in the crash in 2019 and 2023.
According to the report, “the aircraft as well as the engines were adhered to all applicable airworthiness directives and alert service bulletins.”
Honeywell did not respond to a request for comment right away, and Boeing declined to comment.
The captain may have cut the fuel flow to the aircraft’s engines, according to a cockpit recording of the conversation between the two pilots.
The lawsuit claims that the switches are located in a position in the cockpit where they were more likely to accidentally push, which “effectively guaranteed that typical cockpit behavior could lead to an accidental fuel cutoff.”
However, according to aviation safety experts, due to their location and design, they couldn’t be unintentionally flipped.
The crash-related lawsuit is reportedly the first in the country.
The deaths of Kantaben Dhirubhai Paghadal, Naavya Chirag Paghadal, Kuberbhai Patel, and Babiben Patel, among whom 229 people died, are subject to unspecified damages.
Additionally, 19 people on the ground and 12 crew members perished. One passenger was saved. The plaintiffs reside in either India or the UK and are citizens of both countries.
Boeing and GE Aerospace were found not guilty in the preliminary report released by Indian investigators, but some family groups have criticized the investigators and the press for being too focused on the pilots’ actions.
Legal experts claim that manufacturers are frequently targeted by attorneys representing victims’ families because they do not have the same level of liability protection as airlines because most accidents are caused by a combination of factors. These tactics can also increase the likelihood of using US courts, which are generally accepted to be more accepting of plaintiffs than many foreign courts.
There is a “business plan” to “turn Gaza into a real estate bonanza,” according to Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The far-right minister said he is discussing how to split the proceeds from a conference on urban renewal in Tel Aviv with the Trump administration.
According to Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa, “security discussions with Israel are necessary and could lead to outcomes in the coming days.”
Al-Sharaa, who led the effort that ended the nation’s 13-year conflict with former president Bashar al-Assad, made the remarks on Wednesday.
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Israel responded to al-Assad’s overthrow by declaring that the 1974 security agreement with Syria had been broken, increased the amount of Syrian territory it controlled, and launched more airstrikes in Syria, which have resulted in the deaths of several Syrian soldiers over the past few months.
The United States has made an effort to broker a deal between Syria and Israel by backing Syria’s new authorities.
Al-Sharaa claimed, however, that the US had not pressed Syria to reach an agreement with Israel.
The Syrian president added that the Syrian government’s desire for peace with Israel must also respect Syria’s territorial integrity as well as Israel’s airspace, which Israel has repeatedly violated for years. Any agreement would need to be monitored by the UN, he added.
According to al-Sharaa, a security agreement might lead to the signing of other agreements, but there is no consensus on a possible normalization agreement between the two nations right now.
Israeli intervention
Israeli soldiers carried out searches in the towns of Saysoun and Jamlah in southeast Deraa on Sunday, the most recent ground invasion Israel made in Syria.
In an effort to reshape the 1974 agreement that came into being after the Israeli-Syrian conflict in 1973, al-Sharaa had confirmed that negotiations had already begun.
In that conflict, Syria was unable to retake control of the Golan Heights, which Israel had taken in 1967. Following the fall of al-Assad, Israel violated the 1974 agreement by seizing the buffer zone and surrounding areas. However, Israel violated the agreement.
Israel has also bombed Syria’s Ministry of Defense in July, including Damascus. In Suwayda that month, Israel supported local Bedouin tribal fighters and Syrian government forces that had been sent to put an end to the conflict between the Druze and the Bedouins.
Israel has interpreted that intervention as supporting the Druze, a minority group in Israel, and as a result of Israeli demands that Syrian government forces stay in areas south of Damascus and cross Israel’s border.
Despite the president of Syria renegating those associations, the Israelis have also emphasized al-Sharaa’s prior affiliation with al-Qaeda.
In exchange for an Israeli reversal of all land it has seized in Syria since December, aside from an outpost on Mount Hermon, Israel’s demands during negotiations with Syria included a demilitarized zone southwest of Damascus and a no-fly zone there.
A long-awaited meeting between javelin stars Neeraj Chopra and Arshad Nadeem is confirmed as the Olympic gold medallists face each other at the World Athletics Championship 2025 in Japan.
India’s Chopra and Pakistan’s Nadeem have qualified for the men’s javelin final on Thursday.
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Here’s what you need to know about the event:
What time is the javelin final involving Arshad Nadeem and Neeraj Chopra?
The final will begin at 10:23 GMT on Thursday.
Where is the javelin final of the World Athletics Championship?
The Japan National Stadium in Tokyo is hosting the track and field championship.
Which athletes have qualified for the javelin final?
Twelve athletes will participate in the final.
The starting list for the final includes:
Julian Weber (Germany)
Anderson Peters (Grenada)
Arshad Nadeem (Pakistan)
Neeraj Chopra (India)
Julius Yego (Kenya)
Curtis Thompson (USA)
Cameron McEntyre (Australia)
David Wegner (Poland)
Sachin Yadav (India)
Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage (Sri Lanka)
Jakub Vadlejch (Czech Republic)
Keshorn Walcott (Trinidad and Tobago)
How does the qualification process work?
All competing athletes have to undergo the qualifying round, also known as the heats, where they get three throws each.
At the World Athletics Championships, athletes with a throw of 84.5 metres (277.23 feet) or above entered the final directly and took up the first seven spots. The other five qualified on the basis of the best throws amongst the rest.
The number of contesting athletes was 37, who were divided into two heats, A and B.
Did Chopra and Nadeem compete against each other in the qualifying round?
No. Chopra was placed in Heat A, and Nadeem in B.
Who are the top-ranked men’s javelin athletes?
Germany’s Weber is the top-ranked javelin athlete, followed by Chopra and Peters.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Walcott is ranked fourth, and Kenya’s Yego is fifth.
What’s the prize money for the javelin final?
The winner will bag $70,000, while the second-placed athlete will be awarded $35,000, and the third-placed finisher will earn $22,000.
Why isn’t Arshad Nadeem ranked?
World Athletics rankings are achieved by collecting points at WA competitions of varying rankings across the athletics season.
Nadeem has been unable to compete at most WA competitions, largely due to financial constraints, and has not earned enough points to be ranked among the world’s best.
Who is Arshad Nadeem?
Nadeem hails from a small village near the city of Mian Channu in southern Punjab state, about 300km (186 miles) southwest of the Pakistani megacity of Lahore.
The third of seven siblings, Nadeem grew up in a household that struggled to make ends meet. His father, Muhammad Ashraf, a retired construction worker, was the sole breadwinner.
As a child, Nadeem towered over his classmates. By the time he was 14, he was almost six feet (183cm) tall.
Cricket was his first love. “I used to be a very good bowler and would participate in a lot of tournaments,” Nadeem told Al Jazeera in 2024.
His first international outing as a javelin thrower came at the 2016 South Asian Games in India, where he competed against the then-emerging Indian star Neeraj Chopra.
Nadeem, who went into the tournament with a niggle in his throwing elbow, still managed a throw of 78.33 metres (257 feet), winning his first international medal, a bronze, with Chopra securing gold.
He would go on to collect more regional medals, before making the world sit up and take notice at the Paris Olympics 2024, where he broke the Olympic record to win gold – Pakistan’s first track and field medal in its history.
Arshad Nadeem’s gold medal at the Paris Olympics 2024 was one of the biggest sporting achievements for a Pakistani athlete [File: Marko Djurica/Reuters]
Who is Neeraj Chopra?
Chopra’s journey to the top was not easy either. Growing up in the village of Chandra in the northern Indian state of Haryana, the young Neeraj was regularly bullied over his weight. By age 11, he was already 80kg (176 pounds), at which point his father suggested he join a local gym.
It was there that he first took up athletics, with the javelin quickly becoming his favourite discipline.
“I really liked the javelin, especially how it flew, but I also watched so many videos of Jan Zelezny, the world record holder from the Czech Republic, so I watched so many videos of him and I really liked his technique and his attitude in competition,” he told Al Jazeera in 2023.
By the age of 25, Chopra had won Olympic and world titles.
Chopra’s gold at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, too, was the first Olympic gold in track and field for his country.
Neeraj Chopra won India’s first track and field gold at the Tokyo Olympics 2021 [File: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters]
What is Neeraj Chopra’s personal best throw?
The Indian athlete landed a 90.23-metre (296.03 feet) throw at the Doha Diamond League on May 16.
What is Arshad Nadeem’s personal best throw?
Nadeem broke the Olympic record with a throw of 92.97 metres (305.02 feet) at the Paris Olympics on August 8, 2024.
Arshad Nadeem, centre, stands with Neeraj Chopra and Anderson Peters on the podium at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris [File: Bernat Armangue/AP]
How many medals has Neeraj Chopra won?
The 27-year-old has collected the following medals:
Olympic Games: gold (2020), silver (2024)
World Athletics Championship: gold (2023), silver (2022)
Asian Athletics Championships: gold (2017)
Commonwealth Games: gold (2018)
Asian Games: gold (2018, 2022)
South Asian Games: gold (2019)
How many medals has Arshad Nadeem won?
Nadeem’s tally includes:
Olympic Games: gold (2024)
World Athletics Championship: silver (2023)
Commonwealth Games: gold (2022)
Asian Athletics Championships: gold (2025)
Asian Games: bronze (2018)
South Asian Games: gold (2019), bronze (2016)
Are Arshad Nadeem and Neeraj Chopra friends?
In the past, the South Asian athletes have been vocal in lending support to one another despite the fraught relationship between the countries.
After the World Athletics Championship final in 2023, silver-medal-winner Nadeem said he was delighted for Chopra’s gold medal and that both countries finished on the podium.
Once the medals were handed out and the athletes were celebrating on the track, Chopra asked Nadeem to join him for a photo. They then stood close with their arms around each other.
The frequent words of encouragement and appreciation exchanged between Chopra, who won Olympic gold at Tokyo 2021, and Nadeem, who bagged gold at Paris 2024, rendered both the darlings of social media and the face of a rare cross-border friendship.
Gold medalist Neeraj Chopra, of India, and silver medalist Arshad Nadeem, of Pakistan, right, pose after finishing the men’s javelin throw final during the World Athletics Championships in Budapest on August 27, 2023 [File: Matthias Schrader/AP]
What happened between Arshad Nadeem and Neeraj Chopra?
Following the aerial and military conflict between India and Pakistan in May, Chopra said it would be difficult to maintain the same friendly relationship with Nadeem.
“It will not be like it was before [the recent escalations],” Chopra told Al Jazeera on May 15, when asked about the repercussions of the tensions on his friendship with Nadeem.
“I never had a very deep friendship with him, but we were always respectful towards each other,” he added.
Following the four-day conflict in May, Chopra faced intense social media backlash for inviting Nadeem to the May 24 Neeraj Chopra Classic javelin event in India.
The invitation was extended before the attack and was declined by Nadeem, citing his preparations for the May 27-31 Asian Athletics Championship in South Korea.
Palestinians in Gaza’s north have two choices: staying put and risk getting buried in rubble, or travel far south in a massive exodus without any guarantee of safety.
Pakistan defeated the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by 41 runs to advance to the Super Four stage of the Asia Cup cricket tournament in Dubai despite a brief field collapse and a turbulent transition.
Pakistan won 146-9 on Wednesday in their 20 overs at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in a match that was initially uncertain before being delayed by an hour.
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The UAE was then defeated by the two-time Asian champions for 105 in 17.4 overs to secure their place in the regional T20 tournament’s final round.
The UAE formed a 48-run partnership with Rahul Chopra 35 (35) and Dhruv Parashar 20 (23) in the wake of their three early wicket losses, giving them a chance to shock defeat.
The UAE’s wickets fell in a heap over the next 22 deliveries, but when fast bowler Haris Rauf dismissed Parashar in the 14th over.
Two wickets were taken by Shaheen Shah Afridi, Abrar Ahmed, and Rauf.
After both of Pakistan’s openers were dismissed in the third over, veteran top-order batsman Fakhar Zaman top-scored with a 50-run top-scoring fifty off 36 balls.
Salman Agha and Zaman briefly collaborated, and Salman Agha scored 20 runs off 27 balls, but Afridi’s 14-ball-29 looked like a tricky target for Pakistan.
With the victory, Pakistan will advance to the Super Fours on Sunday, joining India as the second-best team in Group A.
Bangladesh and Afghanistan will battle for second place in Group B, making Sri Lanka the only team to have qualified.
