AI, AI Exp to do away with '171'

AIR INDIA and Air India Express will do away with flight number '171' after the fatal crash of the Air India plane that killed 241 people onboard on Thursday, according to sources.

- PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

AIRBUS SE said the fatal accident on Thursday in India involving a Boeing Co airliner should spur the industry as a whole to advance its safety culture, dismissing the notion that the crash could bring a competitive edge to one plane-maker over the other in the global duopoly.

"Safety is in everything that we do; so the tragedy in India, we don't see that in any way, shape or form as a competitive input," Christian Scherer, who oversees Airbus's commercial aircraft operation, said at a press meeting in Paris. "It is, if anything, a reminder to us all that aviation has become so safe that, statistically speaking, every accident is totally unacceptable." The crash of an Air India 787 Dreamliner on Thursday killed more than 240 people on the aircraft as well as people in the densely populated urban area where the plane exploded.