RIP

Rest in Peace.

https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2025/0...twick-airport/


1 Canadian among more than 240 presumed dead in London-bound Air India crash

Air India Flight 171 on route to London crashed moments after takeoff in India. The plane was carrying 242 passengers, including one Canadian.
By Rajesh Joy, The Associated Press

Posted June 12, 2025 1:53 am.

Last Updated June 12, 2025 7:51 am.

An Air India passenger plane bound for London with more than 240 people on board crashed Thursday in India’s northwestern city of Ahmedabad, and there were no known survivors, officials said.

Black smoke billowed from the site where the plane went down in a populated area near the airport in Ahmedabad, a city of more than 5 million and the capital of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state.

Firefighters doused the smoking wreckage of the plane, which would have been fully loaded with fuel shortly after takeoff, and adjacent multistory buildings with water. Many charred bodies lay on the ground and one was carried away on a stretcher by first responders.

“The scenes emerging of a London-bound plane carrying many British nationals crashing in the Indian city of Ahmedabad are devastating,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement.

Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney, issued a statement on X, reading in part, “Devastated to learn of the crash of a London-bound Air India plane in Ahmedabad, carrying 242 passengers — including one Canadian. My thoughts are with the loved ones of everyone on board. Canada’s transportation officials are in close contact with counterparts and I am receiving regular updates as the response to this tragedy unfolds.”


Horrible! The plane hit part of a medical college hostel too:

Indian television news channels reported that the plane crashed on top of the dining area of a medical college hostel and visuals showed a portion of the aircraft atop the building. It was unclear if any medical students were present inside the building at the time of the crash.

The airline said the Gatwick Airport-bound flight was carrying 242 passengers and crew. Of those, Air India said there were 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.

Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, the director general of the directorate of civil aviation, told AP that Air India flight 171, a Boeing 787-8, crashed into a residential area called Meghani Nagar five minutes after taking off at 1:38 p.m. local time. He said 244 people were on board and it was not immediately possible to reconcile the discrepancy with Air India’s numbers.

I think that's the first 787 hull loss?

Other than some issues with the battery the 787 has been a safe and trouble free aircraft imo. We'll see what the actual cause it but I feel it may not be due to Boeing.

That's just a bit of a price difference lol. With Lordco I can get a discount through the 4WDABC account but I can't see what the price will be online. Apparently if you have an online account you can see the account price but there's no way to make one for some reason.

Reading about it online speculation is, and using flight radar etc. a fully loaded plane took off only using about half the run way and hitting V1. Some people are also saying it looks like flaps were retracted so could be pilot error and basically just stalled, fell out of the air.

Pilot error accounts for a large percentage of crashes - both in commercial and general aviation. Just saying...

I have a question for the RS private bankers. Might be dumb but i've never come across this before.

I have about $6300 USD sitting in an RBC USD chequing account.

I need to convert that to CAD and move it into one of my other RBC canadian accounts.

What's the best way to do this to maximize the conversion rate?

Just looking at rates between RBC and VCBE online for example, the difference is $150 less from RBC.

But i'm sure there are fees to get RBC to make a draft, then have VCBE do a draft, and then I'm wondering if all that trouble is worth it.

Thanks

Haven't used it myself but i hear WISE is good?

I would use WISE as well.


Bank drafts are the worst option if you are doing currency conversions for a few reasons.

First, bank drafts take the most time to obtain through your customer service reps at a bank branch. The process involves paperwork and signing documents etc.

Second, RBC will charge you a hefty fee for the bank draft.

I used to work at a bank. -also an RBC customer now. RBC charges a $9.95 fee for a bank draft.

Eff-1, VCBE would give you a better exchange rate than RBC.

Add a few hundred USD if you can. Vbce has a different rate for transaction over 10k cad

I believe WISE has temporarily blocked the ability for Canadians to set up a USD account so if you don't already have a WISE USD account you're SOL. Also, when I was trying to move USD from TD to WISE there was no easy way to do it. OTOH, I was able to get TD to almost match the WISE rate by walking up and asking for it both times but the amounts I had were large.

VBCE will give you better rate than posted though but I'm not sure how much better it'd be for the amount you're converting - depends on how much effort. I was prepared to get a draft from TD and walk it over to the Metrotown VBCE the first time I had to change money over (then TD matched) because it was worth the effort (about 30 mins).

One guy survived on the Air India flight... I hope he gets the mental help support to deal with the massive survivor's guilt that is going to come. They're going to start comparing him to Bruce Willis's Unbreakable character at some point.

The RBC draft is about $10, but the exchange rate between RBC and VCBE is $150, you are still ahead by $140 going with VCBE as there is no draft fee from VCBE. They also give you a better rate when it's a draft versus cash.

Just based on what the online posted rates are, VCBE is about $150 better than RBC so it's definitely worth putting some effort in the form of going back and forth between locations.

If i'm not able to open a WISE account, then I suspect my best option is add a bit more USD to get it above $10k CAD, then bite the bullet and deal with bank drafts. Even after paying the fees for the drafts, I am still coming out ahead seems like.

Yes I think this is the best way.

There is a documentary on the sole survivors of plane crashes. It’s insane how many big crashes with 200+ people a single person survived. Legit seems like some matrix anomaly. The documentary has all these survivors meet each other and needless to say they are all fucked up to varying degrees lol

avoiding a hefty 10$ draft fee on 7k, is the new not paying for 2$ costco parking

Do they have stats on which seat these sole survivors were in?

Yeah, I'd agree but I would make sure you ask the bank teller if they can offer you a better rate to keep you from taking the money over to VBCE. Maybe they can close the gap to $75 which might be enough to keep you there. With the TD reps I dealt with they just punched in numbers to see what the system would allow (and I showed them the WISE rate) and they were able to hit a number I was happy with.

There was a study done years ago, and it obviously varies depending on the incident, but generally speaking, towards the back of the plane is typically more survivable.

Found this interesting set of charts. They track all this stuff in the accident reports.

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki..._injury_charts

I was able to open a WISE USD account last night, just need identification verification. Tho I think Wise needs you to transfer funds in CAD (+fee) and then transfer funds between currencies (+fee after first $800 cad)

With that in mind, I think VBCE might still have better rates. Cross ref the total fees incl w/d or funding with WISE. You can also just ask them for the preferred rates. Track chat has a preferred rate card, but I'm not sure if you can just reference it without the card.

But it sounds like the differences are negligible:

"VBCE to support local and their support to the track community. But if you do not want to carry the cash around, then WISE would be the next best alternative. For reference, on C$7M purchase with U$, WISE only beat VBCE by ~C$500."

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk

RBC matches VCBE Rates if you ask the teller, at least I did when I worked there a decade ago.

Or ask your friends to buy it at SPOT.

Cheapest way is Nobert’s gambit with cross listed equities.
Also way more hassle than Wise

To be fair, I was more wondering about what if any fees VBCE charges for drafts etc :concentrate: