Growth without Compromising Air Safety

Over the last few years, the Indian civil aviation market has been growing at a healthy pace, at a rate higher than in other nations of the world, even surpassing the growth rate of the Chinese civil aviation industry. This rekindles the hope that the Indian civil aviation industry will grow to be the third largest in global ranking in a decade or so from its position today of being the ninth in the world. What is indeed worrisome however, is that in the world’s fastest growing civil aviation industry, air travel is becoming increasingly unsafe. The problem is further compounded by the fact that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the Indian civil aviation regulator, has remained organisationally stagnant. As a result, today, the DGCA does not possess the requisite manpower with the right qualifications and experience to oversee the aspect of air safety in this rapidly growing industry and adopt preventive measures to obviate accidents and incidents. In fact, this was one of the reasons why in 2014, the US Federal Aviation Administration downgraded safety rating of the Indian civil aviation industry. Fortunately, after some corrective measures, the safety rating was restored a year later. However, the organisation requires further revamping for it to be capable to fulfil its obligations in totality as a civil aviation regulatory authority especially for prevention of accidents and incidents.

One change that was made in 2012 was that the responsibility of conducting investigation into accidents and incidents involving civil aircraft, was transferred from the DGCA to the newly created Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau. This agency was established under the Ministry of Civil Aviation in July 2012 to comply with the Standards and Recommended Practices of the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

As per data from DGCA, incidents related to air safety by late 2016 that necessitated action on the part of the regulatory authority, had reached 280, marginally higher than 275 the previous year. One of the most disastrous accidents in recent times involving an Indian civil aircraft was on May 30, 2010. An Air India Express Boeing 737-800 flying from Dubai to Mangalore with 160 passengers and six crew members on board, while landing at Mangalore, the aircraft overshot the runway, fell into a ravine and burst into flames. Apart from eight passengers on board, the remaining souls including crew members on board perished. The accident was attributable to sheer incompetence on the part of the pilot.

More recently, there have been several cases of air safety violations and incidents such as aircraft in flight getting too close to each other, flawed performance by overworked staff and inebriated pilots. All these could have serious consequences for air safety. On September 20, 2018, the pilot on a Jet Airways flight, forgot to put on the switch after takeoff for cabin pressurisation. This was a case of crew error that led to bleeding from the nose and ears of passengers due to lack of pressurisation.

In October 2018, an Air India Express Boeing 737 aircraft with 130 passengers on board on a flight from Trichy to Dubai, hit the perimeter wall of the Trichy airport during takeoff with the landing gear extended. A portion of the wall was practically demolished and the belly of the aircraft suffered serious damage. It is rather surprising that the crew were unaware of the damage and continued to fly for four hours before they diverted to Mumbai as Dubai air traffic control that was aware of the incident, refused to accept the aircraft. Apart from human error, there have been a number of engine failures in flight involving the Pratt & Whitney engines on Airbus A320neo aircraft of IndiGo and GoAir.

Somewhat disturbed with the situation that growth of the Indian civil aviation industry was being achieved at the cost of air safety and the increasing frequency of air safety-related incidents, in September this year, Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Civil Aviation ordered a safety audit of all scheduled airlines and airports. A professional organisation has been tasked to examine air safety aspects in the Indian civil aviation industry. The Minister has also ordered concerned officials to put in place a regular safety compliance report in respect of all airlines.

It appears that the government has finally decided to confront with determination, the escalating problem of air safety in the domain of the Indian civil aviation industry.