The setting up of a Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council under the chairmanship of the director-general of civil aviation is an exercise in futility. It is yet another indicator that the government has failed to learn any lesson from the Mangalore tragedy just over a week back that took 158 precious lives. India has one of the world’s worst air safety records — next only to some African countries. A few years ago the global average for accidents was 1.5 per million departures, India’s was 6.2 per million departures. Things have not changed much since — and one cannot ignore the chilling regularity of “near misses” and “miraculous escapes” reported in the media. All these, one expert pointed out, finally add up to a major crash. After almost every “near miss” or minor mishap, a routine inquiry is conducted and the blame usually ascribed to “pilot error” by the DGCA, which has the last word. Just go back to the 1990s — to the horrific Chakri Dadri midair collision close to New Delhi between a Kazakh plane and a Saudi airliner, in which 349 people perished: the blame was swiftly put on the Kazakh pilot, saying he did not understand English properly. The fact is that the government had been repeatedly warned such an accident was waiting to happen! Only after this tragedy were certain procedural changes put in place, which are still in effect. The problem is that almost no official inquiry in India ever finds fault with any government agency. These, in turn, rarely heed any advice to change practices or procedures seriously. In civil aviation, with the DGCA acting as prosecutor, judge and executioner, how can one arrive at an objective analysis of why an accident takes place, let alone making changes to avoid such accidents in future.
The Mangalore airport’s second runway has, for instance, been mired in controversy. An NGO had filed a PIL pointing out it did not conform to international aviation norms due to terrain limitations, but even the Supreme Court went along with the government’s view that nothing needed to be done. An independent aviation safety board could have given guidelines on procedures to follow in such cases. Many countries, including India, have “tabletop” airports, where there are specific rules for pilots to follow when landing or taking off. In India, unfortunately, there are rarely any serious consequences if the rules are ignored. If an accident does not take place, any aberration is simply treated as a “miraculous” escape — and the incident forgotten. Not long ago a Kingfisher plane got bogged down in the marsh during the monsoon as the pilot overshot the runway. The plane was damaged but the passengers largely unhurt. If the matter had been treated more seriously, and not treated as yet another “miracle”, possibly all pilots could have been instructed on how to avoid such hazards in future.
The DGCA’s “chalta hai” attitude will not do any longer. A 2006 audit by the International Civil Aviation Organisation found India had one of the worst records in the qualification and training of technical personnel. Aviation experts have long been demanding an independent aviation safety board, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself is said to be in favour. But the IAS bureaucracy is determined not to give up its turf: India is one of the few countries where a body like the DGCA is not headed by an aviation specialist but a generalist, who in turn reports to another IAS babu: the civil aviation secretary. Neither has any special expertise in air safety, but take all crucial decisions. So don’t have too many expectations from any new safety board, which too will have to report to the same set of people.