Goyal & Jet are fast losing their credibility amongst the pilot fraternity as also the aviation industry..... lost it a while back.... Goyel had the most ma amazing loyalty of his staff... thats all gone to ZERO....
Mumbai: Air safety experts in India rue the fact that increasingly, commercial interests seem to override safety concerns. “The increase in the number of incidents and accidents during takeoff or touchdown of flights is due to the lack of proper training and safety oversight,’’ says Capt Mohan Ranganathan, an air safety expert alluding to the need for transparency. “The Alliance Air crash in Patna in 2000 killed 55. But the DGCA website for accident/incident data shows nil aircrashes for airlines,’’ he adds.
In India, air accidents/incidents are investigated by the DGCA, the civil aviation regulatory authority. For long, aviation observers have demanded an independent investigation authority, like the US’s National Transport and Safety Board (NTSB), for instance. The Indian Pilots Guild, a union of Air India pilots, endorses this.
“The Commission of Railway Safety, which looks into rail accidents for the sake of impartiality, comes under the ministry of civil aviation. Aviation should have an independent body,’’ says an Indian Pilots Guild spokesperson. What it has is the National Air Safety Board, that was formed by the DGCA in January 2008 and is not independent. The board is supposed to meet at least four times a year. “It has hardly met in the last one year,’’ said a source.
Capt R S Otaal, general secretary of Indian Commercial Pilots Association, says a majority of the cases was due to crew fatigue. “The number of incidents has been on the rise after scientifically-backed rest rules for pilots were put in abeyance last year,’’ he says. It’s also an open secret in the aviation community that rest rules for pilots are often violated and commercial interests override bad weather in deciding whether a flight should land or not.
Multi-leg flights, like a Mumbai-Nagpur-Raipur-Kolkata one for instance, are a case in point. “Last year, on one of these flights, the commander tried to land, but did a go around as the aircraft was rocking badly. He managed to land in the second attempt. What he should have done was diverted the flight. But then, he would have had to go back to Nagpur and continue with two other flights. Such decisions are sure-fire recipes for disaster,’’ says a senior airline commander.
“The International Civil Aviation Organisation, the FAA and the European Union are concerned about the lack of qualified manpower and lack of proper safety oversight in in India. The government will not be in a position to prevent a major accident, which is round the corner, unless we have a
transparent and honest system,’’
says Capt Ranganathan, the
air safety expert.
Aircraft Mishaps And Snafus Over The Years
Year 2009
April 19: A Kingfisher Airlines Kolkata-Hyderabad-Bangalore Airbus with 138 passengers skidded at Bangalore airport while landing in rain and strong wind. Ten to 12 runway edge lights and four main wheels were damaged March 4: A Jet Lite Lucknow-Kolkata flight with 47 passengers landed on a parallel secondary runway, when it was cleared for cleared to land on Kolkata’s main runway. March 3: Jorhat-Kolkata Alliance Air flight CD 7719 was taxiing from the parking bay to the runway when its wings collided with the wings of a CD 7761 flight Jan 7: An Air India flight damaged the arrester cable at IAF’s Pune airport while landing. The pilot did not report the incident and took off for the next flight in 25 minutes only to be recalled after airport officials spotted the damage
Year 2008
Dec 1: A Spice Jet Bagdogra-Kolkata aircraft with 139 passengers landed on a runway closed for maintenance Nov 8: The nose wheel of a Chennai-Mumbai Air India flight(92 passengers) burst while taxing for take off Nov 7: The right wing tip of an Air India Jeddah-Kozhikode flight hit the runway on landing Oct 16: On landing at Mumbai airport, the pilot of a Jet Airways Singapore-Mumbai Airbus tried to take a 180-degree turn, crumbling two runway edge lights Aug 14: The main wheel & rear end of a Spice Jet Mum-Bangalore plane touched the runway damaging its tail Aug 6: The tail of a Kingfisher Airlines plane travelling from Udaipur to Delhi hit the runway on landing June 9: A Spice Jet Boeing 737 landed on the main runway closed for maintenance, instead of the secondary runway at Delhi April 5: A Go Air Chennai-Mumbai flight with 120 passengers landed on the wrong runway, which had been closed for repairs. Workers ran for cover
Year 2007
Oct 18 : A Jet Airways Bangalore-Kochi flight skidded off the runway while landing, damaging its wheels and runway lights Aug 26 : A Jet Lite Patna-Varanasi flight crash-landed after its landing gear failed. Emergency brakes were applied, passengers sustained minor injuries
Aug 23 : A Jet Lite Delhi-Srinagar flight (120 passengers) skidded on the runway
while landing due to a jammed wheel. It ran into a nearby field
July 9 : An Air India Express Muscat-Kochi flight (61 passengers) skidded
200m off the runway damaging its nose-wheel. The left engine was mired in mud
July 3: A Jet Lite Bangalore-Kochi flight (60 passengers) skidded off the runway while landing at Kochi airport. It landed with its right wheel on the runway edge. July 1: A Jet Airways ATR plane touched down just before the mid-point of the runway and skidded. It bounced a couple of times and went off the runway into sludge. A few passengers were injured. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair June 12: A Spice Jet flight arriving at New Delhi’s international airport from Jammu with 160 passengers on board landed on the main runway, which was closed May 13: A Paramount Airways Hyderabad-Vizag flight with 70 passengers landed on a yet-to-be-cleared runway and overshot it Apr 9: An Air India Bangkok-New Delhi flight with 169 passengers skidded at the taxiway after landing due to landing gear problems Apr 8: Fire broke out in the engine of a Jet Airways flight while it was landing