Is there anyone that can provide stastistics to compare incidents/accidents relative to other countries etc and end this innuendo for onceand for all?
That is like judging the food of a restaurant by how many people die from eating there.
You can't compare incidents/accidents and ascertain the safety of a country's air travel. A serious incident or accident is often the result of many breakdowns in the operation.
The problem is that India like all of Asia, does not have a just reporting culture. The focus is always on blame and punishment. So the result is that many potentially deadly, serious incidents that are stopped go completely unaccounted.
For example, say that a crew inputs the wrong weight into the FMC during setup which would result in the aircraft crashing. But as they roll down the runway, one of the pilots spots it and firewalls the throttles early enough to make it off the ground.
In a just system, that pilot will report it, it is now tracked and documented so the system is investigated to ascertain if it can be improved. In the Indian (or rest of Asia) system the pilot would be fired or jailed if he comes forward, so most will burry it if at all possible.
If you now compare statistics it would show:
Non-reporting / blame / punishment system (like India) - 0 incidents.
Just reporting culture / improvement / prevention system - 1 incident.
So do you think the non-reporting Asian system is safer? Get the point?
The shocking aspect of that article is that the official touting that it is safe to travel on Indian carriers goes on to admit that Air Travel grew too fast to regulate in another paragraph. Basically, admitting that growth was put in front of safety and that they are playing catchup. The funny thing is that they haven't caught up yet, so how can it be safer? Weird logic
This is the problem with rapid growth. Healthy growth is more important than rapid exponential growth. Healthy, sustainable growth is better in the long run to avoid serious, systemic problems - like the ones they are now facing.
That is why these locations that have tried to shortcut their way to the top are destined to fail until they change their growth rate (China, India, Middle East). They are trying to leapfrog other societies that achieved their current status over very long periods. These emerging economies are sacrificing quality for time, always a bad idea.
As pilots, we know what happens when you rush.
