Mumbai Airports unsafe

[underfire]

"The report by S Mangala, DGM (Aviation Safety) of Western Region, AAI, titled ‘Report on Aviation Safety’ dated October 18, states, “As the designated safety manager, I hereby recommend the temporary closure of at least runway 9/27 of CSIA, Mumbai. There is a complete breakdown in safety standards at CSIA and Juhu airports and it has rendered operations at both these airports to unsafe levels.”

"The real condition of aviation safety could be far worse than what I have reported.” India witnessed over 25 near-miss incidents between April 2015 and March 2016 involving commercial aircraft, according to DGCA.

A DGCA official said the high rate of air incidents was reported from eight airports, which include Mumbai and Chennai, and some incidents may have gone unreported."


Top aviation report declares Mumbai airports unsafe- The New Indian Express (http://www.newindianexpress.com/thesundaystandard/2016/nov/05/mumbai-airports-unsafe-aviation-report-1535378.html)

[ACMS]

Most of us that operate into those parts didn't need a report to know this.......

[IZAD]

Indeed, India and China are blackballed as unsafe flying territories, from poor ATC and environmental phenomena affecting visibility to a corrupted aviation authority granting airlines all rights to exhaustive flying duties for crews；How about our Chinese neighbors? Who granted them ICAO level 4 licenses? No CAAC designee can speak English level 2 at most, SIM sessions performed with interpreters, and the vicious circle of Confucius reign in that part of the world. Indian DGCA need restructuring, pretty much like the INR 500/1000 notes being collected now from the market, I thought Modi meant progress, this new government is nothing but a bunch of poofters playing the same politics of substandard banana republics.

[oliver2002]

If you look at the traffic being managed in BOM with minimal infrastructure on the ground and in the air since decades things look far better.

[evansb]

Indeed...however traffic is increasing. Greece also deserves another look from ICAO.

If all else fails, is a diversion beyond the boundaries of these failed nation states truly the answer? .. in this day of GPS/ADSB/TCAS/SAT NAV? Diversions from the flight plan usually result in excess fuel burn and delays.. Can I not proceed 'direct via flight plan route'?

I am all for EUROCONTROL. What is next? MIDEASTSOUTHCENTRALASIATICCONTROL? I wish.. My son just might see the later in his lifetime..

[WindFarmer]

Court order against the AAI and various other authorities (attached - hopefully) makes interesting reading.

Will try and upload the AAI report but it seems to big. Can send it to anyone that wants it.

Regards

WindFarmer

[WindFarmer]

Please see below - The S Mangala Report

[WindFarmer]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.1. The encroachment of airspace by the buildings around the airports is a cancer spreading across Indian airports, but it has brought aviation safety to critical limits in Mumbai, a city with ground population of more than 25 million. The unwillingness of the Authorities (MIAPL, AAI, DGCA & MOCA) to act in accordance with Air Regulations could be catastrophic in case of any
eventuality because the number of ground causalities could be far more than that of Passengers and crew put together.

1.2. Inspite of my being in charge of Aviation Safety for Western Region, my letters to the higher-ups about air safety issues have not resulted in corrective action. The data on air miss/air safety incidents has not been shared with me since April 2013. I have reason to believe that the decision of keeping my office in the dark on safety issues has been taken at the highest levels. In other words, the functioning of the Aviation Safety office of the Western Region has been disabled in violation of National and International regulations. It is under these circumstances, that I am filing this report based on the documents I could get from the public domain and issues brought to my attention by third parties. The real condition of aviation safety could be far worse than what I have reported in this Safety Report. There is involvement of top officials of MIAPL, AAI, DGCA and MOCA in compromising Aviation Safety and therefore I recommend that the mitigation measures recommended in this report be undertaken under the supervision of ICAO.

I.A. JUHU AIRPORT (VAJJ)
I.A.l. Juhu Airport (VAJJ) is UNSAFE for operations because of obstacles around it and the state of its runway 16/34. The following steps have to be taken immediately to mitigate the hazards:

I.A.2. The obstacle chart available for the airport is of the year 2000 and many buildings has come up in the last 15 years. A survey has to be conducted to identify obstacles and based on that data, a recalculation of TORA, TODA, and LDA of all the runways has to be done immediately.

I.A.3. The runway 16/34 of Juhu airport is unfit for any operations and an attempt was made to close down the runway based on the Negi Report. This runway requires immediate repairs, and until completion of the proper
resurfacing of it, VAJJ has to be closed for operations whenever runway
14/32 ofVABB is used.

I.A.4. Declaration of deviation to ICAO on the I.H.S of the higher of the
overlapping surfaces being considered as the dominant one, as against the
ICAO standard of the lower obstacle surface being dominant, is required.

I.B. CSIA AIRPORT (VABB)
I.B.l. CSIA Airport (VABB) is infested with obstacles both in the APPROACH
SURFACE and in the I.H.S and therefore UNSAFE for operations unless
the following mitigating measures are undertaken immediately:

I.B.2. Recalculation of TORA, TODA, LDA, ASDA based on the obstacles for all the four runways (14, 32, 09 & 27) has to be done until the related obstacles are demolished/reduced in height to safe levels.

I.B.3. Declaration/publishing of present deviations from ICAO standards in the AIP/ by issuing appropriate NOTAMs is required.

I.B.4. RESA 09 (which is presently a part of the TORA of Runway 27) has to have a yielding surface in accordance with the ICAO/DGCA Standards/Air
Regulations to enable safe deceleration of aircraft overrunning the runway.

I.B.5. Removal of the non-frangible JBS to avoid a repeat of IX 812 in Mumbai.

I.B.6. Identification of the buildings that interfere with the ILS coverage (as
mentioned in the Guidelines on Allowable penetration of OLS in
Aeronautical Study reports dated 26 Mar 2015, issued by MOCA) and
demolishing the same on priority. For buildings in the APPROACH
SURFACE, mitigatory measures of displacing thresholds/reducing TORA is
available with respect to AGA criteria, but when such buildings affect the

coverage/performance of CNS facilities no mitigatory measures are
available other than demolishing those obstacles.

I.C. KEEPING THE AVIATION SAFETY OFFICE IN THE DARK ABOUT
AIR MISS/AIR PROX INCIDENTS
I.C.l. The Indian Government has accepted to adhere to the acceptable limits of probability of an accident specified by ICAO, by making efforts to reduce the hazards to aviation safety, including the occurrence of “air miss/air prox” incidents. For e.g., there were 10 reports of Air Miss/Air Prox incidents reports in 2012-13 in Mumbai ATC and it increased to 13 in 2013-14. However, inspite of me being in charge of Aviation Safety for Western
Region, AAI, no data of airmiss/air prox incidents has been shared with me
or my office since Apr 2013.

II. THE BOTTOM LINE
II. 1. There is a complete breakdown in the safety standards at VABB and
VAJJ and it has rendered operations at both these airports to UNSAFE
levels. No effective action was taken by any of the stakeholders (MIAPL,
AAI, DGCA & MOCA) in spite of having knowledge of the breakdown. The
several checks and balances available with different authorities collectively
failed because of possible collusion among various officers entrusted with the responsibility to ensure Aviation Safety.

II.2. The Airport Operator (MIAPL) of VABB and AAI (Aerodrome operator of
the Juhu Airport) are well aware of the various obstacles around the airports that render the airports unsafe. The possible effect of the ‘degraded
performance’ of aircrafts in emergencies has not been taken into consideration by AAI while conducting the aeronautical studies for approving heights more than the permissible heights for many buildings. Therefore, both VABB & VAJJ are unfit for any emergency operations/landings involving aircrafts with degraded performance. The DGCA has deliberately not raised any red flags and the MOCA is also fully aware of the dangers as it has representatives chairing the Appellate Committee and various information from this office addressed to the highest authorities have not been acted upon.

11.3. As the designated Safety Manager of WR, AAI, I hereby recommend the temporary closure of at least Runway 09/27 of CSIA, Mumbai (VABB)
until the removal of the non-frangible JBS at the end of Rwy 09, and the
reduction in TORA Rwy 27 to make room for a proper RESA for Rwy
09. Both of these safety measures can be implemented quickly.
Simultaneously, the TORAs/LDAs of the Rwy 14 and Rwy 32 are also to
be reduced to keep the take-off paths/surfaces clear of the obstacles
penetrating the present OLS until those obstacles are demolished.

11.4.As the designated Safety Manager of WR, AAI, I also hereby recommend the temporary closure of the secondary Runway 16/34 of Juhu airport (VAJJ) until it is properly raised/levelled and resurfaced.

11.5.The mitigation measures and the publication of correct airport data are
extremely critical to ensure safety because the users have to be at least
notified about the correct operating environment so that emergency planning could take into consideration the real situation on the ground and not the outdated data put forward by the AAI through the AIP. The outdated data on the AIP seems to be an intentional act to ensure that the airports remain operational as the real data could raise eyebrows and international operators may stop using the Airport/Airspace.

11.6. To put the actual situation in the simplest terms, the absence of accidents in the Mumbai Region is to be attributed to divine power rather than the efforts of Aviation Officers entrusted to ensure Aviation Safety. The presence of over 25 million on the ground below will convert any air accident into a catastrophe and it is for this specific reason that I recommend the temporary closure of at least one runway each of VABB & VAJJ until the mitigation measures recommended in this report are put in place. The interference of buildings with the performance/coverage of some of the CNS equipment cannot be mitigated and even after the recalculation of the declared distances to cater to AGA criteria, it would be a risk that the airport/airline operators will have to put up with. However, if the Airport Operator decides to operate in the risky environment, it is imperative that the users be informed about the deteriorated performance/coverage of some of the CNS equipment.

[langleybaston]

Closer to home, in my capacity as the Meteorological inspector of airfield facilities and procedures I once refused to sign off the "nothing wrong with airport X's Met". certificate.
Reason was that new building obstructions prejudiced cross-wind anemometer readings to a large and demonstrable extent.

The only thing that happened was that I never flew from or into that airport again.