Indian aviation safety upsc

 With airline managements in India appearing to prioritise commercial needs over passenger safety, the Civil Aviation Ministry and the regulator need to act

भारत में एयरलाइन प्रबंधन यात्री सुरक्षा पर व्यावसायिक जरूरतों को प्राथमिकता दे रहा है, ऐसे में नागरिक उड्डयन मंत्रालय और नियामक को कार्रवाई करने की जरूरत है

provision of the Runway End Safety Area  

In June 2023, the Minister had written to the Kerala government implying that the safety of passengers was being gravely compromised due to the non-provision of the Runway End Safety Area at Kozhikode’s Karipur airport. 

The provision of this safety feature was recommended by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) after its investigation and recommendations following an air crash at the airport on August 7, 2020.

क्या कुछ किया गया ?

We are now in April 2024 and just a couple of weeks and months away from the southwest monsoon, and, later, the northeast monsoon. 

Yet, no land has been made available and flights continue at the airport without restrictions.

Flight Duty Time Limitations 

१  Scindia, in a post on X, had said: 

“... After in-depth analysis of pilot rosters, fatigue-related reports and direct feedback from pilots -  

• increased rest periods, 
• redefining night duty,
•  and regular fatigue reports to be shared by airlines.”

 २ The deadline for their implementation was June 1, 2024. But airline owners in India went rushing to the Ministry 

and the DGCA stating that they would need additional crew to meet these requirements and hence flights would need to be curtailed.

 In March 2024, the DGCA deferred / स्थगित कर दिया  the “deadline” of June 1 indefinitely.

Systems overseas

ICAO ने इस सिस्टम को लाया ? 

१ Why has the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) introduced the Fatigue Risk Management System (FRMS) as a mandatory requirement? It is with good reason. 

२ The study of various accidents and serious incidents due to fatigue, has shown sleep deprivation and impaired reaction times to be identified as a major cause.

दूसरे देशों में थकान के ऊपर विशेष ध्यान 

 Countries such as Japan, Singapore and the United Kingdom lay a lot of stress on fatigue management and also rest periods for flight crew. 

They follow a system where pilots get two days off every week . For long haul flights, they are provided augmented rest on return to their home base.

कुछ एक्स्ट्रा पैसा दिया जाये ? 

The common refrain one hears is that pilots are overpaid  / more than usual,for the work they do, when even senior executives in airlines earn less! 

difference between the working conditions of pilots and ground personnel

 Pilots got just 30 days of annual leave and a day off every week due to FDTL limits. 

Contrast this with ground personnel who got weekends off, which is 104 days, all public holidays and their annual leave

इसकी तुलना ग्राउंड कर्मियों से करें जिन्हें सप्ताहांत की छुट्टी मिलती है, जो कि 104 दिन है, सभी सार्वजनिक छुट्टियां और उनकी वार्षिक छुट्टी

The human factor is distant

minimum crew requirement 

When airlines place orders for aircraft, airline owners go by the DGCA Civil Aviation Requirements (C.A.R.) for scheduled transport which lays down the minimum crew requirement. 

If it is compared with the FDTL C.A.R., the requirement of crew would be more than double, depending on the type of operations. 

does the DGCA monitor crew numbers based on the requirements in the FDTL C.A.R.?

ans is no  this will affect deal of aircraft and news headlines .

Financial stress can have a very adverse result on a pilot

 The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report on a Silkair crash on December 19, 1997, which claimed 104 lives, 

identified the issue of the captain’s gambling debts and pilot suicide. In the Egyptair crash on October 31, 1999, too, there were similar findings.

drop in income by almost 50%  

It is shocking to have reports that the copilots of Vistara, were given an ultimatum to ‘sign their new pay structure contract by the end of the day or else lose their command position’ when Vistara is eventually merged with Air India. 

It would have meant a drop in income by almost 50% for a young pilot who has invested over a crore of rupees to obtain his licence to fly and who is  paying monthly instalments towards the loan.

Why are airlines looking at copilots as only an occupant on the flight deck?

They are the airline’s future captains and are a long-term investment in an airline’s growth. 

The human resource departments of airlines have failed. Airlines are bound to lose even their captains who will move to an airline that operates with human values. 

Some solutions

adopt the ICAO Annex 1 Standard  

To meet pilot shortage, there is an immediate solution. India should adopt the ICAO Annex 1 Standard

 which allows a member state to recognise another ICAO licence and issue an Indian licence on the basis of only an Air Law examination and a Class I medical.

corrupt system 

 There will be hundreds of qualified and experienced Indian captains working abroad who will return to India if the hurdles that the corrupt system uses to prevent them from returning are demolished.

active pilot

The DGCA, in collusion with airline management pilots, has a rule that makes it mandatory for an instructor or an examiner to be an active pilot.

 However, they will accept a retired pilot working in a training centre abroad to carry out the mandatory checks on Indian pilots. Retired pilots can be utilised for simulator training. Such a step will also release a large number of trained pilots for active flying

importance of the human factor in aviation

Hanging on to rules that were drafted in 1937 and a system that has large-scale corruption will never result in Indian aviation shining. 

As for the Tatas, if they want to make their merger of four airlines result in a trouble-free world class airline system, they need to introspect deeply over the importance of the human factor in aviation

‘Air Traffic Control delays’  

. Finding excuses such as ‘Air Traffic Control delays’ for large-scale flight disruption — as Vistara cited— will no solution

source the hindu