Aviation safety, a major concern

There is increasing concern over aviation safety in India with many cases of near collision between passenger aircraft being reported recently. Two weeks ago, a collision between two aircraft was averted over the Hyderabad airport. A week before that an aircraft which was landing and another which was taking off came close to collision in Guwahati. There have been other incidents of ‘near misses’ and narrow escapes at other airports in the recent past. According to a government statement in Parliament, there were 35 near miss incidents in the 15 months till March 2015. Alarmingly, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has said that more incidents were reported till now this year than all of last year. The figures show that there have been many problems with air safety requirements and enforcement of norms. Luckily, no serious accident has taken place, except for the disappearance of an IAF AN-32 aircraft which is of a different nature. But the near miss incidents could have turned into accidents and therefore they call for serious consideration and action.

Inadequate infrastructure and facilities, failure to upgrade equipment, poor maintenance and shortage of trained personnel at the Air Traffic Control (ATC) have been cited as the main reasons for the increase in air safety problems. The DGCA has found that more than half of the potential collisions could be traced to lapses at the ATC. The shortage of air traffic controllers, who have a crucial role in regulating the flow of traffic, is very serious. There is a shortage of about 1,000 controllers which is about 25 % of the required strength. Lapses are likely when the staff are overburdened with work. Poor pay and stressful work have discouraged many from taking up ATC jobs. The US Federal Aviation Administration had downgraded India’s aviation safety rating two years ago because of the shortage of air traffic controllers. The problem needs to be urgently addressed by the Airports Authority of India.

Infrastructure and equipment also need improvement. The new traffic control tower at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi is yet to become operational. There were radar system failures in Kolkata and Nagpur airports in the last few months. Air traffic has registered a major increase in the country in the last many years and is set to grow further. Infrastructure and other support systems have to keep pace with this growth. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has decided to make another audit of India’s air safety readiness, soon after an audit last year. Though the last audit had reported improvement in many areas, it had also identified weaknesses, which need to be corrected.