Answers Needed
| Date :30-Aug-2020 |
By ANSHUMAN BHARGAVA :
“Air travel is the most convenient and popular way of travel across the world. But air travel is also getting scary and unsafe with the growing frequency of their operation and laxity in the monitoring and operational rules.”
“In the 2018-19 period alone, over 600 people died in different air accidents, which is one of the highest in recent years. In the last 3-4 years, we have seen a spate of air crashes for varied reasons, some of which are even still under probe.”
THE recent mishap of the Air India Express Boeing 737 plane at Khozikode airport in Kerala, that killed 21 people of the 190 onboard, including the two pilots, throws up a raft of questions that might continue to remain unanswered. The airport is a dangerous landing topography and this was warned by experts several times. Tabletop runways like the one which witnessed the ill-fated landing, have little leeway or margin of error as the runways are shorted in length with little extra maneuvering space on the sides. Rain and darkness further raise the risks. Ideally, the plane should have been diverted to some other airport as a safety protocol till the rain was over, given the risks the tabletop runways already carry. The slightest calculation error can be fatal, especially in the lack of advanced technologies like EMAS that restricts a plane’s speed upon landing and helps minimise damage.
Approval for the purchase of same was sought several years back, after the similar tabletop crash in Mangaluru in 2010, but the Government had then turned it down for the high import cost and the cost of maintenance. It was a lucky escape for the rest 170 flyers on the Dubai-Kozhikode flight as the plane engines didn’t get damaged and didn’t cause a fire, which would have magnified the disaster many times. The incident site was inside the airport complex and this could ensure the early availability of fire dousing mechanisms. Nevertheless, how or why the accident took place, and why couldn’t an experienced pilot like Wg Cdr (retd) DV Sathe could judge the touchdown properly may remain a mystery. Air travel is the most convenient and popular way of travel across the world. But air travel is also getting scary and unsafe with the growing frequency of their operation and laxity in the monitoring and operational rules.
In the 2018-19 period alone, over 600 people died in different air accidents, which is one of the highest in recent years. In the last 3-4 years, we have seen a spate of air crashes for varied reasons, some of which are even still under probe.
It is true that a decade ago, the figures were much more, notching up to 1,000 casualties a year. But that doesn’t mean 600 plus deaths are acceptable, especially when we have much better technology available today. We had an improved record of 100-200 deaths in a year during the 2011-14 phase, following which it started worsening, 2018 being the worst in the decade. The growth of advanced technologies and more modern aircraft, which were supposed to make air travel safer still, have only brought more woes. Experts attribute the spike in accidents to various factors, including technology that is not compatible with human aviation expertise.
The last year worldwide grounding of the ambitious Boeing 737 MAX aircraft is an example of this, as technology interfered too much in human applications, leading to multiple crashes. The MAX series was said to be the most advanced of planes from the Boeing stable, but it is clearly not working for the German company and they have to be back to the drawing board to make the necessary changes for safe flying. But apart from technology, it is also a lack of efficiency in pilots that are being seen as a reason behind poor handling of emergency situations by them. Though this is not the case with Capt Sathe, it is said that generally training companies and airlines giving training to their pilots are skimping on many fronts which are leading to very rudimentary training to fly a plane. Only the copybook template is adhered to, without much involvement with a plethora of possible real-life situations that should ideally go into the training. Establishing a simulator training setup is a very costly affair that companies try to give a miss.
There are also a number of substandard institutes that train pilots very poorly. Since the aviation industry is short of pilots and it needs thousands of new ones every year, companies skip thorough checks, inducting whoever can fly and has the license to do so. Such pilots are not able to handle exigent situations through innovation or courage and falter in some of the basic operations when under pressure. The stress should be on improving the basic coordinates of training, experience, and induction so that there is no compromise with safety. Airline companies in their mad rush to lure passengers with cheap tickets, compromise on many parameters to maximize profit, lowering expenses even on safety checks. Every company wants to cash in on the aviation boom, extracting the most from the resources they have, thereby stressing every bit – from staffers to engines. Every airport is stressed.
In India, the top 5-6 airports are handling close to 2,800 flights daily. This will sooner or later have an effect on air safety. Close misses and near-collisions have become common due to the choking skies and congested airports. Yet, people will fly. The number of flyers is set to grow exponentially in the coming years. Close to 4 billion people fly every year, which makes it more than half of the world population. Airline regulators, airport managements, and plane companies need to upgrade their safety standards and put in place more stringent regulations to ensure there is no compromise on the front. In the times of the COVID-19 crisis, that is already bleeding the aviation sector, leading to several cost-cutting measures, it must be ensured by airlines that the axe must not fall in any way on the safety parameters that decide the life of millions of passengers. Air India in particular has been in the thick of controversies for mismanagement and lack of funds and not surprisingly, it is involved in most of the major accidents and casualties the country has witnessed in the last 30 years or so.
This makes it pertinent for the top management of the national carrier to discuss and probe the reason behind this and find out if it has something to do also with the maintenance and operational capability of the planes and the proficiency of the engineers and pilots. If it doesn’t regain the trust of the people and uphold an impeccable service, it will be difficult for it to stay afloat in the days ahead. By the way, simultaneously, other airlines must also take cues from Air India and preempt the chances of any laxity in management or technical snag that could lead up to an unfortunate incident. The Indian aviation sector has to brace up for an ambitious expansion and growth trajectory and for that safety must be the paramount concern.