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Data shows dip in air accidents in 2022; officials hail framework
India has seen one air accident till June this year, which took place on May 1, when a SpiceJet flight from Mumbai to Durgapur encountered severe turbulence during descent, leaving passengers injured, data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) show.
There were four accidents in Indian skies in 2021, compared to two in 2020 and one each in the preceding two years, according to official data, numbers that show that the country’s civil aviation sector is safe, a top official said, attributing this to a robust regulatory framework.
India has seen one air accident till June this year, which took place on May 1, when a SpiceJet flight from Mumbai to Durgapur encountered severe turbulence during descent, leaving passengers injured, data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) show.
Since India’s safety record is among the best in the world, the current debate on flight safety is “ludicrous,” said Arun Kumar, director general of DGCA . India ensures complete compliance with standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation standards, he added. “We take strict enforcement action in case of any deviation,” Kumar said.
The recent concerns on India’s flight safety are overblown, he said. “Any aircraft which flies for more than 50,000 hours in its life cycle may develop occasional snag, which needs to be attended to and rectified. Expecting that it should not happen is naive,” Kumar told HT.
The comments of India’s top airline regulation official come against the backdrop of rising concern over air safety, and especially over flights operated by SpiceJet, prompting a show cause notice by the regulator, an inspection, and then an order forcing it to cut its operations to 50% of its filed plan for a period of eight weeks till September 26.
“We had no fatal accident involving a commercial airline after Calicut (on August 7, 2020), which was attributed to pilot error by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB),” Kumar pointed out. “We did have some air turnbacks, rejected take offs, go arounds, diversions, precautionary, priority, and emergency landings, but these were preventive and a response to a safety situation. If you do not do this, you compromise on safety. Should we do that?”
Amit Singh, founder of non-profit Safety Matters, who was earlier head of training at IndiGo and former operations chief at AirAsia, said that there is typically a gradual increase in the number of serious incidents before an accident takes place. “Post an accident, a lot of corrective actions are taken but they (the regulator) don’t address the root cause, they address the symptom. This can be seen in the immediate drop in accident rate but it rises again.”
There were 25 serious incidents reported in 2019, DGCA data showed, the highest in the past nine years. That was also the year when Indian airlines saw engine related snags in A320Neo aircraft, leading to turnbacks. The data indicated that 17 out of the total 25 incidents in 2019 were due to engine related issues. 2018 recorded 17 serious incidents, followed by 2016 and 2017 that reported 11 serious incidents each. This year has seen four serious incidents till July 25.
Kumar said that pilots are not expected to operate if they discover that the traffic collision avoidance system is not working or the weather radar is dysfunctional. If they discover this in the air, they are to turn back and make a precautionary landing, which is a part of safe flying and should be respected, he said.
India also saw several incidents regarding foreign airlines this year. “We see a technical snag occurring to a foreign carrier and similarly with Indian carriers almost every day,” Kumar said. “The basic point is that snags do happen and they should not send us in a tizzy. A snag needs identification and redressal, and not panic.”
