HOW NOT TO FLY ON A WING AND A PRAYER

When will Indian aviation realise that safety is more important than commercial gains? The tragic loss of lives in the crash at Ahmedabad is a rude reminder of the aviation industry's procrastination on several fronts.

- CAPT MOHAN A RANGANATHAN

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), along with National Transportation Safety Board of the US and Air Accident Investigation Board of the UK, will be involved in the investigation. The crucial digital flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder will soon have been recovered intact from the crash site. The preliminary report should be out in less than a month if the DGCA follows international standards.

But the standards have not always been followed. The technical annexes developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the specialised UN agency responsible for managing the Convention on International Civil Aviation, are applied universally and aimed at ensuring uniformity and safety. Annex 13, which pertains to accidents, clearly spells out the investigation standards. Even before the fire had subsided at the crash site in Ahmedabad, the DGCA issued a statement violating the protocol. One never discloses the names of the crew, but that was done.

The primary objective of an investigation is to identify the cause and take corrective measures to prevent recurrence. When you see the same kind of errors being the cause of a repeat accident, you know that our investigations have not achieved the objective. Take the number of tail strike accidents that have taken place in the past 3 years. This points to the poor training and safety standards of the airlines concerned, but the regulator, too, has failed to take proactive actions.