422 air safety violations in 2016

New Delhi: In a worrying trend for air safety in the country, there were as many as 422 air safety violations in 2016 by pilots, cabin crew and aircraft maintenance engineers of scheduled airlines in the country, a sharp increase from just 275 in 2015. DGCA sources, however, said that this spike in figures was due to “heightened surveillance” in 2016.

In relation to the 422 cases detected in 2016, as many as 272 airline employees including pilots and cabin crew were suspended for varying time-periods by aviation regulator DGCA last year. As many as 108 employees were let off last year with a warning, with another 42 being taken off the duty roster.

Low cost carrier SpiceJet suffered the dubious distinction of having the most number of employee suspensions by the DGCA. 68 of their staff faced action last year.

Jet Airways, with 53 employees suspensions, came second in the list, and Air India third with 47 and market leader IndiGo fourth with 41. The violations included failing in the pre-flight medical test for alcohol detection, operating flights beyond validity of pilots proficiency check, allowing unauthorised entry to the cockpit and exceeding flight duty time limitations (FDTL). Violation of FDTL is taken very seriously as this can lead to pilot fatigue and threaten safety of passengers. Consumption of alcohol before flights is also a serious offence. Rules of aviation regulator DGCA state that “as per the provision of Rule 24 of the Aircraft Rules, ‘no person acting as, or carried in aircraft for the purpose of acting as pilot, commander, navigator, engineer, cabin crew or the other operating member of the crew thereof, shall have taken or used any alcoholic drink, sedative, narcotic, or stimulant drug preparation within 12 hours of the commencement of the flight or taken or use any such preparation in the curse of the flight’.”

Of the 108 airline employees who were let off with a warning in 2016, Jet Airways accounted for as many as 36, with SpiceJet again following not too far behind with 29 such cases. Of the 42 airline employees who were taken off the duty roster for varying time-periods last year, Jet Airways accounted for one-third of them at 14, while IndiGo was next with nine. These government figures show that scores of pilots and cabin crew in India are violating aviation rules with impunity, thereby raising serious concerns on safety in Indian skies. The DGCA has stepped up vigilance, with ‘enforcement action” taken by its “air safety directorate”.