Vijay Mohan
Chandigarh, December 17
A consistent increase in the number of accidents involving civilian fixed-wing aircraft over the past few years has prompted a parliamentary committee to ask the Ministry of Civil Aviation for taking remedial steps.
“The Committee notes with serious concern that the fixed wing aircraft accidents have been increasing steadily from six in 2018 to seven each in 2019 and 2020 and nine in 2021,” Parliament’s Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture said in its action taken report on Issues related to Safety in Civil Aviation Sector tabled this week.
Seeking the reasons for the steady increase in the number of accidents and remedial measures taken to stop them, the Committee recommended that “the root cause for such accidents be seriously investigated and recommendations of the investigation reports may be implemented without any delay to reduce the number of accidents”.
On the other hand, the committee observed that the number of accidents involving helicopters had reduced. While there were two such accidents in 2018 and three in 2019, there were no helicopter accidents in 2020 and 2021.
On its part, the ministry has stated that under the Annual Surveillance Program, surveillance, regulatory audits and spot checks of aviation service providers are carried out. Enforcement action, including financial penalty, is imposed if violations are detected during the checks.
All accidents and incidents are investigated as per the provision of the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2017. Safety recommendations emanating from the investigation reports are followed up for implementation. Regulatory assessment is carried out by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) following an accident or incident to identify deviation from the established procedures and preventive measures, including enforcement action, are taken if required.
The Committee also sought an update from the ministry on the status of a state-of-the-art flight recorders laboratory being established for joint use by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau and DGCA for accurate and faster investigations.
The Committee also asked the ministry to provide details of the mechanism proposed by the inter-ministerial Core Group on Safety to ensure that damage caused by any sort of accident in the transport sector is minimised by timely and effective coordination between the various ministries and departments.