695 safety norms violations by airlines in 3 yrs

BENGALURU: After a SpiceJet aircraft caused a safety scare on Tuesday, the Director General of Civil Aviation has launched a probe to determine if any safety procedure was violated. If the airline is found guilty, it would not go into the records as a stray incident. For, 695 cases of safety procedure violations by airlines were reported in the country in three years and three months, documents accessed from the ministry of civil aviation reveal.
From serious violations such as fuel leaking into fuselage to operating without life jackets or breathing equipment and from issues like crew being under the influence of alcohol to operating without adequate number of trainers, the nine scheduled airlines were found wanting in several areas of safety.The violations were reported from January 2012 to March 2015. Data for the remaining nine months of 2015 will released later.
The first three months of 2015 saw 39 violations by six airlines, while three others had not had any violation. In the other three years, 2014 was the worse with 275 cases, up from 168 in 2013, which was a dip from 213 in 2012.
Following the poor performance of India's airlines, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave them an adverse rating in 2014, which was then revised in 2015. The DGCA, who oversees operations of airlines, has also been conducting surprise checks besides the regular safety audits.
The documents revealed that Jet Airways accounted for the highest number of safety procedure violations (187), followed closely by Air India at 186 and SpiceJet at 104 (see table).
Aviation expert Kapil Kaul, CEO of Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation- South Asia, said: "The FAA rating was based on expectations that the preparations will be better. But we have not gone anywhere with that."
Stating that safety is a non-negotiable issue, an official said the new draft policy on civil aviation lays a lot of emphasis on this. However, Kapil feels that the policy does not recognise the magnitude of the challenge ahead if safety is not only to be maintained but also improved.
"The aviation industry is growing and it will continue to grow. In that context, the concern of safety continues and is only amplified when we hear of such large number of cases reported," he told TOI from Delhi.
Experts have been calling for a structural overhauling of the policy and regulator, insisting that mere incremental changes would not do.
On its part, the DGCA has been inspecting airlines and for the 695 violations, there have been 523 suspensions, tens of warning notices issued to the airlines and in some cases corrective training has been provided.
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VIOLATION OF SAFETY PROCEDURES BY AIRLINES:
2012
2013
2014
2015*
TOTAL
Air Asia
00
00
05
00
05
Air India
44
51
68
23
186
Air India charters
00
07
36
00
43
Jet Airways
77
47
57
06
187
Jet Lite
15
13
08
04
40
Spicejet
26
27
50
01
104
Blue Dart Aviation
02
00
00
00
02
Go Airlines
13
11
19
01
44
Indigo
36
12
32
04
84
TOTAL
213
168
275
39
695
Source: Ministry of Civil Aviation | * Up to March 2015