Is air safety becoming a serious concern in India?

Around 3,600 people are needed at ATC and only 2,900 have been recruited. The airlines have been recruiting under-qualified yet certified pilots.

Thousands of people avail flight services every day in India to cut short on their time of travelling. It indeed is a quicker and hassle-free mode of travelling. But while flying, the issue of safety pops up primarily, which should be taken care of initially, by the airlines and then the Airport Authorities of India (AAI).

Now in light of the recent and frequent incidents, fingers are being pointed at the AAI along with the airlines in India. Should not they be on their toes when it comes to passenger safety before and after a flight?

Two incidents on a single day have rocked the authorities. These air safety incidents could have been worse but somehow the danger was averted leaving only few people injured. A Jet Airways flight from Goa to Mumbai went off the runway at the Dabolim Airport on Tuesday. A number of people were injured and no other causalities were reported. But the passengers who were travelling in that particular flight were left petrified after the incident and quite rightly so.

In the other one, an Indigo and a SpiceJet aircrafts came face-to-face but somehow the mishap was averted.

The questions that will arise after going through the above mentioned issues – Why are these incidents at all happening? Who will come forward and take the onus on their shoulders?

Let us go through some of the reasons which might be leading to these uncalled for accidents:

• Is Air Traffic Control (ATC) severly short-staffed? The answer is yes. Around 3,600 people are needed at ATC and only 2,900 have been recruited. When will AAI bother to recruit the rest?

• The airlines have been recruiting under-qualified yet certified pilots. Why will the airlines not go for the best pilots in the business? Are they trying to cut short on their expenses? These are the questions which only the airlines will be able to answer.

• Do the technical staff of every single airline scrutinise an aircraft minutely before the flight takes off? If they don’t, then it is high time they start doing it to avoid any other mishap in near future.

• India being one of the fastest growing aviation markets across the globe, the safety regulator does not speak highly at all.

Air safety incidents hit 280 till August in the current calendar year surpassing 2015’s 275. By now it has surely crossed 300. The situation needs to improve and there is no other way about it. Till all you passengers – Fly Safe!