Despite the DGCA's year-on-year claims of no accidents, the country has seen several reports of planes colliding or going off the runway.
The Indian civil aviation watchdog -- Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA ) -- is often accused of classifying serious accidents just as incidents in a bid to artificially improve the country's safety record. A Headlines Today investigation unravelled the DGCA 's false claims on safety issues.
Headlines Today probed the truth behind the DGCA's zero accident figure. Aviation insiders claimed that the watchdog repeatedly classified accidents in which substantial damage occurred to the aircraft as mere incidents. They said that this use of semantics helps the DGCA improve its records on paper. But it also means that serious accidents are swept under the carpet and are not investigated properly.
Despite the DGCA's year-on-year claims of no accidents, the country sees several reports of planes colliding or going off the runway. Moreover, the Mangalore airport which saw a major air crash that claimed 158 lives in 2010 continues to fail safety audits.
Headlines Today found three sets of reports that contradicted DGCA claims. In 2003, DGCA tabulation claimed that there were no accidents in the year even as a plane was reported to have suffered substantial damage in Mumbai on November 25.
In 2005, the DGCA again claimed no accidents, while an October 9 report shows that another aircraft was substantially damaged. It happened so again in 2006, as an aircraft was totally destroyed while the DGCA report claimed no accidents in the year.
Headlines Today also accessed details of three accidents that were classified as incidents by the DGCA. In one such case, a tail strike sent the plane for major repairs. Another left a large hole on the surface area of a wing. In the third incident, a wing collision with an electricity pole required extensive repairs of the aircraft.
CASAC audit report exposes DGCA claims
After the Mangalore crash, a special organisation -- Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council (CASAC) -- was set up to aid the DGCA. When CASAC went to Mangalore for a safety audit in 2012, its findings were extremely critical.
The CASAC safety audit found that the end safety area of the runway was 150 metre shorter than the international standard. This means that if a pilot overshoots, he has an extremely limited margin before the plane goes off a cliff like it did in 2010.
The auditors found that the landing zones were covered in rubber deposits with no mandated way to measure the friction. That is a problem when it rains as it makes the runway extremely slippery. The soft sand area meant to slow down in plane in case of over shooting was blown away and in a bad state of repair.
The access to the valley in case of emergency was found locked in the audit. In the event of a disaster, the access road was still too narrow for emergency vehicles to respond quickly.