Simply how protected are India’s skies?
It is a query many are asking after June’s devastating Air India crash, which killed at the least 270 folks. The London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner went down lower than a minute after taking off from Ahmedabad airport in western India on 12 June.
“India’s skies have all the time been protected – prior to now and even immediately,” mentioned Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, the chief of Directorate Normal of Civil Aviation (DGCA) – India’s aviation security regulator – in an interview with the BBC.
“If you happen to take a look at world security metrics, similar to these revealed by Worldwide Civil Aviation Group (ICAO), which monitor the variety of accidents per million flights, India constantly performs higher than the world common,” he mentioned.
“There have been solely two years inside the 2010–2024 interval the place we exceeded the worldwide common – these have been the years when main accidents occurred.”
In August 2020, Air India Specific Flight 1344 crashed after skidding off a rain-soaked tabletop runway in Kozhikode, killing 21 folks. A decade earlier, in Could 2010, Flight 812 from Dubai overshot the runway in Mangalore and plunged right into a gorge, leaving 158 lifeless. June’s Air India crash was the third such accident within the nation in 15 years.
Whereas such main accidents stay uncommon, current headlines have raised recent considerations. From a Delhi-Srinagar flight that hit extreme turbulence, to rising stories of upkeep oversights and coaching shortfalls, questions round aviation security are as soon as once more in focus.
The newest concerned SpiceJet, India’s fourth-largest and longest-running low-cost airline.
The Financial Instances newspaper discovered that the aviation regulator had lately summoned the airline’s management after a sequence of alarming findings – not from routine audits, however triggered by a British aviation agency.
The newspaper reported that it started earlier this 12 months when two of SpiceJet’s De Havilland Q400 turboprops confirmed untimely propeller failures. The airline alerted Dowty Propellers, a GE Aerospace-led UK producer, which discovered injury to the inner bearings of the propellers.
Every propeller has bearings with two races, or rings or tracks. On this case, the inside race was broken. As an alternative of addressing the basis trigger, SpiceJet “reportedly stored making use of extra grease to the [entire] unit as an alternative of addressing the basis trigger”. Pissed off by the shortage of corrective motion, Dowty escalated the difficulty on to India’s aviation regulator, the newspaper reported.
The DGCA’s personal audit in April “revealed much more deficiencies, together with snag occurrences”, the report mentioned.
Mr Kidwai instructed the BBC that the “turboprop propeller difficulty got here to our consideration by one among SpiceJet’s upkeep organisations”.
“We took it up with SpiceJet and we ensured they took corrective motion. We additionally came upon that the senior administration was not totally conscious of the state of affairs. We took motion towards the varied publish holders who have been supposed to make sure compliance with the unique tools producer and different laws. We directed SpiceJet to take away them and droop a number of of them which they did,” he mentioned.
Extra lately, Reuters reported that the aviation watchdog reprimanded Air India’s price range provider in March for delaying obligatory engine half replacements on an Airbus A320 and falsifying data to point out compliance.
Air India Specific instructed the information company it acknowledged the error to DGCA and undertook “remedial motion and preventive measures”.
Mr Kidwai instructed the BBC that the data on this case got here by “self-reporting by the airline”.
“I might not condone it [the lapses]. However [at least] now we have began getting these stories. This got here from the airline. Motion has been taken on this case. In our audits now we have mandated our folks to be extra alert and see whether or not there may be any lapse and convey it to our consideration.”
In Could, an IndiGo flight from Delhi to Srinagar confronted extreme turbulence and hail about 45 minutes after takeoff.
The Airbus A321, carrying 222 passengers, reportedly encountered excessive vertical air currents – updrafts adopted by downdrafts – that dislodged overhead bins and prompted nostril injury. The crew declared an emergency and safely landed at Srinagar with no accidents. The regulator launched an investigation, throughout which two pilots have been grounded.
Mr Kidwai instructed the BBC that the regulator had now “refined” its pointers for pilots flying in turbulent circumstances.
For example, if there’s vital cloud cowl or any climate sample that poses a threat – and “we have clearly outlined what constitutes such a threat” – pilots are actually required to take particular motion a set variety of nautical miles earlier than reaching it, he mentioned.
“This might embrace diverting, going round, or taking different applicable steps.”
Since 2020, Indian home carriers have reported 2,461 technical faults, in accordance with the federal civil aviation ministry information. IndiGo accounted for over half (1,288), adopted by SpiceJet with 633, and Air India and its subsidiary Air India Specific with 389 instances, as of January 2025.
“Reporting of snags by airways has gone up. That is good,” Mr Kidwai mentioned.
“I would not say I am happy about it. However I do see worth within the rising tradition of reporting [snags]. It’s miles higher for each snag to be dropped at the eye of the authorities than retaining quiet and working the plane.”
Mr Kidwai mentioned with the variety of flights growing, it is essential to “see whether or not the turnaround time for flights is satisfactory for [maintenance] checks or not”.
To make sure, calls for on the regulator have grown: India has emerged because the third-largest passenger aviation market on this planet. But, over the previous two years, the ministry of civil aviation has confronted price range cuts, reflecting a decreased monetary precedence for the sector.
Right this moment, the nation’s scheduled carriers function practically 850 plane – a major improve from round 400 only a decade in the past.
The variety of air passengers has greater than doubled since 2014–15 – from 116 million to 239 million.
The variety of industrial aerodromes has additionally seen a considerable rise – from round 60-70 a decade in the past to almost 130-140 immediately.
“In complete, together with each scheduled and non-scheduled operators, we now have 1,288 plane in operation. By the top of the last decade, we’re projected to function over 2,000 plane,” Mr Kidwai mentioned. (Non-scheduled operators embrace constitution airways, personal jet operators, air taxis and helicopter companies.)
So had the most recent Air India crash dented the status of air journey in India? Mr Kidwai mentioned the information did not level to that.
“We appeared on the information to evaluate whether or not it had any affect on home or worldwide operations. There was no vital drop in visitors. At most, we noticed a really marginal dip for a brief interval, affecting each home and worldwide flights, together with a number of cancellations,” he instructed the BBC.
“It is pure for folks to really feel anxious after such incidents. However over time, as extra readability emerges and the state of affairs is healthier understood, that nervousness tends to subside. Time is a superb healer.”
