21 Jul 2025 : Reform cannot wait, aviation safety is at stake

 Editorial 1: Reform cannot wait, aviation safety is at stake

Context

The Ahmedabad air crash should be a wake-up call — it’s time to build a real culture of safety that reaches every partof India’s aviation system.

Introduction

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) released its preliminary report on the Air India Boeing 787 crash in Ahmedabad (June 12, 2025) on July 12. The report is still inconclusive and leaves key questions unanswered — especially whether the pilot’s actions were accidental or intentional. I believe that many pilots and people like me, who closely follow aviation issues, have little confidence in how these investigations are done. This lack of trust is not just about one report — it reflects a deeper problem in India’s aviation system. Too often, the system punishes pilots and other frontline staff harshly, while airlines and regulators are rarely held equally accountable. This imbalance makes people doubt whether investigations are really fair or reliable, even if the findings may be correct.

Reform Must Be Rooted in a True Safety Culture

• A real culture of safety must exist at every level—from airlines to regulators.
• This includes:
  • Fair employment terms for aviation workers.
  • Access to mental health care without fear of punishment.
    • Currently, seeking help can result in automatic grounding and loss of income for air crew.
    • Ironically, the system meant to protect safety jeopardizes their mental well-being.

Understanding Aviation’s Technical Layers

The aviation system is complex but can be broken down into two main responsibility zones:

Years of working with aviation professionals have helped me understand these technical layers and their interconnections.

Why Accidents Happen: The Swiss Cheese Model

• Aviation accidents are never caused by a single failure.
• Instead, they occur when multiple small failures align across different layers of the system.
• This is known as the Swiss cheese model:
  • Every safety layer has some flaws (holes).
  • When those holes line up, an accident becomes unavoidable.
• This model shows why systemic reform is essential—not just fixing one part, but strengthening every safety layer.

Impact of Court Interventions

• In 2016, the Bombay High Court issued a stay order halting construction near Mumbai Airport.
• This action helped save lives during the 2018 Ghatkopar crash, where a small plane fell into a construction site.
• Without the court’s stay, a 13-storey building would have stood at that exact spot, making the crash even deadlier.

Alarming State of Mumbai's Airspace

• Mumbai’s airspace is now considered one of the most hazardous globally.
• There are over 5,000 vertical obstructions within a 4-kilometre radius, violating the Inner Horizontal Surface (IHS) safety limits.
• Despite a pending PIL, obstacles in the approach and take-off path increased dramatically:
  • 2010: 125 obstacles
  • 2025: Over 1,000 obstacles

Regulatory Gaps and Misrepresentation

• The rise in obstacles reflects serious regulatory opacity and possible misrepresentation before the Bombay High Court.
• Agencies potentially involved in misleading the court include:
  • Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)
  • Airports Authority of India (AAI)
  • Airport operators
  • Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA)
• Had the High Court received accurate information, the spread of obstacles could have been prevented.

Obstacle Clearance Around Airports

Conflict of Interest: The same authorities that approved safety violations (MoCA, DGCA, AAI) also judge complaints, making the process biased.

Regulatory Gaps and Evading Responsibility

• After a PIL on obstacle clearance, MoCA amended the rules to limit NOC validity to 12 years.
• This is a partial admission of the issue but avoids real accountability.
• Raises a serious question:
  🔍 What happens to 100-floor buildings if 45 floors become illegal after 12 years?

Worsening Trend Nationwide

These airports are becoming symbols of corruption and neglect, not development.

Six Pillars of Systemic Collapse

1. Aircraft Design & Airworthiness

• DGCA lacks internal capability; over-relies on foreign regulators like FAA (US) and EASA (EU).
• Example: IndiGo’s engine failure (2017–18) exposed this overdependence.

2. Aircraft Maintenance

• AMEs (Aircraft Maintenance Engineers) work without proper duty-time limits.
• Airlines delegate tasks to less trained “technicians” to cut costs.
• Court recommendations after Mangaluru crash (2010) remain ignored.

3. Flight Crew

• Flight Time Duty Limitations (FTDL) are violated, with DGCA allowing exemptions.
• Pilots operate fatigued, increasing risk.
• Pilot mobility is restricted through NOC rules, making them more vulnerable.
• Cabin crew’s safety role is undervalued, seen only as hospitality staff.

4. Airline Operations

• Profit-first approach undermines safety culture.
• DGCA’s safety suspensions are ineffective; violators return to power.
• DGCA representatives within airlines lack real authority.

5. Air Traffic Management

• Severe shortage of ATCOs (Air Traffic Control Officers).
• Licensing provisions remain pending.
• Duty-time limits, suggested post-Mangaluru crash, are still not implemented.

6. Silencing Whistle-blowers

• Those who report safety violations are demoted, transferred, or fired.
• This creates a climate of fear, preventing honest feedback in both AAI and airlines.

Crashes Are Not Accidents — They’re Symptoms

These are not isolated tragedies — they are outcomes of years of neglect, poor regulation, and profit-over-safety thinking.

Final Call for Action

• The issue isn’t ignorance, it’s the absence of a safety-first culture.
• Without immediate, system-wide reform, the next crash won’t take years — it’s just around the corner.

Conclusion

The judiciary, often seen as the guardian of India’s Constitution, has mostly stayed silent on aviation issues, trusting the technical expertise of the state. But now, it must step up and take action. It should address the declining safety in the aviation sector and hold authorities accountable. Also, the judiciary’s outdated approach to valuing human life needs to change. In India, human life is often undervalued—as seen in the small compensations in railway and road accidents, usually just a few lakhs of rupees. When life is treated as cheap, spending crores on safety measures seems unnecessary to decision-makers. There is a need for urgent and complete reform. The aviation sector must be built on transparency, strict oversight, and a clear focus on safety over profit. Reform cannot be delayed. People’s lives are at risk.