How serious is the lack of 59 flight operations inspectors (FOIs) in maintaining the safety of Indian aviation? This is the question that arises after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) downgraded India last week for not meeting the globally laid-down standards for aviation safety.
Taking a serious view of the downgrade, Amber Dubey, Head of Aerospace and Defence at KPMG, says it could have a “typical” domino effect with safety regulators in the European Union, Singapore, Japan and other parts of the world following suit. He adds this could affect Jet Airways’ plans to go global through Abu Dhabi and impact Air India’s entering Star Alliance, and that IndiGo and SpiceJet might not be able to expand services globally.
Taking an equally critical view on the downgrade, Kapil Kaul, CEO, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, points out that India has not been able to address the fundamental issues for over five years and has remained driven by cosmetic changes to save the downgrade threat.
India admits that it is not meeting the global average of having one flight operations inspector for every 10 aircraft.
At the moment, there are 18 operations inspectors to manage the 770 aircraft and helicopters registered in the country. If one were to include 14 inspectors who have been taken on loan from the various airlines then their number goes up to 32. However, the FAA also has problems with this as it has raised the issue of conflict of interest because pilots from concerned airlines are carrying out the checks.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation finally managed to get the Union Cabinet’s clearance for another 75 inspectors on January 28. The new recruits are expected to be in place by March.
Eight parametersSources say the FAA was made aware of all these recruitments to fill up the vacancies in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation almost on a daily basis. But despite this, the US regulator decided to go ahead with the downgrade, making many in the Government think that the downgrade may have been done for political reasons. To buttress their argument, they point out that the UN body, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) gives equal weight to all the eight parameters listed in its safety audit.
The eight parameters used to judge safety are legislation, organisation, licensing, operation, airworthiness, accident investigation, air navigation and aerodromes.
“The downgrade came despite India being among the states having effective implementation above the global average of 61 per cent while India’s effective implementation stands at 79 per cent,” says a senior Government official
At the moment, there is no clarity on when India might be restored to the Category I status again.
For India to get back its Cat I status, which means the country has to meet all ICAO parameters, not only will the 75 inspectors need to be in place, but an FAA team will also have to come and inspect the changes.