Short-staffed regulatory body lets airlines decide on safety

Chennai: With airlines having the responsibility of judging the air-worthiness of their own craft, safety seems to dropped to the bottom of the checklist.
The regulatory Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has relaxed its rules in favour of airlines, and a shortage of staff and a poorly-located office makes effective monitoring of safety practices adopted by airlines near impossible at Chennai airport.
In Chennai, DGCA has just two officials one for air safety and another for air-worthiness. And their office is located at the old airport building, which is now used only for cargo and corporate jets.
Their role has also shrunk as DGCA performs just a supervisory role these days, certifying aircraft for service at the airport, sources said. According to sources, An average of 10 safety-related incidents are reported at Chennai airport every month.
Recently, an aircraft reported trouble in its cabin pressure but the same plane was used the next day after the airline's aircraft engineers certified that the fault was rectified. But it developed the same problem in the middle of a flight.
"Such incidents recur because DGCA allows authorised engineers employed by the airlines to certify the air-worthiness of planes. Airlines prefer this arrangement because they want to avoid delays in getting aircraft certified and released for service. They feel that schedules will suffer if DGCA engineers have to certify all affected aircraft," said a source.
Earlier if an aircraft developed a snag, DGCA engineers used to check it, certify it and then inform air traffic control whether the aircraft could fly. "Now DGCA receives information about delays and technical problems only when air traffic controllers inform them. Otherwise they will not be able to monitor even that," said an official.
The country is facing the threat of being downgraded by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for consistently not adhering to ICAO safety standards.
DGCA officials maintained that they were not compromising on safety. "Our engineers periodically check aircraft and ensure that airline engineers certify them properly. All incidents, including technical problems, are recorded and forwarded to Delhi," a DGCA official said.
However, sources said DGCA had hardly acted on reports.
19/01/09 V Ayyappan/Times of India

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Categories: Safety Jan 2009