Directorate General of Civil Avition (DGCA), India’s aviation regulatory body alone is responsible for the Wednesday night’s small aircraft crash at Faridabad near Delhi that Killed all 7 people on board and 3 on ground.
It was by violating its own regulations that DGCA had granted permission to the single engine Pilatus PC-12/45 to fly as air ambulance in India.
The CAR or Civil Aviation Requirement notification released by DGCA on 1st June, 2010 (SECTION 3, AIR TRANSPORT SERIES ‘C’, PART III, ISSUE II) prohibits all single engine aircraft ferrying patients.
Captain Mohan Ranganathan , aviation safety expert and veteran pilot who also is a member of Safety Advisory Committee of the Aviation Ministry points out:
” The CAR (Civil Aviation Requirement) is very clear that a Single-engine aircraft cannot be used for ambulance flights. The CAR is also very clear that the flight cannot be undertaken at night and in Bad weather conditions..”
Paragraphs 2.2 & 2.3 of the CAR:
Single engine, turbine powered aeroplanes may be operated day/night, VFR/IFR weather conditions as per their certification and operating procedures stipulated in flight manual. Single engine piston airplanes shall not be operated at night or in Instrument Meteorological conditions. However, they may be operated under special VFR subject to the limitations contained in the type certificate.
Operations with single engine aeroplanes shall be conducted only on domestic sectors except for medical evacuation flights and shall be operated along such routes or within such areas for which surfaces are available which permit a safe forced landing to be executed.
” When the flight left Patna, there was a Squall warning for Dellhi. The flight should not have been cleared as it was already night and the weather forecast was bad.Whoever gave the permission for the flight from DGCA should be held accountable for all the fatalities..” say Capt. Ranganathan who has more than 20,000 hours of flying experience to his credit.
The Union government has already announced it will appoint a committee of inquiry to probe the crash of the air ambulance in a residential area in neighbouring Faridabad.
But it is really doubtful if the probe would reach anywhere.
Because in this accident the law maker, who also happens to be the agency that implement the law, itself is the real culprit,
And it has already become clear to where the investigation is heading:
See this news report:
Preliminary probe by aviation regulator DGCA into the Faridabad air crash that claimed ten lives today pointed towards technical malfunction and high velocity winds as possible major reasons for the mishap.
27/05/11 Jacob K Philip/Decision Height
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