DGCA destroys safety records before 2010, raises eyebrows

Mumbai/New Delhi: The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the agency tasked with regulating air travel across the country, has destroyed most records relating to mishaps before 2010, raising fears that safety issues in the accident-prone sector are being taken lightly.
At least three senior officials of the DGCA told ET that accounts of what they call "minor incidents" such as recall of an aircraft in mid-flight, or the sudden opening of a door in mid-air, have been destroyed as the agency does not consider them important.
Incidents that happen on ground like wings of two aircraft brushing against each other are often ignored and no records are maintained, they added.
DGCA officials said this has been the policy since 2007 and only records of serious accidents are kept for three to four years.
Minor incidents, they insist, have no shelf life. But the disclosure, coming on the heels of a spate of alarming incidents over Indian skies in recent weeks, has shocked many safety and aviation experts who have slammed the DGCA for their casual approach.
07/09/11 manisha Singhal & Anindya Upaadhyay

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Sep 2011, Safety Sep 2011