The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the national aviation authority in America, has issued a safety alert for its operators - a move that could have far-reaching implications for Indian airlines.
Indian training and safety standards are far below those demanded by the FAA, and experts have warned that airlines operating out of India stand a very real risk of being downgraded. This, they say, could even lead to Indian carriers getting barred from flying to America.
The FAA’s Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO), issued for airlines and regulators around the world, deals specifically with degradation in pilots’ skills, which is significant, keeping in mind recent controversies involving Indian pilots fudging simulator training records.
In the last one month, Jet Airways has derostered two pilots and Air India suspended its training head for fudging simulator training records. Asking airlines to encourage manual flight operations, the FAA said, "Flight operations data has identified an increase in manual handling errors and the continuous use of automated systems could lead to degradation of the pilot's ability to quickly recover the aircraft from an undesired state.”
17/01/13 Aditya Anand/Mumbai Mirror
