The Indian civil aviation watchdog -- Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA ) -- is often accused of classifying serious accidents just as incidents in a bid to artificially improve the country's safety record. A Headlines Today investigation unravelled the DGCA 's false claims on safety issues.
Headlines Today probed the truth behind the DGCA's zero accident figure. Aviation insiders claimed that the watchdog repeatedly classified accidents in which substantial damage occurred to the aircraft as mere incidents. They said that this use of semantics helps the DGCA improve its records on paper. But it also means that serious accidents are swept under the carpet and are not investigated properly.
Despite the DGCA's year-on-year claims of no accidents, the country sees several reports of planes colliding or going off the runway. Moreover, the Mangalore airport which saw a major air crash that claimed 158 lives in 2010 continues to fail safety audits. Headlines Today found three sets of reports that contradicted DGCA claims. In 2003, DGCA tabulation claimed that there were no accidents in the year even as a plane was reported to have suffered substantial damage in Mumbai on November 25.
13/03/13 India Today
