Simply how secure are India’s skies?
It is a query many are asking after June’s devastating Air India crash, which killed a minimum of 270 folks. The London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner went down lower than a minute after commencing from Ahmedabad airport in western India on 12 June.
“India’s skies have all the time been secure – previously or even nowadays,” stated Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, the executive of Directorate Basic of Civil Aviation (DGCA) – India’s aviation protection regulator – in an interview with the BBC.
“In case you take a look at international protection metrics, equivalent to the ones revealed by way of Global Civil Aviation Group (ICAO), which monitor the selection of injuries in keeping with million flights, India constantly plays higher than the arena reasonable,” he stated.
“There have been best two years throughout the 2010–2024 duration the place we exceeded the worldwide reasonable – the ones have been the years when primary injuries happened.”
In August 2020, Air India Specific Flight 1344 crashed after skidding off a rain-soaked tabletop runway in Kozhikode, killing 21 folks. A decade previous, in Might 2010, Flight 812 from Dubai overshot the runway in Mangalore and plunged right into a gorge, leaving 158 lifeless. June’s Air India crash was once the 1/3 such twist of fate within the nation in 15 years.
Whilst such primary injuries stay uncommon, fresh headlines have raised contemporary considerations. From a Delhi-Srinagar flight that hit serious turbulence, to rising experiences of upkeep oversights and coaching shortfalls, questions round aviation protection are as soon as once more in center of attention.
The most recent concerned SpiceJet, India’s fourth-largest and longest-running cheap airline.
The Financial Instances newspaper discovered that the aviation regulator had not too long ago summoned the airline’s management after a sequence of alarming findings – now not from regimen audits, however induced by way of a British aviation company.
The newspaper reported that it all started previous this 12 months when two of SpiceJet’s De Havilland Q400 turboprops confirmed untimely propeller disasters. The airline alerted Dowty Propellers, a GE Aerospace-led UK producer, which discovered harm to the inner bearings of the propellers.
Every propeller has bearings with two races, or rings or tracks. On this case, the interior race was once broken. As a substitute of addressing the basis purpose, SpiceJet “reportedly saved making use of extra grease to the [entire] unit as a substitute of addressing the basis purpose”. Annoyed by way of the loss of corrective motion, Dowty escalated the problem at once to India’s aviation regulator, the newspaper reported.
The DGCA’s personal audit in April “printed much more deficiencies, together with snag occurrences”, the document stated.
Mr Kidwai advised the BBC that the “turboprop propeller factor got here to our consideration thru considered one of SpiceJet’s upkeep organisations”.
“We took it up with SpiceJet and we ensured they took corrective motion. We additionally discovered that the senior control was once now not absolutely conscious about the location. We took motion towards the more than a few publish holders who have been meant to verify compliance with the unique apparatus producer and different laws. We directed SpiceJet to take away them and droop a couple of of them which they did,” he stated.
Extra not too long ago, Reuters reported that the aviation watchdog reprimanded Air India’s price range service in March for delaying obligatory engine section replacements on an Airbus A320 and falsifying information to turn compliance.
Air India Specific advised the inside track company it stated the mistake to DGCA and undertook “remedial motion and preventive measures”.
Mr Kidwai advised the BBC that the guidelines on this case got here thru “self-reporting by way of the airline”.
“I might now not condone it [the lapses]. However [at least] now we have began getting those experiences. This got here from the airline. Motion has been taken on this case. In our audits now we have mandated our folks to be extra alert and spot whether or not there may be any lapse and produce it to our consideration.”
In Might, an IndiGo flight from Delhi to Srinagar confronted serious turbulence and hail about 45 mins after takeoff.
The Airbus A321, sporting 222 passengers, reportedly encountered excessive vertical air currents – updrafts adopted by way of downdrafts – that dislodged overhead packing containers and brought about nostril harm. The workforce declared an emergency and safely landed at Srinagar and not using a accidents. The regulator introduced an investigation, all over which two pilots have been grounded.
Mr Kidwai advised the BBC that the regulator had now “subtle” its pointers for pilots flying in turbulent prerequisites.
As an example, if there may be vital cloud quilt or any climate development that poses a possibility – and “we now have obviously outlined what constitutes the sort of possibility” – pilots at the moment are required to take particular motion a collection selection of nautical miles sooner than achieving it, he stated.
“This may come with diverting, going round, or taking different suitable steps.”
Since 2020, Indian home carriers have reported 2,461 technical faults, consistent with the federal civil aviation ministry knowledge. IndiGo accounted for over part (1,288), adopted by way of SpiceJet with 633, and Air India and its subsidiary Air India Specific with 389 instances, as of January 2025.
“Reporting of snags by way of airways has long past up. That is excellent,” Mr Kidwai stated.
“I would not say I am happy about it. However I do see price within the rising tradition of reporting [snags]. It is some distance higher for each and every snag to be delivered to the eye of the government than protecting quiet and working the plane.”
Mr Kidwai stated with the selection of flights expanding, you must “see whether or not the turnaround time for flights is good enough for [maintenance] exams or now not”.
To make sure, calls for at the regulator have grown: India has emerged because the third-largest passenger aviation marketplace on the planet. But, over the last two years, the ministry of civil aviation has confronted price range cuts, reflecting a discounted monetary precedence for the sphere.
Nowadays, the rustic’s scheduled carriers perform just about 850 plane – a vital build up from round 400 only a decade in the past.
The selection of air passengers has greater than doubled since 2014–15 – from 116 million to 239 million.
The selection of industrial aerodromes has additionally noticed a considerable upward thrust – from round 60-70 a decade in the past to just about 130-140 nowadays.
“In overall, together with each scheduled and non-scheduled operators, we’ve got 1,288 plane in operation. By means of the top of the last decade, we’re projected to perform over 2,000 plane,” Mr Kidwai stated. (Non-scheduled operators come with constitution airways, personal jet operators, air taxis and helicopter products and services.)
So had the most recent Air India crash dented the popularity of air shuttle in India? Mr Kidwai stated the information did not level to that.
“We seemed on the knowledge to evaluate whether or not it had any affect on home or global operations. There was once no vital drop in visitors. At maximum, we seen an excessively marginal dip for a brief duration, affecting each home and global flights, together with a couple of cancellations,” he advised the BBC.
“It is herbal for folks to really feel worried after such incidents. However through the years, as extra readability emerges and the location is healthier understood, that anxiousness has a tendency to subside. Time is a smart healer.”
