Airline safety programme introduced

With incidents of near collisions between planes on the increase, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has introduced a 'safety oversight programme' to curb these occurences.

Revealing that 70 per cent of incidents involving airplanes are due to pilot error and most are due to non-compliance of procedures which are "avoidable", Kanu Gohain, director general of DGCA, said the aviation regulatory body has stepped up measures to ensure strict compliance of operational procedures.

"CVR and ATC type monitoring systems are all in place to check compliance of procedures," he said, adding operators are encouraged to observe "self quality control, self audit and self-surveillance".

RNP/RNAV services, which allow aircrafts to fly in precise flight paths, have also been introduced, he said at an international conference on aviation here. These computerised avionics systems can reduce flight distance, reduce noise emissions, and above all, increase safety.

Also, the space-based augmented navigation system GAGAN, jointly developed by AAI and the ISRO, underwent ground trial recently, with "significant accuracy obtained", Gohain said.

He also maintained that reports of 'near misses' in the air were not entirely accurate as the system installed in airplanes give pilots "sufficient" time to avoid mid-air collisions.

"The TCAS safety system gives sufficient time for pilots to react to avoid accidents," he said.

The Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System is a device which monitors airspace around an aircraft independent of air traffic control. 

Gohain also said the government plans to launch a campaign to educate the public on the ground realities of the aviation industry so that people are not influenced by fear-mongering and are not unduly frightened about flying.

Asserting that there is "a tendency (by media) to dramatise incidents" regarding airplanes, the Secretary for the ministry of civil aviation, Ashok Chawla, said the campaign on safety of the airlines industry will be launched "very shortly" so that the public are "better informed".