New Delhi: As many as 56 accidents have taken place in the airline sector in the last five years, minister of state for civil aviation Gen VK Singh (Retd) said in the parliament on Monday.
In a written reply to a question by Congress MP Jebi Mather Hisham, Singh provided details of the accidents. As per data, 10 accidents have taken place in the current year; however, none involved a scheduled airline, which are airlines that fly as per fixed schedules. Eight accidents took place in 2018. This number was 10 in 2019, seven in the pandemic year- 2020 and nine in 2021. The highest number of accidents took place in 2022: 12.
The minister did not share details of the accidents in his response.
India’s aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) Civil Aviation Regulations (CAR) defines accidents as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which- (i) in the case of a manned aircraft, takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft..until such time as all such persons have disembarked; or (ii) in the case of an unmanned aircraft, takes place between the time the aircraft is ready to move..until such time as it comes to rest at the end of the flight and the primary propulsion system is shut down, in which a) a person is fatally or seriously injured as a result of: i. being in the aircraft, or ii. direct contact with any part of the aircraft, including parts which have become detached from the aircraft, or iii. direct exposure to jet blast.
Similarly, serious incidents have been defined as incidents involving circumstances indicating that an accident could have occurred if the risk had not been managed within safety margins.
Accidents involving aircraft are investigated by the Aircraft Accident Investigations Bureau (AAIB).
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Singh said that the Government also issued specific directives during this period, for example, ordering a privately -owned airlines to cut its operations in the context of failures detected in ensuring air safety.
“During the year 2022 and the current year, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued Show Cause Notices raising the air safety issue to Spicejet Ltd and Indigo…Based on the review of safety performance of Spicejet, DGCA vide its order dated 27.07.2022, restricted the number of departures of M/s Spice Jet to 50% of the number of departure approved under summer scheduled 2022 for a period of 8 weeks, which was further extended till 29.10.2022,” his reply read.
Responding to a separate question from NCP MP Dr. Fauzia Khan on deploying Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel at airports, Singh said: “At present, there are 149 operational airports (including Heliports and Water Aerodromes) in the country and CISF is deployed at 67 of these airports. The sanctioned and posted CISF manpower gap at these 67 airports having CISF security cover is 3,123 as on 01.12.2023.”
“ Selection, training and deployment of CISF manpower at airports is a continuous process. Based on threat perception, MHA (ministry of home affairs) recommends to bring any airport under CISF security cover,” he concluded.
