Daily News

New Delhi: The air crash in Mangalore that killed 158 people has underlined fears about safety gaps in India's booming airline industry and raised doubts about whether infrastructure can keep pace with rapid economic growth.

It was not clear what caused Saturday's crash, but pilots and aviation experts say regulatory oversight of safety and quality control are often poor. Staff-training standards are also falling, they say. Although India has had few major accidents in recent years, some half a dozen mid-air misses over the past year has underscored that safety issues exist.

Last year an Indian Airlines plane with about 150 passengers on board barely avoided a collision with an Army helicopter that was part of the President's entourage in Mumbai.

Media reports say checks have found pilots reporting drunk for duty and in one instance last year pilots and crew were involved in a mid-air scuffle. "The Air India Express crash was waiting to happen," said A Ranganathan, an airline safety consultant and pilot instructor.

"Safety standards in Indian aviation have been on the wane for the last six years. Efforts being made to correct the drift, but the systematic rot is so deep ... we are not likely to see any improvement in safety unless drastic changes are made."

Sustained robust growth has put more money in people's pockets, spurring air travel and an exponential growth in the number of low cost airlines. Domestic passenger traffic has tripled and international traffic doubled in the past five years.

But infrastructure may not have kept pace and a shortage of staff may be stretching both airlines and traffic control staff. Indian Commercial Pilot Association said in a statement 78 percent of crashes took place due to fatigue-related human error.

"You also need to augment the strength of air traffic control which is stretched," Kapil Kaul, head of the Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation in South Asia, told Reuters. Read more...